Welcome all divers!

[Murph]

I just wanted to introduce myself. I have been diving since 1994 and I'm presently a Public Safety Diver for the local Sheriff's Office. I want to learn more about DIY dive light making. I was instructed to focus my attention in this forum. So far it looks promising. I want to thank everyone ahead of time for your help.

Murph

[gcbryan]

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.

That's exactly what brought me here!

[Murph]

That's exactly what brought me here!

I agree with you there. There does not seem to be enough on dive lights. I'm new at this, but hope to learn a lot here.

[psdiver102]

Hello, been diving since '93. Bunch of caves in central florida and local spearfishing. I am my countys rescue chief/dive chief. I mainly use pelican lights, but really need to upgrade to some hids

[Dashrynn]

Hi all, im a local pnw diver that has always loved tinkering with electronics. I am a entry level avionics technician in the navy. Lookind forward to modding the heck out of some lights after i learn more about drivers and diodes!

[mungus]

Hi everyone

What a joy to have found this place.
Been diving since 1978 with too many hours logged so no bragging, 9 yrs teaching, wrote the original Aussie cavern course, now work as a cameraman on docos and films and have an online scuba store through which I would like to promote specialised LED based dive and video lights.

Powerful LED video lights are scarce and I don't know why as there is some top LED technology around now which will work well.

I also know nothing about electronics, purely a mechanical mind so be gentle.

[EAN]

Hello. I'm in TN and have been doing rec diving off and on since 1991. I'm currently starting to take a class here and there and plan to take some tec courses in the near future. I don't have any fancy lights and have never had the chance to try a canister light. I have a UK SL4 that I am modding with an RC2 module. My old 8 D cell King Pelican gave me some trouble and I started searching the DIY lights. That is what lead me here. I simply want the most bang for the buck and construct something that will be nice for cave or deep diving.

[qirkm3]

Hello divers, I'm new to this forum. Been diving for 15 years. Bought a UK light cannon a year and half ago. One of the brightest lights I have ever seen. But after checking out custom builds on this site, I see there are much brighter lights out there and I'm sure I will be building something even bighter.

I also use the UK sunlight SL4 as a day dive light and back-up night dive light. I would recommend both these lights to any diver.

have fun diving

[DM51]

Welcome, qirkm3

The Light Cannon is a good light, but by today's standards it is quite a clunker and nowadays you can get a similar amount of light in a much neater package. As you have seen, there are some good LED solutions here.

[kamyk]

Hi
I've been diving for about 2,5 years and done 150+ dives, actually doing divemaster and thinking about technical diving.
I have some very simple lights (UK C4 and C8) and flooded Diving Cree SSC-P7-C-SXO 3-Mode 900-Lumen, heh. I am hoping to design my own video light.

[Megalight]

Hi everyone,
I'm 35 old deep diver from south Italy. About 50 dives up to now.
Soon I hope to take a first step in Tech Diving.
Actually I use 2 dive light: a minivega 10W alogen (4 Ni-Mh 9Ah C type) and a Gibielle variant based on 4 LED head with male plug/switch connector as Tilly Tech - Green Force dive lights and 8 AA 2000Ah in series battery pack in separate canister (female plug).

I'm really happy to see such a great space to discuss about my idea to develope myself a new dive light!

Nice to meet here all of you.

[Jimmer]

Hi everyone,

My name is Jim from Brantford Ontario. I have been diving for 17 years, mostly on Lake Erie wrecks. I am a divemaster working towards my instructor cert, and have completed intro to tech, with plans to do Tech 1 next spring.

I am a mechanical engineering technologist, and certified machine tool operator (manual mill, lathe, surface grinder) and work in a tool and die/mould making shop with full access to CNC equipment.

I have an old DiveRite 10W HID MR11 lighthead that was originally on a SLA canister, and plan to make a new canister with either NiMH or Li-Ion battery packs and am looking forward to the wealth of information on this forum!

