Ok, I was contacted by the people from Zyntony, who had launched a bad-assed light Kickstarter, and not had it make its threshold, but they are back with a brand new product, that has already surpassed it's threshold, by 287% at time of writing, but I wanted to give them some more bandwidth with the info from their press-release. Their new offering, the Zyntony Ra is a game-changing light for outdoor adventure enthusiasts that is designed to light up the entire area around you instead of just a spot in front of you.
At full power, Ra puts out 800 lumens of warm natural light. A pair of Ra attached to the shoulder straps of a backpack boast a staggering 1,600 lumens of light creating a “zone of daylight” around the wearer. “This is brighter than ten good headlamps”, one of the founders exclaimed in their release. He continued: “We named the light Ra after the Egyptian god who carries the sun across the sky because carrying one of these lights is like carrying a piece of the sun with you.”I've covered similar strip lighting projects before, in the PackLight but the Ra is a step beyond.
Multiple mounting options enable Ra to be attached almost anywhere. The user can fix it to any ferrous object using the built-in rare-earth magnets. Ra can be attached to nearly any article of clothing using the accompanying magnetic backer strip, just by slipping the backer-strip under the outer-layer of clothing, and the Ra snaps into place magnetically. Using the D-ring strap and simple hook and loop ties, Ra can be fastened to virtually any piece of gear.
Each of the emitters can put out well over 500 lumens each. So in theory, the light could put out over 2,500 lumens. However, they are only running them at slightly over 1/4 power. Zyntony state they do this for several reasons:
First, is that the emitters are way more efficient - (in that they have a much higher lumens-per-watt output) at lower power. This means that you get a brighter light and longer battery life compared to a light that only has one or two emitters.Second, by running them at lower power, their life is significantly extended to the point that they will virtually last forever (immortal buyers beware...).
Third, multiple emitters allow for each one to have a separate light dispersion pattern. This allows a less complex and more cost-effective way to balance light spread vs. throw, especially good given its area-effect design principle.And fourth, by having multiple emitters running at lower power, you can spread out your heat dissipation, also especially useful if you're wearing it.
Ra is powered via a micro-USB input. Zyntony makes four different sizes of battery packs allowing the flexibility to carry just the power you need or as much as you want.The Ra is designed to be lightweight to facilitate attaching it wherever you want so there is no internal power. It must be powered via USB. By connecting to a power pack via the USB, Ra has the flexibility where you can select a small BatPak for just the power you need or a larger one for as much power as you want. And you can connect up to three Ra's to BatPak II, BatPak III and BatPak IV. That flexibility supports a lot of different mounting options.
Zyntony are planning to certify the Ra to IPX7 which means it is submersible to 1 meter. It will certainly withstand the rain. The USB ports are the biggest challenge they are facing in this but by planning to use rubber boots/escutcheons on both Ra and the BatPaks, it should be waterproof as long as you use the Zyntony USB cable and power pack.
I'm really looking forwards to seeing what they can do when I get a set in-hand, but for mow, their on my wish-lust list!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zyntony/ra-worlds-first-strap-light/description
