Very happy with our DL-16's. You can see things I never knew were there!
We also have a couple of the D-9 's but much prefer the LED's on the 16.

Once an Oldham man always one, and that is from someone who used to live just outside the town of the same name!

Probably dont need telling :lol:
current weapons of choice
[photo]99291[/photo]

Great Scott! A DLi :thumbsup: Don't see many of those.

Have you got the USB charger for it?

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Great Scott! A DLi :thumbsup: Don't see many of those.

Have you got the USB charger for it?

Nah just the yellow box charger. Aquired this recently, still testing it out, one slightly odd thing is the right hand LED with the 'anti dazzle' lens cant be used by itself, the 3 modes are: pilot, full power clear LED and 1/2 power to the other, and full power both main LEDs.
Im sure it would be easy to sort, possibly Oldhams have programmed this into the newest ones.
Oh that and I'm going to redesign the spade helmet fitting, could do with being made stronger.

Would like to buy something half decent, for a budget of <£50. I imagine I want something with a lot of flood and not much throw.

Have a look at the Nitecore HC50. I've been using one for a few months and like it a lot. The only gripe I have is that all the weight's at the front of the hat. But for the price, that's a minor grumble.

So the H50 is about £40, I see. I'll keep that one in mind.

Anyone using the Zebralight H600 or Armytek Wizard Pro? About 600 lumens of flood, for 2 hours, on a single 18650 battery. Or about 300 lumens for 4-6 hours.

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008398502070 

Some Croatian fella/lass is bashing together some rather nice looking lamps with some decent lumenage, reasonably priced too.

Anyone had any dealings?

EDIT - I realise Simon mentions them in the first post :oops::stupid: But none the less, has anyone had any dealings and or what do you reckon? Might take a punt at one soon just to see what they're like.

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Its been around for ages. Unless he has modified his design it didn't mix beam and flood the way that the Scurion does.

There are a lot of different lamps being produced these days.
;D

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What do you think Roy? I use one of yours currently (and will do for the foreseeable future)

But wandering about getting one for the spare helmet I have and borrow out to friends when I drag them underground.

This in particular caught my eye, apparently will only cost £120

http://www.elwork-speleo.hr/cd/108/l/EN/elspeleo-gnoma-1200 

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https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008398502070 

Some Croatian fella/lass is bashing together some rather nice looking lamps with some decent lumenage, reasonably priced too.

Anyone had any dealings?

EDIT - I realise Simon mentions them in the first post :oops::stupid: But none the less, has anyone had any dealings and or what do you reckon? Might take a punt at one soon just to see what they're like.

A couple of chaps in the Plymouth Caving Group use them - they look very well put together and I have heard no complaints. I can attest to their brightness having nearly had my retinas burnt out by one last week!

Looks OK at a glance but I would want to talk to people using a lamp or at least try to get some feed off websites.
Try the web to see what they are like on aftersales particularly as it overseas, and remember postage will be more than a UK supplier.

I am a bit dubious about the "weatherproof", I left my Dragon in a bucket of water then fired it up to max off a fresh battery.

Thing about lamps you know, you will get one person uses it about six times a year for strolling through slate mines and another who sump dives in ochre ( you hearing this Rick).
Just a thought.

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I'm still using my Magnumstar, I believe I was the first to buy one! 8-)

Roy upgraded it a while back and it's had a further repair/rebuild but is still going strong.

Now that Roy has stopped offering them does it count as a 'vintage' lamp?

Hopefully it will get a bit more use this year! 😞

I have just checked my database and the first three lamps I ever sold were in 2009, and still all going strong.

#1 UniStar to David James
#2 Same again to Peter Jackson
#3 WorkStar to DaveL

From memory, Davids never been touched, Peters top heat sink replaced and some upgrade work, Dave's new emitter about 12 months ago.

First MagnumStar I an unsure about, quite a few out there all going, not too bad a record as they are a bit of a 'hotrod'.

Worst lamp I ever sold was a MagnumStar to an Italian caver, he had nothing but trouble with it, second worst was a Trigon, it actually had a blow that severe it cracked the body.
A lot is luck, these things make me wonder.

Off topic but interesting.
Years ago I had a BMW which I sold to a mate, I had owned it two years and it had been great.
Oh dear.
He had nothing but trouble with it and not just mechanical, he could not leave it anywhere without it getting damaged. One day he had just collected it from the body shop after having a new front wing after someone had hit it and had just filled it up with fuel. I was waiting at the pumps behind him while he went to pay.
As I sat there and waited a Cortina backed straight into it. I sat there and saw it happen.
The driver said that he never saw it.

Who said that there is no such thing as luck?

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Its been around for ages. Unless he has modified his design it didn't mix beam and flood the way that the Scurion does.

There are a lot of different lamps being produced these days.
;D

Googled the Scurion. Looked at the price. Closed the window :p

This hobby isn't cheap, is it :p

So here's a question: how cheap can you safely go? Assuming it's just me + 1 other on some trips. At this point in time he does't have his own gear either.

You can go using head torches from Poundland, take several as they may well not survive.

The reason people buy 'proper' light sets is the reliability and performance. This gets more significant as the trips get longer and more difficult.
So I have a Scurion which I am confident will take what I am going to do to it. As it happens, I would buy one of Roy's electro-mechanical marvels now if I was looking for a new light.
You can use a much cheaper light set but because it isn't designed for the same use or to a lower quality, it would have a lower confidence level. What you are happy with is up to you.

Whatever light set you use ALWAYS have at least one backup, everything can break!

