REVIEW: CREE MC-E Diving Light

[gcbryan]

I've just bitten the bullet and ordered the SSC P7 from DX + Ultrafire 3000mah for $95.

What I've gathered from this thread has been that:

The bezel might come undone at depth and could potentially flood the torch
Solution: Locktite over the outer bezel should solve this.

The Problem with the bezel results from the contact spring being too long thus, compounding to the flooding issue.
Solution: Trim part of the spring down by one round.

Batteries that come with the Torch are not protected.
Solution: An additional set of Ultrafire Rechargeable Protected Batt.

The lens might be too thin and might crack under depth.
solution: Change the front lens (but to what size?)

I'm curious though, would trimming of the spring alone solve the bezel loosening problem or would I have to make both mods?

so, other than these few issues am I missing anything else?

Thanks guys, praise SB and all the contributors of this board. It's allowed me to equip myself with a complete set of gear on a really small student's budget while enabling the purchase of my first torch too! I can't tell you how intimidating it is to go into the market and get bombarded with excessive options and just wishing I never explored the option at all.

Jason Ong
jasonong99@hotmail.com

Actually, all you need to do is to trim the spring. No one's lens has broken and there's no way (room) for a thicker lens anyway.

You don't need Loctite. When the light comes from the factory the bezel is on tight. I think it may have some Loctite on it that loosens after several dives and that's when it has flooded in the past.

This is only because the o-ring isn't being fully compressed and that is only because the spring is too long. Fix that and you fix all problems more or less.

I believe the batteries that come with it are protected but it's a good idea to order a second set anyway. The batteries that came with mine weren't as good as the set I ordered.

You should have a good light. Just clip the spring.

 

[jasonong99]

bryan, duly noted. I'll clip it when i receive it in approximately 100 years time...
Anybody can post a pic describing how I can access this wretched spring I'm suppose to clip? DO I unscrew the outer white bezel then remove the reflector or does the whole head where the o rings come off?

 

[sffrenchman]

I bought the SSC P7 and also ordered some Trustfire 2500 mAh batteries. I love the light, so bright in such as small size and price. The Trustfire batteries are not very good as they would only last 15-20 min on full power. The batteries that came with the light were much better and would typically last about 1 hour. Unfortunately, the light flooded after 4 dives :-(
I hope that I can get it replaced and that it was just a fluke.

 

[gcbryan]

bryan, duly noted. I'll clip it when i receive it in approximately 100 years time...
Anybody can post a pic describing how I can access this wretched spring I'm suppose to clip? DO I unscrew the outer white bezel then remove the reflector or does the whole head where the o rings come off?

The bezel is silver and you need to unscrew that. It's not easy when you first receive the light...once it floods it's easy

I would let it warm up by running it on high for a while and then put the sharp edges of the bezel against a table or other piece of wood turn the body so that the bezel unscrews.

Anyway, however you do it you need to unscrew the bezel. After that it's easy. The reflector/led/heat sink assembly comes out and at the end of that is a 3 or 4 coil spring. Simply cut one coil off. That's it!

 

[gcbryan]

I bought the SSC P7 and also ordered some Trustfire 2500 mAh batteries. I love the light, so bright in such as small size and price. The Trustfire batteries are not very good as they would only last 15-20 min on full power. The batteries that came with the light were much better and would typically last about 1 hour. Unfortunately, the light flooded after 4 dives :-(
I hope that I can get it replaced and that it was just a fluke.

The batteries should be much better than that. I use those and get 2 hours (I have the MC-E version of this light).

I'm sure you can get the light replaced but it wasn't likely just a fluke. If you don't cut the spring down as I described above it's likely to happen again.

More than likely you could fix the light yourself without returning it if you want to. Mine flooded (salt water) and I was still able to fix it. You just need to clean the salt water out and clean the circuit board most likely and clip the spring. That's all I had to do.

It works fine and hasn't flooded since.

 

[sffrenchman]

@ gcbryan: yes, you are right, the bezel is VERY easy to unscrew once the lamp has flooded.

@jason: I have attached a picture of the lamp taken apart so that you can see where the spring is. Hope it helps.

 

[jasonong99]

@ gcbryan: yes, you are right, the bezel is VERY easy to unscrew once the lamp has flooded.

@jason: I have attached a picture of the lamp taken apart so that you can see where the spring is. Hope it helps.

Mate that looks nasty! Saltwater I presume. Now I really have to roll up them sleeves when mine arrive. BTW has anybody considered using some car gasket sealant to seal the bezel plate & alu housing or would that not be advisable?

 

[gcbryan]

Mate that looks nasty! Saltwater I presume. Now I really have to roll up them sleeves when mine arrive. BTW has anybody considered using some car gasket sealant to seal the bezel plate & alu housing or would that not be advisable?

It does look nasty but the key is that if it should flood get it to some warm fresh water as soon as possible and soak and flush everything out so that the salt doesn't have time to crystallize.

If the lens o-ring can properly compress you shouldn't need anything else. You may want to or need to get that bezel off again sometime.

Having said that, since mine did flood, after I clipped the spring, I did put a light coating of marine grade silicone sealant on the bezel threads. I could still get it off if I need to. I didn't put any between the head and the body. I've never even unscrewed that part.

If mine hadn't already flooded one time I wouldn't even have used the silicone sealant. No need to make things more complicated than necessary. Being able to get the bezel off could be a good thing.

The issue isn't really the bezel unscrewing itself. The problem is that if the o-ring isn't allowed to fully compress when the water pressure is pressing against the glass there is no longer any force holding the bezel on. There aren't many threads on the bezel so it just wiggles loose. If the o-ring is allowed to fully compress then the more the water pressure pushes against the glass the more the compressed o-ring pushes back.

The bottom line is that if you don't fix the o-ring problem the silicone sealant isn't going to be enough to fix the problem. If you do fix the o-ring problem then you don't really need the sealant.

 

[jasonong99]

@ gcbryan: yes, you are right, the bezel is VERY easy to unscrew once the lamp has flooded.

@jason: I have attached a picture of the lamp taken apart so that you can see where the spring is. Hope it helps.

Make sure when you put the thing back together that the alignment is not out. Maybe make a marking at this stage the exact manner the reflector was removed to ensure the switches line up when you put it together? (sorry lack of grasp of terminology here might make my description a little convulted.)

It might possibly be that after all these mods the torch might still have a 5% chance of failure or be a complete dud all together but the consoling part is we're all it together and gav6280 and sccs from the other forums do genuinely have a good understanding of the possible troubleshooting procedures for this torch. I'm hoping it'll not require "too much" (relative) tinkling with but heck, I've always been known to be a little naive. I'll continue living in my little bubble then....la la la

 

[gcbryan]

Make sure when you put the thing back together that the alignment is not out. Maybe make a marking at this stage the exact manner the reflector was removed to ensure the switches line up when you put it together? (sorry lack of grasp of terminology here might make my description a little convulted.)

It might possibly be that after all these mods the torch might still have a 5% chance of failure or be a complete dud all together but the consoling part is we're all it together and gav6280 and sccs from the other forums do genuinely have a good understanding of the possible troubleshooting procedures for this torch. I'm hoping it'll not require "too much" (relative) tinkling with but heck, I've always been known to be a little naive. I'll continue living in my little bubble then....la la la

SCCS is the man regarding this light!

I didn't mention the alignment issue earlier because I thought it might be too confusing. I figured if anyone got to that point and had that issue I'd explain it at that point

The good news is that even if you don't align it correctly the light still functions. Underwater no one is looking for that dot anyway since you can't see it!