DRIS 1000 Style Light

[ano123]

Yes,I do agree.What you pay,What you got.

 

[alecto]

I'd be interested to see how they are going after a few months of use. Still going strong?

 

[ti325v]

I would like to add my experience to this discussion;
I did investigate buying 10 to 20 dris lights directly from Mike.
I really wanted to keep the purchase directly with them, I knew full well it was a Chinese light and I have over $3000 in junk Chinese diving lights here in my dive shop..
(DO NOT BUY MAGIC SHINE ! Garbage all of them !)
However dealing directly with DRIS would give me a lot of confidence in the product.
Customs and shipping issues dictated that it simply was not a possibility.
(I am in Vietnam).
I did see the light on aibaba, and contacted the manufacturer Brinyte.
The light as far as I can tell is exactly a DRIS 1000 and the shortly is externally the same as well.
I have not opened them up to check the driver yet..but from all appearances they are the same lights both they shorty and the 1000.

I was moderately satisfied with the DRIS 1000 3xc cell. It certainly not doing the cree xml-u2 led justice.
I was used to the cree driven by 18650 Li-ion at 8.4 volts as in the magic shine.

I contacted brinyte and asked them if they could mod the 1000 to accept 2x18650 Li-ion`s.
Much to my surprise they were happy to do a small production run for me to test. Just ten pieces.
This upgrade simply blows the 1000 out of the water. They sell real 3000 ma batteries and I get 1:45 minute run time, then the light dims for ten minutes then goes out.
Plenty of time for a night dive. We usually run 1:10 for our night dives here.

This in my mind is the ideal dive light. Especially for giving to our customers for night dives..
No finicky reed switches with magnets and rotating rings...One of the main failure points with the Magic shine lights. (Aside from flooding and burned LED`s.)
Simple on or off, an open water diver can understand. Bullet proof 3 o-rings.

I picked mine up at the factory, cost was $39 a set, out the door with batteries and chargers.

I now use the upgraded lights for customer primaries with the 1000`s as back ups.
Each diver gets one of each.

I did buy some samples of the shortly with the intention of using them as back ups, but the run time is too short.
We are working on an upgrade for the shorty with either a 26650 or 32650 Li-ion.
It will only be running about 4.0 volts, but I expect over an hour run time.
Another upgrade we are considering, as it will only require 2 mm more space in the barrel is to run the 1000 with 2x 265650, that should get well over 2 hours burn time.
No rush for that as I do not need it. This will require an new barrel.
I sent mike this info and really hope he picks up on this, the light really is best in class with the upgrade.
Good clearly defined hotspot, useable but not great spill. Simple switch, rechargeable batteries.
30 or so dives and no problems.
I am going to get a bunch made up with our logo and give them as gifts to customers who dive a lot with us.


beam shots..... seems I cannot upload now, they are in my drop box account here..

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61531697/DSCF6239.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61531697/DSCF6241.JPG

Mind blowing upgrade.

Tried again to upload the photos, having problems so check the links above.

 

[johngayle]

I have dris 1k shorty wow what a light all fellow tec divers here in south florida always asking me about it. They are envious my $105 light is bright as there $1200 can lights!

 

[3D diver]

Was the change to the light head/electronics or just to the barrel to accommodate the battery change? I've modified my DRIS lights for video and wonder whether I could retain my changes.

 

[ti325v]

The driver has been changed to handle the increased current and voltage. By mistake, before I marked them..I put one of the 3 c light heads on one of the 2x18650 tubes, with the batteries in it...the magic smoke leaked out. Fried to a crisp.
What did you mod for video ?
If you look at the links above you can see my light is an absolute screamer, I would be thrilled to change a couple for video.
A few more links to photos...

The lights with batteries
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61531697/DSCF6232.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61531697/DSCF6231.JPG

Barrel with insert for 18650`s
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61531697/DSCF6237.JPG

The back of the drivers.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61531697/DSCF6235.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61531697/DSCF6234.JPG

The mini
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/61531697/DSCF6238.JPG

 

[guruboy]

Can you send me details on how to order the modded light you did from Brinyte?

Also,where was the factory? I might try and pick some up on my next trip to Asia.

 

[dfx]

I contacted brinyte and asked them if they could mod the 1000 to accept 2x18650 Li-ion`s.
Much to my surprise they were happy to do a small production run for me to test. Just ten pieces.
This upgrade simply blows the 1000 out of the water. They sell real 3000 ma batteries and I get 1:45 minute run time, then the light dims for ten minutes then goes out.
Plenty of time for a night dive. We usually run 1:10 for our night dives here.

I have a bunch of Cree XM-L T6 lights and they all get about 1:40 run time out of one 18650 battery. Does the increased voltage increase the brightness of the LED, or what's the difference?

 

[ti325v]

I am just learning about all of this myself...
It seems to be a function of voltage AND current. You have to have enough current available to run the led at the specified voltage, which li-ion can deliver.....

The 2 18650`s deliver 8.4 volts (Dropping to about 6.4 volts and 6000 ma over 1:20 minutes.
I do not know the ampacity of a c cell, but the voltage of the 3 cells starts at 4.5 and slowly drops..so the voltage of the 18650 is much higher from beginning to end and I believe there is a boat load more current. This may be the reason why the c cells run for about 5 hours, I just do not know for sure.
You can see the beam shots, the 18650`s blow the 3c cells away.

There is a whole lot to know and understand about drivers, leds, current, li-ion technology. Really I do not know.
There is a lot of info on Candlepower forum.

 

[3D diver]

Yeah, LED's are just diodes, more light is just a matter of operating them further out on their IV curve. The trick, of course, is managing the heat, and the LED's reliability, while doing so.

ti325v: I put holographic diffusers in my DRIS lights. See post 69 here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gopro-video/425784-my-gopro-3d-setup-7.html

I experimented with other diffusers earlier in the same thread.