Well, heres my report on the Salvo 25W HID after a whopping two dives and having never dived an HID before, so take it for what its worth.
I picked the Salvo based on ScubaBoard research and some reports on boards in the UK. It was all about price, quality and that supposedly indestructible Brightstar bulb. I tried not to base my decision on the sorted rumors and gossip about the owner of Salvo, Barry Miller, who favored me with over an hour of monolog when I phoned in for questions about the light.
I placed the order online on Wednesday and paid the extra for 2 day shipping. Total with shipping was $1136.00. I had a tracking number a few hours later.
By 6pm on Friday (yesterday), I began to get concerned when my package had failed to arrive. After a call to UPS, it seems that Salvo had left one digit off of my address. The people at the UPS 800 number assured me someone would call me within the hour.
No one did. But then I saw a UPS truck zoom buy my house, so I jumped into my car and gave chase. Of course, my package was not on that truck, but after a few minutes of talking about scuba diving with the driver, he gave me a direct number to the local UPS office and said, But you didnt get this number from me. Three calls later, I picked up my package at UPS at 7:30pm.
The light was packaged well. The lighthead was larger than I had imagined and the canister was smaller. The workmanship and overall quality appeared very, ah robust. J
One major disappointment was that there was no written material with the light. No instruction booklet, nothing. If it had not been for the great information I got from this board, I could have easily damaged the light by hot striking or charging the batteries inside the canister or something. I dont know if this lack of an owners manual was an omission, of if thats the way the light comes.
I made two dives with the light this morning. After much research, I decided to for now run the cord underneath the regulator primary hose. I liked the cleanness of this setup, and the idea that if I needed to donate the long hose, there would be no hose clutter. I also figured that if I train my muscle memory to automatically run the light head back under the hose when I clip off, it would be easy to safety switch to outside the LH if I decided to later. But once I was in the habit of NOT going under the LH, it would be difficult to develop that habit.
Then there was the decision of bolt snaps where to place them, whether to use singles or a double ender, one or two bolt snaps and whether to attach with cave line, bungee or zip ties. Several of the descriptions I did not understand, but again I decided to train myself in a way that would easily allow me to switch in the future if I wanted. I dont know if this is right or if anyone else is doing it this way, but what I did was place a bungee loop on the handle, and one at the butt of the ballast. Then I attached one end of a double ender to the handle loop, and the other end to the ballast loop, so the double ender doesnt hang down but is suspended between the two.
I also placed a dot of white nail polish to mark the on position of the switch.
Several times during the dives I practiced unhooking the double ender from either the front or the back loop (one handed was not a problem), passing the light under the primary hose and clipping it off on the right D ring. Then unclipping it, passing it back under, and re-clipping the lose end of the double ender to the open loop, Easy. When I clipped to the handle side of the light head, I used the same end of the bolt snap that was around the bungee loop so that the light hung nice and tight to me.
During the safety stop, I practiced deploying the long hose, both with the light head clipped off, and with it in my left hand.
I told my wife all this, and she said, Yeah, but how did you like the light?
Oh, that! Awesome, of course. Neither of my two buddies had ever seen an HID before, and prior to the dive, couldnt understand why I would want to test it out during the day. After the dive, they couldnt stop talking about it.
Ive seen it in my own eyes before. HID envy.
Im diving it again tonight, and Im going to zip tie on my Q40 ala Pug Style.
The only problem I had was reaching the on/off switch on the can. It seemed to be just a couple of inches high out of reach with the can snug against the BP. So I opened the buckle and slid the can forward, turned the switch on, slid the can back into place and tightened the buckle back again. What am I doing wrong here that it is hard to reach?
Otherwise, I am having too much fun with the new flashlight. Thank you all for your instructions, opinions and suggestions!!!! Cant wait for next weekend (Sunday Tuesday), when Im going diving on the coast with other divers who use the HID light for more than just lighting up the view!
HERE's a picture into the lens of my light.
