I have an old Lupine ‘Nightmare’ halogen light thats been unused for a few years but i would like to repair/upgrade rather than bin it as i like the lamp unit. I was thinking of trying to get a modern battery pack from Smudge.

The heavy bottle cage battery seems to charge but i think the bulb has gone. I think its 25w in old money and i recall the beam was quite good but its been a while.

So, lighting experts is this a worthwhile exercise and should i replace the bulb with an LED and get a battery pack?- Like a ‘triggers broom’ of the lighting world!

A while back I asked Troutie to take a look at my lupine HID head to see if it could be upgraded to LED, turned out they had glued/sealed everything in so well that it wasn’t worth the bother (basically needed machining out!).
[PS: I bought a trout mini instead which has turned out to be the best light I’ve invested money in]

TBH your on to a loser cost wise, and as much as you might like to upgrade it, the sensible option is to simply buy a new light.

Torchy has his dual XML light on at £40 again, really just buy one, as it’ll have a decent battery and the light will have more output than you get out of a single reflector unit

Fair enough. I’ve had a couple of the single XMLs in recent years, (last one exploded on impact, not whilst charging!) but the Lupine was a nice bit of kit.

I might still have a tinker with it as a backup..or put it back in the cupboard and bin it in 2 years time

I don’t see a problem about using different batteries, if that’s what you are talking about. But to switch out the driver circuit as above may cost more than a new light.

I was just thinking in terms of new bulb/new battery. ‘Upgrading’ the battery really, as the original Nimh one is quite hefty.

TBH your on to a loser cost wise, and as much as you might like to upgrade it, the sensible option is to simply buy a new light.

The HIDs were very different construction to the halogens, I’d not assume that. That said, a halogen lamp isn’t worth that much now frankly, I’d sooner have LED.

Keep thinking I should do something with my old Edison HID!

I wouldn’t bother, if you only intend to replace the halogen bulb with another one and get a new battery.

Halogens use a lot of power compared to LED so you are going to need a decent sized battery – hence why your original Lupine is quite hefty.
For comparison, I converted my Lumicycle Halogens to LED and with the original ‘marathon’ battery the run time went from about 3.5-4hrs with both halogens on, to >12hrs with both cans running LEDS at full power. And the LEDs were brighter.