Caving Lights

[Cody JW]

Bif, I will trade you my Wheat for a Ruda Nora. Just kidding , you cannot blame a guy for trying. Like Cavemud you are also more than welcome to check mine out also.Same goes for you Potholer. The bulbs in those lights reminded me of tail light bulbs in cars.

[Extremeophile]

I think the original Wheat batteries were 6V liquid lead acid batteries, thus the need for venting during charging. These were often changed out with JustRite or NiteLite style sealed "gel" lead acid batteries. I don't think anyone would use any of these battery systems if a LED module could be made available. It would be easy to wire them with a Duo battery case, or ruggedized Li-ion battery pack (either 3.7 or 7.4 V) - all helmet mounted. I wired mine with a trailer wire connector, but I also have a home-built adapter so I can use a Sten battery.




There's a small length of clear tubing used to hold the LED in place.

[PaulSiegel86]

For what it is worth there is a modern version of a wheat lamp.

Doming, out of China, makes a mining light with a 1w "High" beam and 6 led "low". Switch is in the same spot as the Wheat or Oldham light. Blade mounted. Battery pack is about the size of a 3x5 card and a 1/2" thick, Li-ion. Can't weigh more than 5 oz. but it is belt mounted so you don't even notice it. Charges through the back of the light a la the wheat lamp. High is supposed to last for around 16 hours then kicks down to 50 hours on the low setting.

Couple quibbles: cord is a little long, and tends to get hung up on stuff. Sort of the nature of the beast and you learn to deal with it. The reflector is set-up as a pencil beam, with a very sharp spot and little spill. I'm going to experiment with adding some diffusing material to the lens to see if that makes a difference.

Overall I've been very impressed with the little lamp. You can check it herehttp://www.iwiss.com/LED-Mining-Light/KJ45LMA-LED-Miner-Lamp/.

I bought this as a replacement for an old TAGlite when I got back into caving this year.

Best part is that it is $77 bucks shipped from China.

[Bama632]

Thanks for the info

[bif]

I still havn’t spotted an obvious modification for the Wheat (but I will keep thinking it through). The pitlamp modules that I make are 57mm diameter, so the aluminium framework might fit or be trimmable, and therefore something might be possible. I could make something that works from a single switch, but whether it is possible to practically retain the switching mechanics in the lamp, while removing reflector etc, to make enough room for a module is questionable. It might be possible to connect a module into the lamp via a dummy bulb, but such a module would have fixed optics, so the neat little forward backward mechanism would be immediately redundant. I’m not sure it would be a great solution. There are almost certainly some neat ways of tackling it, but this would probably need to be a real labour of love for some creative soul with a long winter to spare.

For what it is worth there is a modern version of a wheat lamp.

Doming, out of China, makes a mining light with a 1w "High" beam and 6 led "low". Switch is in the same spot as the Wheat or Oldham light. Blade mounted. Battery pack is about the size of a 3x5 card and a 1/2" thick, Li-ion. Can't weigh more than 5 oz. but it is belt mounted so you don't even notice it. Charges through the back of the light a la the wheat lamp. High is supposed to last for around 16 hours then kicks down to 50 hours on the low setting.

Couple quibbles: cord is a little long, and tends to get hung up on stuff. Sort of the nature of the beast and you learn to deal with it. The reflector is set-up as a pencil beam, with a very sharp spot and little spill. I'm going to experiment with adding some diffusing material to the lens to see if that makes a difference.

Overall I've been very impressed with the little lamp. You can check it herehttp://www.iwiss.com/LED-Mining-Light/KJ45LMA-LED-Miner-Lamp/.

I bought this as a replacement for an old TAGlite when I got back into caving this year.

Best part is that it is $77 bucks shipped from China.

Paul has basically hit the nail on the head. There are loads of these Chinese mining lamps doing the rounds, and they cost peanuts. It makes it almost illogical to do anything other than leave old Wheat and Oldham lamps in the basement, preserved for posterity, and buy one of these if this is the type of lamp for you. However, while no doubt ideal if you happen to have a couple of mines full of workers, my instinct is that for cavers things have moved on. I can’t entirely put my finger on it, but these are somehow just not quite ideal for caving (but I could easily be wrong). Maybe we have just moved beyond waist mount set ups, and don’t want big chunky mining lamp headsets anymore. I imagine that this could probably be argued in endless circles. There remains a limited market in the UK for Oldham modules (which is basically why my modules and Potholers conversions still exist), partly because until recently the caving shops all sold Speleo Technics headlites (based on a mining lamp with nimh helmet pack) and quite a few people have DIY oldham based conversions with he old zoom box, so there are a fair few still in circulation still to go at, but it's a rapid decline.

