DIY Video Housing a success...

[Padipro]

Freakin Scuba Board! They really need to get this thing fixed. Can't post pictures or links without loosing everything I just typed in.

Click on this link http://groups.msn.com/Divelight/diylightingsystem.msnw?Page=1 and it will take you to my DIY site and you can take a look at a few pictures of the lighting system I made for my old housing. Nothing but a battery canister and two VERY short modified Mag-Lites for the light heads mounted on the flexable Line-Loc tubing that in turn mounted to the housing.

I'm thinking of resurrecting the entire thing for use with the new, smaller housing. It was never modified to use the stepped lens and O-ring and I'll need to find a way to carry the canister as it was originally attached to the old housing.

 

[superstar]

I am trying to upload pics of my housing and it's not working. Am I doing something wrong or it it scubaboards website?

 

[diversteve]

I am trying to upload pics of my housing and it's not working. Am I doing something wrong or it it scubaboards website?

It's them(us). The gallery is currently down. Try putting them on a site like photobucket and linking to them.

 

[Dræger]

The light om the pictures are a canister light. 50W Osram ICR bulb, and a 7,5 Ah led battery.
Chanister is made of plumming parts. I are going to made a new canister light whit a filter that spread the light, 2 camera mounted head 2X50W or 2x30W, 13,5 Ah led battery (3x4,5).

I am planing to use the new canister whit 3 differents rigs.
2x50 W ICR whit difuson
100W halogen
35W HID. I must remove 1 of the battery to give plase to the ballast. (9Ah)

Morten

 

[nwbrewer]

Scott,

I really like that canister design, and I've been looking at doing something to hold a 7ah SLA that wouldn't be huge, this seems like a good way to go. What size PVC tubing did you use? Did you just stretch it around a wooden form? Any and all help appreciated.

Jake

 

[Padipro]

I believe I used a 6 inch pipe and yes, I molded it around a wooden form. I can't seem to find the form but I think it was a couple of 2X4's and maybe some plywood to make things a little bigger. I used a router and a round over bit to round the edges of the mold so they weren't so sharp.

I think it will still work fine for my new smaller housing but I'll have to re-do the electrical cords. They are way to short to mount the canister on my belt and run the lights to the housing. I also need to make another stepped lens for the light heads. They were never modified to use the stepped lenses.

 

[paulthenurse]

Getting close!

I've got my basic housing put together. One 6-1/2" piece of 4" PVC with a hub-to-hub coupling on one end, scalloped to provide a hood over the top of the lens. The lens is a piece of 3/8 inch Lexan cut to fit to the end of the pipe stock, glued in place by 5200. The coupling slides 1/2 inch beyond the Lexan onto the pipe stock where it is glued with PVC. I have a slip coupling glued in place behind that. This gives me double coverage the entire leanth of the tube. The slip covering stops 1" before the end of the tube. The inner tube fits inside the removeable end, this gives me the one inch lap.

To make the removable end I took a slip cover and glued a 3/8" ring of 4' pipe stock inside it as a stop. I glued the lens to this stop with 5200. There will be an O-ring between the outer ring and the removable end and the lens will rest on an inner O-ring.

Today before I left for work I glued on pieces of pvc to the joint area to act as pads to pad out the latches so that I have more than the 1/4 inch of the PVC pipe toattach my screws to. I also took a couple of 1" T-couplings and cut them off so that the long side of the coupling was cut vertically. Then I sanded them to fit on the curved outside surface of the housing and glued them in place. I will be able to use pieces of 1" pipe as removable handles.

Pics to follow. So far the most expensiv part of the whole thing is the $45 I spent at McMaster-Carr for the 4 latches and O-rings and shipping. I figure to be under $100 for the whole thing by the time I'm done. Of course, that doesn't count time.
Paul

 

[Bobby_M]

Hey Paul,
Sounds pretty close to my design but using a double O-ring system. One thing I'd caution you about is that the tolerences between the two O-rings can actually work against you. The double system requires that both sealing surfaces are in perfect parallel which is tough to do with typical garage machining tools. Also, two rings will require twice the clamping power to acheive the same seal. Or course, this is really only an issue for the first 5 feet or so. Maybe I just don't understand the design exactly so I'm looking forward to pics. Great job.

Bobby

 

[paulthenurse]

Here it is.

A 6-1/2" piece of Schedule 40 PVC.
A Hub-to Hub coupling makes the forward lens. I have the lens sitting up against the inner stop. I glued it in place with 5200. When that dried I put PVC glue around the remaining hub coupling and then a bead of 5200 on the inside of the lens. I pushed the lens into place and left it to dry. When it dried, I PVC glued a Slip Coupling in place, this coupling runs most of the remaining leanth of the body. I wanted double thickness over the body. Then I did a bunch of fiddling to get the overlaps to be exactly the same. Eventually, I got it so that the inner and outer overlaps were exactly the same. I decided I wanted a double O-ring seal for redundency. My only concern is that the inner O-ring doesn't have anything to keep it from moving side to side, but I don't think that will be a problem. The only way it will get any lateral pressure is if the outer ring fails totally. The rear lens presses directly against the inner o-ring so the deeper/more pressure, the better.

I made removable handles out of 3/4" tees. I cut them down and sanded them to fit snug against the sides and glued them in place with 5200. They will be removable and attached with a pin drilled thu the mount and the pipe. (I haven't done that yet so it's not in the pictures.) I also added a couple of SS attachments for tethers.

A bit of touching up with the paint, (I made it yellow for visibility in case the unthinkable should happen!) and she's almost ready to go. I want to take off all the hardware and apply a dab of 5200 to the threads. The removable handles will come out a few inches then Tee down (for the handles proper,) and Tee up to act as video light attachment arms. (That will be the next project.)

 

[MATTKINZ]

I've been off the thread for awhile. BTW, Great looking housing.

I haven't yet found a tap for the pipe thread of the coupler to make the gland fitting to start camera. I'm trying to use scott's plan and have the stainless rod already bent to both accommodate a slide switch on my camera and with a rotation hit the record button as well.

I did buy a red 25 lens and hope to try it soon to see if the color will be better . Acouple of weekends ago, got some good video of angelfish and butterfly fish in Gulf of mexico at 72 ft. Everything looks quite blue though. The yellow comes through well at depth. Some red algae which was maroon to my eyes at depth looks absolutely black on the video.

I hope to figure out how to post some video. MK