Quasar Led Lighting System for Optivisors | ELP-558.00

This light kit is a truly excellent addition to your Optivisor. The LEDs provide a white, daylight balanced light, and because there are six of them spread out across the visor, your work is evenly illuminated with few shadows. If you buy a complete Optivisor kit, as I did, with this light kit and the accessory loupe lens, there is a minor difficulty you have to watch out for when you install everything. Do not fully install the light kit with the one-way push pins until you attach the accessory lens. The screw shaft that comes on the lens is not long enough to pass through and accommodate the thickness of the LED bezel. The Quasar light kit comes with a longer screw and you have to disassemble the lens assembly, with its spring and tension nut, in order to install the longer screw. The screw on the lens replaces one of the four plastic push pins and be sure to adjust the spring tension nut first for proper pivoting friction, before you install and tighten the nut on the inside of the visor. If you've got it right, the lens easily pivots in or out of your line of vision and stays in place without being jammed up. I was a little put off by negative comments from other reviewers about this light kit's battery pack being too heavy for and weighing down the visor. I'm glad I ignored them because I did not find it objectionable at all. Even my petite girlfriend, who uses the Optivisor for z scale model work, did not find the weight objectionable at all. I followed the instructions that came with the kit, not bothering to extend the electrical wires, and was quite satisfied. If you have any soldering skills at all, it's quite easy to splice in an extra length of small speaker wire, should you ever desire to move the battery pack to the rear clamp band and not on the pivoting visor frame. Try it as is, I think you will like it.

Quasar Lighting System is a must for anyone with the Optivisor magnifier. Fairly easy to add to your Optivisor and once you "see the light" you'll be spoiled with how magnified things are always well lighted. Just turn the switch on (or off to conserve batteries). These lights are plenty bright for any needs, lighting up whatever you look at. Warning ! Never look at the lights directly. I sometimes use these lights as a flashlight in a pinch. The down side to these lights are once installed it becomes more difficult to change out your different size magnifier lens but not impossible . So if you rarely need to change your lenses you're good to go. Over all an excellent light for these visors.

Update: This headlight is not aligned with your sight-line through the magnifier. The magnifier lens is angled and so this is too but it should be angled downward. The effect is the spot your looking at is in the penumbra and is dimmer. I’ve shimmed mine by 1/8” at the top but it isn’t enough, it needs to be 1/4” at least. Original: As everyone else has stated this thing is a little kludgey, amateurish even, but the worst part is easily fixed - discard the velcro strap, peel off the velcro sticker and tape the battery box to the headset arm with a couple of turns of good quality (3M) electrical tape. This makes it solid, secure and confidence inspiring. I could not live with the thing wobbling around as I try turning it off and on. It’s simply too much of a hack. I also really don’t care for using plastic pins to hold the led frame and lens to the headset so I used #6-24 SS screws instead, I just don’t tighten them up too much because the led frame is not contoured to the profile of the headset and too much torque on those screws will distort things as they are forced together, this is probably why they supply pins instead of screws. The LEDs are about the right brightness and the distribution around the eyes is perfect. It’s so functional I cannot see a way to improve on it other than changing the battery type. Well, SMD leds and a more sophisticated frame design would make it lower profile and possibly ease cleaning the lens which is made a little more difficult by the frame being in the way. But they’re not making bazillions of the things and they aren’t going into outer space so it’s a case of better is the enemy of good enough. I have parts on order to see about converting this thing to use a LIPO battery instead of clunky AA’s but in fact it’s not terrible as it is. Yes I’d like the battery box to weigh half as much but it’s usable and not overly noticeable. Also I run the risk of creating something out of the Back-to-the-Future DeLorean sketchbook with a bag battery, power converter, toggle switch and wiring distributed around the circumference of the headgear. Overall I like it, I’d just like it a lot more for $10-$15 off the price. I use my headset sometimes for hours on end so over time I have taken to resting the band on the back of my head instead of actually as a band around my forehead but this does pull the plastic edge up against my forehead. I used an x-acto knife to cut away material until that doesn’t happen making it perfectly comfortable.

