With the weather warming up, outdoor activities beckon for many of us. Many of us use headlamps at night to find our way around. However, existing headlamps have limitations.
A Spanish-designed headlight, called Carbi, offers several attributes that suit it for many outdoor uses. For one, the headlamp has a wider floodlight setting due to the use of remote phosphor technology. This involves using an ultraviolet LED to illuminate an overlying phosphor-coated panel. In turn, that panel fluoresces to give off a wide, even beam of visible white light. The wider light beam overcomes the ‘tunnel effect’ common with other headlamps.
Not all headlamps work well when doing double duty as bicycle headlight. To maintain even illumination on a bicycle in motion, Carbi can be wirelessly linked to an accelerometer-equipped third-party device. The headlamp then adjusts its beam according to the present speed, projecting wider at a slow cycle speed but narrowing to lengthen beam distance at faster cycle speeds.
Specs-wise, the aluminum-bodied Carbi has a 150-meter (492-ft) spot distance and a 210-degree flood width. The headlamp can be immersed to a depth of 20 m (66 ft). It is impact-resistant to a drop height of 5 m (16.4 ft). Battery life ranges from 48 hours at 45 lumens to 1 hour and 40 minutes at its maximum output of 1,500 lumens.
The charge level of the headlamp’s lithium-ion battery can be checked via an LED display on the battery itself, or via a free iOS/Android app on a Bluetooth-linked smartphone. That app can also be used to change settings, remotely turn the lamp on and off, and perform other functions.
The headlamp weighs 73 grams, with the hard-wired battery adding an additional 128. The Carbi is also GoPro-compatible, allowing it to be used with existing GoPro chest, handlebar or other mounts (although a neoprene headband, a helmet mount and an elastic bike mount are included).
The headlamp is demonstrated in the video below.
Filed Under: Product design