Halcyon Proteus 10w Head

[oxyhacker]

Sartek also has a focusable 10W HID, in an aluminum housing that might be worth looking at.

Sartek is not as well known as some of the others but they apparently were the ones who actually came up with the idea of building compact HID lightheads, using W-A components.

cadet diver once bubbled...
Based on your experiences would you not recomend the Halcyon 10W HID Head? Maybe try for a dive-rite head instead?

 

[JeffAustin]

My 18w HID/ Helios9 came back from Halcyon yesterday totally restored to new condition. I was bummed that the unit flooded on the first dive, and that was evident on my first posting, but Halcyon got my light fixed and back to me in less than two weeks. Any questionable parts were replaced, even the cord, which was probably OK. Nobody ever wants to have a piece of equipment flood, but I am thankful that halcyon took care of me the way they did. Interesting side note: after the light flooded, I cleaned it out with fresh water and a little alcohol, let it dry out , and put it back together. Turned it on, and it worked. That tells me that if the head floods and you can figure out/ fix the reason it flooded, you can be back in business diving with your light within a couple hours.

 

[canuckdiver]

excellent jeff!

this brings up a good point, I have always felt that user serviceability is important in ANY equipment! What other things would people consider to be good or bad engineering points? Not just on this, or on other light heads? Is there any thing you would like to see incorporated into new lights?

 

[JeffAustin]

A totally sealed battery pack. Do we need to get to the battery for any reason? How 'bout a basic pack that is good to 150 ft, and a sturdy heavy duty battery pack for deep, tech stuff. An ultrasonically sealed, no muss, no fuss battery pack. What do you think??

 

[Scubaroo]

You would need some way of dealing with the hydrogen buildup that occurs during battery charging and discharging (or one or the other) if you sealed the battery pack. There was a report of a battery canister going boom in Australia that's thought to be from excessive hydrogen buildup.

Personally I would like a switch on the lighthead itself rather than on the canister - something you can't easily bump on or off. The canister switch works fine, but it would certainly be more convenient on the lighthead. I know that a HID should only be turned on at the beginning of the dive and end of the dive, so access shouldn't be a major concern, but why not make it easier?

 

[canuckdiver]

both excellent points! I have been considering a battery pack using nylon screws to secure the lid instead of latches, I think it would lead to less snagging and a more problem-free design.
an overpressure relief valve could be worked into the lid with no problems at all.

The switch on the lighthead is a good point, the only concern I would have is that if the battery canister floods, there would be no way of cutting off the power at the source end. But definitely something that could be worked on...

 

[SPEEDSTER]

placing the switch on the head is a no-no. this is because the head needs to be as streamlined as possible for 2 reasons, 1. it is always your lead edge, but more importantly: 2. its in a very snag-prone location. the last thing you want is to become entangled in something and lose your lighting because the snag turned your light off. you should never need to turn your light on/off/on/off/on... if you need to turn it off to save juice, you shouldn't be diving that battery pack, get a bigger one.

M

 

[SPEEDSTER]

as for the over pressure relief valve, its already built into the design of the canister. the canister o-ring will extrude to let the pressure of the gas build up out, kinda like a burp, without flooding the light. no need for more failure points with an additional opv. I'd be interested to see a design w/ the nylon screws, sounds bulkier, but interesting. you just have to be sure the screws do not seat into the lid, the lid needs to be able to move up and down on its own as pressure changes on the outside.

m

 

[canuckdiver]

speedster, I'll pm you a drawing of what I am planning (plotting?)
shouldn't add any bulk the way I have it thought out

 

[DNAXdiver]

dont put too much faith in this its very common for flooded electrnics to work fine after being dried only 2 stop working a few days weeks later

potted espec water gets in deep can't get out gos on doing da bad stuff

JeffAustin once bubbled...
Interesting side note: after the light flooded, I cleaned it out with fresh water and a little alcohol, let it dry out , and put it back together. Turned it on, and it worked. That tells me that if the head floods and you can figure out/ fix the reason it flooded, you can be back in business diving with your light within a couple hours.