Thats all for now,

Jim

[Badboy]

Hello all,

I'm from the Nederlands to.
I'm diving arround 3 years now with 65 dives.
I have already made 3 lamps myself.

I'm now working on an old Shulz divelight that had a bad batterypack.
I am almost done but have questions about bulp (halogeen 100W) and refector (this one gives a wide spil)

Hope i find here what i'm looking for.

[Nasty]

Greetings!

I've been diving *legally* for about 5 years...not going to discuss the 30 years of unauthorized stuff before that, eh?

Long story short, I've been mostly a pool diver...shallow and sunlit is my norm at many places around the world, Great Lakes to the South China Sea, but you know how it is...there's always a dark hole to peek into. I have had great success with nothing more than a Underwater Kinetics SL4 I picked up years ago and *somehow* have managed to not lose up until this point.

I recently started doing S&R recovery work with the local EMS...so have a new interest in real lighting. I'll be floating around here somewhere.

Grats on the new forum!

[blackdiver]

Hello,
I'm a diver from The Netherlands. I dive for 12 years now and made 900 dives, 4* diver and dive-addict.

I'm really fond of GF divelights and like modding them.

I always dived with a GF HID100 but since a made my Prohead with a P7 led in it on a 4,8 volt battery a only use that one.

Arjan

[lautmaschine]

Hi guys,
I've been diving for 18 years, mostly along the coastlines of British Columbia. My current lighting setup involves a UK Light Cannon and an Oxycheq Raider 1 as my backup. Although I like my Light Cannon for night diving, I find the bulky format cumbersome.

I have been researching this forum for a few weeks and am interested in building an SST-50 based canlight. I have some basic requirements and design in mind (along with a growing bill of materials) but am still in research mode.

There's a ton of information on this forum, but it isn't always easy to track down, because it's so spread out.

Looking forward to learning more...

[DJack]

Hey everyone.

I live in Miami, FL and I started diving around 3 years ago. I just got my NAUI master diver cert through FIU's dive program. The only dives I've done that require lights were 2 wreck dives, 4 night dives and 6 cavern dives all here in Florida. I did them all with a PT Miniwave II and Tec-40. They were adequate at the time, but after seeing some other dive lights out there and also seeing what is on candlepowerforums I want to start making my own.
I just started modding some land based spotlights with 55 Watt HIDs. It would be pretty bright if I could get 2 of those into an under water setup.
Anyway, glad to see there are other like minded people here.

[BB1]

Hi All,

Well I got the diving bug about a year ago and have been diving more and more regularly and have 50 dives so far.

I have an engineering background from way back and am a fair machinist but electrickery has always been a bit of a dark art for me. Thankfully there are forums like this full of helpful people who can help light the dark spaces of my lack of knowledge!!

I have already done my first small mod which I learnt about by reading the posts here and learning a lot.

I do my first dive with my new DE Cree R2 drop-in conversion for my 3C scout - fingers crossed.

I recently bought an old salvo 10W HID canister light to learn more about how canister systems are put together and have a fair idea on building the mechanical components of a new custom light and hope to learn enough about the electronics to put the light side of it together.

I hope I can contribute back with the mechanical engineering side of things.

[buckeye_jeff]

I've been diving for about 10 years now and I have about 900 dives under my weight belt.

I'm into DIY projects and dive lights seem like a natural place to play especially with all the improvements in LED's. My first small project is going to be up grading a 3 c-cell scout with either a Cree R2 or R5. The first thing I'm hoping to learn here is if I should stick with the 3 c-cells or if there is a better battery configuration for my small project.

Any in site would be greatly appreciated.

