# Blazer 600 lumen led headlamp CHALLENGE



## marksand (Jan 10, 2008)

Hi, I've been wishing for years that someone would do something really significant with LEDs in a mine-lamp coon hunter-type format.
At: http://www.blazerlightandsupply.com/ 

I found a product with tremendous possibilities. 
When I talked to the company owner (I think that's what he was.) he knew less about led's than me. 

He wants to claim that the diodes are Cree, but than says they're not. He dodges every question about the type of regulation and cut me off before I could even ask him if the body was aluminum or plastic, much less what grade. He claims 400 plus lumens (I forgot, it might have been six.)

I realized that he probably found this fixture made for some other industry besides coon hunting and was scared to death that someone was going to get around the $200 he's charging.

CHALLENGE!! Who's making this light, bringing it into the US, or any other information!

Hamlet Fermi


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## TMorita (Jan 10, 2008)

Foxfury Pro. The Foxfury guys post a lot in this forum.

http://www.foxfury.com/products/pro_series/index.htm

Toshi


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## FoxFury (Jan 10, 2008)

Hi Hamlet

Toshi is correct. It's one of our PRO lights that we custom modified for Blazer Light for Coon Hunting. It has different modes, features and probably even intensities than our standard PRO or PRO III lights.

I don't know much about this light but I believe it does indeed have CREE XR-E LEDs. 

As far as the body of the light goes, it is 6061T-6 Aluminum; CNC Machined.

Hope that helps a little.


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## marksand (Jan 11, 2008)

Thank you Toshi and FoxFury,

Between the time that I read Toshi's response and Mr. FoxFury responded, I located the FoxFury website and asked a more detailed set of questions. My main problem is that the person who represented himself to me is rude and uneducated about anything but Grayhill switches and incandescents. I may know less than him, but I don't have any money riding on this yet, so I can say so. As a consumer, it will always be my privilege, come to think of it.

Total ignorance and falsehoods are not options for the seller in this (guarantee, new technology, etc.) case. 

I could get around a lot of it, but the man I spoke to was not just backwards. I am from the Ozarks and know the difference. He did not impress me as someone I would like to do business with. 

I'm not really a coon hunter although I let people hunt my land. I night ride horses and tend to a sick animal far from a light switch all night sometimes. I'm liable to ride (or play vet/nurse) all night until well into the next day and the coon hunting format is closest to my needs. Regulation is an issue because horses (and coons) see way different. The horse has an eliptical eye that is ideal for seeing things ahead for sure footing and clearance ...(his overhead - not the riders in "horse-going-fast" priority. Some of the nice ones I've raised will watch out for you if everything is calm, but if it's Katy-bar-the-door, it's every creature for themselves - thus the need for light if and when, they can see in the dark for their own needs) ... and the whiter lights available now will get rid of the blue milkiness in the eye caused by the ephemeral light of the old leds, but I have to speculate about any strobing types of regulation. For all I know they could make the horse more sure-footed, by breaking down the time to observe each mental frame. A horse has a tiny brain compared to a human, but much more of it is devoted to sight. I don't believe that the Blazer guy has impressed me as someone I'd want to be in a trial period money back situation with. 

Interestingly , several well established coon hunting suppliers have deliberatly strobing regulation to get a coons attention and warm up bulbs better - they claim, but you can't compare a coon and a horse in almost any way.

I don't tell the horse part to coon-hunting gear sellers, becuase I've found that if there is no blood involved, they are not interested. Even though I spend more on battery and rechargeable lights than the average coon hunter and I do it year round for myself and others (people with big money that I ride with and train for don't talk the same language at all as the average coon hunt supplier). If you could get two stallions to put on headlights and have a night-fight with teeth and hoof to the death it would draw quite a paying NFL-quarterback-type crowd among these (with exceptions, of course) blood-sport types. Blood sport has been around since before recorded history and the ferocity of it varies, so who is correct? I'm not making a value judgement, but 50% of the population has an IQ below 100 BY DEFINITION therefore you've got to watch yourself around close to half of the people out there and I'm not counting crazy smart people- just like driving. 

Hamlet Fermi

Toshi, If you have any other sites you've noticed that sound like they might help, don't hesitate to suggest, PLEASE.


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## TMorita (Jan 11, 2008)

marksand said:


> ...
> Toshi, If you have any other sites you've noticed that sound like they might help, don't hesitate to suggest, PLEASE.


 
It sounds like you need a very floody short to medium-range light.

I can think of two other lights in that category offhand:

Princeton Tec Aurora:

http://www.princetontec.com/products/index.php?id=4&type=1&use=0

The Petzl Duo when used with the 8 LED or 14 LED mode should be floody:

http://en.petzl.com/petzl/LampesGammes?Gamme=45

These both use Nichia NSPW500CSes, I think, so they're probably bluish.

Will post more later if I think of them.

Toshi


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## marksand (Jan 12, 2008)

Thanks again, Toshi,

If there is a quarter-moon or more and crisp air quality, the only times a rider needs light are when they are not certain about branches that might be sticking out - due to being off trail or on a tight trail. People who have never been seriously poked in the eye can't understand the physical symptoms it can bring about from head to toe. It has to be experienced. Then you start thinking: "Why do our Iraq interviewers waste their time with any other part of the body?" Plus I like having two still working and that's a minor miracle.

I have a Princetontec Apex which I use if I know some things about where I am even if I'm going to ride all night, with Powerex 2700s I get 4.5 hours exactly before the light takes itself out of regulation. I'm sure a little throw is lost over fresh alkalines, but primary alkalines will only do an hour on high/high. With the luxeon on high, at 4.5hours it goes 3 blinks to whatever 30-70% reserve and then the 3v Luxeon ( I think) won't let it stay there. Right away, you get 3 more blinks and you're at 25-30% or less -It is quite bright with plenty of throw and side spill for most "almost extreme" purposes. I just took another look at the Petzl Duo 14 and given that they are calling .25 lux an acceptable light level, I don't think the halogen side will beat it - maybe the first five minutes, but it's at 75% throw before you can wind your watch - I looked at the model with the 6v worth of 2700mah rechargeables. 

I can see your point about the Aurora, but the 4X 0.5mm Nichia's are placed and reflect like somebody knew what they were doing, so I pretty much am sold on the Apex. I've sold enough of them to guided ride customers that I should get a distributorship from Princetontec. That is an ODD little company, but they have a few winners to show for all the plastic they extrude.

I had recommended an Apex to a guy down the road who has a bunch of hunting dogs on 5 foot chains next to oil drums. I suggested it for a backup to his old 6v hot-driven coon light. The Apex is all he uses to hunt coons with now. The throw will light up the tallest tree-top in Missouri well enough for a coon to read the classifieds up there. It is really quite a product.

The reason the coon-hunting light "format" is so ideal for me is the "need to get back and am not sure of the landmarks concept". Anything but a really bright light can get confusing in the deep woods. The horse has a built in GPS that doesn't give a damn about fences, cliffs, and rivers. If I take a trailer or two out of state to a Nat'l Forest the current state of the art for GPS's is that the $600 topo-loaded ones are wrong around every corner and the $90 ones take the fun out of being lost. You can't count on them under tight tree cover, which is often where you have to make a directional decision. If it is no hurry, have fun ambling around until you find a trail, but the coon hunting heads and bulbs are made with a high side that will light up the area like a baseball field in the 17v + models. 

One of the big coondawg state U's did a study once to find out what was the best light to get a coon's attention. It turned out to be the old Coleman kerosene (about 24 candlepower tops) 1" wick coon hunters's lantern. The globe in these have a great big fish eye in the mold and I believe a reflector behind it. Since you are shooting between the glimmering eyes of the coon, more than 99% of the coon hunting lights are cheaper than penile implants for pure practicality and "joy of the hunt in a refined sense", plus you get to see all the dogs tear the hell out of the coon ( hides haven't been worth hunting in years financially, pelts were a few bucks or less at the top of the season for years I think they may have come up a little bit - they get scarce fast then. Coon hunting, which is not cheap everything considered is way more fun than going to the dentist. 

So I have been lucky that all these super powerful lights are being developed. They are all-except for 2% maybe of the market - copies of the Koehler Wheat Mining Lamp. OSHA regs and explosion proofing made the real high quality Koehler stuff prohibitive so you've got a company named Adcon cloning the necessaries and God only knows how many generic generic heads are out there. The Wheat head is an extraordinary tribute to function and design with absolutely nothing unnecessary on it as far as focussing within light ranges, waterproofing, shockproof, & you name it. It is more perfect than a pencil, because with a pencil you still have to waste some stub. However, they could have named it the Wheat artifact beam light, but I think the real thing Koehler has a purer beam and there are diamond pressed bezels now. The real Koehler 5100s are not just expensive. They even have a locking bezel so that the miners have to go to the charger- safe area - station where the special bulb changing tool is attached to the charger bank.... *If there was a pr adapter with an aluminum spindle I'd buy the hottest driven Terralux and be pretty happy. Terralux or Nite-Ize or one of them is making a bayonet brake light bulb, but it's not two stage or bright enough. *

Are you listening *Terralux and Nite-Ize*? One of your engineers could whip up a prototype in an afternoon since you are already doing bayonets and driven regulation leds. It would have to respond to 5-6 light level settings which is the hard one for me to figure out -- but you guys are geniuses. There are few coon hunters in the country that would not buy one. The hi/lo incandescent bayonets that run in these things retail from $5-8. It is kind of amazing how long one will last, literally seasons of hunting if not knocked around, but hunting or riding around in the dark, they get kncked around. I used to run a 10 volt cbx in a 17volt nicad system and it was bright, but *they are subject to the incandescent filament syndrome that has something to do with Isaac Newton and stuff stopping quick.* I have a 24v belt light now and on the high side it might be brighter than my car. 

Thanks again Toshi, and when good quality HID's get cheap and small enough, all my problems will be solved.

Think so? I'll be out in the middle of Main Street bitching about something, promise!

Hamlet Fermi


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## TMorita (Jan 12, 2008)

If you want a light that can spot a coon at the top of trees, then you need a 3+ watt headlamp with some serious throw, I guess, and not something that's floody. So maybe my previous suggestions were not good chocies.

Here's a few new suggestions:

Brunton L3 or L5. The L3 is a 3 watt, the L5 is a 5 watt:

http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=431

(I've heard some people complain the Bruntons have weaker hinges, though)

The other choice is a bicycle light. Bike lights are designed to throw really far so you can see pretty far down the trail.

Niterider makes bike lights, and they have a headband (SKU #5001) so you can use any of their helmet lamps as a headlamp.

The Niterider Solmate is a pretty small bike lamp:

http://www.niterider.com/prod_solmate.shtml

They also have a bunch of other stuff, including a three-LED bike lamp and a HID bikelamp, all of which should fit the same headband. They will be a bit heavier than normal headlamps since they're designed for bikes.

The other bike lamp manufacturer's don't seem to have a headband option, so they won't work without some modifications. 

I'll post more if I think of other good choices.

Toshi


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