Reviews > Lighting > Headlamps - LED > Princeton Tec Quad > James E. Triplett > Long Term Report

Long Term Test Report:
PRINCETON TEC QUAD
Four-LED headlamp



Report by James E. Triplett
April 17, 2007

Additional Product Information
Paraphrased from the Princeton Tec website, and the product literature:

• [Regulated LED/Constant Brightness] - The Quad uses regulated LEDs which have a sophisticated regulating circuit that maintains initial brightness as long as the batteries have sufficient voltage
• [Focused Wide Beam] - Simulates normal daylight conditions and allows you to take advantage of your peripheral vision
• [Waterproof Rating Level 2] - Providing waterproof integrity down to 1 meter (39 inches) for up to 30 minutes
  
• [Ultrabright LED] - Smooth, white, wide-beam light emitted by Ultrabright LEDs is ideal for close- to mid-range tasks
  
• [Battery Power Meter] - Continuous feedback on the condition of the batteries, indicating high, medium or low battery life
• [Multiple Modes] - Flexibility to adjust your light’s brightness and/or beam width to illuminate greater distances or to conserve battery power

Test Conditions
I have continued to use the Princeton Tec Quad LED Headlamp for daily pre-dawn hikes, as well as on three additional overnight trips to state parks reasonably close to my home is Eastern Iowa.  The LED headlamp has been used while hiking on established trails, around camp, and inside my tent for reading and getting things organized.  I have also used the headlamp around my house, frequently for running out to the wood shed for more firewood, and one specific time during a one-day power outage.  I have used the Princeton Tec Quad in the rain and snow, as well as in clear conditions.  The temperatures have ranged from -15 to 60 F (-26 to 15.5 C).

Test Results
I have become quite familiar with the Princeton Tec Quad in the time using it since it arrived last October.  It is a handy companion and I have come to rely on it working, and barely need to look at it to operate the Tec's functions.  It is a handy lamp, and it performs quite well.  The on/off switch is large and easy to activate even with gloves on.  I typically orient the lamp in my hands by finding the hinged side of the lamp head, and then slip it onto my head, hinge-side down.  Then I turn in on and adjust the beam angle.  The strap for the headlamp is sufficiently wide and holds the headlamp extremely securely, even over the slippery hood of a nylon rain jacket.  I have primarily worn the Quad over a stocking cap, or a baseball cap, and occasionally over a hood when hiking in the rain or snow.  The pivoting head of the Princeton Tec Quad is easy to adjust, and the lamp head stays put at the angle selected.  When using the headlamp over a baseball cap the bill of the cap casts a shadow a couple of feet (60 cm) forward from my feet.  But by simply dropping my chin an inch (2.5 cm) my feet become illuminated.  Changing the three AAA batteries is easy, and aided by the fact that the plastic buckle on the headlamp's strap can be used as a tool to unscrew the screw from the battery compartment.

The original set of batteries which came with the Princeton Tec Quad lasted just over two months.   In my field report I described how the regulating circuit is designed to maintain brightness of a lighting mode (high, medium, or low) as long as possible before there simply isn't enough voltage to accomplish this.   At that time, the headlamp had lost the brightest setting due to battery voltage drop.  Shortly thereafter, the headlamp lost the medium brightness setting, so that stepping through the settings of the headlamp yielded low, low, low, flash, and off.  After a couple more weeks of 30 minutes to an hour of use per day, the Low Battery indicator still had not come on.  That is when we had an ice storm which snapped off more than 2,500 utility poles and left over 100-thousand residences without power in the state.  At that time... I found my very old transistor radio which I had used on the Appalachian Trail in the 80's.  It required AAA batteries, so I snagged the ones from the Princeton Tec.  Our power was only out for a day (some folks were without for more than a week), and I purchased some more batteries and re-powered the Princeton Tec Quad.

The second set of batteries made a huge difference in brightness in the headlamp and I was once again in business.  After being forced to use the lamp on the lower brightness level, due to partially depleted batteries, I was able to easily switch from using the headlamp mostly on high, to mostly on medium when on the trail.  In camp medium was sufficient for non-intricate tasks and low was always adequate inside my tent.  A few weeks into using the headlamp on the second set of batteries I got caught hiking in about an hour of significant rain and wind.  I oscillated between trying to use the headlamp but being unable to see because of the light reflected off of the rain, and shutting the light off, and not being able to see because of darkness.  All the while the headlamp stayed on my head and did not falter when I decided to use it.

After about three more weeks of use, I was hiking up a hill in dry conditions and the headlamp unexpectedly blinked four times.  I thought it had malfunctioned or been broken somehow and switched to flashing mode, but that is all it did.  Blink four times.  Then it resumed lighting my path.  When I got home and removed the headlamp I observed that the low battery light was blinking.  This was amazingly fast.  I did not track specific hours, but I would estimate that the second set of batteries lasted half as long as the first set despite using the headlamp on the lower settings more often.  The only possibilities I can think of are that the batteries were not at full capacity when I bought them, or that some how the heavy rain had an effect on them.  I used the headlamp a few more times with the low battery light blinking, and found it kind of annoying (when the lamp was off).  To me a gauge might make sense where you could see how much battery life had been used or how much remained, but an indicator of when the batteries are low is kind of comical since, well, the headlight is dim.  And having the indicator light blinking, no matter how little juice it is using, seems counter productive to a low battery situation.  A momentary indicator which could be activated when curious to the battery level seems more appropriate, if an indicator is desired at all.



The Princeton Tec Quad continues to be used regularly with the third set of batteries installed and the LEDs are burning brightly.  We had a rare April snow storm this week and I managed to take a few pictures during an early morning hike in the snow.  The picture above this paragraph is me hiking toward the camera and the flash off on the camera.  The geometric shapes are snowflakes which are being backlit by the headlamp.  The pictures below show the trail with and without the headlamp on.

 

Reviews > Lighting > Headlamps - LED > Princeton Tec Quad > James E. Triplett > Long Term Report