[pct-l] Night lighting

Sat Jan 15 13:20:08 CST 2011

Good morning, Kevin,

My little Photon Freedom LED lights each have a string loop with a plastic
slider to adjust the size of the loop.  For hands-free use -- which is not
very common -- I tension the loop around my head or hat to make it a
headlamp.  Additionally, the Freedom is sold with a little clip to attach
the light to one’s hat brim or glasses, but I don’t use it.

For the rare instances when I hike at night I keep the LED light in my hand
with the grip of my pole.  I find that when the light is held low shadows
from bumps, ruts, roots, rocks, etc, form relief on the trail surface that
can be readily seen.  When the light is at head-level my eyes don’t see
those shadows and the trail seems to flatten in a way that doesn’t help me
avoid stumbling.

Steel-Eye

Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965

http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye

http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 8:22 PM, Kevin Cook <hikelite at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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