dive light with automotive headlamp?

[SailNaked]

anyone tried this? I bought a head light and the socket for it (under $20).

I am willing to have a relatively short burn time (about 60min). because I am only using it for night diving in open water.

i have lots of small 7-10AH batteries. and the lights are rated at 55w so I think they might produce enough light. I am not planning on having a switch, when i close the enclosure it will turn on and stay on till I open it.

Ideas so far run from a hand polished reflector and sealing the whole thing up in solid resin, to PVC pipe and a bolted on piece of glass for the front. (to access the bulb). I do not really feel like I need to change the bulb, if it works till the bulb burns out then i figure I have had fun and will be happy.

So basically I am thinking a pretty much solid light head and wire back to the battery and something simple like a pelican box with battery(S).

thoughts? anyone have things they have tried that definitely do not work? I made one "try" with PVC that leaked at about 2ft so I am on V2.0 at this point.

 

[muddiver]

You need to make an o-ring seal where the PVC unit seals up. you can use water proof connectors at the penitrations, or just use some screw post connectors on the pelican case and on the PVC light housing with the wire between them exposed. That is how the communication system used in commercial diving is usually hooked up.

 

[Thalassamania]

There were lots of lights in the old days that used a car headlight and a 6 volt dry cell battery.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Friends of mine in the 70's would freedive and spearfish or catch lobsters along the Kona coast using a "Rube Goldberg" contraption that consisted of a car innertube float, automotive battery, and "sealed" car headlights on long cables (I think they used jumper cables?). I never had the opportunity to go with them, but they said using 3 or 4 headlights (in shallow water, of course, due to relatively short cable length) would "light up the ocean".

The downside was that the "waterproofing" was never 100%, leading to the occasional electrical shock

Best wishes.

 

[East West]

I would build a light that is good as the best on the market or purchase a quality one . You can buy a powerful 12 volt M 16 LED bulb with reflector and a choice of beams for 30 dollars . Find a old Allen light and it is a done deal . I have one in my scrap pile .

 

[gcbryan]

anyone tried this? I bought a head light and the socket for it (under $20).

I am willing to have a relatively short burn time (about 60min). because I am only using it for night diving in open water.

i have lots of small 7-10AH batteries. and the lights are rated at 55w so I think they might produce enough light. I am not planning on having a switch, when i close the enclosure it will turn on and stay on till I open it.

Ideas so far run from a hand polished reflector and sealing the whole thing up in solid resin, to PVC pipe and a bolted on piece of glass for the front. (to access the bulb). I do not really feel like I need to change the bulb, if it works till the bulb burns out then i figure I have had fun and will be happy.

So basically I am thinking a pretty much solid light head and wire back to the battery and something simple like a pelican box with battery(S).

thoughts? anyone have things they have tried that definitely do not work? I made one "try" with PVC that leaked at about 2ft so I am on V2.0 at this point.

I don't really know much about auto headlamps...what are the specs? I'm guessing 12 volt and what about the current requirements? I guess 4.5 A if it's a 55 W halogen. Is this correct?

Are you using rechargeable 1.2 V cells? So 10 of those in the C size?

This is going to be a big light. Heat will be an issue so plexiglass would probably not be the best. Make sure any switches can handle 4.5 A.

O-rings or gaskets would be needed. You can use marine grade silicone but something that compresses would be better particularly given it's size.

Post pics when you're done!

 

[lucca brassi]

sealed automotive headlamp , from http://shop.dev-pein.de/download/ik.pdf

otherwise I don't like automotive headlamps because have big volume (positive buoyant ) , lens calculated for air, bulky,........

 

[The Blue Whale]

Check out the bulbs they use in small aircraft for landing lights... we built a light once and used a bulb from a Piper which was super bright, but only lasted about 20 minutes with our battery system. Like those old Ikelite movie lights which could only be used underwater because they would melt the plastic lens, it got plenty hot too.

 

[Packhorse]

I wouldnt bother.
The lights are pretty big and you will simply end up with lots engineering problems.
A MR16 sized halogen is a much better choice at about 50mm and available in a wide range of beam angles and wattages.
But then with a little more work you could set it up with a LED and have a far superior light.

Maglites make great hosts!

 

[rsq_dvr]

there is a book from airspeedpress.com that deals with this exact issue, i just bought it and it goes through the whole range of home made light.
I was thinking of doing the same thing but using an old HID light and ballast with some batteries (y) from a dewalt the case is what i am looking into now an i thnk a apoxy will work since i dont have access to a machine shop. I am just working out some details now in my head like runing the power wires through an old LP hose if they will fit anyway try it and have fun even if they dont work you are having fun