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Its been around for ages. Unless he has modified his design it didn't mix beam and flood the way that the Scurion does.

There are a lot of different lamps being produced these days.
;D

Googled the Scurion. Looked at the price. Closed the window :p

This hobby isn't cheap, is it :p

So here's a question: how cheap can you safely go? Assuming it's just me + 1 other on some trips. At this point in time he does't have his own gear either.

Cheaper than some - think how much a set of golf bats cost.

If you are only dipping your toe and don't want to spend too much go for a cheapy Chinese ebay special, you can always upgrade later. You need something that can helmet mount so that you keep both hands free. The most important thing is that you must must must carry reliable back up lighting. All lights can fail from an Aldi cheapo to a top end Scurrion and without light you are in trouble.

Forget Chinese bike lamps and headtorches, your light is your life. OK carry spares, but if you on a budget you will have a limit on that.
Fenix headtorches start at about £25 on eBay. Fenix is waterproof and wont let you down.
Chinese mining lamps start at a bit more but will include the battery. Designed for working mines expect a tight narrow beam, not to my taste or a lot of other people. But again expect reasonable reliability.

Going up in price, and here I am being cheeky and promoting my own lamps. My EcoStar is £90 and possibly the most inherent and time tested reliability plus a good output of 600 lumens for when you want it.
Inherent reliability is reliability by design, two separate and independent circuits, low voltage technology; it wont go out when the battery goes down, and independent parallel arrays of linear drivers the beam having one of them outside of the micro controller. Micro controller goes south, still got a light.
I think the penny has finally dropped about these as these are currently my best selling lamp by far, I am selling them as fast as I can produce them.

The cloud on the horizon is economical new or nearly new Oldham headsets are drying up. If I can do the new Dragon cheaper than the £125 mentioned I will, but I don't know yet.

I have just ordered components for an initial run of 5. I have tested my own underwater on Mars and cant think of anything else to do with it.
:lol:

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Forget Chinese bike lamps and headtorches, your light is your life. OK carry spares, but if you on a budget you will have a limit on that.
Fenix headtorches start at about £25 on eBay. Fenix is waterproof and wont let you down.
Chinese mining lamps start at a bit more but will include the battery. Designed for working mines expect a tight narrow beam, not to my taste or a lot of other people. But again expect reasonable reliability.

Going up in price, and here I am being cheeky and promoting my own lamps. My EcoStar is £90 and possibly the most inherent and time tested reliability plus a good output of 600 lumens for when you want it.
Inherent reliability is reliability by design, two separate and independent circuits, low voltage technology; it wont go out when the battery goes down, and independent parallel arrays of linear drivers the beam having one of them outside of the micro controller. Micro controller goes south, still got a light.
I think the penny has finally dropped about these as these are currently my best selling lamp by far, I am selling them as fast as I can produce them.

The cloud on the horizon is economical new or nearly new Oldham headsets are drying up. If I can do the new Dragon cheaper than the £125 mentioned I will, but I don't know yet.

I have just ordered components for an initial run of 5. I have tested my own underwater on Mars and cant think of anything else to do with it.
:lol:

If your budget stretches to an Ecostar I can whole heartedly recommend them. £90 is ridiculously good value for what you get, particularly when you look at the competition.

I have been using mine for four or five years and have done my level best to destroy it. It has had a very hard life with minimal maintenance on my part (a squirt of WD40 on the contacts once in a while). The only major problem I have had required a recent replacement of an LED which Roy turned around almost by return post and at a very reasonable cost. Roy has just upgraded the connectors and supplied a new battery and I am confident that I shall get several more years of life out of the lamp.

If I could be bothered to work it out the cost of my Ecostar per trip would be pennies.

Forget Chinese bike lamps and headtorches, your light is your life. OK carry spares, but if you on a budget you will have a limit on that.

I beg to differ...

Just because they are chinese doesn't make them inferior. I spend a lot of time "ochre diving" with Rick.... It is very very good stuff.

If it was going to fail then it would have been when I took Rick into a tunnel I found going in from the bank of the tamar. It involved swimming up the river, and entering the Tail Race of the great wheels of DGC.

At that point we found a tunnel going off that involved me laying flat on my stomach with 6" of head room submersed in ochre below a crumbling stone roof of a cut and cover tunnel.

I came out covered in ochre soaked through and the torch was the same. It had been bashed and soaked.... It got thrown in the back of the van and forgot about til the next time I went out. Still works perfectly.

I always have a back up hand torch but it has never let me down.

The build quality on those Chinese lamps is at best variable. As per Chris T's comment somewhere above, a lamp such as that belonging to a certain Mr Gibbs who Rick will know failed in Cwmorthin which is probably amongst the least demanding mines you will find insofar as hostile conditions are concerned.

A lot of Chinese stuff seems to be like that, be it lamps, clothes or anything.

One item might be sound, a seemingly identical item with the same labels on might fall to bits in your hands as you unpack it.

I've recently had it happen to me with a couple thermal tops!

A while ago I got a cheap Chinese bike light as a gift and took it apart. It was described as "waterproof" which it certainly wasn't. The PCB inside it looked fairly good but my overall impression was 'if only'. If only they had taken the trouble to put a gasket between the bracket and body, if only they had taken the trouble to fit a decent switch.
The thing about them is if used for intended purpose they probably last for a few months and then throw away buy another, at the price it would be no grumble.
But what we do is a serious game.

I have no axe to grind against the Chinese and buy a lot of components off them, but I test everything thoroughly.
They are making some good products now but the better stuff isn't particularly cheap

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Had mine a couple of years and it gets used daily.