Opinions on DIY Light Buildup

[mts0628]

Hello All:

Using The Divelight Companion and a few other resources, I am going to build a canister divelight. I have most of the materials; I am using 10 NiMH batteries in series for 12 VDC and with 10000mAH. I have an acrylic housing, 3 inches ID, 3,5 inches OD. I have (3) a 50W, 12 degree MR16 bulb and I was going to either use a c-cell Maglite or a delrin body with a Maglite head. The snag is that I don't have the Maglite yet because I am cheap and am looking for a good deal. BUT, I have another option.

Thanks to eBay, I snagged a Diverite lighthead (grey, knurled body) with the cable, glands, switch, and canister lid (2,5 inches OD) (essentially the dive light less the housing and battery). The snag with this setup is that the bulb or ballast is bad. It is an MR11, I assume 10W. It has been so long since I bought it, I forgot what I had. Nevertheless

So, should I first buildup as I was planning, get a Maglite, fiddle around with my halogen bulb(s), and get everything right. Or should I do something with this Diverite light head- such as replace the bulb and ballast or maybe try a LED assembly? And of course use my planned battery/ container setup? I dunno what voltage a LED bulb uses, so I don't want to solder it up for 12 volts in series, when I could make a 6 volt, 20000 mAH battery pack!

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

With kindest regards from North Carolina,
Thomas

 

[mts0628]

By the way- I was going to start this in August 2008 but I got sidetracked in life but now am going to get back on it!

 

[Packhorse]

Forget Halogen. Its inefficent hard to get a tight beam and ugly yellow light.

Also forget paralleling up NiMh or NiCd cells. They dont like it.

I did a LED conversion on a DR MR11 sized head. It came out really good. I have also just this hour finished a Fa&Mi LED conversion from 10w HID to LED. In both cases I used a SSC P7 LED. But I used a reflector for one and a acrylic optic for the other. I dont have them both here so I cant really tell which was better but I think the reflector may be best.
A mag light head will allow a larger reflector which helps with a tighter beam. It will also allow 4 ( or up to 7!) smaller LEDs to be used which I prefer over the multi die LED's like P7 or MC E.

Voltage for LEDs is entirely dependant on the driver electronics you choose to use. This decision is nearly as important as which LED's you use.
Check out some of my threads on these forums. It should give you a few ideas.
sods :: View Forum - DIY & maintenance
Homemade and Modified lights - CandlePowerForums

 

[mts0628]

Hey Packhorse:
First, thank you for your post. Now, damn you for making my choices harder, now seeing what's out there and what one can do provided they have the skills, patience, and supplies. But, I am just kidding about damning you, as you have made me even more hungry for a DIY divelight.

So (I think) I want to build a LED light head and I still want to use my 12 VDC 10 AH battery pack. I have the batteries but I have not soldered them up yet; I am hellbent on using this battery setup as I have them and the 3 inch ID tube.

After all of the reading, I think I want to either try three LED's (CREE XR-E R2) in a maglite head, or a single "drop-in" module, sporting a P7 LED. I understand about voltage, as I will use a driver/regulator (either a buckpack or LED Genie), but I guess my first question is, using reflector technology, what would yield a tightest, whitest, brightest beam of the two mentioned? Or would you recommend something else?

I have seen what bronk, 350xfire, and you have done, all incorporating slightly different designs. But all great craftsmanship and apparently good designs as well.

And finally, thank you again for you links. They are great although admittedly, I just got done reading them all before this post. I admittedly skimmed over some things!

With kindest regards from North Carolina, I am
Thomas Styron

 

[Big John]

Thomas,

Would love to compare lightbuild ideas with you. Building a SSCP7 12watt LED. I live in Grenville too.

John Whichard

 

[mts0628]

John:

Hey neighbor! Sounds good. I'd say let's PM but I don't know how! So gimme a call sometime 252-504-8826 or email me mts0628@gmail.com and we'll see what we can come up with. As you see though, I am still trying to get my ideas squared away and thus I came to the experts!

I do have a lathe (Jet 9*20) but the compound rest is squirrely and my 4 jaw chuck is broken (one of the dogs). So, I was going to go to a neat shop in W-Ville/Ayden for some help. They are pretty helpful.

Anyhoo, maybe I'll see ya' around.

Kindest regards,
Thomas

 

[Hallmac]

Or would you recommend something else?

Why not use your batteries, and the triple R2's with an optic and PCB in the MR11 head.

 

[350xfire]

John:

Hey neighbor! Sounds good. I'd say let's PM but I don't know how! So gimme a call sometime 252-504-8826 or email me mts0628@gmail.com and we'll see what we can come up with. As you see though, I am still trying to get my ideas squared away and thus I came to the experts!

I do have a lathe (Jet 9*20) but the compound rest is squirrely and my 4 jaw chuck is broken (one of the dogs). So, I was going to go to a neat shop in W-Ville/Ayden for some help. They are pretty helpful.

