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FrontaLED is a headlamp with revolutionary performances . It has been designed for those who do not only require from a lamp that it lights, but that it lights well !
On top of its superior brightness FrontaLED saves on batteries and is light and practical.

The recent launch of white LEDs on the market has allowed this revolution.
Technologically a white LED (Light Emitting Diode) is an electronic component that produces light without heating a filament : the electrical current crossing a semiconductor material produces the emission of photons. The warm-up is minimal, allowing an excellent luminous efficiency.
Red, yellow and green LEDs have existed for many years (look at your computer !), but manufacturers only recently discovered how to produce white LEDs.

White LEDs have many advantages over incandescent bulbs :

• a better luminous efficiency
• a LED does not wear out : it will burn 10 years continuously (against some tens of hours for an incandescent bulb) !
• the produced light is white (slightly bluish), all the time, whatever the battery charge
• the light beam is even and agreeable; the light level is maximal at the center and diminishes slowly on the sides

In a conventional flashlight the simple replacement of the incandescent bulb by a white LED would already improve greatly its performances.
However FrontaLED's designer did not stop at that point : he designed an electronic regulation circuit which permits making the most of the LEDs possibilities.

Thus FrontaLED has two lighting modes that the user can easily select with the main switch.

In both modes the light level is absolutely constant during 90% of the batteries charge (no yellowing). The level then goes down rapidly when the batteries are close to the end. There is therefore no doubt when they have to be replaced. However the lamp stops completely only some tens of hours later !
The burn times quoted are valid for a normal use and with batteries (alkaline) at 25°C.

The electronic circuit is molded in a special resin. Thus all the parts that are sensitive to humidity are protected and FrontaLED can be used without fear in humid environment or under driving rain. However FrontaLED is not designed for diving.
On the temperature side FrontaLED is guaranteed to work from -30°C to +35°C (-22°F to 95°F).

It is very easy to switch on and off FrontaLED, even wearing big mittens : just tilt the blue resin block !

How does it work ?
A magnet is attached to the black support and a switch sensitive to magnetic field is molded in the blue resin with the rest of the electronics. When the switch is close to the magnet, the lamp switches off. When it moves away, it switches on. Everything resides in the distance between the two components.

The same switch is used to change the lighting mode of FrontaLED (see electronic regulation) : when the lamp is switched off and immediately on again (within half a second), the lighting mode changes (-ECO-MAXI-ECO- ...) On the other hand, if the lamp is switched on after a longer time, FrontaLED will stay in the same mode (the one before the extinction).

The transport lock is simple and clever. Just put the end of the small rope (attached to the support) in both the support hole and the blue block holes. The lamp can not be switched on any more !
And in a glance one can check if the lock is set up.

All batteries loose some of their performances when exposed to cold temperatures. However this loss is less important for some technologies.

Alkaline batteries do not withstand well temperatures under 0°C and have therefore to be protected from cold. This is the main reason why the Alpinist model was designed with a battery case that can be placed in a warm pocket.

Lithium batteries (1.5V, L91, produced by Energizer ®) are better suited for cold weather use. Their manufacturer specifies them down to -20°C. However they are much more expensive than alkaline batteries (about 4 times).

This price difference is negated by two other major advantages of lithium batteries :

• their low internal resistance increases FrontaLED run time by 50% in MAXI mode (12 hours) and by 10% in ECO mode.
• their low weight reduces the total weight of a FrontaLED by 40 grams (1.4 oz, FrontaLED Trekker with lithium batteries : 200g (7.0 oz)).