Starting my 1st build opinions are very welcome

[athoms9]

Hi all

Been sniffing around inhere quite some time now and have decided that it's time to get going on a canlight build.

As i only dive doing spearfishing on shallow waters at night this build will need a decent amount of lumens and a narrow beam with a little spill to keep the orientation. runtime should be around 3-4 hours.

this is what i am thinking so far:

leds: 4 xre + 1 mce on custom heatsink

optics: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18842
or aspherics if u think the reflector isn't narrow enough for my needs.

the lighthead and can will be made after deciding the final setup so there are no meassures to consider when choosing led and reflector/lens. And will be machined from alu and delrin.

regarding the driver and battey setup i am completely lost. I get more and more confused the more threads i read, so i am thinking of just a single mode driver for simplicity, or can i go direct driven if i choose the right battery setup??

please feel free comment on anything. and especially about the driver and battery setup

thanks in advance - anders

 

[gcbryan]

I have no comment other than one MC-E should do the job. I don't spearfish in shallow waters at night but I do dive in deeper waters at night and our average viz is about 5 meters.

I use a MC-E in a 52mm diameter reflector and if provides enough spill and throw. It's a better combination than my 10 W HID.

 

[athoms9]

I already have "the ugly light" with the mc-e emittor, and i'm actually pretty pleased with it considered that it only was 95$. but its to floody and can't penetrate far enough because the viz here is sometimes down to 1m and max7-10 meters.

didn't expect people to comment too much on the led choice, because several people inhere has proven it to be very nice, so my biggest concern is getting the whole driver issue worked out - keeping reading about drivers make my head spin i think...

so suggestions on driversetup and batteries are longed for.

what if i use this drop in module http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35242 could this be used for something that suits my needs? see that its a 5 mode driver, but is it straight forward customizing it for a dive light. guess i need to remove the end of the module and maybe customize a better heatsink??