[Cody JW]

I big negative for me with most new lights is a switch that is somewhat recessed with the rubber membrane covering it. I find those hard to find with gloves on. The wheat had a switch that kind of stuck out and was easy to find. The Duo has a switch that sticks out. Sten also has a switch that is easy to find because it sticks out. I have owned both the Apex and still own an HP-10 and I always have to remove my glove to find the switch. I guess it must be easier or less expensive to design a push button type recessed switch.

[MUD]

What about this headlamp Bif? Its made in the USA by the Nite Lite Co. It was a 6 volt with krypton bulb. Reflector is about 60mm. Its about 40mm deep to screws that hold the bulb in place. Do ya think one of them Pitlamp modules of yours could work in there?

[Cody JW]

:big grin: What about this headlamp Bif? Its made in the USA by the Nite Lite Co. It was a 6 volt with krypton bulb. Reflector is about 60mm. Its about 40mm deep to screws that hold the bulb in place. Do ya think one of them Pitlamp modules of yours could work in there?

I have one of those also, had to change the switch on mine. I went to a toggle switch. This was a lower cost option to a Wheat back in the day. I remember some had a large battery with a dimmer switch on the battery. It seemed to me this used a more common bulb than the wheat. We recently had a thread on this forum on what light you use, I think it would be fun to ask what lights you used to use. Take a little trip down memory lane.

[MUD]

Yea mine had the rheostat switch on that awful heavy, bulky, belt-mounted battery. You could dial the brightness level up or down with a turn of the knob. Beam pattern from spot to flood with a turn of the bezel. I had the krypton bulb so it was plenty bright. I'm thinking one of Bif's PL modules will fit in there and work. A new helmet mounted battery pack and that thing will come out of retirement also! We'll see what Bif has to say?

[bif]

Not sure. Best idea might be if I knock up a very basic test module using an aluminium chassis from the custompitlamp modules. I’ll post it over, and you can have a play around and see if and how it might fit. I’ll probably stick a couple of old LEDs (SSC P4s or whatever I can find laying around) in it and a basic single power driver circuit. You can hack at it, or do whatever you want with it to see if you can make it fit, and we will see what we learn. Message me an address and I'll gash something together over Xmas. I might send it fitted into a CEAG headset. These were a bit like an Oldham, but worse . I think I have a surplus one floating around somewhere. Message me with an address. Don’t bother mailing it back as it will just cost you postage. Feel free to use it, pass on, recycle it however you think best or just stamp on it.

Here are a couple of photos of my own old Oldham that might be of interest / help. This was my main caving lamp until I retired it 6 or 7 years ago. These lamps have a 2 position switch, and there would have originally been 2 bulbs in a reflector, one main one in the centre and a worthless pilot bulb at the top. The reflector had a rubber seal around the lip of it, so it would leak less. (Most folk drilled two holes in them, one for letting the water in, and ..... you know where this is going). Anyhow, it originally had a big waist mounted plastic box and 4v Lead acid battery. It’s interesting how it evolved from its original form. This battery box initially got gutted and filled up with NiCad F cells which lasted a few months, so was replaced with a hard case petzl zoom box, and a heatshrink wrapped pack of 3 nimh cells (similar size to 18650s) and a 0.5 amp halogen (also from a zoom). In the late 90s when little 5mm nichia LEDs white LEDs arrived the pilot bulb got replaced with a bulb that incorporated 3 of these LEDs. Not particularly bright, but it gave fairly good light for a very long time, and made really long trips feasible without changing battery packs. It then had a main LED bulb fitted with a 1W Luxeon LED. Then complete retrofit modules with multiple settings and typically 2 high power LEDs (mounted on as much aluminium as possible for cooling) started to appear, and that's about that. Anyone still awake ?

[MUD]

Thank you Bif! I'll have a go at it and get it working. I'm thinking it will fit right in there. PM sent!