HID can light proper usage Salvo Li-ion

[Clammy]

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone knew how to properly use an HID canister light. As in, do I turn it on once I'm in the water only, can I turn it off under water or am I supposed to wait until I'm back out?

Other than rinsing, what is the proper way to maintain and keep the light. I have a Salvo 21 watt HID with Lithium-Ion battery.


Any info would be appreciated. Thank You!

 

[Gombessa]

Hi,

I was just wondering if anyone knew how to properly use an HID canister light. As in, do I turn it on once I'm in the water only, can I turn it off under water or am I supposed to wait until I'm back out?

Other than rinsing, what is the proper way to maintain and keep the light. I have a Salvo 21 watt HID with Lithium-Ion battery.

Any info would be appreciated. Thank You!

Turn it on in the water. Either way, don't leave it struck out of water for more than a few minutes at a time (better not at all).

I turn my light off at the surface when I'm done with my dive (otherwise it's too easy to forget and leave it on for too long after getting out of the water.

Try not to store the light with the latch closed (compressing the o-ring).

Keep the battery charged.

If you have a 4-hour battery, try not to run it down 4 hours - less is better for the battery.

That's all I can think of right now...enjoy the light, it's a good one.

 

[battles2a5]

Strike it and turn it off under water. You will get better life out of the battery when you store it in a cool environment. Hot garages in the summer time are not great for li-ion packs.

Salvo's are pretty much bulletproof. I abuse mine to no end and it has never failed me.

 

[SparticleBrane]

While your light isn't a Halcyon, they make very similar lights to Salvo, and they have pretty good user manuals. Here is their latest user manual (~3MB PDF) and here (<1MB PDF) is the manual for their older line of lights.

Just thought they might be helpful.

You will get better life out of the battery when you store it in a cool environment. Hot garages in the summer time are not great for li-ion packs.

I suppose that means all those times I left my HIDs in the trunk of my car in the blazing sun when it was 90F+ outside didn't do them any good, hey? *slaps self for being lazy*

 

[jtivat]

Keep the battery charged.

Actually if not being used for a while it is better to store Li Ion at half a charge.

 

[Rick Inman]

The great thing about salvo lights is that you can screw up and usually not do too much damage.

I forgot to turn my light off once. It was a sun-shiny day, and I didn't notice it. I walked my doubles kit to the truck as usual and strapped it to the side wall (never noticed the light was still on). The light head was resting on something plastic.

Three hours later, sitting around my buddy's house de-briefing the dive, this thing goes off in my head and I suddenly say, 'Hey, you know what? I don't remember turning off my light."

We go out to the truck, and sure enough the test tube has popped off the bulb and melted to something about a foot away. The bulb itself was melted to some plastic thing.

I figured the very least, bulb, at the was doomed. Once it was cooled, the melted plastic and rubber on the test tube and bulb flicked off with a fingernail.

The next day I called Salvo. They walked me through putting the test tube back on. I recharged the battery and it fired right up and went on to work perfectly as if nothing had happened.

 

[masterof0]

Couple of of additional things I will throw out that are slightly different with HIDs. You do not want to "hot strike" the light. What I mean by that is once you have turned the light off, you want to leave it off a couple of minutes so that it can cool down before you turn the light back on. Alternatively, when you do turn the light on, you will want to keep it turned on for at least a minute before turning it back off.

Doing this will contribute to the maximum lifetime of the bulb

 

[battles2a5]

Does that apply to the Brightstar automotive bulbs? I thought that was a Welch-Allen issue? I still don't do it w/ the salvo, but didn't think this was much of an issue w/ the new bulbs.

 

[Clammy]

I sometimes turn mine off at depth and clip it off right before I ascend or while ascending and stopping. I guess it gives me something to do while I make my stops. Is this a bad thing only because the light is going from hot to very cold?

 

[SparticleBrane]

I doubt it would cause any harm to the light.

From another point of view I would try to keep it on the entire dive. You never know when you might need to signal your buddies for whatever reason or emergency that might crop up.