[StenLight-users] My review of the S7
Posey Susan
posey_susan at bah.com
Mon Sep 19 08:05:52 EDT 2005
Chris,
Thanks for sending your trip report to this list serve. I very much
enjoyed reading it. Didn't I tell you that you would enjoy the
StenLight? It is definitely a sweet little light. I enjoyed your
pictures of the Webster System as well!
Cheers,
Susan
-----Original Message-----
From: stenlite-users-bounces at stensat.org
[mailto:stenlite-users-bounces at stensat.org] On Behalf Of Chris and
Teresa Anderson
Sent: Sunday, September 18, 2005 11:39 PM
To: stenlite-users at stensat.org
Subject: [StenLight-users] My review of the S7
This is cross posted, but thought I'd post it here as well...
The regularly scheduled Webster System survey trip took place this
Saturday, 20050917. The Webster System is a hostile cave, very big,
dark, wet, and demanding. It's a great place to have a good light.
Mark Phillips, Pat Mudd, and me met at the Webster Post Office at
0800CST and quickly made our way over to the cave entrance. Our goal for
the day was to continue and hopefully finish the Marathon Lake survey.
This lake contains chest deep water pretty much the whole way. I would
also be testing a new lighting system on this trip, a StenLight dual 3
watt LED. The Webster System, with all its huge trunk passage and light
eating mud and water, would be the perfect proving ground. The
following is a combination trip report and tech report.
Being somewhat of a techno head, I am always cognizant of new caving
lighting gear hitting the market. I am especially interested in the new
breed of LED lights. I began caving back in 1982 using a Premier carbide
lamp. I migrated to the Koehler Wheat lamp, which became to me the
standard caving candle. It was not without fault, however, and the lead
acid battery was the weakness. I also invested in the Speleotechnics FX
series of lamps, and currently still own an FX2, FX2 dual, and FX5.
Nothing beats carbide for a nice wide, diffuse lighting if you ask me.
LED modules like those made by Gemini and Petzl come close to
reproducing the carbide effect, just not the color temperature. If only
there was a light that had both the properties of a well focus Wheat
lamp and a high fired Petzl ceiling burner...
For the past year or so I had been looking intently at the
Speleotechnics NOVA 5 five watt LED light. Then came along the improved
NOVA 3 featuring a Luxeon three-watt driver. The version I sought (a
corded model for fixing to a belt battery) turned out to be vaporware.
Enter the StenLight...
I made the drip line at around 0847. Little rivers of anticipation ran
down my wetsuit inseam as I kicked those double-barreled Sten LED's into
life, and left my experience with all other cave lights behind. Rather
than allow my eyes to dark adapt to the cave environment, I boosted the
Sten straight into Turbo mode. Wow. The output of the Sten reminded me
of a video light. Bright, broad, having excellent color temperature,
and very reaching. I didn't burn it on Turbo long for fear of wearing
down the battery too soon. This fear was unfounded I would later
discover.
Making lake at around 0900, I had an opportunity to see what the Sten
was capable of. The passage here is only about 8 feet high, but is over
50 feet wide. I was able to pierce the darkness for several hundred
feet. During this initial experience, I discovered the only shortcoming
I was able to find in the Sten. The Sten consists of two 3 watt Luxeon
white LED's. They are driven by highly sophisticated electronics and
power plants in order to efficiently run the LED's. Technical data can
be perused at http://www.stenlight.com/ .
The two LED's serve two purposes: one has a wide angle beam pattern and
the second is narrower for "throw". They are aligned to give a multi
purpose spread pattern. The wide-angle beam, however, presents an odd
artifaction: a dark donut. In fact, at first I thought it was a shadow
cast by my helmet brim. I soon discovered it was from the left or
wide-angle beam. It seemed to fall right at my feet, and was obvious
when looking at a low ceiling or solid colored ceiling or mudbank. I
immediately started thinking about replacing the wide angle LED
collimator with a matching narrow beam to get rid of it (I believe this
is a modification easily made by the owner).
Pat and Mark soon joined me at the first lake and we proceeded down the
first lake towards the back section of the cave. We had over 10,000
feet of main trunk to cover before we could start mapping. Soon we were
in classic Webster trunk passage: 30 feet wide and over 40 feet high.
Even with its low albedo, the Sten was able to fully illuminate this
massive trunk passage. Even on "high", it was able to show passage
character for hundreds of feet. It was truly impressive. On Turbo, it
was a sight to behold. In fact, by this time I had completely forgotten
about the strange halo observed earlier. I continued to play with my
new light, delving into various power modes depending on passage
conditions. The magnetic switch used to control the four different
power modes was extremely easy to adjust with a wetsuit glove. It was
very tactile with wide separation between modes. Splendid.