Anyhoo, maybe I'll see ya' around.

Kindest regards,
Thomas

Hey Thomas:
Not to highjack this thread, but I am in the process of selecting a lathe and was wondering if the 9x20 allows you to do everything for a divelight (canister and such),. Harbor Freight has one for $700.
Thanks
Hector

 

[mts0628]

Hey Hector:

I hope this doesn't get me into trouble with the Mods (OT kinda')...

Deep Breath, OK. With any lathe you can turn, remove material, and drill nearly anything (acetal, metal, acrylic, etc). The only thing you can't do, initially, is mill but where there's a will for a mill, there's a way. That's for later though. But let me really start of by saying, "You get what you pay for." I looked for about a year before I dropped the hammer on a lathe, and I actually have HF about 8 blocks from my house! I just couldn't by a HF lathe. I had many reasons but customer support was the biggest, as in if you had a question or broke a part or something, you are SOL with HF. The guy behind the counter wouldn't know a tailstock from a tailwind!

But I am not saying that hope is lost IF you buy the HF lathe, provided it's the right size and you know what you're doing and how to get by. The reality is, that any lathe we as hobbyists are going to be able to afford, is, going to be non-American, or simply Asian. Hopefully, the lathe is a 9*20, or 9*19 (advertised). This simply means, that you could chuck up a piece that is roughly 20 inches long, and has a diameter of 9 inches. But these aren't actual working numbers all the time, as in just because your lathe can handle these sizes, doesn't mean you can work the piece with tooling! Think about our stuff though: what could you possibly want to make that is larger than 9 inches in diameter (besides a ring for a pressure vessel maybe) and longer than 20 inches? Nothing really. The canister for our lights may be longer than 12 inches depending, so a say 7*12 lathe may not fit the bill but a 9*20 would. And unless you're using car batteries for your project light, 9 inches diameter for stock is plenty enough.

Personally, I would look at Grizzly for a good deal, and they have awesome lathes amongst other things. You may say, but it looks the same as the HF lathe, and you will be right. But they have customer support, their machines are a bit tighter before we get them, and they have all the accessories, doodads, and whatchamacallits than we as budding metalheads could ever dream of having! If you do get the HF lathe because of cost or convenience, you could still get by, Steve Bedair has a HF lathe and he has it dialed in and does wonderful work with it. So, it all boils down to how comfortable are you working with the lathe before you start using it. But you probably won't be plugging your machine in and making lightheads right off the bat; you'd better make small chip and curls first. Stay away from used lathes, initially, and I hate to say it, stay away from old American lathes. They are beautiful and did precision work back in the day but more often than not they will be worn out and unless babied or you know how to fix them, wouldn't do what you want it to today. And even as such, they would still cost you your firstborn or at least a couple of grand.

Check these out too. MetalWebNews, Enco, Mini-Lathe (small lathe but still good stuff), and my favorite. Exhale.

So, I hope this was tolerable to the Mods as this wasn't exactly about the divelight. But lemme' appease them and me by asking you to weigh in on my dilemma: what do you think I could or should do, and which lights would you recommend? The DR light head is not an option now. Oh, and I love your latest project. Does the linear configuration do well for orientation of the LED's, and especially underwater?

With kindest regards,
Thomas

 

[mts0628]

Hey Hallmac:

Well, I dunno what I was thinking when I recalled that the seller said this was a non-serviceable lighthead and after snooping around and ending up on DR's website, thought the lighthead was indeed non-serviceable. But after I posted, I looked further, and noticed the dimple in the edge of the head. I was able to pull the o-ring out, invert the head, and then the glass lens and the sealing o-ring fell out. I then discovered the malfunction- a cracked lighthead than had no conductivity/ resistance when checked with a DMM. So, I ordered a new bulb and battery pack for about 130 USD over the weekend, and now I will have a serviceable HID for cheap. I could have used my batteries and acrylic for this light but after I thought about it, this really was the quickest and least labor intensive way. And I still could make another light with what I have (minus the light head of course) eventually.

I still want to do something with these batteries and stuff. I may end up using a Maglite head or even turning an acetal, PVC, or aluminum head head. I don't really want to use aluminum though, because unless its 6013 or 6061 I worry about corrosion even with short exposure times. And there is rarely the scenario of a scrap billet of 60XX aluminum for cheap. And I know little to nothing about anodizing.

So, I am leaning towards LED's but how, how many, and what kind for what I want are still up in the air. I think I favor your suggestion of triple R2's, but I know little of optics either. Grrr!

Thank you for the suggestions. If I can get it figured out, like I said, maybe a plastic head will fit. Of course, I realize about heat-sinking, but I'll cross that bridge later.

Kind regards from North Carolina,
Thomas Styron