2.5 = brighter than an Oldham but narrower beam.

Other advantage of a really lightweight cap lamp is I can keep wearing it in the inflatable boat sinks! I don't fancy a swim with an Oldham battery strapped to me and sod my hand lamp and it's few kelos of lead acid, it'll have to fend for it's self!

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A few comments
First, Oldham lead acid battery mentioned.
Basically, these are deadweight, obsolete and also bloody dangerous if they come into contact with SRT equipment such as nylon ropes etc

Second, my lamps.
As posted before people vote with their chequebooks, and lets just say I am having a good turnout, better than the Tories did in the parliamentary election!
I am actually getting some very kind remarks from my customers, this goes down well with me.
I am very sorry about my current "Out of stock" situation, something I am working on night and day to rectify.
At least I will have all the current orders filled by the end of this week.

Still on my lamps, I have just had bulk purchase of high quality LED miners lamps manufactured by IEE Pagina of Spain. These appear to have had a 3 year shelf life and will probably be refurbished with new Li Ion cells and my electronics to enable them to be recharged from any 'through the headset' charger. The lamp is the LED Miners lamp typical of others such as the Oldham and Raptor. Price will be around £50 a unit available until stock exhausted.

English technical document in the documents library

Finally, again on my lamps.
In the near future there will probably be available a Kirby-Fellows (KF Lamp) for those who do not like Lithium Ion.
The belt mount battery is in the form of the Kirby Tube and houses military grade Nickel Metal Hydride NiMH cells.
The electronics include a voltage booster and initial testing has indicated a bright lamp even when the cells are down to just over 1 volt. This type of battery can be run flat and actually benefits from it.

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Thanks Roy, your IEE might be just what a friend is looking for, I'll make sure he has a look at all your lamps before he decides what to get (don't worry, my lead acids are sealed for life paste versions but they still wont float :lol: ).

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I have always worked on the following categories of lamp;

1) about the same as a carbide - ok for things less than 6ft away, low-level illumination of areas up to about 15 or 20m, can just about read by it

If that's your opinion of carbide, you must have had a bloody poor one!
I used mine when I wanted better light than an Oldham - & yes a well fettled one with a 4W halogen lamp.

ah, well, there are carbide lamps and carbide lamps.

I have a friend who ( back in the day ) bought one of those French ones, the ones with a huge reflector, piezo-electric ignition and a gas generator hanging on the belt.

the comparison with my old Premier, with its battered and discoloured 3" reflector, was like night and day.

the setting of the drip valve affects the light - you can get a flame like a gas axe from a Premier, but not for long!

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As posted before people vote with their chequebooks, and lets just say I am having a good turnout, better than the Tories did in the parliamentary election!
I am actually getting some very kind remarks from my customers, this goes down well with me.

I am one of those who voted with my chequebook, having purchased an Ecostar from Roy. Having used it for a month or two I can report that it is a really cracking bit of kit - highly recommended.

Thank you for your kind remarks Rick, hope you are well.

Interesting, but the best seller is the Trigon. People are purchasing these with the 4 cell power packs, plus a spare!

I wore one on Sunday to work at Talybont, I am having to retimber part of my ladder shaft. I used a little 2 cell power pack, and had it on Eco Power Mode, 420 lumens plus, for 5 hours.
It started to dim so I changed power packs.
If I had continued, it would have suddenly gone out, but give it a few moments and switch back on low power mode and you get another hour on the emergency gas tank just like the Skody
The point is that people just cannot get a grip on the output for power consumption.
Also this lamps Eco Power is a very soft light because the XPGs are only being driven at 550 mA. I had someone deliberately flash me across my eyes with one on this mode and I was not blinded. The illumination is very even and I could comfortably work with it in the confines of my shaft.

I am very pleased with what I am producing.

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Looking forward to receiving the MagnumStar Roy. I'll show it to Derrickman when I next see him. :thumbup:

Looking forward to receiving the MagnumStar Roy. I'll show it to Derrickman when I next see him. :thumbup:

Shipping tomorrow!

