Possibly unusual headlamp question

Black Diamond Storm

The short answer is, yes, there are.

If we take the two major classes of headlamps, you have unregulated and regulated.

An unregulated light takes the straight battery voltage and drives the LED. As a result, the battery voltage must be typically up there around 3 or 4 volts, and the batteries that would generate that easiest would be three any AA or AAA cells in series. But, that is unregulated light. As soon as the batteries are used a bit, the light intensity will drop off and continue to drop off more. That works, and it is cheap, but not great. Typically they are worse with rechargeables than with primary batteries since the voltage is lower.

A regulated light typically takes some different arrangement of batteries and runs that power through an electronic regulator circuit that chops the power and then monitors what goes to the LED in order to make the light very constant for intensity. As a result, it does not need the two or three batteries of voltage, and it can do nicely with a single AA battery. As soon as that single battery is used a bit, the regulator just keeps adjusting, so the light intensity doesn't drop much until the battery is ready to die. That works, and it costs more. In many respects, it ends up being more efficient, and it is typically lighter in weight, and that is a concern at BPL. Most regulated types work nicely with rechargeable or primary batteries.

The last headlamp that I purchased that used two AAA batteries was about six or eight years ago, and I have been with single AA headlamps ever since.

I won't discuss the other headlamps that use proprietary or special batteries. They lack practicality.

–B.G.–

This is a topic you can get a whole lot of responses and suggestions if you clarify how you will be using it and what you want to spend.

If you are happy with your headlamp and just stumped by the charging concerns, there are many chargers on the market that have separate "banks" so they can charge the cells independently.

If you wish to explore what is available, there was recently a very long discussion about headlamps. You might want to read this for recommendations.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=88092

I have input in that thread as do many others. MANY people love Zebralights, they are hard to beat as long as you don't mind spending $64 or $89. I like using my flashlight in a head strap; but my flashlight uses a Lithium Ion cell that others prefer to avoid.

Good luck!

I don't know if it would work for you, but using a Zebralight on a single AA and then doing it again with a second AA, would give you two batteries to recharge at a time. Personally, I went with AA (rather than AAA) options in part because primary and rechargeable batteries are essentially the same price in either size (or sometimes cheaper in AA) yet AA has 2x the amp-hours (both as a primary and as a rechargeable) and is easier to find for sale.

Pro-tip: I unscrew the battery compartment cap on my Zebralight one half turn so it can't be turned on in transport. Yet, it is physically secure and seems pretty water-tight in that position. It's a convenient option that doesn't work with many headlights.

I placed my third order with Zebralight on March 7. They charged my credit card and then said nothing. I inquired, and they said that the model was backordered, and it would be two or three weeks. Three weeks later, and nothing has changed.

–B.G.–

I ordered one from brightguy.com yesterday and it was shipped today. Same price as Zebra. I was not willing to have that type of experience.

I think that there are two ways of looking at this.

The first is as you say a headlamp with an even number of batteries. Given your red/night vision requirement, I would suggest the Fenix HL30 which runs on 2AA:

http://www.fenixlight.com/ProductMore.aspx?id=32&tid=27&cid=2

I highly recommend the Zebralight H52w, for me it's pretty much the ideal UL Headlamp that you can actually hike at night with on difficult/rough tracks or routes using the medium levels, the high levels are available for longe range spotting, and the low levels (incl. a very low "moonlight" level) good for around camp. Others in the thread have noted that sometimes the headlamps are hard to get hold of.

The second approach is to change your battery charger to one that as separate charging circuits for each battery. This has a number of advantages: firstly, each battery is fully charged. Each battery has a different capacity to store charge, this is just part of standard manufacturing variability. In a standard charger, when two batteries are charged in series, one battery can be overcharged, while the other can be undercharged due the batteries variations in capacity. Secondly, you can charge any number or mix of sizes of batteries as required.

Sanyo eneloops in my experience have been very consistent and high performing wrt. number of times you can recharge them, their ability to handle high current discharging and charge retention.

I uses this charger from Sanyo:

http://www.eneloop.info/eneloop-products/chargers.html#c406

No offense, you need a better charger. A much better charger. Problem solved, and cheaper than a headlamp.

The suggestion by David Thomas was probably the best.

–B.G.–

Storm takes 4, Gizmo takes 2, output is relative. More options out there too.

Ordered a ZL from Knifecenter March 3, still no delivery, but no charge yet either. Specifically posted as 2-4 wks for delivery, so no worries, yet. Tried to order direct from ZL and they won't even process my card. Contacted CS and they just have lame excuses. Will not deal with ZL directly. Ever.

Eneloop has a USB charger that charges 1 or 2 AA, AAA batts independently and weighs 42 grams with the built in USB cord. Good for at home, in the car, or a solar setup as well. Charging batteries together, even in pairs, severely shortens their life. At least that's been my experience.

"Charging batteries together, even in pairs, severely shortens their life."

Some really good chargers have independent battery channels, and they monitor the state of the batteries individually to charge them individually. Also, they will detect if a battery is getting "funky" from a bad history. If your battery charger is not that smart, then you need to manually monitor the battery state before and during charging.

–B.G.–

Exactly, that's why I'm really fond of the eneloop charger. It's like 2 single battery chargers in one unit. The only downside is the size adapter. Can't mix an AA with an AAA, but I can live with that, since I bought 3 when I ordered them lol