[pct-l] Night lighting

[Kevin Cook]

How do you use it "hands free"?  That's why I use a headlamp. I like to take
advantage of both hands :)

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 7:12 PM, greg mushial <gmushial at gmdr.com> wrote:

> > Message: 13
> > Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 21:35:13 -0800
> > From: "Matthew Edwards" <Hetchhetchyman at aol.com>
> > Subject: [pct-l]  Night lighting
> > To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> > Message-ID: <8C99A5FAAD0F40BFB5CFC241068DDE3F at OwnerPC>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> >
>
> I guess I come down somewhere btwn those, like Piper, that don't need, or
> don't wish any light, and those that want something that'll light up the
> forest (maybe because I tend to cowboy camp, and not hide in a tent, ie,
> I'd
> like to see what's making "that" noise at night). And although I've walked
> lots of miles by moonlight, starlight, and even come to appreciate being
> able to see one's shadow in Jupiter light, I would like a little light (on
> command), but I'm not willing to pay much for it in terms of weight. And
> also, having been doing electronics since about age 8 or 9 - my answer has
> been to make my own lights. I've uploaded a couple jpgs to show a subset of
> my current collection. (I've probably made 100+ such lights over the years
> -
> of note: these are all white light lights: since LEDs come in about a dozen
> colors I've build lights with all, but white is most useful.) I've built
> lights using 24 LEDs and they really do light up the night, but they tend
> to
> weigh a ton. What I've come to carry backpacking have gotten lighter and
> lighter over time - mostly a product of LEDs becoming more efficient over
> time and rechargeable batteries having greater capacity.
>
> www.gmdr.com/PCTstuff/4WithThumb.jpg
> www.gmdr.com/PCTstuff/Left2NoThumb.jpg
>
> In the 4 light picture, the left 2 are the ones I've tended to hike with.
> All of the lights are obviously build around 9v batteries, ie, the lights
> are neither heavy nor large. The one under the thumb (A duck thumb) is my
> preference. The left 3 all weight about a quarter ounce more than a 9v
> battery. (The other image shows the left 2, but from the other side.) The
> left one uses two 12deg beam white LEDs, and will throw a beam 50ish feet.
> If you trun it on at night after your eyes have dark adapted, you'll be
> squinting for a while. The one to its right is built around a pair of 20deg
> beam LEDs. It'll maybe throw a beam 10 feet, but its specialty is to throw
> a
> broader beam - much more useful for digging through a pack looking for a
> lost whatever, or for reading or writing by. Given the amount of corrosion
> on its switch one can guess at the number of hours it's been hiked by, or
> even climbed by. The gunk over the electronics and at the base of the LEDs
> is superglue, which makes the heads pretty solid and pretty robust -
> they've
> all been dropped, and the worst that happens is the battey might come out
> of
> its clip. Likewise, even though everything gets wet when one does such,
> they're pretty much waterproof - the left 2 have been lake, stream
> swimming;
> the 20deg beam one has been chicken noodle soup swimming... and they
> continue to work. When I started playing with these in '93 or '94 a 9v
> battery was actually 7.2v and had a 100mah capacity. Now one can get 300mah
> real 9v batteries. The left 2 and the rightmost one will run for something
> like 14-15 hr continuous, the 2nd from the right, given the 6 LED design
> will only run for 3 hrs, but it will light up the forest pretty well during
> that time. In backpacking my general experience has been that the
> rechargeable batteries will self-discharge, before I use up their
> capacities, ie, one battery will last a couple months of backpacking trips.
>
> If someone is interesting making their own - a 15 minute job - the part
> cost
> is something like: 80cents for the LEDs, 40 cents for the battery holder,
> 40
> cents for the switch, 50 cents for the voltage regulator (though in the
> rightmost light used as a current regulator), and 3 cents for the
> resistors.
> The 9v rechargeable battery is off eBay for $1.20. Bottom line, not
> terribly
> expensive.
>
> just my 2cents worth,
> TheDuck
>
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