Halogen bulb/reflector

[RiverRat]

Found a solux bulb to fit my needs for now. We'll see how they are.

http://www.solux.net/cgi-bin/tlistore/soluxbulbs.html?id=C6X4Zyxy&mv_pc=1623

 

[Packhorse]

35watt philips masterl;ine driven at over 14.4v (over 50watt) on the left. P7 on the right driven at 2.8 amps.(10.3 watt).
As you can see the halo produces more light but the LED throws just as far with a tighter beam. If the halo was as tight it would throw further , but it isnt and doesnt.
Overall I am liking the LED more but I have not had it in the water yet.

All the high colour temp halogens I have found have been very inefficent.

 

[pescador775]

Wow, things have really changed. Some day, I'll dig out my old wreck diving light and take a pic. The aluminum box holds a 9 amp-hr lead acid motorcycle battery. The head contains a standard 100W marine fog light (incandescent, sealed bulb). Not DIY, purchased in early 70's and still works. Straight out, the flat beam of that fog light is way more effective than a spot beam. Now, I need to also say that it was regularly used in vis of about 8 feet or even a bit less and in near total darkness.

 

[np251]

35watt philips masterl;ine driven at over 14.4v (over 50watt) on the left. P7 on the right driven at 2.8 amps.(10.3 watt).
As you can see the halo produces more light but the LED throws just as far with a tighter beam. If the halo was as tight it would throw further , but it isnt and doesnt.
Overall I am liking the LED more but I have not had it in the water yet.

All the high colour temp halogens I have found have been very inefficent.

ha, LOL!!! i just bought the P7 at the weekend, intending to do this mod... i have very high hopes, and it looks like itll be a winner. And i love how tight that beam is compared tot he halogen (same one i use, coincidently)

how are you driving it? direct, or with current limitation?

Id be willing to bet that the higher colour temp of the led allows it to surpass the halogen underwater- all that red/yellow in the halogen just gets sucked up way too fast in the water.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Check Home Depot. That's where I get bulbs for my TL50 Extreme.

 

[Packhorse]

Yeah I was really suprised at how tight the beam is. I was expecting the opposite.

I am driving it of 8 AMC7135's (4 per board) with 4 NiMh's at 4.8v (6v fresh charge)
I did try direct driving of a 3.7 2400mA Li Ion that was not charged and got 3.1v 2.0 amps and it was still very bright. I nearly stuck with that cause it would mean a smaller and cheaper battery can but I decided I wanted the most I could out of it. I will also be hooking it up so I can run it at half power .

more info here

 

[np251]

nice. We seem to be thinking along very similar lines... even down to the choice of colour for the mag.

great to see those beam pics, now i cant wait to get mine done and tested in the pool.

 

[spiff]

I now got a handful of Phillips Masterline ES. I ordered the 45W version, with 8, 24 and 36 degrees spread.
They give some more light, than my old "standard"-bulb, but I will test them further when it's dark outside. The color looks nice and white, when you drive them at 16,8V.

Anyways: How do you test if your newly built battery cannister is watertight? Just take it on a dive without a battery in it?

 

[oxyhacker]

Halogens just naturally want to put out light in a certain part of the spectrum. You can tweak it a little bit, but trying to push it too far means making the bulb do something which "ain't natural" and there is a price to be paid. The Solux bulbs use the reflector as a filter to tweak the color temperature, which means it ends up dumping unwanted parts of the spectrum, so the higher the color temp of the bulb, the less efficient the Solux (and similar bulbs very high kelvin halogens from other makers) become.

If you can be happy with a 3200 or so K light (and not to many years ago, we were ecstatic with one) the new HIR and IR bulbs put out a lot more light, without overdriving the bulb, so you get long bulb life to. Hmm.... Wonder what happens if you overdrive one?

All the high colour temp halogens I have found have been very inefficent.