I picked the Salvo based on ScubaBoard research and some reports on boards in the UK. It was all about price, quality and that supposedly indestructible Brightstar bulb. I tried not to base my decision on the sorted rumors and gossip about the owner of Salvo, Barry Miller, who favored me with over an hour of monolog when I phoned in for questions about the light.
I placed the order online on Wednesday and paid the extra for 2 day shipping. Total with shipping was $1136.00. I had a tracking number a few hours later.
By 6pm on Friday (yesterday), I began to get concerned when my package had failed to arrive. After a call to UPS, it seems that Salvo had left one digit off of my address. The people at the UPS 800 number assured me someone would call me within the hour.
No one did. But then I saw a UPS truck zoom buy my house, so I jumped into my car and gave chase. Of course, my package was not on that truck, but after a few minutes of talking about scuba diving with the driver, he gave me a direct number to the local UPS office and said, But you didnt get this number from me. Three calls later, I picked up my package at UPS at 7:30pm.
The light was packaged well. The lighthead was larger than I had imagined and the canister was smaller. The workmanship and overall quality appeared very, ah robust. J
One major disappointment was that there was no written material with the light. No instruction booklet, nothing. If it had not been for the great information I got from this board, I could have easily damaged the light by hot striking or charging the batteries inside the canister or something. I dont know if this lack of an owners manual was an omission, of if thats the way the light comes.
I made two dives with the light this morning. After much research, I decided to for now run the cord underneath the regulator primary hose. I liked the cleanness of this setup, and the idea that if I needed to donate the long hose, there would be no hose clutter. I also figured that if I train my muscle memory to automatically run the light head back under the hose when I clip off, it would be easy to safety switch to outside the LH if I decided to later. But once I was in the habit of NOT going under the LH, it would be difficult to develop that habit.
Then there was the decision of bolt snaps where to place them, whether to use singles or a double ender, one or two bolt snaps and whether to attach with cave line, bungee or zip ties. Several of the descriptions I did not understand, but again I decided to train myself in a way that would easily allow me to switch in the future if I wanted. I dont know if this is right or if anyone else is doing it this way, but what I did was place a bungee loop on the handle, and one at the butt of the ballast. Then I attached one end of a double ender to the handle loop, and the other end to the ballast loop, so the double ender doesnt hang down but is suspended between the two.
I also placed a dot of white nail polish to mark the on position of the switch.
Several times during the dives I practiced unhooking the double ender from either the front or the back loop (one handed was not a problem), passing the light under the primary hose and clipping it off on the right D ring. Then unclipping it, passing it back under, and re-clipping the lose end of the double ender to the open loop, Easy. When I clipped to the handle side of the light head, I used the same end of the bolt snap that was around the bungee loop so that the light hung nice and tight to me.
During the safety stop, I practiced deploying the long hose, both with the light head clipped off, and with it in my left hand.
I told my wife all this, and she said, Yeah, but how did you like the light?
Oh, that! Awesome, of course. Neither of my two buddies had ever seen an HID before, and prior to the dive, couldnt understand why I would want to test it out during the day. After the dive, they couldnt stop talking about it.
Ive seen it in my own eyes before. HID envy.
Im diving it again tonight, and Im going to zip tie on my Q40 ala Pug Style.
The only problem I had was reaching the on/off switch on the can. It seemed to be just a couple of inches high out of reach with the can snug against the BP. So I opened the buckle and slid the can forward, turned the switch on, slid the can back into place and tightened the buckle back again. What am I doing wrong here that it is hard to reach?
Otherwise, I am having too much fun with the new flashlight. Thank you all for your instructions, opinions and suggestions!!!! Cant wait for next weekend (Sunday Tuesday), when Im going diving on the coast with other divers who use the HID light for more than just lighting up the view!
HERE's a picture into the lens of my light.
Notice that the webbing you pass your waistband through is held on with hose clamps. You can loosen these and slide the webbing slightly higher. You want the thing up out of the way, however, as much as possible, so don't drop it too much at first. You'll find much of it gets easier with time, too.
