【Sofirn】Design a headlamp together & Giveaway

  1. What do you use your headlamp for?

Mainly for fousehold repairs, DIY activities, car maintenance, etc. Also for outdoor, hiking, camping, cycling.

  1. What functions do you want your headlamp to have?

Stabilized, inductive driver. Buck, boost or buck/boost. Onboard charging, type C preferred. Easy modding capability, both LED and optics. Output selection with rotating knob like Imalent HR 20. Moonlight with shortcut. Programmable levels like some Manker and older Skilhunt models. Dual LED ( flood and spot ). Tailcap magnet. Pocket clip. 21700.

  1. What kind of headlamp experience annoys you?

Turbo in the regular switching order. Any stepped down level except for turbo. Poor thermal regulation ( like HS40 sawtooth :persevere: fortunately it was easy to replace the current sense resistor to achieve stable high level :yum: )

Here are my answers to your questions:

  1. I mainly use my headlamps for doing work close up: from 0.5 meters for doing small soldering work (on flashlights for example) to some DIY tasks around the house for up 5-10 meters. For me a bit of a wider, more floody beam is preferred over a narrow beam.

  2. I would like to have a headlamp to have good UI mode spacing in the low to mid range (so several levels between 1 and 600(?) lumens. A bit more lumens would be fine, but I don’t need crazy high lumens. A well regulated buck or boost driver with good efficiency is more important to me. If you still want to have high lumen output, just make it a buck/boost driver up to 800-1000 lumen and ad a FET channel for Turbo.

  3. It doesn’t really annoy me, but a 21700 headlamp for me is a bit on the bigger side. I would much rather have an 18650 headlamp with an efficient driver.

So all in all a headlamp which will do well in short to medium range, with enough levels to choose from and maybe an extra LED (with TIR) for longer range. An efficient driver would be preferred and also a nice High CRI LED (between 4000-5000K) for the ‘floody-channel’ would be nice. For the longer throw LED, the CRI is less important for me.

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I use the forehead guard most often in everyday life (fixing something, lighting during repairs, and so on), in small hikes.

Light T-shaped up to 55g or L-shaped up to 45g. But on the 18650, with a 20-21 mm diameter tir, the possibility of replacing it and a recessed button (or protruding bezel).

I’m willing to overpay for an efficient impulse driver with fast and uniform ramping, good stabilization and thermal control. If the driver is inefficient or without ramping, I would still buy a flashlight, but at a price not higher than $20-30. With a good driver - 50. If there is only $ 20-35, I would take 5 pieces at once.
I don’t see the point in maximum brightness in the forehead. 10-18 watts at maximum is enough. If there is hi cri from the factory, it seems to me that the hit of the season will come out.

Oh yes, support for protected batteries is not needed.
But I would like a removable magnet…
The diameter of the LED star should not be less than 16mm.
No charging needed.

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  1. What do you use your headlamp for?
    
  • Close-up and/or hands free.
  1. What functions do you want your headlamp to have?
    
  • Anduril. If not then a smooth ramp mode with adequate speed because it’s easier to pick a desired brightness.
  • Efficient buck or boost driver is a must.
  • 519A for emitter.
  • Tactile button that is east to feel by hand that is on the side of headlamp so it’ll be on top when mounted on headband.
  1. What kind of headlamp experience annoys you?
    
  • non-desirable mode spacing (which is different for everyone that’s why a ramp mode is important)
  • strobe
  • poorly regulated driver
  • silicon rings mount for headband
  • autolock
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  1. What do you use your headlamp for?

Mostly close up work, occasionally walking

  1. What functions do you want your headlamp to have?

Anduril. Dual channel would be nice (flood/throw or white/red). RGB aux is nice but not required.

  1. What kind of headlamp experience annoys you?

Low quality headband, nonremovable magnet (one that can be removed is fine

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What do you use your headlamp for?
-Working on my hobbies and in my shop, hog hunting/running my dogs at night

What functions do you want your headlamp to have?
-size is important to me for this question; on larger battery lights(18650 and up) I’d like a dual channel with green though i admit my desire is probably niche (outdoor/hunting related) for smaller lights (14500) I value high CRI and warmer color temperature much more.

What kind of headlamp experience annoys you?
-when a headlamp is amazing yet comes with an awful strap. I am at a point now where I only use one strap with almost all of my headlamps because good ones are few and far between.

I look forward to what comes of this survey!

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1 I use mainly for any activity that needs light and hands free, from repairs to small tasks

2 since it’s a headlamp I think red light would be nice to avoid bugs in the face, a warm high cri light option (3500-2700k) would be nice too, good driver for efficiency and a good headband

3 If the drivers not efficient, the light can get hot and it’s not pleasant near our forehead

I hope Sofirn make it right, I have 2 hs40 and I love them, very efficient in medium and low levels, nice UI, just missing red lights too, my d/h25lr has white and red lights, but the inefficient driver works against it

  1. Walking around unknown or difficult terrain at night.
  2. Efficient driver! I liked the Wurkkos HD20, but I didn’t buy it because the very bad efficiency of 50 lm/W is just not acceptable.
    Dual channel is nice. One very floody LED, 4000K, high CRI and one balanced LED with flood and a bit of throw, 4000K-5000K
  3. Bad user interface. To me, unintended or unpleasant behaviour is a lot more annoying on a headlamp than with a handheld flashlight.

Hiking, car repair, electronics repair

What functions do you want your headlamp to have?

