I'm thinking of getting a custom duo upgrade to stick in an oldham cap lamp. Has anyone else used one of these?
A couple of things I need to know are
How much soldering/ wiring is involved?
Do you use the original oldham swith to change mode?
What sort of battery life can I expect?
And are there any other/ better options that aren't going to cost the earth?
Thanks guys :)
Tony / WelshSossy has one. I'm thinking of treating myself to one. Tony's is pretty bright! B)
Yeah, I noticed! But, his IS a petzl duo, whereas I want the cap lamp.conversion they do...
It seems OK for the money compared to other lamps, but a fair idea of battery life is essential! :lol:
I thought his had the upgrade? I'm sure he'll chirp up when he reads this ;)
Are you coming tomorrow night?
[quote="Iestyn999" post=17306]Yeah, I noticed! But, his IS a petzl duo, whereas I want the cap lamp.conversion they do...
It seems OK for the money compared to other lamps, but a fair idea of battery life is essential! :lol:[/quote]
batteries that are lighter than the Oldham T6 are easy enough to make. A decent charger for it (Essential with a lithium based battery) is about £20 (Imax B6 clone from ebay). I'll have my homemade packs with me at the meeting tomorrow if You want a look-see.
Err.. what's on tomorrow night? is it that access meeting? After the week I've had, access to mines is the last thing I want to talk about!
Rob, I think Tony has an upgrade too, but they make a different one to fit old miners lamps.
They also make a really bright photography lamp, but It's £90 and since I'm not going to be depending on it like a headtorch underground, I may as well have a shot at making my own! ;)
[quote="Iestyn999" post=17304]I'm thinking of getting a custom duo upgrade to stick in an oldham cap lamp. Has anyone else used one of these?
A couple of things I need to know are
How much soldering/ wiring is involved?
[/quote]
No soldering at all.
Wiring for an Oldham cap lamp is 2 or 3 wires that need putting under existing screws in the headset.
[quote="Iestyn999" post=17304]
Do you use the original oldham switch to change mode?
[/quote]
Yes
[quote="Iestyn999" post=17304]
What sort of battery life can I expect?
[/quote]
All depends on what battery you have :)
and what setting you have the lamp on... :evil:
[quote="Iestyn999" post=17304]
And are there any other/ better options that aren't going to cost the earth?
[/quote]
None, none at all... :whistle:
(well there may be others but you know it makes sense ;) )
Les pretty much covers it, your best bet for a battery is to run it off 2 x 18650's but have them in a box that you can change the batteries and carry a few with you, if i ever manage to get hold of an OldHam lamp, i'll be getting one for our Jay
Thanks Les! At £55 you can't really go wrong!
I've got an Oldham head you can have, Dan. I had it in the car last Saturday but completely forgot about it after leaving the pub :unsure:
If you'd given me a little bit more notice I could have picked one up for you and brought it to the Meeting tomorrow night... :(
[quote="Mad-Dan" post=17311]your best bet for a battery is to run it off 2 x 18650's y[/quote]
are those not 3.7v each? The lamp is only rated to 6v. I was thinking of using 6v power packs for RC cars...
If you run them in parallel you still get 3.7v just a higher capacity. A 6v RC pack would be fine also.
Thanks Dylan!
I'm going for RC batteries. With a capacity of 4300mAh it should power the lamp at 200 lumens for 15 hours or at 500 lumens for 4.5 hours :)
any ideas where i can get a bracket from to stick this thing to my helmet?
http://www.caving-supplies.co.uk/cgi-bin/psProdDet.cgi/13298%7C%7Cbracket~@c~@b%7C0%7Cuser%7C1,0,0,1%7C28
http://www.caving-supplies.co.uk/cgi-bin/psProdDet.cgi/13302%7C%7Cbracket~@c~@b%7C0%7Cuser%7C1,0,0,1%7C28
http://www.caving-gear.co.uk/show_product.asp?id=1200
http://www.inglesport.com/petzl-helmet-lamp-bracket.html
http://www.hitchnhike.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ehitchnhike%2eco%2euk%2facatalog%2fsearch%2ehtml&WD=bracket&PN=caving_helmet_accessories%2ehtml%23aA05050#aA05050
You're better off with the caving supplies Flat bracket, the Petzl ones let an Oldham head rattle around a little, and come off far easier if You give it a knock.