[guitarmaker]

Hi,

My name is Ron and I'm from Salem Oregon. I'm looking to build a basic "can" style dive light - my first one. As my log in name suggests, I build guitars as a hobby, meaning I really enjoy DIY - but I gotta say after reading through many threads is sounds like a new language to me. Any help to a new builder would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ron

[bugrat]

Hello,
fairly new in diving, 14 times down, and have recently picked up on spearfishing, a great way to get some fresh air. I like to fabricate stuff and I hope, with some help from this lovely forum, to end up making the ultimate underwater hunting lamp.

Toke, DK

[BluDL]

Hi
I am a British diver of UK cold water - mainly wrecks. Have been diving 12 yrs. Also into underwater photography. Like many of us - torches have become a slight obsession, hence joining here. I am an engineer, tinkerer, fixer by mentality so should fit in.

I don't have any impressive torches yet - had a UKD8R for ages but looking to upgrade. Tried a magic shine P7 chinese thing (DX) which was great until is flooded at 35m inside a wreck lol (lucky I never fully trusted it)

I believe led's are on ther verge of an amazing jump and interested to see what will happen.

Hope to learn something and give something back if possible in the true forum spirit.

Mike

[Alexx]

Hy I am coming from Croatia. I am PSS scuba instructor and IANTD trimix diver. I adore wreck diving, and caves. I`m into underwater photography. My primary light is Green Force HID.

Cheers

[DimitrisV]

Hi All

My name is Dimitris. I leave in Greece and I 'm DIY fanatic. Diving since 1996 recently IANTD Normoxic Trimix Diver.

BR
Dimitris

[Braz]

Hello all, Fabulous Site!

Open Water rec diver, Main swimming hole is Lake Lanier Ga, but try to make it to the Florida Springs when I can.

Just bought a DIY Underwater Light to learn and play with.

Gonna snoop around for a while and then begin posting in earnest.

Thanks for a great Site!

Braz

[Milestar]

I am the staff of famous dive light D01, D02, D06, D31's manufacturer Hong Kong XTAR Co. Ltd, I would like to share more enjoyable diving fun from testing and customer's update, I wish I can come back soon since this is my second post, so have a great journey CPF divers.

[josb]

Hello all,

Yes another Dutchman, my name is Jos and I'm living in Eindhoven.

I'm was already a reader on CPF for a long time without adding posts (yet), now found it time to introduce myself.

I'm diving for almost 20 Years now, I'm a PADI DM, active in a dive club here in Eindhoven and assisting mainly with the junior education and let's say "a couple of hundred" dives logged.

Years ago I started with a good old UK600 as a dive light but very quick a started building my own dive lights, the first one was a canister light with a 50W halogen unit and a turning reed switch around the light head.

About 10 Years ago at my work (as an automotive test engineer for mainly Volvo) I "found" some 35W HID units and my first handheld HID dive light was born. At last these are build around 15 of them and there are still some of them in use by club members (and myself).

After that several HID and halogen lights have been made by me and handed out to club members.
Nowadays I have my own small lathe at home and I’m mainly working on LED lights, handheld and canister.

Of course I will having some difficulties during the development of new lights and I hope to find/get some answers here at this forum.

I will post some pictures of my creations if that’s possible.


So far my introduction.

JosB

[bystrup]

Hello all,

Possibly the first Dane here?

I've been lurking on CPF for some time, having always tinkered with UW lights - primarily halogen. The LED revolution brought me here and I've picked up a lot of good info and I hope to be able to share back my creations once they reach a workable state :-)

My "credentials" are CMAS***, CMAS nitrox, IANTD trimix and stopped logging dives around the 200 mark several years ago, when the color temperature in winter was much lower than now...

Cheers,
Anders

[diveuk]

Hi guys, I am a dive instructor, I dive o/c and ccr, I am trying to upgrade my old 10w hid cannister light which has died on me for the umteenth time in 2 years, hopefully I can make a more reliable led mod but I have no experience with electronics(I can solder and stick things and trace a circuit) so forgive me if I ask some silly questions.

[josb]

....... so forgive me if I ask some silly questions.

There are no silly questions, only silly answers