I decided to do a search for the cheapest USB rechargeable LED head torches to see what was available. I bought a few to test. This one really surprised me with its run time and usability. It has custom software in a generic 8-pin microcontroller that gives it more functionality than the ones that use the common 6-pin flashlight chip.
First surprise is the capacity of the cell in such a small and lightweight unit. It's listed as 1200mAh in the listing, but in reality the cell has a stated capacity of 800mAh (tested at 735mAh). It could be possible to fit in a bigger cell. The cell also has a protection PCB as an extra layer of overcharge and over discharge protection.
The unit has a long run time with LED current at 4V as follows:-
High - 360mA
Medium - 165mA (50% duty cycle?)
Low - 36mA (10% duty cycle?)
To protect the LED and also increase battery life it also has a sneaky feature which gives full intensity initially, but then gradually creeps it back to 50% over a period of time. That gives an instant burst of light when needed, but then sneaks it down as your eyes adjust to the dark. You can reset it to full again by cycling through the intensities.
It does still require you to step through all intensities to turn it off. Even when it's automatically dimmed itself down to 50%. First press will go from that 50% drop in high intensity mode to the normal 50% in medium mode, so there's an extra button click that seems to do nothing.
The unit has an infrared-reflection glove mode where you can turn it on by waving your hand in front of it without contact. It can be used on all intensity settings. Large areas of reflective tape on coworkers hi-vis work clothing may trigger that if it's used on a site.
The run time is huge. The automatic self dimming to 50% and gradual reduction in intensity with battery voltage means I've not been able to test the actual run time. It will stay lit until the battery protection cuts in, by which time the light will be very dim, but usable. No sudden cut-off which is good.
Quite a hard light to find specific search keywords for, but it is available in orange which helps narrow the listings down. You can then select an orange, white or black case.
Target price is around $6.
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