Photon Torpedo Vs Halcyon Mini Scout Review

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The problem with bars is that the relatively low-income staff often doesn't have a lot of other economic choices about where to work, and that may mean you've got a choice between a sick/hungry kid at home, or exposing yourself day-in-day-out to smoke in order to make tips to support the kid. If it was just the patrons killing themselves with smoke, I wouldn't have so much of an issue with it.
I'd get another job. They'd change if they didn't have employees, too. Job market isn't that tough right now, I've turned down 2 job offers since Jan 1st, and have an interview next week. I can understand jobs much above $45k-50k being hard to find right now, but anything below that isn't tough.
 
I'd get another job. They'd change if they didn't have employees, too. Job market isn't that tough right now, I've turned down 2 job offers since Jan 1st, and have an interview next week. I can understand jobs much above $45k-50k being hard to find right now, but anything below that isn't tough.

jobs above $100k aren't that hard to find if you know what you're doing.

i think that for the non-college-educated the market is going to be a lot worse and they're going to have to make do.

clearly there's an argument there to not be a stupid 18 year old that winds up with a couple of kids and no college education -- but once someone has dug that hole its difficult to climb out of it, even if you want to -- i'm in favor of smoke free bars for those people to find jobs working as bartenders and waitresses without having to risk their health...
 
Speaking of backups... My two PTs are still rocking the xenon bulbs. Anyone know of a place to source the newer LED slugs? Preferably ones I don't have to add electrical tape to.

Yeah, as I said in my review, the new module from Gulftex is supurb, and all for the non-halcyon price of $55. It's available here gulftex

But since I'm not a DIR Team leader, don't wash JJ's dirty undergarments and am not in contact with the "Big Blue" R&D department regularly you'd better decide for yourself if a PT is really a safe light to dive with.

EDIT: Changed R&R to R&D.
 
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Yeah, as I said in my review, the new module from Gulftex is supurb, and all for the non-halcyon price of $55. It's available here gulftex

But since I'm not a DIR Team leader, don't wash JJ's dirty undergarments and am not in contact with the "Big Blue" R&R department regularly you'd better decide for yourself if a PT is really a safe light to dive with.

why do you bother coming here if you're so against DIR diving?
 
why do you bother coming here if you're so against DIR diving?

I'm not against it at all, or Halcyon for that matter. My equipment is 100% DIR and I'm enrolled in a Fundies course in July. What I'm against is the elitist attitude of it's followers who do a great disservice to the very organization and equipment manufacturer that they so religiously praise by acting the way they do.

I came here because I know everyone is vastly more experienced than me, that's how you learn something new. But instead of someone simply saying reserve lights don't need to be bright or halcyon is a better light and here are the reasons why, it was viewed as an attack on their religion and defended like the crusades.

I'm not gonna go through all the posts and debate this crap with anyone cause it makes me wanna smash something, but in my first post immediately after my review I said in plain English that I am new to DIR, am not cave certified, and never told anyone else "what they need". It made no difference. So yeah, I'm against internet DIR. Mostly it was the one guy, who I'll just ignore, but overall if DIR is really this way I'm gonna enjoy solo diving even more than ever.

Thanks for asking a normal rational question.
 
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I came here because I know everyone is vastly more experienced than me, that's how you learn something new. But instead of someone simply saying reserve lights don't need to be bright or halcyon is a better light and here are the reasons why, it was viewed as an attack on their religion and defended like the crusades.

.....

"Second: C'mon Halcyon, add an O-ring."

I think this was pretty mild, but in the context of the comments to follow, it looked like it was about to show a bias against "Big H". Not that I care all that much, but it did set the table...

"I'm new to DIR and not even cave certified, but I certainly wouldn't want to be trying to get someones attention with the light output of my SL4."

This comment raised eyebrows because it indicated that you were not a cave diver, but more importantly, indicated that you didn't really understand how backup lights are used in that environment. It undermined your credibility to make some of the comments you went on to make. I think this is where the wheels came off the wagon. Up to this point, the conversation was simply about lights. Which you seemed to have enough knowledge about and your post certainly spoke to your experiments and their conclusions.


"Well apparently Gulftex is using illegal labor because they too must have done some serious research to build a light this good and don't charge that much. As I have shown the housing alone is WAY better than "Big H".

The housing is better because it has an extra o-ring? Again, this statement seems rather biased. If you like Gulftex better, that's cool. Sounded good to me when I was looking at lights too. But in actual practice, it's a non-issue.

"From practically all the discussions I've read signaling is THE primary reason for a backup light"

And this is an incorrect conclusion to reach and when combined with the somewhat reduced credibility, it just opened you up for criticism. The primary light's main functions are to see the cave and to signal. The backup light is to see the line, and get home. As such it has different operational parameters and signaling is really not one of them.

I certainly never tried to bust your chops, but you took a couple of swipes at Halcyon, then you misstated some things about a type of diving you've never done. It's not that you were attacking anyone's "religion" as much as you were showing a bias, and some misunderstanding about the subject matter at hand. The guys called you out on it, and you didn't care for it or how it was done. Really nothing more to it than that.

I wish you the best with your choice of backups, and perhaps should you take some cave training, you'll have a more clear idea of how the backups are used and why the folks here felt it necessary to correct your statements.

Have a good evening...

-P
 
As I said, I don't want to smash anything, mostly because I'm in my own house, so I won't debate it, but I do see what you're saying. And I screwed up, it was "Big Blue", I misquoted the confrontational one, those were his words as he spoke of them like a proud papa even though he probably has Zero to do with them directly.

So I undermined my credibility in an area that I plainly admitted to being new to and uncertified in, well that was easy.

I'm sure he will be showing up any time now to comment so I won't be coming back here anymore.

Good evening too.
 
exploding-head-2.jpg
 
I've been out of the loop for awhile -- when did Halcyon release a new Scout? I went to their webpage but didn't find anything.
edit: I see now.

Anyone know if that module fits in a Photon-Torpedo?
I left one of my PE-LEDs sitting around with the batteries in it for awhile (whoops). One of the batteries leaked and the acid ate part of the LED emitter so at some point I'll need a replacement.
 
Rubber part of Halcyon bezel fell off, Photon is good as new.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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