Cheap dive light

[Ardy]

HI all, been thinking about buying a torch for macro photography and could not make up my mind. Sooooo I bought a Chinese cheapie and will see how it goes. For the expense of about $US20 I figure I don't have much to loose.

I will put a red diffuser over the front of it and see how it goes. It is run by a 26650 battery and on the testing I have done, seems to last more than a couple of dives.

It has double o'rings but looking at the rings they are cheap, as you would expect. Anyone replaced thin o'rings like these? I looked in my multiple o'ring box and there is nothing like them.

Basic construction seems ok with magnetic switch and 4 power levels and 3 emergency modes.

If it leaks on the first dive I will let you know.

 

[stuartv]

What is the purpose in putting a red diffuser on it?

 

[Ardy]

Hi Stuart, the red diffuser covers 2 points,
1. the torch has a hot spot and I want the diffuser to reduce the impact of that.
2. I do mostly macro photography and being red it will not scare away critters.

regards, look after yourself down there!

 

[johnohuk]

Loose the reflector if you can, I suspect you will still see the hotspot..

 

[Got2Go]

Take the reflector out and spray paint it white (not gloss). That will help even out the hot spot. I have done this myself with a few lights to be able to use them for video.

And yes, I have also replaced the o-rings on a few lights with better ones.

The very soft o-rings that come with most of those lights work ok to seal, but are too fragile and always end up bunching up and getting tears on the threads (even with lube).

Do you have a link to the light?
Or a picture?

I have purchased many lights from China over the last few years to test them out, and have taken some to 300'.

 

[Ardy]

Take the reflector out and spray paint it white (not gloss). That will help even out the hot spot. I have done this myself with a few lights to be able to use them for video.

And yes, I have also replaced the o-rings on a few lights with better ones.

The very soft o-rings that come with most of those lights work ok to seal, but are too fragile and always end up bunching up and getting tears on the threads (even with lube).

Do you have a link to the light?
Or a picture?

I have purchased many lights from China over the last few years to test them out, and have taken some to 300'.

Very interesting. Will give that a go. When you replaced the o'rings where did you buy them. I measured the ones on my light but not easy to find.

Claims its up to 100m which I find amazing and most probably not true. But I rarely go to 40m these days so I am interested to see if it survives.

 

[fmerkel]

I have 2 of those and another buddy also had 2. He gave up on them for video lights. One flooded, the other quit working.
The switch is a cheap very tiny carbon steel ball pushed on by a tiny cheap spring which moves in the detents (position notches) to different settings. They rust like crazy in salt water. Rinsing won't help much. You can take it off pretty easily and silicone the hell out of it. Oh, the magnet on the switch rusts also.

Some have what's called a 'hollow pill'. The bit that the LED is mounted on is hollow with poor heat transfer out. This shortens the life of the LED, if flooding doesn't get it first.

Some have 2 O-rings, some have 1. The O-rings are crappy.
Far more info on this light: New cheap 26650 diving light at DX | BudgetLightForum.com
You can get new/better O-rings for it. O-ring quality KIT for ALETO or EDI-T or Yezl Q4 CREE Scuba XML XM-L T6 LED dive

They work, work pretty well in fact, when they work. I just don't take it diving anymore because I don't want to have to deal with it's issues.

 

[Ardy]

Thanks a heap fmerkel. I read through the whole article and I was amazed at the extent some people will go to modifying a $20 torch. Seems like I have a home torch that can be left out in the rain for a few minutes. No great loss.

 

[KeithG]

Very interesting. Will give that a go. When you replaced the o'rings where did you buy them. I measured the ones on my light but not easy to find.

Claims its up to 100m which I find amazing and most probably not true. But I rarely go to 40m these days so I am interested to see if it survives.

Nooooo. Put it in a baggy and then take it down on a day dive without a battery (learned that the hard way). Then toss the baggy in the garbage. I took a flyer and bought one of these on ebay. I eventually ended up with 4 due to DOAs and slow delivery. The one that was not DOA flooded immediately.

Being adventurous (slow learner?) I then tried several other different models of cheap ebay lights. Same story. Only 1 light did not flood, instead it randomly turned off mid dive and refused to turn back on until you removed the battery. Now they are all landfill.

Cheap lights are fun entertainment but should not be confused with real dive lights. You get what you pay for.

 

[fmerkel]

I've gotten these, and a couple of those $6-10 bright green/fluorescent lights. I've actually never had one outright flood but I did have them 'weep' a little, especially the green one. It had moulding ridges in the head and body that messed up the O-ring seal. Some fine sandpaper work on those + better O-rings and I've actually used them as a tiny carry light in HI. OTOH, I just never quite trust them the way I do my 'real' dive lights.

FWIW I did go through 3 Underwater Kinetics SL3 before I got one that was solid. But UWK replaced them all + shipping with batteries for free! Hard to beat that.