Talking from exsperiance, Ive had both the small and the large battery.

I started off with the two small battery's and found the small battery's more than good enough. The weight with the sten light and the small battery is very well balanced as both weigh about the same. And work very well together as a head mounted system.
I then decided I would invest in the large battery. But once fitted to my helmet it all started to go wrong for me. And the hole helmet felt un balanced and did not feel good. After a week of using it I decided it had to go and I sold it on.

I've never managed to run a small battery down on a explore, but I always carry the second small battery with me.
I even managed to do two solid days in the Paris catacombs with one small battery. Though this was using it on a mixture of high and medium settings.

Just personal preference. The little battery is 2.3Ah, the big one 5Ah so will last a little longer than 2 x small batteries. The big battery is far from enormous, but some people prefer the little battery because it's so small and light (115g).

The little battery fits better on the (optional) headstrap, but that's only an issue to people who use the Sten off a caving helmet (i.e. for other activities).

Beg to differ Simon:

I went for the GBFO battery because I know its going to last well, plus if you do what I've done and tuck it inside (contraversial I know) your hard hat the weight isn't an issue.

The GBFO battery also works well for me with the optional headstrap.

Its down to personal preferance, which battery you choose, but I just lurve it. Price was never a consideration over functionality.

Thanks Wormster! I know the big battery does fit the head strap but I do think the small one fits it better. As well as trying to avoid filling this site up with commerical plugs for Excellent Stuff I guess I just err on the side of caution when recommending products to people!

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I have just been looking at the new Stenlight and I have to say that it looks as though someone has come up with "the better mousetrap" as they say in the States.
I could purchase a lamp only at reasonable price and run it off my AA minipacks. They contain a 6 battery holder with one compartment blanked off with an aluminium connecting rod reducing to 5 batteries to power the Retro 2 at 6.5 volts. Go to 6 batteries and I have the Stenlights 7.2 volts.
I am sorely tempted, but do however still support the Retro 2 Oldham conversion as a cost effective alternative.

Burning question in my mind is why they used the Luxeon Rebel rather than Crees, anyone have tech info?

I can tell you something though, I prophesize that the new Stenlight will do serious damage to sales of Scurrion.

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I can tell you something though, I prophesize that the new Stenlight will do serious damage to sales of Scurrion.

Thats not hard as Scurrion do that all by them selfs lol

Presumably with the ability to operate off any supply from 6v to 18v and the availability of a wee pack of connectors, that gives the ability for the Sten to be powered from pretty much any power source, including something like an Oldham battery?

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Presumably with the ability to operate off any supply from 6v to 18v and the availability of a wee pack of connectors, that gives the ability for the Sten to be powered from pretty much any power source, including something like an Oldham battery?

No, an Oldham batery is 4.2 volts
Shame really as 16a/h is a lot of burn time 🙂

I guess though that the Sten and the Scurion will always appeal to different markets.

The Sten is small and lightweight but whilst the lamp itself is waterproof (25 feet) the batteries and connectors are not, they're quite happy getting wet and being submerged (sumps and so forth) but they're not suited to prolonged immersion or great depths. So it's not a diving lamp.

Whereas the Scurion is definitely brighter and both the lamp and battery are watertight (as long as you don't damage the battery holder) but it's at the expense of size, weight and complexity.

I like the Scurion, it's a fine peice of engineering (and let's face it, ES simply import Stens, Martin sat down and designed and built the Scurion) but it also has some drawbacks.

When it is available the Rebel 100 (over the current Rebel 70) grade Sten should further close the light level gap, but there is of course the (bonkers bright and equally bonkers expensive) P7 Scurion available.

One thing to note about Stens, is that with every sucessive release of the circuit board they have become a little brighter and a little more efficient. The latest Rebels only come with the latest circuit board and with the new Carclo optics so the improvements are more than just the emitter.

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Presumably with the ability to operate off any supply from 6v to 18v and the availability of a wee pack of connectors, that gives the ability for the Sten to be powered from pretty much any power source, including something like an Oldham battery?

No, an Oldham batery is 4.2 volts
Shame really as 16a/h is a lot of burn time 🙂

I'd estimate about 42 hours on high and 17 hours on turbo!

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Hi,

I'm pretty certain that Sten chose the Rebel because 1) they were already using the Luxeon III (same manufacturer, advantages of same supply chain, supplier etc.) and 2) because the optic requirements were expected to be fairly similar to those for the Lux III.

Changing emitter manufacturers would probably mean that the emitter needed to be mounted at a different height, which could have given further design problems.

In the event, Sten got unlucky: as you all know, Cree were not only first to market, but Luxeon got held back when the first Rebels off the line turned out duff. Smaller manufacturers like Sten suffered especially: if you only buy emitters in the low thousands, you don't have much clout. The big Chinese manufacturers buy in the tens and hundreds of thousands, and they have been getting first call.