The Quasar Led Lighting System for Optivisors is a great product, isn't anything I disliked. East to assemble, easy to use. All the reviews regarding a cheap switch or an intermittent switch problem is all hogwash. In fact, the device worked so well I ordered two more for the other two Optivisors that I own with no problems. I use it for removing slivers, soldering wires ,to tying fish hooks. Every technician, sportsman and home owner needs one as far as I'm concerned. Giving someone a house warming gift, try The Optivisor with a Quasar Led Lighting System, they will thank you later.

Fantastic concept, works as I expected. Added to my go-to Donegan 4x visor for precision work. Puts the light all around the point of work, unlike the flashlight in the mouth or top mounted LED. For the next generation: - Use 18650 rechargeable battery. - Lengthen wires so battery box can be mounted on the back of the head strap - Use super flexible jacketed wire I'm in the process of doing these to mine now. - On-shore to American manufacturing! This really matters to many of us. - Find a better assembler. Two corners of my LED panel were not properly seated leaving gaps that looked really cheesy for the price. Had to chip out the existing glue and re-do. - Increase max light output and add hi/low switch. Existing LED's are perfect for lower output, but a brighter option would be great

Lighting is moderately bright and even. Battery life is also pretty good with alkaline batteries. It’s quite expensive for 6 LEDs, a plastic frame and a battery box, switch and 2 batteries. The wires are so short that it can only be mounted on the side of your visor so it’s heavy only one side of your head. The product description says it weighs half an ounce which is clearly not correct. Two AA batteries alone weigh 1.5Oz, the whole setup is more like 3 ounces. I wish the wires were long enough to mount it in the back or on my belt.

The Optivisors are optically outstanding, but often you need more light. Putting LED's all the way around each eye is an excellent design; it is far and away better than a headlamp. But I have ordered three of these LED lights, and two of them lights have major switch problems. I can't return the new one because they fasten on with one-way push-in plastic rivets, which are easier than the little bolts that Optivisor uses, but are not re-usable. You have to cut them off. Cheapest switch in the world, I am sure they could change to a more durable one. Update: I took mine apart, seeing that other commenters have done that, and the flaw is obvious. It's not the fault of the switch, it's how the switch is soldered into place. Or in my case NOT soldered. Anyone who has soldered electronics is familiar with terminals: plated metal directly connected to a circuit board or battery holder on one end, and a hole in the other end for connecting a wire. You pass a wire through the terminal, crimp it in place, then solder it with a drop of rosin-core solder. You do NOT try to solder one terminal directly to another teminal. It doesn't work, and it especially doesn't work if the thing being soldered is a switch, which will endure mechanical forces without a flexible wire to protect the solder joint. This product tries to solder one switch terminal directly to an adjacent battery holder terminal holder. Never gonna work reliably, and in the unit I just disassembled, the joint was cold soldered anyway. Pitiful :).

I've had the Quasar kit for more than seven years now. I use it primarily for hobby purposes, as a miniature painter and occasional electronics work. As a 49-year-old dude, I simply must have magnification to work these days, and without ample light there's little point to my Optivisor (mine has the 2.75x magnification - the DA-7 lens). The bottom line is that the Quasar kit supercharges the biggest benefit of the Optivisor: eye strain relief. Now, about what others have said about 1) the odd choice to position the heavy-ish 2-AA battery pack on the Optivisor itself and 2) the low-rent velcro strap: both criticisms are on point. But both are easily remedied, if you have even the slightest idea of how to do something for yourself in the world of wires/electronics, or know someone who does. You can get the battery pack off the Optivisor fairly simply: replace the short run of wire from the frame to the battery pack with a longer wire. While you're at it, include a quick JST-style disconnect so you don't even have to think about the battery pack when you don't need lights. With a longer wire, you can put the battery pack in your pocket or on your desk -- when you need it. Do I hold this shortcoming against the designer of the Quasar? Absolutely not. No other light I've seen does such a great job illuminating my entire work area without casting shadows. It's an unbeatable benefit. I'll put up with crappy velcro if I have to to get it. Now that I think about it, though, maybe I should go see what kind of wire I have handy...