Welcome all divers!

[DM51]

Welcome to CPF’s Dive Lighting forum!

New divers - or seasoned divers who are new to CPF - introduce yourselves here! Tell us about yourself and your dive lights.

We already have many members who are experienced divers, but CPF’s real knowledge is in lighting of all types. As stated in the header at the top of the page, the purpose of this new sub-forum is to cater exclusively for dive lights. There are other sections of CPF which will also be relevant, and where you will need to look to find out more about certain aspects of lighting.

[300winmag]

Good day all.
I dive the lakes in Alberta and BC, as you could imagine I don't see coral reefs or anything that will blow you away but a lot of these lakes have history and such hold some interesting things to see.... Kalamalka Lake in BC was once an ammo dump and I still find bullets all over the place but to find the more interesting items you would have to good much further down.
At the moment I use a Underwater Kinetics D8, Princeton Tec 400 and a Princeton Tec Sport. However I am thinking of a new dive light for this summer....

[McGizmo]

Hi guys,

I use tanks on occasion but most of my water activity is on the surface or in shallow exploration via skin diving. I enjoy UW photography and light is certainly a key element in this!! I have yet to do any night explorations of the reefs but do hope to and portable lights will be critical to those ends.

[Packhorse]

Greetings all.

I have been diving for about 6 years now and have clocked up about 450 dives. Currently dive do dives down to 55 meters or so.
My first DIY light was a modified mag light with a MR16 halogen and SLA battery pack in a PVC cannister made from storm water pipe and fittings. Nothing much has changed. I still use the same maglite head but its now got 4 LEDs and aspherics, the battery pack was upgradded to 12 Ni Cd D's along time ago but when I went LED I reduced the NiCD's to 8. Sure they are old technology but they still work. The cannister has changed a bit too but its still storm water pipe.
I will start on a new cannister next week as I have a new project that needs a battery pack (Ring of Light). I will then use the same cannister for both light systems.
I also started modifying the ISTs about a year ago and now sell them through here and scubaboard. Im now working on modifications to the DX W200 dive light. I took the first one to 57 meters yesterday! Man I was so narked! haha

[SUBjohan]

Hi Guys,

I live in the Netherlands where we have verry dark waters (so we need lots of light ), I am a PADI divemaster and a IANTD rec TRIMIX diver.
My first home made light was given to me, it drowned at 20 meters. After this I bought a lathe and start making my own dive lights meanwhile my main light is a 24W HID canister light.

Greetz Johan

[steve6690]

Hi from me too,
I've been diving for about 3.5 years and done 130+ dives. Nearly a BSAC Dive Leader. I'm heading down the technical diving route and possibly getting a rebreather next year. Most of my diving is off the south coast of England but I've done 3 trips to the Red Sea. Last weekend our club went to Plymouth and had a great time. I'm club secretary of Worcester Divers BSAC, until they find someone competent :-). This is a link to our club site.

http://www.worcesterdivers.com/

I built my own canister light last year and I still use it as it's "man" enough for the type of diving I do. I've taken it to 52m without issue. It's a 7 x Cree Q5 / Blue Shark setup inside a custom housing. I built my own 4.8 Ah, 16.8V Li-ion pack, with protection pcb, which gives me around 2.5 hrs burntime.
I'm in the process of building 4 lights for sale which I hope to have finished soon. I'll probably keep one for a helmet light, and maybe another one for prototyping leds/optics etc.
I've got a few projects planned. Next up is a personal diver strobe for those low-vis dives. I think an MC-E ( or maybe 3 ) will do the job. Then maybe a 3 x MC-E primary light...
Narcosis ? what's that then ?

[Cosmo7809]

This is the first and last time I will be in this sub forum but congrats to those who wanted it!


CPF= and a little bit of

[spearsniper]

Hi all.
I've spent all of my free time in last 20 years in or around the ocean.
12 years of that was scuba diving, and I ended up working in a dive store, and divemastering. Diving in 10 degree water and 1 meter vis every weekend put me off scuba diving, but not before I got heavily into U/W photography.
Being out of the water for more than a week seemed wierd, so I took up freediving and spearfishing. Suprisingly I spent more time in the water as a result, and had more fish and crayfish to take home that I ever did on scuba. The U/W photography also took off a lot more.
I started making spearguns, and CNC'd a mill to make this easier. When my UK1200 torch blew a bulb, I bit the bullet an decided to mill a new light head for it, complete with 6 Cree Q5's. The start of the light modding bug had hit

[issarh]

Hi everyone



I have been diving for the last 10 years and a part time instructor for the last two years .
never modded a dive light cant wait to start.
I really want to try something with an aspheric lenses like packhorse's
so i have ordered the lenses and leds from dx ill post when i have some progress

Great new sub forum !!!
issarh

[fasuto]

I've been diving for about 4-5 years. I have around 90 inmersions. I usually dive in Spain but had traveled to the Red Sea and Mexico. Mexico is very interesting for flashaholics because of the "cenotes".

