I have 4 of these lights and just started having a problem with them... The magnet on the plastic ring that turns the light on and off rusted out and the light stopped working... I played around with it and found the light was fine and just need to find away to turn it on and off... Well in Bonaire..
I went to a hardware store and bought some small magnets and rubber bands. I cut the magnet down so it was about 1/4" square and put it in the groove and the wide rubber band over it.. I was able to turn the light on and off and change brightness just fine... Used it hunting Lionfish for over 3 weeks of 2 dives a day..
My plan is to drill a small hole in the plastic ring and glue a chromed magnet in the ring... But for the $25 bucks each I payed, I've gotten my moneys worth already... With the fix, I'm hoping to get many more dives over the years to come..
Jim...
me too.
I dove my lamp for about 80 dives, and may have skipped proper rincing 5 times or so, when doing 4 dives per weekend. I sometimes rinced it for a short time, not letting infuse with the camera tank, but instead giving it a quicky with the wetsuits. The problem is that out of the 6 sides of the magnet, one is fully exposed to water.
It started misbehaving at the end of a 10 day trip. Once inspected, I found out that the magnet was badly rusted, it had inflated and cracked the plastic hole where it is lodged. I have replaced the whole ring with the one from the dead lamp of a collegue. On the replacement ring, I have painted the exposed side of the magnet with nail polish, and then covered it with thick silicone grease. I suppose one could use cyano glue, or car paint repair, etc... instead of nail polish.
Out of the 3 protected ultrafire 26650 batteries I bought 2 years ago, one has died, but that is because I did 4 long dives on it without recharge. I carry a pair of unprotected 18650 that I extracted from a reputable laptop brand battery pack, as backup. With a few loops of inner tube to increase the diameter of the battery and fit it into the lamp housing, these work just fine.
Overall, I find that the DIY maintenance is easy and the lamp sturdy, given the price and (no)brand. YMMV, I have bought such lamps for people who did not inspect and tighten the new lamp, and killed it in just one dive.
