# DIY helmet light / headlamp



## Varza (Jan 6, 2013)

Neat, but I thought night riding = the resort has runs that are lit up. Riding in full dark even with that headlight seems like death to me.


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## Rip154 (Sep 23, 2017)

Night riding is fun, I made a gopro mount for a my bike light, put the batterypack in my pocket. No problem with any terrain. Usually best to go well outside resorts, since skipatrols will drop whatever they are doing to chase you down, for some reason..


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## Varza (Jan 6, 2013)

Rip154 said:


> Night riding is fun, I made a gopro mount for a my bike light, put the batterypack in my pocket. No problem with any terrain. Usually best to go well outside resorts, since skipatrols will drop whatever they are doing to chase you down,* for some reason*..


Yeah, what do you suppose the reason could possibly be?! :dry:


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## Rip154 (Sep 23, 2017)

Varza said:


> Yeah, what do you suppose the reason could possibly be?! :dry:


To quote Britney, I feel so overprotected.


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## lab49232 (Sep 13, 2011)

The thing with this is that it's functional use will be highly limited. Resorts with night riding are lit obviously, the real problem with a head lamp is light coming from one focal point pointed forward. And when snowboarding you aren't looking directly in front of you especially only a short direction. You should be looking far down the run and picking out spaces, points, bumps, turns, etc well ahead of time. A head lamp approach doesn't actually work well for allowing this. It'll work in a gimmick slow riding open terrain kind of way, but it will never be an actual thing and doesn't serve any real practical use. But hey go out and screw around with it, it'll still be fun to just play with if ya want.


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## Brian_Blessed (Apr 1, 2017)

lab49232 said:


> The thing with this is that it's functional use will be highly limited. Resorts with night riding are lit obviously, the real problem with a head lamp is light coming from one focal point pointed forward. And when snowboarding you aren't looking directly in front of you especially only a short direction. You should be looking far down the run and picking out spaces, points, bumps, turns, etc well ahead of time. A head lamp approach doesn't actually work well for allowing this. It'll work in a gimmick slow riding open terrain kind of way, but it will never be an actual thing and doesn't serve any real practical use. But hey go out and screw around with it, it'll still be fun to just play with if ya want.


Building on this though - strap another lamp round your front leg, pointing over the front of your board. Should help a lot. Olight HS2 is superb by the way.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

lab49232 said:


> The thing with this is that it's functional use will be highly limited. Resorts with night riding are lit obviously, the real problem with a head lamp is light coming from one focal point pointed forward. And when snowboarding you aren't looking directly in front of you especially only a short direction. You should be looking far down the run and picking out spaces, points, bumps, turns, etc well ahead of time. A head lamp approach doesn't actually work well for allowing this. It'll work in a gimmick slow riding open terrain kind of way, but it will never be an actual thing and doesn't serve any real practical use. But hey go out and screw around with it, it'll still be fun to just play with if ya want.


Yeah, people use headlamps at night on the mountain I go to. It's a tradeoff...see really well for five feet in front of you at the expense of your night vision which would help you see where you're going.

I try to stay away from those people because I'm pretty sure they'll never see me.

One thing you can do is find a red light that will still provide enough light to see if you get stuck in a dark area with no recourse, but won't completely ruin your ability to see anything else. Most camping gear/lights have that feature.


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

I've thought about putting a black light in a headlamp.

You know, the kind that make white shirts glow at the bar.

Think I brought it up here once before, and the majority said it wouldn't work.

But, I have yet to see anything white, not glow.
So I still think it'll work.

Don't think they make little black light LED's?
You'd have to find some gel(see through plastic film)

I would love to see you prove me right. Haha


TT


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## Rip154 (Sep 23, 2017)

timmytard said:


> I've thought about putting a black light in a headlamp.
> 
> You know, the kind that make white shirts glow at the bar.
> 
> ...


They make blacklight headlamps.


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## timmytard (Mar 19, 2009)

Rip154 said:


> They make blacklight headlamps.


OK, well then......

Do they work on snow?


TT


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## Fielding (Feb 15, 2015)

timmytard said:


> I've thought about putting a black light in a headlamp.
> 
> You know, the kind that make white shirts glow at the bar.
> 
> ...


Your black light isn’t gonna light up snow unless it’s covered in phosphates -which given your location it’s probably not. A black light will do a great job at illuminating all the dandruff and jizz on people’s outerwear. So it could still be a worthwhile setup. Like CSI Whistler. Good to know who the serious tossers are when you’re in the lift line.


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## clsmooth (Jan 5, 2015)

So had a chance to test out the helmet light. To see the best difference, I went to an open but unlit trail that connected 2 lit trails.

Before:









After:









I'm very happy with the results! There's a lot of powder between the trees at night that no one else touches! And that was the goal. It's lights up about a 20' round spot in front of me. And I'm glad I happen to get a light that adjusts up and down; I can further adjust it to the angle of the slope I'm on on the fly. The batteries that came with it last all night. I turn it off in the chairlift line up and on the chair to both save battery life and not be a dick. Lighting/LED's have already come a long way which is why I think this idea works and will probably only get better over time.

On lit trails, it's kinda like having your car's headlights on at night, even though the road you're on has street lights, it's that much more lighting. Which helps in my case cause even though some trails on lit on the local mountains around here, they're not lit very well. It's not like an open football stadium at night, more like a tired street lamps on an old, country road...


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## clsmooth (Jan 5, 2015)

timmytard said:


> I've thought about putting a black light in a headlamp.
> 
> You know, the kind that make white shirts glow at the bar.
> 
> ...


These guys provide LED's in black light (aka 'UV' or 'Ultraviolet'): Autolumination

I get all my LED's for my cars from them, I guess it'd just be a matter of a battery setup that would power it properly. It wouldn't look pretty but something to get your brainstorming started. And it should light up the snow. 

Yes, if you've ever been in a club with darklight, 100% cotton tshirts glow. Phosphorus is in the tube style lighting which is used to produce the brightness itself. Put a charge through phosphorus and it glows and lights up. Darklight tubes has a coating on or in the glass that filters the white-colour wavelength into the UV wavelength.


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