My main dive light is a Barbolight U-15 and I carry a UK eLed as backup (while I save money for a smaller Barbolight). Sometimes also a glotoob

[Barbarin]

Hello,

First caver, cavediver and then flashlight manufacturer... Some of you know about me already... I've been here, on CPF, for a while, so greetings to all.

By the way... I'm always happy to help others to make their own stuff, so let me know if you need something.

Javier

[GTRio]

Greetings all, I have been diving for about 10 years in the frigid waters of British Columbia, Canada. I am just starting recreational doubles diving and planning to start decompression diving instruction in the next year.

I have some very pathetic lights (UK D4, C4 and C8) that I am hoping to breath some life into before designing my own canister light. I am interested in the single P7 system for these lights and considering a multiple P7 head for the canister. If anyone has some advice about this plan I am very interested.

I took mechatronics in university so I probably just have enough electronics know how to get me into trouble

Cheers,
Brandon

[Bob01]

Hey Fellow Divers,

I've been diving off an on for 3 years with my trusty UK Light Cannon 100 - until I found it dead the other day...you can see thread here, luckily however someone has pointed me in the direction to get a replacement bulb at a reasonable price :-D. I've always wanted to make my own canister light...though I think I'll first try with making a backup light or video/focusing :-)

Don't really "need" light where I dive - mainly shore diving in Miami :-) - but its nice to have looking under rocks/crevices, and of course during night dives...and one can never have too much light when it comes to underwater photography/video :-D

[The Welsh Wizard]

Hi

I been diving for a few years but never have had a dive light. I joined here to try and change that. As I am still at school I have little money so don't think I will buy one any time soon but at some point may considerer making one.

[JeffCarver]

My First post!!! I'm kind of excited lol.

Anyways, I've been lurking for awhile and finally decided to register and jump in.

So........Hi!

[MRNOSFL]

Hello. Glad to see a dive light specific forum. I am sure that all the reading here will encourage me to melt many LED's in attempts of curiosity! I do mainly spearfishing in the Gulf of Mexico and many trips are night dives so lighting is always of interest to me,just not my wallet . This stuff is very addicting! Anyway, Glad to meet you all.

C P F Rocks!

[Gwilki]

I found Candlepower and this forum yesterday, so I have a lot of catching up to do.
I dive mainly the St Lawrence River and Lake Ontario wrecks and have been for about 15 years. I dive Florida caves when I'm down there.
My current primary light is a Halcyon halogen canister. The canister holds 2 x 7ah 12v lead acid batteries. The head is a Goodman handle with a slug holding a 35w bulb protected by a test tube. The reflector is adjustable from flood to tight beam.
I'm looking for more light, using the same canister. I've looked at HID, but they are too pricey for me.
I've much to learn about LED, and any and all advice will be welcomed.

Grant

[Rydive]

Hey everyone. I'm new to CPF and thought I'd join as I'm about to start my first dive light project (well, my first lighting project full stop really). CPF certainly seams like a gold mine of information.

I'm based in Scotland, I dive regularly here and have a growing passion for wrecks. Most of my diving is in the 30-45 metre range (100-150ft).

Hopefully, I'll be able to contribute something once I have my project underway. I'll likely be asking for lots of advice before then.

I'll post up some details of my project on the forum shortly!

[sathan]

Hello all. I'¡m new to this forum which I found seeking information about diving torches. I'm from spain and I've been diving for one year now

[Abrams.357]

Hello fellow divers!!

I'm from central new york state, and i love scuba! My open water certification is through PADI and i got it two years ago. I recently finished my advanced cert! i dont have any lights and im going to be asking questions for when i do buy them

[jspeybro]

Hi,

I'm Johan, just started diving so not yet so much to tell.
I live in Brussels,Belgium and dived only in the murky waters of the Netherlands (1h30m drive) until now.
As far as I know, we need lots of light in these waters.