  • Sub-lumen moonlight, as low as possible - yes, 0.01lm would be great, not too low. It might need more than one moonlight level, or ramping if it’s possible to get that low.
  • High CRI
  • Good thermal management - no big oscillations in brightness like some Sofirn products have
  • Stable output in medium-high modes and below (let’s say 300lm for 14500 and similarly small sizes, 600 for 18650)
  • A comfortable headband with a mount that allows easy insertion and removal, with a pocket clip attached (Skilhunt and Armytek do this well)
  • Magnetic tailcap - preferably a removable magnet

What kind of headlamp experience annoys you?

Anything that’s opposite to the above. Low CRI and output that decreases as the battery drains are particularly annoying. In addition:

  • Strobe/blinky modes - if it has these, they need to be very hidden so they’re never activated by accident
  • Long-press for on/off
  • Green tint - this is why the community hasn’t been very excited about lights with the Samsung LH351D, at least since the Nichia 519A became available

HCRI LEDs generally provide warm light

That’s not generally true, though some LED manufacturers (notably Luminus) only offer it in warm LEDs. The Nichia B35A comes in 6500K R9080 for example. Neutral white, around 4500-5000K tends to be the most popular option with flashlight enthusiasts, as that’s similar to afternoon sunlight.

What do you think of headlights equipped with red light?

I don’t think red light is broadly useful. The most common reason people want it is to preserve dark adaptation, but I find a very low white moonlight is better for that. When using red for dark adaptation, it should be deep red, over 650nm because the photopigment rhodopsin is completely insensitive to that, while it is affected by shorter wavelengnths.

So a cool white headlamp would be more suitable for work, right?

Neutral white is more suitable for most kinds of work than warm or cool because it looks similar to sunlight, which is the main light source human eyes evolved to use.

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I use headlamps for mountaineering, backpacking, climbing, camping, and search & rescue.

I want my headlamp to be lightweight, absolutely tough as a block of titanium alloy, able to use both primary and rechargeable cells, have a dead simple to use rotary style switch to smoothly ramp up or down brightness as needed with a winter glove on.

Headlamps with awful cool white tints annoy me. Headlamps that break easily annoy me.
Headlamps that need a lot of fumbling with a clicking button annoy me, especially when using gloves.
Headlamps that can not go >1 lumen annoy me.

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There is already wurkkos HD10 as angle headlamp.
What I would is:

Classic design with emitters at center

  • AA and 14500 battery support.
  • Dual Led with adjustable temperature smooth ramp from 1800k (some option are available, even high Cri) to 4500k.
  • Efficient driver, non pwm
  • Ramping mode slowly at first.
  • Simple and intuitive UI
  • Firefly mode ~0.01 LM with direct access
  • Keep weight and dimension smaller as possible with clean design
  1. What do you use your headlamp for?

Camping, hiking, night walking

  1. What functions do you want your headlamp to have?

Efficient driver, very low moonlight level, rather floody and warm emitter, lightweight - better to have extra cell/battery if needed.

  1. What kind of headlamp experience annoys you?

Strobe mode, uncomfortable headstrap, UI/buttons hard to use with gloves.

It’s a pleasure to know you, Ccpuuuu!

1
I use my headlamps for working and moving between tasks.

2
For all tasks and movement/walking while doing the work I find that a wide and even flood of light is always preferable. Uniform very broad illuminnation is by far the most important thing for me.

Being able to find the light when it is off is also very important to me.

Slow ramping is very important. For tasks I find that steps are almost never where I need them.

Sustained constant light levels are also very important to me. Turbo is a great tool, too. I think having both sustained and optional turbo is a necessity for flashlights as tools.

Anduril and the ability to update Anduril is one of the most useful feature any flashlight can have, for me.

High CRI is very important for work lights to me.

3
Spot is rarely useful for me and requires too much head movement. Strobe is never useful for me in a headlamp. Headlamps that are unbalanced and that move around on their own are very annoying to me. I would rather have a heavy but well balanced headlamp than light and wobbly. Ramping that is too fast is incredibly annoying to me.

  1. I mostly use headlamps for work - for example when fixing a car. Which means I need wide beam for close applications
  2. What I would like to have:
  • USB-C charging (by USB-C I mean USB-C, not some proprietary magnetic type-a-thing)
  • efficient and REGULATED driver (I really like HS10, but it’s output curve is well… bad)
  • high CRI and warm tint (can be an option; 4000K is my favourite)
  • since I don’t like bulky and heavy headlamps - I prefer those 1x14500. Would be nice to run it on 1xAA also…
  • moonlight mode from off (preferably turning it on with 1H from off)
  • personally I would like to have Anduril
  • TIR with wide beam. Would be great to have choice of TIR angle
  • dual beam - white + red would be great to have
  • mechanical lock out - just anodized thread does the job
  1. Don’t like:
  • heavy and bulky ones - the heaviest headlamp I find comfortable to use is Zebralight H600. Sofirn HS40, SP40, not to mention HS41 - are too heavy for my taste
  • visible PWM (it’s bad in a flashlight, in a headlamp - it’s a nightmare)
  • unregulated output
  • I really dislike headlamps that are so heavy that they need strap over head; I only use those than have one strap that goes around head (like HS10)

We have lots of 18650 headlamps to choose from, time to get some 1x14500 - with regulated output :innocent:

  1. What do you use your headlamp for?

Close work indoors and around the house. Camping.

  1. What functions do you want your headlamp to have?

Sub-lumen moonlight (0.2lm or less) with shortcut from off. Very floody beam shape (°60), 519A led, high sustained output (headlamp could have higher thermal limit than other handheld flashlights). Lightweight. Headband with a center of mass very close to forehead and with a removable top strip.

  1. What kind of headlamp experience annoys you?

Headband with slow dis/mount (the rubber one). Battery indicator or button that is brighter than the main emitter when turning on the sub-lumen moonlight.

It’s good to have you here, AccurateJazz!

Yes!

:+1: