OP
Michael A
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Thanks for the feedback! Tried to answer all your questions below!
With regards to the steps it’s something that actually bothers me about some other lights. For example the ones I use have 6 different settings, but I mainly only use 1, and practically would only ever use 3 of them. It’s annoying to have to cycle through all the other ones and it actually takes away from the user experience. That being said, the other modes are a “feature” that someone else out there will legitimately have a practical use for. I’d actually like to make it so the user can customize their settings to suit their specific usage needs. The user could program in their own preset brightness's in the manner they would actually use them instead of having settings that they wouldn't use. There will already be small atmel microcontroller running the light itself (current control, temp monitoring, user input, etc), but that could be easily programmed like an arduino. There would be some amount of programming background knowledge needed however an arudino library of some sort could be made to make things easier. People could also create and share settings/profiles. Currently I'll be programming the lights using a secondary arduinoISP, however if this feature would be pretty popular a usb interface could be added.
That being said it’s currently a one button system. Having a different user input interface such as a ring/slide as you suggested would make the user experience much more natural. I’ve thought about it while designing and I think a magnetic ring with detents that twists around would be pretty nice to have. However unfortunately at least for the first prototypes I wanted to only have one sensor to keep things simple and opted for the 1 button system. Definitely would consider adding it on future designs
Yup, the blue LED’s are for fluorescence diving. Various sealife fluoresce at different wavelengths from UV all the way up to green I believe. I selected 450nm based off of some articles online. 450nm seems to get the largest variety of fluorescence. UV can actually damage coral.
For depth rating I’m using an off the shelf tube housing for the main body from Blue Robotics. They say it’s been tested up to 100m, though I don’t think they guarantee it. I’d be pretty comfortable to 33m though. I'll take the prototype on a dive with me this weekend and see if there are any issues.
O-rings should be easy to replace. For the main body Blue Robotics has each set available for $3. The lens O-ring I got form McMaster and is an industry standard size. Dash number 132.
Yup, current housing is clear as it’s an off-the shelf housing body. I considered getting some aluminum tube stock of the same dimensions but would have to machine/finish the inside of the tube smooth. Stock tube doesn’t come very smooth on the inside which could cause leaks for the O-ring. While it would improve heat transfer out, I don’t think it would be highly effective. The tube body goes through two seals before mating with the main front plate so there isn’t a great thermal conduction pathway. Heat would have to reach the main body through convection/radiation.
Current user interface is a magnetic slide switch with a spring. Intention is that each push forward would count as a “button press” The spring would push it back off of the Hall Effect sensor as a “button release” action. Each button cycling would change the mode, where one of them is off. I also considered adding a hard reed switch as a mechanical way to open the circuit instead of having the atmel fully control it.
For the battery pack I’m planning to change to a 4s2p 8x 18650 configuration. Since there will be pairs of cells you’ll need to charge it as a pack. Putting differently charged cells in parallel with each other is not good for them. To charge them as a pack you’ll need a charge balancer that makes sure each group of cells in series get charged to the same degree. If you have cells that are all in series it’s ok to separate them and charge them individually. Ideally all the cells would behave the same else certain ones will be stressed more than others. Good quality cells won’t have as much of a problem with this as some lesser quality ones. Not too sure on the TSA issue.
. I used it fairly sparingly as I didn't want to have to open it up during the trip and didn't have a practical way to charge it while camping. I mainly only used it when I was taking video with the gopro during the dives. It got through 5 dives over two days and was only about half discharged. Typically shot full 75% brightness during the day and 25% was more than bright enough for the night dive.
