Any interest in MC-E dive lights?

[tactical_hid]

Looks good.
But whats with the 3 rings behind the head. Probably quite useful for cooling out of the water but would be more of a liability as a dive light. I think a smoother profile over all would be much better as opposed to all those ridges.
Price is right.
But your burn time vs lumen seems a bit high.
MC-E's usualy get driven at about 2.8 amps+ to produce 700 lumen+
You are quoting run times of 2 hours off 2 2500mah cells. ( arnt these cells rated at a 20 hour discharge capacity not 2?)
IMHO you would be lucky to get 1.5 hours on full power.

Your right about the runtime, I didn't calculate it correctly at first. It would be about 1.5hrs burntime (on high mode, 700 lumens) off 2x 2500mah cells. If you run some higher capacity cells like the Panasonic 2900mah cells then you'd be able to get just over 2hrs run time on high.

Again, on the lower setting it puts out about 350 lumens and will run twice as long, so 3-4hrs. And on the lowest setting it'll run for 7.5-10hrs @ 140 lumens.

18650's can definitly handel high discharge rates. 2x18650's being discharged at 1.4amps each from the MCE is nothing. I've pulled as much as 4-5amps from a good 18650 cell.

The beauty of this light is the ability to easily swap out 18650 cells after each dive.

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I've got a 3 sample lights in, and I've been testing them and have been EXTREMELY impressed with how they turned out. The overall feel of the light, and the smoothness of the magnetic switch is amazing!

The rear tail cap has two thick rubber o-rings, and the threads are very smooth. I'll hopefully try to take pictures of the actual light today and post them.

Thanks,

Jason

www.TacticalHID.com

 

[HenrikBP]

Ideally the hole for securing the bolt snap should be able to take at least 2 loops of #24 or #36 cave line.

Henrik

 

[Packhorse]

18650's can definitly handel high discharge rates. 2x18650's being discharged at 1.4amps each from the MCE is nothing. I've pulled as much as 4-5amps from a good 18650 cell.

I heard the opposite. Li Ions dont really like hi discharge. Although 1.4 amps shouldn't be a problem.
But my point wasnt about how much you can current you can pull from the cells but how much they can deliver in total over a relatively short period. a 2500ma cell will supply 2500mah over 20 hours but over 2 hours may only provide 2200mah or less.

I dont know about the Panasonic 2900ma cells but I have seen tests on another brands 3000ma cells and over short discharge periods performed very poorly against the same brands 2500ma cells. Over longer discharge periods they performed to spec.


I suggest you take a look at the common lights like the Scout and the other common backup light ( whos name escapes me at the moment). The shape is alot cleaner than what you have shown. Also I think a central anchor point on the tail cap for the snap bolt ( or Lanyard if you prefer) is better.]

I really like the shape of the W200 Ultrafire.

What is the diameter of the head?

 

[tactical_hid]

I've seen graphics of the Panasonic 2900mah cell and in some discharge tests they actually exceed specs, and put out ~2950mah. The 3000ma cells you are referring to are probably the ultrafire or trustfire cells, and those are way over rated as far as capacity goes.

Keep in mind that 90% of laptop computers use 18650 cells, and average battery life is about 3-4hrs for most laptops, and laptops can drain their battery packs very quickly when gaming etc, and using a lot of watts of power.

The head of the reflector is about 50mm.

I'll probably be starting a pre-order for this light, and once I get enough people that want one (need at least 20 people) then I'll do a run for 50 of these lights.

 

[Packhorse]

I've seen graphics of the Panasonic 2900mah cell and in some discharge tests they actually exceed specs, and put out ~2950mah. The 3000ma cells you are referring to are probably the ultrafire or trustfire cells, and those are way over rated as far as capacity goes.

Yes there were Trustfire/ultrafire cells and no they were not over rated. They did supply 3000mah+/- of current. They just couldnt do it on a 2 hour discharge. I know of very few cells that can.

So the reflector is 50mm or the largest diameter of the light? Have you thought about making it shorter and fatter. Perhaps having 3 18650's all side by side? This would give a much better run time.
Do you intend running the MC-E dies in parallel or 2p2s? I think 2p2s could have some benifits when used with a AMC7135 type driver. Sure it will not run at full brightness for long but its burn time will be greatly increased over all.

 

[tactical_hid]

Update!

Well do to some pricing issues, we will probably not be offering this light for sale.

Instead, I'll be looking into designing our very own, unique one of a kind HID light.

It will most likely use a 26W HID bulb and a 6x18650 Li-on battery pack... More details to come!

 

[FlashlightsNgear]

I dive in lakes mostly and have tryed other MC-E lights down to 30 feet or so with great results and came across this light and decided to order alot more than I can probley sale in the next few months, Ill be listing them on my website in the next few days, but I thought the price is right at $139 and FREE shipping in the US. I need to talk to one of the mods before saying much more or listing my website, but will stay in touch. Ill post beamshots and video soon, thanks

 

[openhelix]

the LED light was interesting... the HID, not so much. There are already too many good HID can lights from established dive light companies with larger economies of scale...

 

[FlashlightsNgear]

Give me a few weeks and Ill get some comparison shots of the MC-E vs. other well know dive lights, should be interesting to see how good this light really is. Running 2 18650 batteries is a nice touch, li-ion batteries get better and better every year and are inexpensive to keep extras for backups. This light will also run on 4 3V CR123 batteries, easy to find and a great shelf life, its a very nice set-up for under a buck fifty.

 

[tactical_hid]

the LED light was interesting... the HID, not so much. There are already too many good HID can lights from established dive light companies with larger economies of scale...

The LED light still has some potential... I'm still looking into some pricing issues...

But regarding the HID light, I think we can make a light that has more features and is a better value than anything on the market... I'm thinking something around the sub-$300 range. I think this is almost unheard of for a quality 26W HID.

For now if your interested in the MCE dive light, PLEASE SEND ME A PM. Thanks!