[Dominik]

Primus PrimeLite Race
dimensions : 47 x 62 x 40 mm + 90 x 70 x 28 mm
weight : 196 g
power source : 4xAA
water resistance : IPX7
light source : Luxeon™ Rebel - 140 lumens
range : 125 m / 95 m / 70 m
burn time : 3 / 7 / 20 hours


Impressions

The lamp is made appropriately, you can see that a designer has spent some time on it, shaving the weight where he could. On the head cold alloy (instead of plastic) is a nice surprise. Inside there is a smaller brother of oldie Lux III – the Rebel.


Headband :
- inner side, rubber stripes to improve head hold.
- outer side, two reflective stripes for improved visibility of user
- two movable eyelets allow to move cable from the headlamp to the back of the head.
- headband is long enough to put it on bike helmet so xxxl size ready

Battery holder :
- a solid piece of plastic, locked by a screw
- thick rubber seal protecting against water
- NiMH rechargeables fit in and still there is some space left
- after screwing nothing is rumbling inside and the holder is sealed


- steel clip allows to carry the holder on a belt or on the headband (after fastening the wire). It doesn’t look like it is going to break easily.


Weight :
With the set of rechargeables (4x GP 2500) it weights 316 g, head with the headband and some cable - 96 g.

Waterproof :
IPX7 – means that you can put this lamp 1m under the surface of water and not to destroy it. Seals in battery holder and in the head guarantee it.

Review

Lamp is modular and easy to assemble - after unscrewing the head cover you can take out a module with a driver, a led, a reflector, a heatsink and momentary switch.


After unscrewing the reflector, you gain direct access to the led :


Led is soldered on a small mcpcb board that is screwed to the module body – which together with a reflector fulfill a function of the heatsink. The contact area between the module and the alloy head cover isn’t too big but it allows to distribute heat.

After unscrewing three additional screws and unsoldering two thin wires from the mcpcb, you can get to the driver . Unfortunately there is nothing to see from the outside - and the spring is only a clamp.


Some work with your screwdriver and here it is ::

Producer removed every marking from the driver chip .

Measurements and operation.

Lamp is turn on /off by pressing the switch for two seconds (the same way as in Silva/Brunton), now by clicking you can choose between three lightning modes : low (it is already on) about 50 lumens, mid about 90 lumens and high about 140 lumens.

According to the packaging you can use lithium batteries i.e. 1.5V lithium batteries not 3.0V or 3.65V – 14500 cells that are available on the market. Good boost driver should work fine with this range of voltage but it does not. I tried to connect it to 8.4V Li-ion pack, but at first it didn’t start and then it started by itself, working in short circuit. It didn’t allow to change the mode or be turned off. I was lucky that it was not damaged during the experiment.

Some measures, from new alkalines 6.44V without load:

V-in    I-In    P-In    V-led  I-led  P-led    Eff.
5,89V  162mA   0,95W    2,95V  172mA  0,51W    53,2%
5,64V  327mA   1,84W    3,19V  373mA  1,19W    64,5%
4,69V  653mA   3,06W    3,42V  718mA  2,46W    80,2%

From NiMH’s - 5,09V without load:

V-in    I-In    P-In    V-led  I-led  P-led    Eff.
4,82V  164mA   0,79W    2,92V  160mA  0,48W    59,1%
4,46V  324mA   1,44W    3,14V  335mA  1,05W    72,7%
3,66V  684mA   2,50W    3,38V  660mA  2,23W    89,1%

How it light ?

There are not too many competitive headlamps on the market that are supplied with a new generation leds. On the European market there is only Petzl Myo XP so Primus will be compared to it.

Myo vs. Primus - High

Mid

Low


Bike

I wasn’t able to get bike clip for it, but it is available for 10$ extra:


It provides very similar beam to the CatEye HL-EL530.
Primus (Rebel in mid mode) vs. 530 (SSC P4 bin U)


Summary.

On the American market the shelf price is 80$, on the European 70 Euro - very similar to the Petzl MyoBelt XP.

The difference between power levels of rechargeables and alkalines is quite small, so you can use NiMH without loosing light output, it is in favor of environment and your wallet. When using it in the mid mode you only need to remember to charge the cells after 7 hours of use.

To summarize, this headlamp has everything - power supply (4AA cells instead of 3 or even AAA cells), heatsink, water resistance and light Long range will be an invaluable help when you will be moving and combing woods or mountains when looking for a point or a trail. A real burn time allows calculating how many cells you need for a next night adventure or how much time is left till you will be out of light.

Great headlamp