REVIEW: CREE MC-E Diving Light

[gcbryan]

Is Blue going to be any better than what is on there? Is the problem the Loctite or should this light simply not be used on anything other than 20% when not in the water?

When used at 100% in the water is it still getting so hot as to melt the original Loctite?

Nail polish is a long used home remedy, but it is really meant for much lower strength applications than loctite, especially on tiny screws. Plus some nail polishes can melt plastics, which might be bad for O-rings... Do yourself a favor and spend the $6 for a small bottle which will last you a long time.

Spec sheet for basic Red Loctite for semi-permanent thread locking. Definitely NOT

However Loctite Blue (Medium strength) is probably the way to go.
Loctite® Blue Threadlocker Stick - Medium Strength (Automotive Aftermarket Only) - Product - Henkel
Loctite® 242® Threadlocker - Product - Henkel

I don't think it's absolutely necessary to loctite the head above the switch, although there is no real reason to open it up so maybe use some medium loctite/blue there to keep it from disassembling when not wanted. However, you should definitely loctite the silver bezel, medium blue is probably best for that as well. (Only use red if you have the right tools and experience to use heat to disassemble.)

Dennis.

 

[DennisKW]

Is Blue going to be any better than what is on there? Is the problem the Loctite or should this light simply not be used on anything other than 20% when not in the water?

When used at 100% in the water is it still getting so hot as to melt the original Loctite?

The OEM threadlock compound was loosened by running the light for 1.5 hours OUT of the water, sitting on my fireplace, testing runtime. If you held it for more than a few seconds it would have been too hot to continue. Definitely not a normal occurrence, and would never happen underwater. I believe blue loctite should be more than enough to prevent this out of the water and absolutely in the water.

However, the long period of high heat only LOOSENED the OEM threadlock compound. It still took considerable energy to move/twist the head. This is not actually a problem, just a FYI.

Dennis.

 

[gcbryan]

The OEM threadlock compound was loosened by running the light for 1.5 hours OUT of the water, sitting on my fireplace, testing runtime. If you held it for more than a few seconds it would have been too hot to continue. Definitely not a normal occurrence, and would never happen underwater. I believe blue loctite should be more than enough to prevent this out of the water and absolutely in the water.

However, the long period of high heat only LOOSENED the OEM threadlock compound. It still took considerable energy to move/twist the head. This is not actually a problem, just a FYI.

Dennis.

Just out of curiosity, have you been able to get the light into stroke mode..moving from low to high in less than 1 second? I did it once and can confirm it works but I've not been able to do it again.

I don't really care in that it's not particularly useful but I would like to understand why I can't get it in that mode again.

There's a storm here but I'm still planning on a dive tonight in an hour of so. I'm report back afterward. Hopefully no leaks!

 

[gcbryan]

Well, I have mixed results for the actual dive test tonight. It didn't leak and when it was working I liked it better than my Light Cannon. I don't know that it is brighter or throws further it's just bright and different.

I like the fact that the light distribution is more even (no hotspot) is a little wider than the 6% spot of the LC and the light color is more natural looking. The end result is that at least closer up it seems a lot brighter than the LC and a lot more natural looking.

I used it with the soft sock mount from Oxycheq so I could use it hands free. The handle is a little long when you are using dryglove rings but it still was no problem.

I really liked the light output and light color. However, I had similar problems to those described by Ron Frank.

I'm not sure if it is a pressure issue or a temperature issue. Since I'm diving in 50 degree water you wouldn't think it would be temperature unless the heat sink just isn't effective in disbursing the heat to the light body.

This was a rather shallow dive so no deeper than 60fsw. It worked on all settings until it just went down to an output less than the 20% setting. I turned it off and used the Light Cannon for a while. Later I turned the Cree back on and it worked on all settings...for awhile. I went back and forth like this for the entire dive.

So, it seems to be a time related thing which seems more like temperature. Maybe it's not time or temperature but just a bad switch.

I'll have to do some more dives with it but if anyone else has figured this out please post or send me a PM.

 

[DennisKW]

Hmmm... You are the second person that has posted on the boards that has had the dimming issue. I seriously doubt it is a LED temp thing, because I have done many runtime tests in open air where things have gotten much hotter with no issues. One guess is the provided batteries maybe lose power at colder temps? My dive buddies and I have 3 of these lights and they have been working fine for a couple dives now but we use different higher quality batteries.

Of course, lithium batteries are supposed to work OK at cold temps, so maybe I am totally wrong.

I have had the electronics apart in this light and there are 4 hall effect switches inside that are actuated by a magnet in the switching ring. I dunno how that could be affected by pressure/temp. Maybe the wrong one gets actuated somehow? Do you have any magnets on your BC, or the oxycheq sock?

I'm gonna go stare at my light for awhile and think about it...

Dennis.

 

[soltman]

I am due to order the one with the P7 led. Has anyone tested how deep these torches can go before the lens implodes? If the o-rings are tightend correctly, I think the lens is the weakest link...

 

[RonFrank]

DX said to send it to Miami, and they will send me another one. We shall see how that goes, and how long that takes. I'm only diving maybe every other month, so it maybe a while before I can get the next version in the water depending on how fast they ship. The first light took about 4 weeks from order, to arrival...

 

[gcbryan]

DX said to send it to Miami, and they will send me another one. We shall see how that goes, and how long that takes. I'm only diving maybe every other month, so it maybe a while before I can get the next version in the water depending on how fast they ship. The first light took about 4 weeks from order, to arrival...

Good luck. I just sent the email yesterday filing a return goods request so I haven't heard from them yet. It's too bad that we can't talk to the actual manufacturer in case there is some fix. As it is they will send another unit and it may or may not work as well since no one at there end is actually knowledgeable regarding the products.

I'm sure the manufacturer knows that their failure modes are if they did any testing at all on this product. How complicated can a flashlight be?

 

[Venus]

I wrote back to DX on Wednesday 4th and have not heard anything about my fault

Does anyone have a fully exploded picture of the CREE

I mean all the various bits taken apart
and then people that have had problems could point out the weak or failure points

?

 

[gcbryan]

Sorry, I don't but that brings up an interesting point about DX. To email them about a problem before you can even get the message to send you have to include a picture.

In my case I had to get the camera out and take a picture of the light even though it showed nothing.

My problem is that underwater after a few minutes the power dims. How do you show a picture of that?

I tried to send an email to the factory that made these hoping to exchange emails with someone knowledgeable with these particular lights but so far the only response was an email with the ? character all over it.

They have an English option on their website and a contact email address but it's not looking good.

A flashlight is such a simple thing I can't believe that there isn't a local fix for this problem unless it's just a bad electronic part.

I wrote back to DX on Wednesday 4th and have not heard anything about my fault

Does anyone have a fully exploded picture of the CREE

I mean all the various bits taken apart
and then people that have had problems could point out the weak or failure points

?