We need your help for the perfect light!

[mbsub]

Hello,
at first sorry for my bad English. I hope you can follow my idea.
We are well known by our "normal" diving lamps. With special light for tech-diving we start in the moment. The first success was our LED-CAVE and the PHOTON, both with the 1000 lumen LED "Ostar".
Now we think about the perfect light for tech-diving, but we need your help.
Please write in your answers all what you want for this light.
For example: which kind of battaries, which kind of light source (halogen, HID, LED), lamp electronic, focusing, holder for the battery cannister, material for canister ..........
I have already a special idea for this light, but nobody is perfect

Maybe we can construct with your help the perfect light.

Thank you for your help

Michael


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[miketsp]

For me there are 5 major concerns for a "perfect light":
1- I would love to have a variable beam-width, say 5 degrees to 40 degrees. On my DIY light I ended up putting in 2 lamps, a narrow beam and a wide beam as I found it almost impossible to signal a buddy with a wide beam and in low viz a wide beam is just a pain.
2- Low weight for easy travel
3- Compliance with TSA regs to avoid hassle when passing though the US territory. Maybe some sort of TSA certification relating to battery type, rating and whether it needs to be disconnected for flight or not.
4- Variable power output.
5- Reliable indication of remaining burn-time. The problem with most secondary cells without an indicator is that light output is good until very near the end, then nothing. At least primary cells dim down progressively. But a reliable remaining time indicator would be a real confidence builder.

 

[jimdiverman]

I'd also like a minimum of 4 hours of continuous burn time at rated power so I can at least complete one day's dives on a single charge.

I also want it to recharge relatively quickly and not develop a memory if I leave it on the charger too long. It should be self-regulating.

It should be economically priced (in the USA), and parts/repair/replacement should not have to be done by sending it to Europe for those of us in the USA.

Thanks.

 

[reefduffer]

Forgive a comment from a non-tech diver, but my ideal for any dive light includes two items, both related to eliminating floods:

- Magnetic reed switch, or switches if there's something more than on/off.

- Through-the-case inductive charging. Opening the case for battery access should be limited to dealing with rechargeable battery death or other infrequent service needs.

 

[RiverRat]

Hummmm well lets see...

1. As has been said, variable beam is nice
2. Killer LED module so as to get longer burn times from smaller batteries. HID is on the way out. Overdriven halogen is nice (burn time not quite there yet) but I think LED is going to beat it out.
3. If it does use halogen, it needs a battery management module to maintain the NIMH battery and provide low, medium and high power levels like the one I have in my project light. As well as the low battery warning and it switches to lower power so you can end the dive or switch to backup. I suppose one cold be used on an LED to save the battery towards the end of the charge?
4. Small cannister size using best NIMH batteries available.
5. Maybe a head mounted piezo switch like I used in my project light. Using the management module I can barley tap that sucker for low, medium, high and off using my thumb. And the switch itself is a solid unit totally waterproof.
6. Goodman handle as part of the stock kit.
7. Ability to add/fit NIMH cells into the can to help cut down on maintenance costs.
8. Ability to swap between halogen and LED modules would be great for a better range of color temps. In fact I'm hoping to one day retrofit an LED module to my commercial halogen I just bought to increase burn times even more.