custom duo lamp upgrades

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

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  

[Robin Jones]

Tony / WelshSossy has one.  I'm thinking of treating myself to one.  Tony's is pretty bright!  B)

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

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:

[Robin Jones]

I thought his had the upgrade?  I'm sure he'll chirp up when he reads this  

Are you coming tomorrow night?

[Ali Wiseman]

[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.

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

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!  

[Les Williams]

[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    )

[Danny Sutton]

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

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

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:

[Les Williams]

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...  

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

[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...

[Dylan Roberts]

If you run them in parallel you still get 3.7v just a higher capacity. A 6v RC pack would be fine also.

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

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

[Iestyn Rhys Pritchard]

any ideas where i can get a bracket from to stick this thing to my helmet?

[Dylan Roberts]

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