Friday Night Lights: NVG Helmet Illumination
Just a little over a year ago I wrote about some accessories for helmets. That article focused on safety-oriented accessories. In it, I mentioned helmet illumination but those accessories were for safety and identification. This week on Friday Night Lights we will take a look at three options for a different type of helmet illumination. We will focus on lights that help you see in the dark and attach to your helmet.
Velcro Mounted Helmet Illumination
Echo Arms Fast Attach Mount
My helmet has been rocking Echo Arms Fast Attach mount since they came out with it last year. It is a simple curved piece of plastic with hook velcro underneath it so it can attach to the loop velcro on your helmet. The Fast Attach mount features a raised section in the middle with a single M-LOK slot. You can attach a short Picatinny rail to it or buy their M-LOK light body that is compatible with SureFire Scout Light heads and tail caps.
I opted for a Reptilia Corp Torch body that is offset. It functions the same as Echo Arms low profile light body. Since the Fast Attach mount is just held on with Velcro, you can pull the light/mount off and reposition it in any direction you want, provided you have velcro to stick it onto.
Derek Watral’s Articulating Helmet Mount
Recently there is a newcomer to the velcro mounted helmet illumination. Derek reached out to me on Facebook and sent me a prototype of his rotating helmet mount. While there are already rotating light mounts on the market, Unity Tactical’s Remora mount comes to mind, those are attached to either the ARC rail or part of an ear pro mounting system.
At first glance, Derek’s velcro helmet mount looks like the one from Echo Arms. However, instead of an M-LOK slot, he added a rotating Picatinny rail for mounting a SureFire X-series light. The rail can swing up and down about 45°.
Derek collaborated with Jon “Mochabear Actual” Dufresne to create his velcro helmet illumination mount. The rotating rail has detents so it locks in each position.
Rail Mounted Helmet Illumination
By far my favorite helmet illumination is the Princeton Tec Charge. It attaches to Ops-Core ARC rails and is powered by just a single AA. It has a run time of 24 hours but if you want more run time, Princeton Tec makes the Charge Pro which is powered by a CR123.
The Charge mounts to the right side of your helmet. But for some reason, the Charge Pro attaches to the left side of the helmet. You could have them on opposite sides but then the light would hang below the rail.
The Charge is a bigger version of their Switch MPLS and it is brighter. The Switch MPLS is only 10 lumens while the Charge MPLS is 55 lumens. They have three color LEDs around the main white LED. Red, Blue, Green or Infrared. Mine is the Red, Blue and IR version.
The AA battery can be changed without having to remove the light from the helmet.
The LED array is attached to a goose neck so you can aim the light where you need it. In the middle and just below the battery tube is the black power switch. Click it to activate red, press it again to switch to blue. If you press hold the switch down when you turn it on, the main white LED is activated.
NVG Shroud Helmet Illumination
An alternate solution to helmet illumination is the Nitecore HC65M. It is a helmet mountable version of their HC65 headlamp. It has a mount that attaches to the NVG shroud of your helmet.
The mount is merely a set of rubber rings that hold the cylindrical body of the HC65. This allows the light to be tilted up or down.
The main white LED is 1000 lumens and is powered by an 18650. You can also use 2x CR123 batteries if you need an immediate replacement. At full brightness, the light will run for 1 hour. The HC65M also has an auxiliary warm white LED and a red LED. These lower modes will have longer run times: 25 hours on aux white and 20 hours on red.
The HC65M mounts to the NVG shroud of your helmet.
If you use the Nitecore rechargeable 18650 you do not need to remove the battery to recharge it. Simply unscrew the cover on the button side and a micro USB port is exposed. Plug the light into a USB power supply and you can recharge the battery inside.
Final Thoughts On Helmet Illumination
Some people like mounting extremely bright lights to their helmets. Like X300 by SureFire. However, I have not needed such a bright light on my helmet. I do not need to illuminate far distances. My needs are to illuminate my immediate area. Lighting up cardboard targets during a match so I can find the bullet holes and paste them over with tape. Or I need to work on a gun or load my magazines. These types of tasks do not require a lot of light that is why I prefer the Princeton Tec Charge MPLS the most.
With regards to the Nitecore HC65M, I am not much of a fan of lights mounted to NVG shrouds. I would prefer it if they made the mounting system compatible with Wilcox dovetail system. That way the light would attach to the NVG mount rather than the shroud.
With the NVG mount folded up, the HC65M could still face forward due to the mount.
The Princeton Tec Charge retails for around $100. While the Nitecore HC65M retails for just $75.
More by Nicholas C
Comments
Join the conversation
Maybe I'm missing out on something, but why mount an IR light on the slot you'd put on your NODs?
Regarding the NiteCore HC65 I can only share my expierience, that this light is rather frustrating as one of the only ones in my collection, that can ONLY use 18650 with a raised Plus Pol! Flat Batterys do not work reliable as the light shuts off when the battery bounces inside the compartment.
To charge the light, you also need some Protected Cell.
As I only use unprotected, flat, 18650, this light is a pain in the ass that I need to carry other 18650 types for it - but these other 18650 types do not fit other gear!
I feel thats a shame, which is why I do not use the HC65 often.
The red light also is too bright for tactical situations and can not be dimmed - some other lights are better for this application. The red LED of the HC65 is great for camping, where you just dont want to draw attention/blind other people/flash your own eyes, because it is quite bright and even a "red light beginner" can use with its brightness.
Other than that, the Headstrap of the HC65 is with mixed colors (some yellow of the NiteCore Logo with some black), so dont expect it to be tactical in pure black.
Besides that, the white light LED is not really worth speaking about this light! Just around 1000lm, which is really low. Other lights of the same 18650 size offer XHP70.2 LEDs with 3200Lm, or the 50.2 with a lil less Lm around 2000 or some X-HP LED with 1600Lm would be "standard" nowadays.
Lastly, like mentioned in the article, skip Shroud mounted lights for helmet use if you want to able to use NVGs at the same time - use some side mounting light. By the way: The Thrym VariArc was not mentioned, so you may want to check that one out.
My personal opinion: For some nice tactical 18650 headlamp with low red light but wide beam due to 2 red leds, I use the Fenix HL60R - quite old and not that bright white light (I think its an XM-L U2 with 600-1000Lm), and no tactical headstrap, but it eats unprotected flat cells and has the best red light. When I use a helmet, I have it mounted to my chest on the platecarrier, which is fine and saves another 100g of weight on the head.