ENikS
Registered
I posted description of this light in 'lights' section but I think I should mention it here too.
Ive been on a quest for perfect backup light for a while. The criteria where:
Small size, kind of obvious.
Light weight; no one wants to carry 8 D cell light on every dive.
Very bright light. It should be useful at day time as well as at night.
The burning time has to be around 70 120 minutes. After that I can change to a new set of batteries (I dont do overhead).
When I came across Princeton Tec Surge I tough it was perfect except it would go deem after 20 30 minutes of burning. It would still be useable but for day dives it was almost useless.
To fix that Ive added some circuitry to compensate for battery voltage drop over time. It would draw more current providing constant output power. The batteries will deplete more rapidly but light output would be constantly bright until the very end.
When battery depleted to the point where it is impossible to bust it anymore, the circuitry shuts down and lamp powers from battery directly providing another 20 or so minutes of deem light.
Additional benefit of this circuitry is that now I can use rechargeable batteries without any light output degradation. It is as bright with NiMH batteries as with alkaline, but with 2200 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries (http://www.mahaenergy.com) I am getting better burn time then with regular Duracell.
Ive been on a quest for perfect backup light for a while. The criteria where:
Small size, kind of obvious.
Light weight; no one wants to carry 8 D cell light on every dive.
Very bright light. It should be useful at day time as well as at night.
The burning time has to be around 70 120 minutes. After that I can change to a new set of batteries (I dont do overhead).
When I came across Princeton Tec Surge I tough it was perfect except it would go deem after 20 30 minutes of burning. It would still be useable but for day dives it was almost useless.
To fix that Ive added some circuitry to compensate for battery voltage drop over time. It would draw more current providing constant output power. The batteries will deplete more rapidly but light output would be constantly bright until the very end.
When battery depleted to the point where it is impossible to bust it anymore, the circuitry shuts down and lamp powers from battery directly providing another 20 or so minutes of deem light.
Additional benefit of this circuitry is that now I can use rechargeable batteries without any light output degradation. It is as bright with NiMH batteries as with alkaline, but with 2200 mAh NiMH rechargeable batteries (http://www.mahaenergy.com) I am getting better burn time then with regular Duracell.