Within one hour we had covered 6000 feet of muddy and deep-water trunk,
and took ten for a break at Parks Avenue. The water was markedly down
over our trip last weekend, and the Mulu sump was likely open. After
resting, we continued deeper in to the Middle Section of the cave.
After about another hour of fast paced caving, we made it to B-119, the
last Marathon Lake station. Marathon Lake is the longest lake of the
system at over 1700 feet. We had previously mapped about 700 feet of
it. Here and beyond, the Webster Cave System becomes truly
unbelievable. For thousands of feet, the main trunk winds its way
around corner after corner reaching huge dimensions. In places, the
passage is over 40 feet wide and nearly that high, with neck deep water
wall to wall.
We started our mapping with Mark on notes, Pat on lead tape; I took
instruments. It was somewhat slow going at first as Mark familiarized
himself with the sketching of such a huge passage. Within four hours we
had charted over 1100 feet of cave. Along the way, we set permanent
stations at the mouth of Bundy Canyon and the Necronom lead. I had not
seen Bundy Canyon in over 15 years, and its appearance seemed to have
changed (perhaps owing to mudbank erosion). It was blowing a strong
breeze. I also noted a high upper level lead out in Webster Avenue
nearby, likely associated with the canyon lead.
By this time I was becoming elated with the StenLight. It had proved to
be the brightest light I had ever owned. Heck, even on low it was
almost too bright to cast at your lap when having a snack. It cut
through the fog and darkness very effectively. My adaptation of the
Sten system to my helmet was a bit unusual. The 7.2 volt Lithium ion
battery is meant to be mounted to the back of the helmet. That's where
my Petzl Duo sits and I decided to keep this light attached as a backup.
So, I opted to mount the Sten battery inside my helmet. I know, I
know, "that space is there for a reason". But the battery fits there
perfectly. I cut the supplied Velcro in half and positioned two pieces
by the Ecrin vent holes. The battery neatly "pops" into place. The
added weight is counterbalanced by my Duo headlamp, which I have mounted
to the right of center. See
http://www.pbase.com/darklightimagery/stenlight for images.
We ended the survey for the day at Necronom, found 11,470 feet from the
Main entrance. During the last part of the survey a few strange things
happened. First, we all started hearing odd sounds coming from all
around us. We eventually concluded this had to be the sounds of traffic
passing overhead. This part of Webster Avenue lay beneath KY333. Then,
it got really weird.
Suddenly, I heard what sounded like flowing water coming at us. No rain
had been forecast, so it seemed a bit odd. Suddenly, it started to
sound like movement in the water, then I saw light. It was a caver
paddling around the corner in a kayak! Never in all my years caving
here had I ever encountered another caver (other than who was with me).
"Chris Anderson?" he called out. He knew me but I didn't know him!
It was Jeff Gillette from Western Kentucky come to join the trip. He
was aware of our survey trip from the website
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WCCSG/ , but wasn't able to join us early.
After wrapping up the survey, we stopped for lunch and a little token
exploration in Necronom. The total for the survey now stands at about
17667 feet. We turned for the entrance at 3:30 but stopped for one
photograph of Marathon Lake:
http://i.pbase.com/v3/05/388005/1/49451475.MarathonLake800.jpg
We made it back to the daylight at 5:30 PM. I burned the StenLight on
Turbo for the last half-hour of the trip, and it continued to burn very
bright well after getting out. I'd say I got over ten hours of lighting
out of just one battery: 60% high, 20% Turbo, and the rest medium and
low. Even when it finally stuck on low, it was pretty bright. I was
impressed when, thinking I had it on Turbo, it was really just on high.
The odd donut artifact I spoke of earlier ceased to be a problem. I
think I just got used to it. On the way out it never even occurred to
me.
I also did some unscientific tests regarding compass deflection with the
Sten. Some had expressed concern over the magnetic switch mechanism it
uses. I got noticeable deflection of my Suunto when the Sten was
brought to within about four inches vertically. Seems about the same
for my other helmet mounted lights.
Well, it was a great trip. This section of Webster Cave is very
beautiful, and remote! I reckon soon we'll be spending three or four
hours just getting to where we need to start mapping. The next
scheduled trip is October 15th.
Now to sum up my first experience with the StenLight: wonderful! I
wanted a very bright, well made caving light. Although I was prepared
to keep my belt mounted "brick" battery to power it, I must admit having
it all self contained in the helmet is really nice. The milled aluminum
housing, heavy duty wiring, and compact Lithium ion power source all
help to make the Sten as close to "perfect cave light" as I have ever
used. Sure, it is expensive at over $300 for the kit, but I plan on
selling off the rest of my other cave lights pretty soon anyway...
More Webster imagery at
http://www.pbase.com/darklightimagery/webster_cave_system_imagery&page=a
ll
C.G. Anderson
---
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