Cannister light buildup

[sporket]

OK I have decided to take the plunge on building a dive light. Now for this light it will be mainly need for low vis ie lake diving. So I believe I need a tight focused beam. One that is very bright. I have few tools, and no access to a shop. If I'm correct, the best starting place for the head would be a 2 C cell Maglite? As far as lighting I'm not sure on LED, HID, or Halogen. My uneducated guess would be Halogen. But the LED's apparently have made a strong showing. Remember I need something that will punch a hole in the murky water with a tight focused beam. I have very limited knowledge of electronics and my price range for the equipment is around $300. I may be able to do if for less? I have searched the internet for forums, postings, and websites. I just don't know what is up to date with the latest technology. I know you guys are the experts here, so please help me from the top.

Thanks,

Travis

 

[350xfire]

LED such as SSC P7 abotu 700-900 lumens. The LED itself is abotut $25. Requires 4 volts at 2800 ma. Use 4 rechargeable D cells with 10,000 mah to drive for about 3 hours. Look at dealextreme.com for the LED and reflector, kaidomain.com for the led driver board.

 

[Packhorse]

Halogen is a good stating point for a noobie. But skip it if you know basic electronic theory and go for LED.
HID ( at least 21watt) is still the king but will cost more and could be harder to implement.

I have just finished my P7 mag can light and did it all with very basic tools that if you do not have will not break the bank buying.

 

[sporket]

Thanks fellas, I think I will set this up for LED. I wasn't aware that they had such focusable beams.

350xfire, thanks as those are some 2 great websites for just everything LED. What do you think of the TerraLUX TLE-300 550 Lumen Upgrade? Here is the link I think I got this from you on a previous thread. TerraLUX TLE-300 550 Lumen Upgrade for 4-6 D Cell MagLites - NEW! - TLTLE300
Is this the brightest out there as of now? Do you think this will work?

Packhorse, its your light that convinced me. That is awesome. I have to go LED. It seems they more durable and this is where most of the gains is made in my opinion have been made from a technology standpoint. A LED platform my also give me better chance of significant upgrades in the future.

So a couple of questions:

1) Do LED's tend to run hot?
2) What kind of burn time do you generally get?
3) What kind of battery pack will I need to get about 4 hours of burn time in? (if using the Terralux)

 

[sporket]

LED such as SSC P7 abotu 700-900 lumens. The LED itself is abotut $25. Requires 4 volts at 2800 ma. Use 4 rechargeable D cells with 10,000 mah to drive for about 3 hours. Look at dealextreme.com for the LED and reflector, kaidomain.com for the led driver board.

Sorry, I jumped to conclusions on the Terralux, its only 600 lumen's. I read somewhere that they were the brightest LED's on the market. Thanks so much.

 

[350xfire]

The Terralux is like a Maglite replacement. Already assembled and runs about $100.

I just saw that Dealextreme.com has a P7 ready to go for about $35. If they would have had this when I decided to do it, I would have gone that way. Here is the link. Comes with reflector, driver and all. Just hook up power and done... Nice for a first build.

DealExtreme: $34.90 SSC P7-C 2800mA LED Module with Copper Base (3.6V~8.4V)

To get runtime, you will need to know the amperage that your light consumes...(EG 2800 ma). Your battery pack will need to supply about 2800 mAh to power up the light for approximately 1 hour, 5600 for 2, etc etc etc. Of course there are some losses so this is not guaranteed. I am building the P7 with 4 D cells rated at 12,000 mAh. I think the manufacturer is a little high on this rating, but I should get close to 4 hours at 4.8 volts.

LEDs do have heat problems, especially the higher rated ones. Make sure to get heat sink. Building it in an aluminum Maglite housing should help as well.

 

[Packhorse]

That looks like a new DX product. I would not recommend it as I think it would over heat due to it not making any contact with the mag body to help dissipate heat. It does seem to be the same reflector that I used however and as such needs the top lip cut down so it will slide into a mag.

My version using sku 13803, 12721, a D sized mag heatsink from litemania and 2 1400ma 7135 driver boards mounted to a piece of aluminium.
If you cut off the switch section and thread of the mag handle then this will not slide into the handle so what I had to do was cut the threaded part off the discarded handle and thread it into the head. Bit hard to explain with out pix but im sure you will understand when encounter the problem.

 

[nwbrewer]

That looks like a new DX product. I would not recommend it as I think it would over heat due to it not making any contact with the mag body to help dissipate heat. It does seem to be the same reflector that I used however and as such needs the top lip cut down so it will slide into a mag.

My version using sku 13803, 12721, a D sized mag heatsink from litemania and 2 1400ma 7135 driver boards mounted to a piece of aluminium.
If you cut off the switch section and thread of the mag handle then this will not slide into the handle so what I had to do was cut the threaded part off the discarded handle and thread it into the head. Bit hard to explain with out pix but im sure you will understand when encounter the problem.

I get what you did there with the threaded piece. Nice trick.

I was going to grind out the threads in the head and push the body in farther so that I could avoid that. I was thinking about using the heat sink and reflector from DX mentioned above with a driver from Kai. Any reason why it wouldn't work if I ground down the threads and shoved the body in? Is that why you say it wouldn't dissipate the heat readily enough?

 

[350xfire]

That looks like a new DX product. I would not recommend it as I think it would over heat due to it not making any contact with the mag body to help dissipate heat. It does seem to be the same reflector that I used however and as such needs the top lip cut down so it will slide into a mag.

My version using sku 13803, 12721, a D sized mag heatsink from litemania and 2 1400ma 7135 driver boards mounted to a piece of aluminium.
If you cut off the switch section and thread of the mag handle then this will not slide into the handle so what I had to do was cut the threaded part off the discarded handle and thread it into the head. Bit hard to explain with out pix but im sure you will understand when encounter the problem.

Hey Packhorse, what is all that white goop and how did you mount the boards to the heatsink? I am assuming some kind of thermal glue/compound???

 

[Packhorse]

The handle needs to reach up far enough in the head to touch the gold heat sink. If you only push the handle as far as the start of the thread then its a few mm short of the sink. You could grind the thread out of the head or grind down the diameter of the handle. Or better yet put the handle in a lathe and put a new thread on it..
I encounted the problem after I had cut the mag down and glued it up. But as it turns out my solution would also be the quickest and easiest but probably not the best. ( I wish I had a lathe!!)

The white glue is a thermal glue from DX.