turning hid on above water

[Spoon]

guys i know that turning on your hid above the water is not advised. anyway i have turned it on several times maybe 5 strikes max, couldnt help myself and wanted to show of the ebam to my friends, i made sure though to let the hids warm up and turned am off after 30 secs. is this fine?

 

[Ben_ca]

I think so... I'm sure other people smarter than me will pipe in.... After a while you'll get tired of showing it off

Some other things to do with your HID:

1. Play Light Saber fencing
2. Point out the local land marks and mountain tops
3. Call Batman
4. What the heck... call all the Superfriends
5. Drive houshold pets crazy
6. Drive Neighbors crazy...
7. Fend off angry neighbors by blinding them wiht your beam
8. ...Call superhero friends to rescue you from angry sleepless mob and pets

Oh BTW has anyone asked you why you need a 1,000 dollar flashlight

 

[Spoon]

I think so... I'm sure other people smarter than me will pipe in.... After a while you'll get tired of showing it off

Some other things to do with your HID:

1. Play Light Saber fencing
2. Point out the local land marks and mountain tops
3. Call Batman
4. What the heck... call all the Superfriends
5. Drive houshold pets crazy
6. Drive Neighbors crazy...
7. Fend off angry neighbors by blinding them wiht your beam
8. ...Call superhero friends to rescue you from angry sleepless mob and pets

Oh BTW has anyone asked you why you need a 1,000 dollar flashlight

Lol actually my dad found my new toy trick. he nearly fell of his chair when i told him the price! by the way met giovanni and he was telling me about his hid plans. i told him not to bother coz you and roy can build one for him from scratch

 

[Ben_ca]

When I first started diving here in Monterey I didn't think I would need one... the deeper and more often I dove with the DIR guys it became less of a luxury and more of an essential communication tool here in our green cold waters.
I went and got the cheapest I could (Proteus 3 10W) but now I find myself getting light envy and wanting to upgrade to a 21 or higher....
Envy is a bad thing

 

[TSandM]

Oh BTW has anyone asked you why you need a 1,000 dollar flashlight

That's my husband's line.

Ben, you need the 21W Salvo. You really need it. More than that silly scooter, anyway

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

I was told, and this is an MR11 10W, that once lit you should let it burn 3-4 minutes before extinguishing. YMMV.

 

[Spoon]

I was told, and this is an MR11 10W, that once lit you should let it burn 3-4 minutes before extinguishing. YMMV.

man that a long time, i was told by the salvo rep to leave it on a min of 30 sec and closing it after a max of 60 secs. oh well different lights/diff bulbs

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

Seemed long to me too, the justification that either ballast or bulb (don't recall which now) was subject to damage if the light was extinguished immediately after striking. *Shrug*

To be on the safe side I don't light until I am headed to the water/in the water. I've seen them left on during SI until the bulb apparently melts? Wasn't good, that much was clear.

 

[Meng_Tze]

These bulbs are made for factory lighting, lab lighting, car lighting etc. They are made to work outside of the water. The issue is the test tube. The bulb itself creates enormous amounts on heat and capturing this in a test tube with no flowing air, creates an overheating issue.

This is why lighting it for a long time (with test tube installed) is not advisable. After switching off, the gas in the bulb (which has been ionized) needs to settle back and cool off... this takes a bit of time. Striking the gas (still partly ionized) will result in more heat and overpressure in the bulb..... (ballast basically creates a surge of power to strike the bulb) this could pop the bulb. I dont know what the time is for re-striking the bulb, but my bet would be to allow for the gas to cool off.

Restriking quickly , IIRC, also could create metal deposits on the bulb wall (too high temp, reddish/brown deposit) and you are basically left with less gas to arc in the future, it shortens the bulb life. This is not something that would be immediately noticeable, but nevertheless......

Hope this helps

 

[Mark Vlahos]

guys i know that turning on your hid above the water is not advised. anyway i have turned it on several times maybe 5 strikes max, couldnt help myself and wanted to show of the ebam to my friends, i made sure though to let the hids warm up and turned am off after 30 secs. is this fine?

It depends on the light you have. I have a Sartek 10 watt adjustable and the paperwork that came with the light said that there was no problem usng the light out of the water. Other lights may have warnings that it is not a good idea to use the light out of the water. Check the paperwork or send an e-mail to the manufacturer.

As far as the cool down period, again different lamps will have different characteristics. Generally I would wait a couple of minutes between turning the lamp off and re-striking it. I would also let it burn for perhaps five minutes before shutting it off. Having said this, if I really needed the light to be on or off, and my personal safety was an issue I would flip the switch immediately without consideration of some arbitrary time reccomendation. If you choose not to wait the appropriate time most likely the damage will shorten the life of the lamp (light bulb), the ballast should not be damaged.

At work I routinely deal with 3000 watt arc lamps and the general rule of thumb we apply is that each lamp strike consumes roughly one hour of life. If a lamp is rated for 750 hours and the hour meter shows 600 hours with 150 strikes the lamp is considered to be at the end of its life. Of course the lamps in our HID dive lights are a completely different animal, but for me that rule of thumb works fine for determining expected lamp life. The 3000 watt lamps have a tendency to explode when they fail causing thousands of dollars worth of damage and possibly injuring the operator, and dive light lamps thankfully do not.

Your mileage may vary,

Mark Vlahos