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Looking forward to receiving the MagnumStar Roy. I'll show it to Derrickman when I next see him. :thumbup:

Shipping tomorrow!

Brilliant - I'll get to use it on the 16th! :thumbsup:

I should have defined "High" and "Low" better with a KSE lamp, High is "normal" working rather than a bright high beam and lasts 12 hours (I can confirm this is accurate now). Even Low isn't bad with your eyes quickly getting used to it but is really a power saving/emergency option giving 84 hours by my calculation!

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New review and test of a KSE-type Chinese lamp here:

http://chinamining.blogspot.com/2011/05/14-hours-underwater-with-little-chinese.html 

🙂

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New review and test of a KSE-type Chinese lamp here:

http://chinamining.blogspot.com/2011/05/14-hours-underwater-with-little-chinese.html 

:)

That looks strangely nasty!

http://chinamining.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html  - looks strangely familiar... :bored:

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New review and test of a KSE-type Chinese lamp here:

http://chinamining.blogspot.com/2011/05/14-hours-underwater-with-little-chinese.html 

:)

That looks strangely nasty!

If it is nasty, it's in good company - the KSE 77XX series (almost certainly made in the same factory):

http://kse-lights.com/kse2_en/wp-content/uploads/datasheet_ks-7700_7700h2_7710.pdf 

😉

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can you stil get the sublight .my knife 2cell made in 1961 has just died on me. cannot get lamps this good sadly today. 😞

New review and test of a KSE-type Chinese lamp here:

http://chinamining.blogspot.com/2011/05/14-hours-underwater-with-little-chinese.html 

:)

That looks strangely nasty!

http://chinamining.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html  - looks strangely familiar... :bored:

KSE are ATEX certified (although non-ATEX versions are available) lamps for professional use. They arguably look a bit odd but they're not nasty. You'd find them in a lot of working mines; IIRC they're in use at Boulby in the dark matter labs.

The resemblance of this thing to the KSE7700 is uncanny, but at the price it surely has to be a copy.

I also don't really think 50 lumens, at whatever price, really is going to cut it for today's mine explorer or caver. But that's just my opinion!

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Should have mentioned stuff I don't like about it.

The switch is a push button on the top, you click once to change modes which are off, low, high, off. If you're running on high and knock the switch it turns off, It's happened a couple of times, this isn't great! So far only irritating. Wish the button was on the side.

Cover for the charging socket is a bit fiddly, hard to slide it by hand, needs a tool sometimes, a bit of silicon spray lube helps.

On a better note t's a great little torch too, nice shape to hold and fits well in a pocket without catching like a conventional long torch/flashlight.

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Found another problem. Said about the button on the top getting knocked well just realised the squidgy rubber bit has been torn open in a couple of places (probably by slate) so it's no longer waterproof and needs to go off and be repaired 😞

If it wasn't for the button position I'd be very pleased with this, couldn't recommend this lamp for exploring.

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You could try the KS-2160 reverse holder for safety
helmets (not for MC)

http://www.kse-lights.com/images/pdfs/datasheets/datasheet-cap-lamp-fastenings-ks-2150+ks-2160+ks-5528+1015.pdf 

Don't know if the position of the lamp with this type holder is any improvement but the switch is at the bottom.

That would make a massive difference, I notice as well the button in those pictures is flush with it's housing, mine sticks out 3-4mm.

Thanks, I'll ask for one when I sent it for repair (I'd do it myself if it wasn't for warranty purposes).

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They changed the design slightly about a year? ago when they introduced a new charging system (MC). Not so sure if they changed the switch on the old type lamps as well.

http://www.kse-lights.com/images/pdfs/datasheets/datasheet-led-cap-lamp-ks-7710.pdf 
http://www.kse-lights.com/images/pdfs/datasheets/datasheet-led-cap-lamp-ks-7710-mc.pdf 

You could try the KS-6500 for a sidemounted switch if it has to be KSE and you don't need any ATEX.
http://www.kse-lights.com/images/pdfs/datasheets/datasheet-led-cap-lamp-ks-6500.pdf