Advice needed on Brightstar 24W HID

[DarkbusterDiver]

Im sure you are going to love it. Ater you use it, will you come on and tell everyone what you thought?

 

[scorpenesub]

Yup, will be posting it after my Sipadan trip, DarkbusterDiver. Have shown it to a few diving friends and they are loving it already. Brightest torch they've ever seen, most say. Stay tuned..

 

[scorpenesub]

Wow, took my HID to its maiden dive in Sipadan. Its so damn bright that Canon's G9 camera refused to flash on a macro mode. No regrets about the HID.

Two weak points though. The HID does not give any warning about low battery and cuts out instantly when the juice runs out. Boy, it was damn dark when it cut out even though four other divers had their lights on.

Second weak point is that it is negative on bouyancy even though one dive shop said it was positively bouyant. Am thinking of tying strips of polystyrene to the HID to make it more neutrally bouyant. Any suggestions?

No other complaints otherwise. Great dive light.

 

[Blazinator]

Glad you like your Darkbuster - I love mine. If you let go of the light UW, it will aim up and blind you til you grab it, so I'm thinking of gluing a polyethylene foam ring to the butt end of the light to "trim" it, and hopefully give it slightly positive buoyancy.

It gives a lot of UV light, so I bought black light filters for it for biofluorescent night dives - cool to see corals and critters "glow" in different colors.

 

[scorpenesub]

Thanks for the suggestion, Blazinator

 

[pierretw]

I bought mine here, in Taiwan where I live. It's great. I even take it if
I go diving under 30m daytime. I lent it to a friend last week for his diving
week in Orchid island, and afterward everybody told me "oh!. Ah!" nice torch :14:
Nice idea for the black filter. Do you know where to buy that? (DIY shop??)
Best,

Pierre

 

[JonasLondon]

Hi all, can you guys please let me know where to get the black light filter stuff? Sounds really interesting. We saw bio-fluorescent creatures in Fiji during a night snorkel, way cool!

Also, does anyone know if the top of the Darkbuster Junior can be screwed off for lamp exchange or maybe to take the lamp off during air travel (if demanded by airline security?) - how do you travel with yours in Europe - I guess it should be ok in the hand luggage so you can make sure it doesn't come on, or tape the on-off switch in the off position?

Thanks!

 

[Blazinator]

Hi all, can you guys please let me know where to get the black light filter stuff? Sounds really interesting. We saw bio-fluorescent creatures in Fiji during a night snorkel, way cool!

Do a web search in your area for theater lighting supply, and they can order the Roscoe 33650 Wood's Glass dichroic filter for you, and specify 3-3/16" DIA, as Roscoe will cut the filter to the DIA you spec - should be well under fifty bucks with shipping. The Filter is dichroic, which appears like a mirror and you may think that it will not work as well as you think, but it actually works better than traditional black Wood's Glass, by transmitting more UV while blocking the visible light.

The filter is too thick to fit under the filter ring and allow the ring to lock into place, so I made a new, thinner filter ring from 1/8" Polycarbonate (Lexan) sheet. Mild steel or aluminum would also work.
Here's the tricky part: When using the light topside with the filter to light up aquarium coral or flowers, it got real hot inside because the visible light is reflected back inside the light from the filter (which I knew would happen), and it swelled/melted a heat mound in the cover lens of the light, which protrudes out to the point where the filter ring will no longer lock. However, I had actually glued thin, black rubber to the face of the new filter ring (see picture) to block out stray white light, and the rubber actually friction fits the filter ring against the black rubber overmold boot, so I do not need the filter ring to snap in place now anyway.

In hindsight, I think that you could avoid fabricating a filter ring altogether by buying a black hard rubber O-ring of 3-3/8" DIA, and simply force fitting the O-ring against the filter to hold it in place. (order o-ring from McMaster Carr online)

Its a little bit of a PITA to make you HID into a black light, but is waaayyy worth it.

See my earlier thread about UV Biofluorescence: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...228530-biofluorescent-fun-your-hid-light.html