Most Amazing Gear Mod – Headlamp Edition

[Gonzalo Rodriguez]

Last year, I found a Black Diamond Spot abandoned near an AT shelter somewhere near Hot Springs. I carried it for a few days, asking everyone whether they lost a headlamp. Alas, after searching far and wide for its true owner, I decided to make it my own.

I’ve been battling with the idea of carrying a 3.25 oz headlamp. Do I really need that?

The solution was simple – chop off the strap and change the batteries.

By replacing the factory strap with a piece of bungee chord, and also exchanging my old batteries for some Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries, I was able to chop off about 36 grams.

Now, we’re looking at a 2 oz (batteries included) headlamp with 130 lumens in high intensity mode. I’ve tested it out, and the bungee cord was not as painful as it sounded. In fact, it felt not much different than the original headband.

The moral of this post is: get on these Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries. There is a 4 gram difference between one of these and a standard Energizer AAA.

 

[Jerry Adams]

yeah, I use 3 AAA headlamp.  Lithiums are good.  Plus, for me, they last about a year.  (I don’t use it that much).  Towards the end of their life, the light gets dimmer and dimmer.  I start carrying spare set in case I had to do a night hike or something.

[JCH]

I use a 3 AAA headlamp (Princeton-Tec Vizz) with Lithiums. On the last night of a 4 night trip I was sitting in camp when the batteries gave up. Over the span of about 2 minutes it degraded from normal brightness to “emergency operation” (I’m guessing somewhere around 10 or so lumens). On that trip, and the 5-6 previous trips on that battery set, I had not noticed any degradation in performance prior to that moment…even when used in Ultra-bright mode. Now, if I suspect the batteries *might* run out, I pack a spare set.

The Vizz is marketed as a “regulated” headlamp, so I’m not certain how much of what I experienced is down to that feature or the natural performance of Lithium batteries, but if your headlamp will accept Lithiums they seem to be the way to go.

[David Thomas]

Nice mod with the bungie cord.  And, of course, switching to lithiums makes a more minimal head strap more viable.

“or the natural performance of Lithium batteries”

Lithium batteries do have a very abrupt end to their capacity.  Look at the “discharge profile” on the following webpage:

http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l91.pdf

Lithiums save more than 4 grams each: Energizer shows 23 grams for alkaline and 15 grams for lithium.  And while lithiums have a little more capacity at low drain (if you drain it over 100 hours), if your battery life is 8 hours on alkalines, it will be twice as long on lithiums.  So one set of lithiums could be worth two sets of alkaline.  As much as three times the capacity compared to alkaline in high-drain applications.

Living in Alaska, all our cars’ emergency flashlights have lithiums in them.  Because when you need a jump or to change a tire at -25F, you REALLY want the flashlight to work without inserting it in some body cavity first and that requires lithium batteries.

LED lights fade so slowly, I found it easy to forget (1) to change the batteries and (2) how bright the light was, many months prior.  Now I check batteries with a digital voltmeter.  I put anything less than 60% in a marked bag for non-backpacking uses.

[JCH]

Very similar performance curves of the AAA (http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/l92.pdf) vs. AA.

Huge capacity difference too :)

[Gonzalo Rodriguez]

David Thomas – great point on the weight savings. I assume that my 5g measurement difference had to do with comparing my old AAA batteries with the fully-charged lithium type.

[Dale Wambaugh]

Yup, regulated headlamps go down to the last possible electron and *out*. That is one reason I use a headlamp and a pocket flashlight that use a single AA battery. I can use either for a spare and carry one spare for both.

And I can load a single battery in total darkness and get the orientation right. Try that with a three battery light. A good backup is a little coin cell rig like a Photon if you don’t want two “real” lights.

[J R]

I also replaced the strap on my headlamp, in my case used some guy line and a mini cord lock and shaved nearly an ounce. Those headbands are heavy! Plenty comfortable for around camp. Total weight with lithium AAA’s is 1.78 oz. Less bulk as well.

[Bob Moulder]

Good idea for a hack! 2.5mm shock cord is plenty.

Lithiums are great as long as you’re aware of the discharge curve… er… cliff!

PS I lost my Wenger clipper SAK somewhere in Harriman SP over the MLK weekend, so if you find it lemme know, lol! Watermelon (pink translucent) color with a yellow 1.2mm zline cord on it. Or feel extremely guilty the rest of your life and try to enjoy it. :^)

 

[Gregory Stein]

Good day,

I hanged the headlamp on the rear Velcro closure of my running cap. Actually all standard ball cap closures are just made exactly to hold the headlamp – no cord needed. Here: https://thehikingdad.wordpress.com/ultralight-backpacking-my-vision/ul-gear-electronics/. Scroll down to my picture wearing the zebralight, you can fit any headlamp:

[Gonzalo Rodriguez]

@tauneutrino

Wow. If that is not the epitome of “keep it simple,” then I don’t know what is…

AWESOME idea! I’m gonna try that when I get home.

[Jerry Adams]

That’s weird, my lithiums degrade over a long time, many hours, maybe 20

It must not be regulated which would help

[Link .]

Mike Clelland sews his to his hat

[Bob Moulder]

I really love these bloody obvious mods that nobody noticed before. :^)

Not sure exactly how Gonzalo R attached the bungee cord to the headlamp, but it appears to be tied with simple overhand slip knots. This works fine on bungee when cinched down and stretched out—the combination of elasticity of the core and the grip of the sheath holds very well.

Having a recent-vintage BD Spot (had to use that REI dividend on something, so why not yet another headlamp?) of course I had to try this. I tied the bungee cord onto the ‘frame’ of the headband mount and employed a cord lock on the tail of the bungee for adjusting the fit.

It worked pretty well, but the overhand/slipknot tended to slide down the frame, which made the headlamp floppy on the brim of my cap. And I decided the bungee was stretchy enough that if I got the length right I could dispense with the cord lock and the extra length of bungee needed to make a stopper knot.

To keep the bungee knots from sliding down the headband frame, I used a Dremel and small drill bit to cut some channels in the frame to keep the overhand slipknots in place, and tied the slipknot on one side with a bow (bight) to make it adjustable should the bungee length need to be increased for a thicker hat combination.

As for weight, with the headband mod and using lithium batteries, the total count is 62.6g (2.21oz). The bungee headband weighs 2.4g compared to 18.7g for the stock BD headband.

 

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