Project Log: DIY Canister light

[jeraldjcook]

hhh
Dive light

Looks nice. What your plan for the bulb and battery?

 

[RiverRat]

Looks nice. What your plan for the bulb and battery?

You beat me to my edits It uses standard (MR16? I forget) Halogens in various degrees of angle and wattages. Whatever you want to run depending on what you're doing. Wide angle for photography, narrow for caves. High wattage for brightness, low wattage for longer burn times. Check out the links I put in, lots of good info. The PCMUS site has a link to a great site that sells NIMH cells. For this project you need 17volts to overdrive the bulb and the Genie is built to run at that voltage. That MSN group is great too. There are guys on there selling custom Maglite heads that are really nice. The battery case sucks though. It's a drybox that works well but I can't see it holding up to any serious diving. I think if you can make or buy the best designed lite head, battery box and battery management circuitry like the Genie (there are also freeware plans on the net) you could build a very rugged and dependable light. But to get it engineered correctly you're starting to get to the point where it'll be almost as expensive as a commercial unit. Unless you have your own machine shop which I don't.

 

[RiverRat]

Here's the edits/links

It's amazing where the new technology is headed. Won't be long before HID is a thing of the past. I just ordered a TL50 from Nocturnal Lights - Manufacturer Dive Lights, Underwater Focus Lights, and Underwater Video Lights for regular and technical divers, underwater photographers, and underwater film makers. I got turned on to the overvolted Halogens from starting my own Maglite project. That's still in the works and I'm in no rush with that. I decided to mount a piezo in the head unit....Dive light It uses a circuit to manage the startup current, power levels (3), battery draw monitoring, shutdown sequence etc. Pretty ingenious. Dive Light Genie Electronics.
From what I'm seeing there is no problem overdriving the Halogens to get a nice white light but there is still a ways to go to get the same burn times as a HID but they're getting closer. Of course LED beats them all. Or will someday soon I bet. I have a Photon Torpedo backup LED light and I amazed a buddy I was diving with. It almost kept up with his 10W HID! Not quite but I was hitting the bottom of the quarry with a nice, tight LED beam right next to his. Not bad for a handheld backup. Not sure what LED it uses but it kicks ass. Eventually I'll get the Maglite head squared away (still working on the gasket/oring/sealing part) and I need to engineer a better "can" for the batteries. But while I'm experimenting I figured I'd give this TL50 a shot. I can't see buying into HID being as the bulbs are so darn expensive. And I'm also thinking that someday an LED module may be created to slip into a halogen light head/socket?

 

[divinginn]

I have been reading up on a ssc p7 led emmitter 700-900 lumens out of a single emmiter running at 3.7 volts@2.8 amps,that is up there with a 18-21 watt hid,it will work with a modded mag light with a beefy heat sink to soak up all the excess heat produced by the emmitter.I think this is the direction I will be going with. check out the candle power forum,it is amazing what some of these guys are doing with flashlights.

 

[RiverRat]

I have been reading up on a ssc p7 led emmitter 700-900 lumens out of a single emmiter running at 3.7 volts@2.8 amps,that is up there with a 18-21 watt hid,it will work with a modded mag light with a beefy heat sink to soak up all the excess heat produced by the emmitter.I think this is the direction I will be going with. check out the candle power forum,it is amazing what some of these guys are doing with flashlights.

Yeah I checked it out. Amazing. If I could retrofit one of these, along with a heatsink, into the light I just bought the battery time would be phenominal. Won't be long now we'll see small can lights with kick-butt LEDS blowing HID out of the water

 

[divinginn]

6 d cell nmh batterys should get minimum burn time of several hours at max power,they are still working on drivers for these leds at 2.7 amps,but some people have been putting in two 1.5 amp drivers to control the juice. These leds are supposed to work real well with maglights,I need to order my parts and start building my light.

 

[RiverRat]

I have found slip in LED modules for the Halogens out there. But nothing like this latest LED. Once one of these gets mounted and heatsinked properly I'll throw one in. I'll just have to see what voltage my light is putting out now to overdrive the halogen. Might have to step it down depending on what this new future module will be designed to run at. I'll keep an eye on this LED and who knows maybe I'll mod one myself at some point. Shouldn't be too hard.

 

[divinginn]

I just got in my p-7 led and found a maglight p-7 heatsink,I am ready to start putting my light together.I am going to direct drive it off 3-12 amp nickel metal hydride d cell batteries to start with then later work out some electronics where I can dim it for longer burn times and to protect the battery pack. now I need to learn how to solder.

 

[nwbrewer]

I just got in my p-7 led and found a maglight p-7 heatsink,I am ready to start putting my light together.I am going to direct drive it off 3-12 amp nickel metal hydride d cell batteries to start with then later work out some electronics where I can dim it for longer burn times and to protect the battery pack. now I need to learn how to solder.

Mind sharing your source? This is something I plan to tackle in teh next month or so.

Jake

 

[eko_eko]

I think if you can make or buy the best designed lite head, battery box and battery management circuitry like the Genie (there are also freeware plans on the net) you could build a very rugged and dependable light. But to get it engineered correctly you're starting to get to the point where it'll be almost as expensive as a commercial unit. Unless you have your own machine shop which I don't.

How well does epoxy or epoxy/fiberglass hold up under water? My boat's made of it, but doesn't see any serious depth if I can help it

It's cheap and easy to work with once you have a little practice. I may be totally overestimating the strength and pressure tolerance of the epoxy; but it seems to me that it would be easy to build a strong battery case out of epoxy and fiberglass rather than trying to machine metal yourself.