I've been interested in leds from before I started diving, but never really had something to do with the high power leds. I'm currently looking around for what I need for modding the ultrafire W200 because I look to do these kind of things and because I need a light for diving.
Since I don't really know yet want I want/need for diving I thought it would be a better idea to start with something like the W200 instead of buying an expensive light before even knowing what I actually want.


Johan

[athoms9]

Hi all

I'm Anders from Århus, denmark

I'm a spearfisher and don't know anything about lights or electrics, but i'm hoping to learn a thing or two inhere, so i can make my very own led light ;P

Sorry in advance for all the beginner questions - u might get quite alot of them

[gcbryan]

Hello everyone,

I've been diving for a while and mostly in the cold, limited visibility waters of the PNW (Seattle).

This is wall diving predominately with the emphasis on looking at marine life.

I'm a novice where it comes to modifying lights but I would like to learn more. Currently I use a Light Cannon.

[Reijer]

Another hi from the Netherlands

I started diving in 1998, and while my gear has not been wet very much lately, I do know my somewhat aged Treble-Light 5.7c (35W, with the small indicator lights ) is still going strong!

CMAS 3* by the way, which is comparable to PADI Dive Master last time I checked..

Oh, and:

[Regthing]

Hello. Just drifted on over. Currently looking at upgrading my Halcyon HID canister light. It currently has the HUGE SLA cannister and I'm going to throw together a NiMH pack and canister. But while I'm at it I might play with light heads as well

[SmokedCPU]

Hi everybody!


My first post on CFP. I'm a newly advance diver, in need of a good light desing, self made. I live in St-Félicien, Quebec, Canada. Here dive conditions are a pain... we have a bunch of lake and river, but only a few are clear enought to dive. I also dive saltwater on Les Escoumins or Le Fjord, with fresh water/salt water on bottom. I urged for a light, but price was pretty terrific as i wouldn't a ugly 4D hand held light.
I found some DIYer websites, and after i found the gold mine, . Im gathering info since 3 weeks like a leech . Im already flashflaolic since i have some hard time to fall asleep thinking of all these combination of leds, optics, reflector, drivers.
Im glad to take info from such experienced modders as i saw here.

[imnata]

Greetings from Slovenia (Europe)

I've been diving for about 8 years now in the Adriatic sea which has usually very good visibility.
Till last summer I was using Technisub mini Alulight 20,
which was enough for my needs until I flooded it on a night dive. (first dive after some time)...
Almost threw the whole thing into trash as repairing it would cost (replacement of the circuit board) me the same as if would be buying a new lamp!
Luckily I didn't throw it away as I stumbled upon CPF.
Very impressed with the mods seen on CPF I hope to do some modding on my own.

PADI divemaster, lately doing some UW photography.

[Codiak]

Better late then never.

My name is Chuck, I currently reside near Omaha Nebraska USA.
I certified March of '07 and have more than 250 logged dives.
I've been fortunate enough to dive a lot of varying conditions with 50+ dives out of Port Sea Austrailia, 30+ at Bonne Terre Mines, 40+ caribiean and a lot in the mudpits we call lakes like the one in my back yard :-).

I have purchased 7 different dive hand held lights from various manufactures.
Of the 7, currently I dive my Tusa 300 and modded Nocturnal

Mods so far include

• hand held Mag using a TerraLux drop-in,
• next a canister version of the above,
• then a dual head version for video.
• 250lumen to 700Lumen Noctunal upgrade

I'm always looking for brighter and higher quality lighting for camera stills, video and low visibility diving. VF the holy grail.

[Delphinus]

My name is Miguel I'm from Portugal and new to CPF, I start spear fishing 31 years ago and scuba dive for 23 years, my first certification was as commercial diver and now my main interest is UW Photo and Video and also Rebreathers.

I'm a distributor of Ultralight and Scubalight and previously Mal Lighting and a brief test of Barbolight.

Actually I own 1 Barbolight U-15, 1 Mal Lighting HLD4 IS, 1 Scubalight Modular 6 Led converted to Video, 1 Scubalight Led converted to K2 Royal Blue and several lamps not worth specify.

Today I received my first lathe so I will start to contribute with some projects

Regards from Portugal

Miguel

[Grytpype]

1st post Good to see a corner just for Dive Lights here. Some of the Diver forums don't pay enough attention to lights, or just push the major mfrs. People seem to get quite dogmatic about dive lights. Looking forward to picking up some tips here, maybe replace my big heavy UK Light Cannon with something smaller.