Cave Diver Lights - Canister

[Big-t-2538]

DIR Tec Diver once bubbled...
Homemade lights and cave diving???? Come on! Please please please do not do this. Your life is not worth saving a few bucks. These lights are expensive, but that is for a reason - they are the best. Building these things by yourself can and will most likely result in a failure and then what do you do??? Your life is not worth the pride of saying I made this myself. Just make the investment in the proper light and make the smart choice. You will appreciate it every time you dive, and have 1 less thing to worry about during your dive
David

I suppose you only take your car to the dealer to have it serviced too? I mean who would ever think of changing the oil...a vital engine lubircant...by themselves? Do you go to the full-service gas pump to so you have the 'professional' gas-man fill your tank so as to reduce the risk of igniting dangerous fumes?

 

[Waterlover]

Up until about 3 years ago EE lights were made in Barry Miller's garage out in back of the house, like the rest of the D-I-Y do........If you really want to hear some EE failure stories ask around there are quite a few out there......

 

[cnidae]

DIR Tec Diver once bubbled...
Homemade lights and cave diving???? Come on! Please please please do not do this. Your life is not worth saving a few bucks. These lights are expensive, but that is for a reason - they are the best. Building these things by yourself can and will most likely result in a failure and then what do you do??? Your life is not worth the pride of saying I made this myself. Just make the investment in the proper light and make the smart choice. You will appreciate it every time you dive, and have 1 less thing to worry about during your dive
David

Please tell me this guy is joking. Your joking right? If your not you need to stay away from the forums that you know nothing about, like maybe all of them.:lol:

 

[Sugar_Kayne]

None of my business folks, but remember: The Ark was built by amatures, but the Titanic was built by professionals. If you want something done right...

 

[sparky30]

DIR Tec Diver once bubbled...
Homemade lights and cave diving???? Come on! Please please please do not do this. Your life is not worth saving a few bucks. These lights are expensive, but that is for a reason - they are the best. Building these things by yourself can and will most likely result in a failure and then what do you do??? Your life is not worth the pride of saying I made this myself. Just make the investment in the proper light and make the smart choice. You will appreciate it every time you dive, and have 1 less thing to worry about during your dive

David

Please.. spare me the DIR speech.. Most HID dive light (DiveRite, OMS, etc) use standard 10W HID bulbs and ballasts made by WelchAllyn.. Sold under the brand name Solarc..The only difference between the lights is the canister.. In most cases a PVC tube and a water proof switch.. They are not that hard to build... They work great.. Its not rocket science..
I'd prefer buying one.. but the markup is rediculous.. In canada the avg. HID light is over $1000... The parts to make one (identical to the store bought ones) is $300.. I'm all in favour of safety and I support the local dive shop whenever I can.. but a $700 markup on a light is bogus.. I built one last year and it has performed without a problem since.. My friend bought a DiveRite for an obscene amount of money and he had to send it back twice because it failed and they installed the wrong seals (twice).
Besides.. if you are cave or wreck diving, you better be carrying multiple spares.. i do... I don't trust any single piece of gear, no matter who made it

 

[pcscuba]

I am finally done with my MR16 halogen canister light and it works great. I was thinking about starting an hid but I don't know what kind of ballast I need. There are some many out there, which one should I use?

 

[Padipro]

Lets see some pictures of the finished lights.

BTW, another source for latches is MSC Industrial Supply, 1-800-645-7270 or http://www.mscdirect.com and the part number is 32855991. The picture of the latch on the web site is wrong. The latch this part number is for looks almost exactly like the one in the picture except that it does not have the loop for a padlock and it does have a secondary lock so the latch won’t open accidentally. The latch comes with a hook you attach to the lid but the hook screws into the side and looks unprofessional on a clear top so I ordered a right angle hook from Ikelite part # 0348. These hooks attach to the top of the lid and bend over the sides hiding the screw that attaches them.

Scott

 

[jjldml]

For stainless steel latches and waterproof switches try www.mcmaster.com

Latches: compression spring draw latches

Switch: sealed toggle switches and switch seals and boots.

 

[JDostal]

Pretty cool thread (with the exception of that DIr Tec Dirver twit) but I've got a few questions for you guys doing this....

Where are you getting the HID light parts - like the light head and the cord? I would be really interested in building one of these things...

 

[Padipro]

I'm not sure any of the lights are HID. Mine is halogen and I think most everyone elses is too.

I have a guy that I work with that wanted to use the guts from a Nite-Rider HID bicycle light to make a HID light head. It looks like it would work, the parts fitting inside a "D" cell mag-lite but the cost is way to much to buy the light just to convert it. I think he paid around $250 for the light and intended to use it for work but found that it was just to bright for the kind of close up work we do. He hardly ever used the light and after seeing how well my light worked while diving together he thought about trying to convert it.

I've looked at buying the parts to make a HID light but to buy just the one light and ballast is almost as expensive as it would be to buy a name brand light. The bulbs alone run about $80 each. Then there is the problem of finding a light head that will fit the bulb and the ballast. Most parts I was able to find at places like Welch-Allen were just to big to place inside a mag-lite. If you had a good machine shop and were able to machine out a custome head and had an old HID light laying around, the cost might not be so prohibitive. Until the cost of HID parts come down from the astronomically high level they're at building one at a time just doesn't seem worth it.

Scott