Review DGX 1000-6 The best light you’ve probably never heard of…

[Tracy]

Are you using alkaline C cells in those?

DRiS website doesn't give the dimensions on those. But with 3 x C cells, I suspect they are way longer than I would like. The DR CX2 was already too long for my taste.

yep, just plain old generic C cells. It is long, but as a backup light it doesn't matter to me. It has plenty of room to be secured on my harness under the Drings.

 

[PEDiver]

Just another option for those that don't want to ever do anything to their backup besides clipping it to their harness.
It takes 3 C cell batteries and I change them every year just for good measure.

I have two of the Light Monkey 3W backup lights (3 C-cell batteries) and they sit on my harness full time and just get checked before every dive. I replace the batteries periodically. Hard to beat the 600 minute burn time. I do like some of the lights reviewed above but hard to beat the simplicity of these C-cell lights.

 

[stuartv]

DGX 1000-6. Unless Dive Rite wants to give me a light, since they haven't changed the button to add a lock, I don't see the need to buy one. Also not a big fan of a non-standard cable that appears to be proprietary.

Okay. So, DGX says the 1000-6 is constant output and gives 90 minutes of burn on High.

You're saying that you tested it and it was still running on High after 120 minutes. And that the output is constant until 90 minutes (presumed) and THEN it starts tapering off?

Any idea how long it will go when set to High, until it drops off to where it's not usable anymore? (obviously, what is "usable" is pretty subjective)

I have a 1000-6, but I have not tested it like that.

 

[stuartv]

yep, just plain old generic C cells. It is long, but as a backup light it doesn't matter to me. It has plenty of room to be secured on my harness under the Drings.

I thought that alkaline batteries have a non-trivial risk of leaking when left in a light for a year. No?

 

[Manatee Diver]

You're saying that you tested it and it was still running on High after 120 minutes. And that the output is constant until 90 minutes (presumed) and THEN it starts tapering off?

Any idea how long it will go when set to High, until it drops off to where it's not usable anymore? (obviously, what is "usable" is pretty subjective)

I'm not saying that it was still on high, simply that it was working.

I have time off for the next couple of weeks I might see if it is still working after 3-4 hours. Or maybe slap a GoPro and run it on time lapse...

 

[flymolo]

I thought that alkaline batteries have a non-trivial risk of leaking when left in a light for a year. No?

I think that's only the case when they are near empty but i could be wrong. i rarely change the 3 c batteries in my 3w light monkey backups but they haven't leaked.

 

[ChrisMBC]

Okay. So, DGX says the 1000-6 is constant output and gives 90 minutes of burn on High.

You're saying that you tested it and it was still running on High after 120 minutes. And that the output is constant until 90 minutes (presumed) and THEN it starts tapering off?

Any idea how long it will go when set to High, until it drops off to where it's not usable anymore? (obviously, what is "usable" is pretty subjective)

I have a 1000-6, but I have not tested it like that.

So, by pure coincidence, I started running some semi-scientific burn tests on 21700 lights in my basement a couple days ago. It's not very sophisticated - light in a bucket of water, with the head pointing at a light intensity (lux) sensor 30cm away. The DGX 1000-6 did not stay on a constant output for very long (time in minutes on X, light intensity in lux on Y).

As you can see, there's a drop around 27 mins, and then a slow but steady decline from there. This was running on high. Battery was a Samsung 50S, charged to 4.12v.

For comparison, here's the Sofirn SD06:

I'm going to repeat the test a few times for consistency, and run through a few different light modes and batteries. But thus far, it seems like the DGX light wasn't a constant output.

 

[stuartv]

I'm not saying that it was still on high, simply that it was working.

I have time off for the next couple of weeks I might see if it is still working after 3-4 hours. Or maybe slap a GoPro and run it on time lapse...

Understood. By saying "on High", I meant that you turned it on to High and you didn't change it. It was still on the High setting, regardless of how bright it actually was.

 

[stuartv]

So, by pure coincidence, I started running some semi-scientific burn tests on 21700 lights in my basement a couple days ago. It's not very sophisticated - light in a bucket of water, with the head pointing at a light intensity (lux) sensor 30cm away. The DGX 1000-6 did not stay on a constant output for very long (time in minutes on X, light intensity in lux on Y).

View attachment 874249

As you can see, there's a drop around 27 mins, and then a slow but steady decline from there. This was running on high. Battery was a Samsung 50S, charged to 4.12v.

For comparison, here's the Sofirn SD06:

Interesting. Especially in light (ha ha!) of @Manatee Diver's post that his 1000-6 was still bright after 2 hours. Your chart suggests very different performance.

Also, why charged to 4.12V? Wouldn't 4.2V be considered "full"? (I don't know how much difference that would make to your chart)

 

[ChrisMBC]

Interesting. Especially in light (ha ha!) of @Manatee Diver's post that his 1000-6 was still bright after 2 hours. Your chart suggests very different performance.

Also, why charged to 4.12V? Wouldn't 4.2V be considered "full"? (I don't know how much difference that would make to your chart)

Yeah, it also goes against my personal experience with the 1000-6, where I find it's still pretty bright at the end of a 90 minute dive. But I don't know how much is just my own personal perception of 'bright' vs an objective measurement.

Charged to 4.12 - should make absolutely minimal difference to actual runtime. You can see what the curve looks like in tests here (image copied below), but while 4.2v is the nominal max voltage, the voltage drops non-linearly very quickly, and the discharge only becomes linear below ~3.9v. Practically, 4.12 is at least 99% 'fully charged', and it's a little easier on the cells (I think?), so that's what I have my charger set to.