For me the closest thing I’ve found is the HD20 from Wurkkos. I spend a lot of time under floors or in roofs for so 8 hours run on a reasonable brightness is a must for me, i find the L shape useful in tight spots as you can flip it over to get light in a tight spot. Anything that takes more than 2AAAs must for me have a strap that goes over your head as well as around. I dont need a 0.1 lumin low but a low that’s dim enough to read in bed while camping is nice.
P.S. Blinking shit on head torches infuriates me I’m trying to see here not run a one man night club, also has anyone used the SOS function on a torch to be found?
For me there are two types of headlights.
One of outdoor use. This needs some throw and something in the 300 Lumen (or better) sustained. This is rarely needed.
The second is for up close work, usually during daylight hours.
Working under a desk, installing cabinets, fooling with some tiny stuff up close, or messing with anything that is poorly lighted.
For this beam pattern is the critical parameter.
I want the widest, smoothest floody pattern possible. A neutral color temp is preferred, but not at the expense of beam pattern (as long as it isn’t nasty blue). 150 Lumens is plenty, in fact 75 is just fine in most cases.
Any kind of hot center gives poor performance for up close work. The hot spot requires my head to be in a certain position. The light falloff is annoying when needing to see something not in the central area.
It should be light and comfortable. The vertical adjustment should be secure.
The original Super Tiger COB lamp meets all the above. Before the original version was discontinued, it was like $19(?) on Amazon.
Simply the smoothest floody I have ever seen.
Wearing one for around the house work, I soon forget there is an extra light helping me out. Just a joy to use.
150 Lumens on high and it ramps to lower levels. Has memory to return to last brightness.
I got 4 of them because I didn’t want to be without one - ever…
All the Best,
Jeff
Below - WOWTAC (Medium) on left - typical semi throw headlamp, Super Tiger (high) on right - the floody love of my life…
The WOWTAC kills on Lumens and throw. Gimme that floody every time!
Muto,
It might be. Got stuff piled in front of it now in prep for a move.
Had it working for a while. Then it quit again.
Not sure if I’ll get around to redoing it again.
I’m having problems with my hands doing any kind of detail work these days.
Might stick a Bluetooth thingy in there, but I would not junk any of the original parts.
I grew up listing to various Zenith radios and my little home built crystal radio.
And my first PC was a Heath/Zenith “portable” kit. 320k ram and 2(!) 360K 5.25” Floppies.
7” CRT. Not much too it - But I sure did sweat bullets the first time I powered it on. Most expensive kit I ever had.
Not sure I could pick the darn thing up in my old age…
All the Best,
Jeff
The sound quality from these old things is pretty amazing for the time.
Unlike the brute force used today in speaker design (watts is cheap), the old designs took cabinet vibrations into the equation.
The result was more than the sum of the parts.
All the Best,
Jeff
Yeah the way Zenith had different equalization settings and the weird adjustable back baffle on the speaker really let you dial it into your room acoustics.
We have the Zenith 9S262
Mine hums a lot and doesn’t get many stations but I just have a small hunk of speaker wire hooked up for an antenna but just the Art Deco look is worth the price to me:)
It just looks soo good lit up in a dark room.
Thanks!
Keith
P.S> Sorry to hijack the thread, we now return you to your regular programming.
I understand. I do want a blinking option, but need it hidden away. The Skilhunt makes it like a triple click to get to it. Convoy enables you to turn it off. However, I want a fully programmable light so we can all be happy!
Very much agree. I use my headlamp for camping style situations and I also want a flood beam. Love the look of your light! You’re right about two styles of lights. I actually have two for hiking. A headlamp for “work” and a handheld for “viewing” into the woods. Hotspots on headlamps should be an option. It is really two types of headlamps.
It would be wonderful to have a COB like the one I have with a Semi thrower mounted on top of the COB.
Best of both worlds. Might get a bit heavier than I’d want.
The Super Tiger is all plastic but at 150 Lumens max, it handles the heat just fine. I often use it at about 75Lm.
So light - so comfortable.
All the Best,
Jeff
The one I have does not give me grief from facial protuberances or glare in my glasses.
The only thing is it has a little strip of greenish plastic surrounding the COB. This kinda glows when the light is on.
If it’s pointed way down, this can be seen if the light is low enough on my forehead.
All the Best,
Jeff
Different tek, is all. Both are nekkid phosphor-coated emitters, only instead of packing a bunch of discrete phosphor-coated emitters next to each other, you just pack on the emitters and then slather on a layer of phosphor over everything.
You’d either have to find a suitable existing COB, or pay to have one done up. MOQ might be an issue, though.
The array on the front of the Super Tiger is curved so it spreads the light in a wider pattern than a mule.
It also has a diffuser plastic over the LEDs that softens the beam.
I prefer it over a mule type of source.
All the Best,
Jeff
1. one single-strap stretchy circumference. no over-the-top attachment.
2. three modes. high/low/off. first MUST be High.
3. really, really cheap if 1 or 2 are compromised.
1. Dual optic for flood/throw
2. Single block
3. 18650
4. Not more than 1000-1500 lumens
5. Simple UI. Not a single button with hundred functions. Few buttons
6. Water proof
7. Warm light, high cri.
8. Adjustable angle
9. Simple way to lock, like physical blocking of buttons
10. Ultra low modes
11. Better to start from low than high (or make it configurable)
12. No “memory” (or make it configurable)
13. Battery level check
14. Low red mode could be good.
15. Ramping.
16. No flashing modes like sos
17. No visible pwm flickering
18. Configuration and “advanced” and typically useless modes could be good to have available through Bluetooth)
That’s a long list so I trimmed it a little bit. I do believe that you will find the Wurkkos HD15 4000K spot and flood both high CRI, model quite to your liking. The 4000k model has only been available for about 3 months so almost all of the reviews you’ll find out there are for the 5000k model. The manual is wrong in that the red battery warning indicator first comes on at 3.7 volts not 30%. It checks all of your important boxes and some boxes that you didn’t list. The 4K model is only available on the wurkkos website or the ali wurkkos site.
Lightweight, under 50gr. empty, one lens, (have a panda3 with wide/narrow lenses, sounds good in theory, even looks good on white wall, but in real world use, completely useless, unnecessary and complicated, those tiny 10mm lenses are not making beams much different in reality for anything farther than 10 feet, ) powered by 18650. no charges build in, magnetic or otherwise, Well basically ZL600 series, in its current form. Even the fact that it is not easily modable or serviceable does not take away anything from it,
