# kl5m led miner lamp from wisdom



## crislight01 (May 11, 2007)

hello,

has anyone tried this lamp? what are your thoughts on it?
thanks


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## hank (May 11, 2007)

Never heard of it before. Why do you ask?

Google turned up this:

new wisdom,Stationery,Office Supplies,Gift,Toys,cap lamp,mining ...
New wisdom Miner's lamp >>. LED miner's lamp (LED cap lamp, LED safety lamp) NEW (2006-12) New KL5M is produced under production technical of compliance ...
www.n-wisdom.com/

and

feedback new wisdom,LED safety lamp,mineral lamp,cap lamp,miner's ...
LED lamp,mineral lamp,cap lamp,miners' lamp,coal mines lamps,coal miner lamps,Li-ion ... FAX:86-755-83906115 EMAIL: [email protected] [email protected] ...
www.caplamp.org/feedback.htm 

and

site map,LED safety lamps,mineral lamp,cap lamps,miner's lamps ...
NEW WISDOM Miner's lamp booklet(950k); NEW WISDOM KL5M LED Miner's lamp booklet(380k); NEW WISDOM KL8M Double filaments cap lamp booklet(450k); NEW WISDOM ...
www.minerlamp.org/site_map.htm 

No mention of it in any actual mining or caving contexts though.


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## uk_caver (May 11, 2007)

It looks rather like the light that's been on sale for a year or so at:
http://www.ledcavinglamp.co.uk/

It seems to have had favourable reviews from testers/users on UKcaving. I haven't heard any complaints about units failing, but I don't know how many are actually being sold.

Doing a beam comparison with one of my home-made lights in their previous (1W Luxeon) incarnation, the main beam had a similar tight spot beam, (something like 6-8 degrees full angle with a fairly sharp fall-off), and equivalent brightness. However, the links indicate that the 'new' version of the light has a higher-power LED in, though it still looks like it might be running at a single power.

I seem to remember some people reckoning that mounting the battery pack upside down on a belt results in it twisting less - other larger waist-mounted battery packs tend to be heavy, and so don't get moved around as much by the cable as this light seems to. I haven't worn one of these lights, so I couldn't add much there.

Being unable to swap batteries means it's a no-no for expedition or extended (camping?) trips.
I can understand that if the overwhelmingly main market is actual miners, belt mount is better for that situation, but a not-infrequent opinion seemed to be that a head-mounted battery version would do rather better for cavers.
Personally, having helped many people move from waist-mount systems to head-mount, many have commented how much better head-mount is, and I'm not sure any have said they'd prefer to use a waist pack.


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## crislight01 (May 11, 2007)

thank you for the info, do you know about any online review of this lamp. is a lamp like this more powerfull than a BD icon or an APEX? their actual kl5m model is 3000-6000Lux (distance in 1m).


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## uk_caver (May 11, 2007)

The new (presumably Cree/Seoul or similar?) model might not have been out long enough to get much reviewing done.
If the beamshape is similar to the old model, using a large-ish reflector to give a spot beam, the spot beam will likely be rather tighter than optics-based lights or lights with small reflectors, and will probably have a more defined edge. Spill is just going to be whatever misses the reflector, and so will depend on the natural spread of the naked LED.
It seems like the main LED is run at ~1Watt, and if it's like the old light, the pilot ('accessory light') setting is a few smaller LEDs run at lower power rather than the main beam run at reduced power.

Only a few people here use Apexes underground, and hardly anyone seems to use any BD lights. If/when the new version of light does make it over here, I guess they'd end up beng compared with the LED caving lights most commonly used in the UK - Petzl Duos and Speleotechnics Novas. Neither of those have a comparable beamshape, apart from maybe a Duo with an aftermarket LED bulb fitted in the spot position. Duos are used almost exclusively with the 14LED array, and Novas have a broad-ish compromise beam, neither really flood or spot.


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## crislight01 (May 11, 2007)

yes the main light is a 1 watt led, their new model will be out soon in 2007 they told me it will have twice the lux power of the actual. I bought a BD icon but was very upset by is manufacturing , the kl5m looks like a tough cap lamp.


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