However, I'm confident that we'll be selling two versions of the S7 by midwinter: the Rebel 70 and the Rebel 100. Upgrades to earlier models will be fully supported.

Sten are concentrating at the moment on a fully waterproof battery, which i know will be of interest to the hard core diggers in the caving community.

Best regards,

Johnny M.

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Thanks for the input.
It sounds to me like the "better mouse trap" will get even better!

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I am very curious about why the "big" battery is rated higher than 2 small ones. Isn't the big battery just 2 small ones in parallel ?

also do sten let you choose a colour bin ?
If so a warm white will be much better for tacking pictures with as it has a CRI of >85.

see
http://www.philipslumileds.com/pdfs/DS56.pdf 

I am very curious about why the "big" battery is rated higher than 2 small ones. Isn't the big battery just 2 small ones in parallel ?

Differently rated cells making up the battery packs. The LG723 (that's the small battery) replacement will be rated at 2.5Ah, and so will be called the LG726 ;)

also do sten let you choose a colour bin ?
If so a warm white will be much better for tacking pictures with as it has a CRI of >85.

see
http://www.philipslumileds.com/pdfs/DS56.pdf 

I suspect they'd be more than happy to make a custom order (for a modest extra fee), give me a shout if you want something non-standard making up and I'll include it as a request when we next order stock. :thumbup:

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Another quick StenLight announcement/plug. Hopefully everybody knows I keep these to an absolute minimum, I don't want to fill the forum with promotional stuff.

Anyhow, price reductions on Stens, Rebel 70 version, due to increased buying and an improved dollar/pound rate.

You can now get a Sten (R70) plus battery and charger for £189.99. It's a lot of lamp for the money, 230 lumens, nice light pattern, 125g machined solid headpiece and a 12 month UK warranty.

But I would say all that :lol:

http://www.excellentstuff.co.uk/StenLight/Package-Deals/c-1-69-81/ 

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This looks good to me, its bringing them into the 'sensible' price range.

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Presumably with the ability to operate off any supply from 6v to 18v and the availability of a wee pack of connectors, that gives the ability for the Sten to be powered from pretty much any power source, including something like an Oldham battery?

No, an Oldham batery is 4.2 volts
Shame really as 16a/h is a lot of burn time 🙂

I'd estimate about 42 hours on high and 17 hours on turbo!

hmm sten big battery (which i find is a better balance than the small) is 7.4V and 5000mAh or 5Ah
so thats 7.4*5 36 watt hours (its actually higher than this as the initial voltage is 8.4 but lets be conservative)

oldham is 4.2V at 16Ah so 67 watt hours i.e. less than twice the size of a large sten battery so less than 8 hours on turbo !

Presumably with the ability to operate off any supply from 6v to 18v and the availability of a wee pack of connectors, that gives the ability for the Sten to be powered from pretty much any power source, including something like an Oldham battery?

No, an Oldham batery is 4.2 volts
Shame really as 16a/h is a lot of burn time 🙂

I'd estimate about 42 hours on high and 17 hours on turbo!

hmm sten big battery (which i find is a better balance than the small) is 7.4V and 5000mAh or 5Ah
so thats 7.4*5 36 watt hours (its actually higher than this as the initial voltage is 8.4 but lets be conservative)

oldham is 4.2V at 16Ah so 67 watt hours i.e. less than twice the size of a large sten battery so less than 8 hours on turbo !

…..but a mere fraction of the size and weight.

I could make up a 8 X 18650 parallel Li Ion which would give 20 ampere hours, also Li Ion has less volts drop when under load and would therefore give a brighter light.

I doubt whether my 8 cell pack would weigh a fraction of the lead acid, there is no weight in them.

I was a staunch supporter of the Oldham lead acid battery until I started asking myself the simple question, "Where is the sense in lugging this around"?

Then, when I started lamp building and testing everything I find out more.
They 1950s technology.

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Just a quick Sten related message...

We're now doing service and upgrade in the UK. So are able to turn repairs and Rebel 100 spec upgrades around much quicker now than when sending them back to the USA.

There's also an incremental version of the S7+ on its way (3 to 4 weeks off having stock) with turbo output of around 420 lumens.

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There's also an incremental version of the S7+ on its way (3 to 4 weeks off having stock) with turbo output of around 420 lumens.

Turbo about 10% up? What about the rest of the power range?

Will be similar across the board, and better battery life too.

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While we're at it 🙂 a while back I put a quick video on YouTube of the cable replacement procedure on a Rev F (and forthcoming G) lamp. It's about a 2 minute job all-in.

Takes a lot longer on a Rev C/D/E lamp because the epoxy needs removing and two pins need soldering into the board, but we can now do cable upgrades, Rebel 100 spec upgrades and repairs now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtaLxS_k6bI 

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