Need some advice on converting a Dive Rite RX1 to LED

Have a hand held RX1 that is currently twist-on using the 8 AA batteries. Unfortunately due to the design it appears to be difficult to convert it to use Li-Po, but I'll survive. That said, the HID bulb broke during a move and it's not worth it to replace due to current light technology. I would however like to convert this to a video spread LED, hopefully somewhere around 70* beam angle if possible for general use in the caves with as little hot spot as possible, though I am open to leaving it as a primary beam spread, ideally between 8*-12*.

Have some of the new Cave Adventurers Explorer lights, essentially identical to the Hog Morph 1000's which are great little lights, but I think I can get more light output out of this due to the larger size, and I hate to see a perfectly good light go to waste.

Any suggestions on how to go about this would be great as I'm completely new to this world and it's a bit overwhelming to try to evaluate the conversion.

Hi,

I will try to help you, just answear these questions

Are there any pictures from inside the torch, especially battery config.
Torch inside measurements
What are your targets? lumen output, runtime, light color....
What is your budget

Regards
Mark

PS:if you want to post some pictures, you can put them on drop box for exemple and link them to here. It might help a lot!

Ahhh forgot....

How do you switch? (on/off)

Do you turn the end cap? clicky switch? or rotaty magnetic ring?

thanks, light is currently in storage, but will try to get pictures posted.

It is twist on.
Same head design as the light in this thread but as technology has greatly improved over the last 3 years, I didn't want to revive the old thread.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?338081-Dive-Rite-LED700-upgrade

http://www.diverite.com/downloads/diverite_208.pdf
That is the manual for the LED version but page 2 shows the battery carrier and the contacts in the head.

forgot some information and since I'm still less than 3 posts, I can't edit.

http://www.batteryholders.com/part.php?pn=BH28AASF&original=AA&override=AA
That is the specific battery holder. OK with staying with AA at this point as I think Li-Po conversion would be a pain.
Would be using Eneloops in it, so total capacity of 2000mah at 9.6v ish. 16 ish watt battery pack, would like somewhere around 1.5-2hours burn time.

Light specs.
At this point I think it is more advantageous to maintain a spot pattern, 6-8* beam angle. With goal of 1.5-2 hours burn time, I'd like to keep amp draw on the LED's to around 10w. Not sure of color temp. I'm spoiled with my UWLD primary, but sometime it is nice not to have to carry the can, and this is more of a fun project than anything.

Cost, would like to keep it under $300 if possible.

ok, well, first of all the LED!
for a 10w draw the cree Xml is the best way for you to go! It got very cheap, available in almost all color tints, and you find a ton of optics and diferente drivers for it !
Costs around 5-10$ includind the base board

then the battery. I would go with a lithium ion cell, mainly for the weight. Lets say a 26650 5500mah from Soshine (I have 4 of them, and they are very very good batteries! with correct capacity)
You get a 4pack for 35$.
on a single Xml you have around 1.5hours runtime minimum


And the driver. There are many many drivers out there.... I would use a 1-mode 8*7135 driver (3040mA), or a 6*7135 (2280mA)
They will cost you under 10-15$ for shure


The optic is your choice, I know a few good ones, the cost can varie a lot depending on quality, brand, etc.....


This was the easy stuff..... a litle heat synking compound, some soldering and done.....
But now comes the more dificult part. Modifiyng a LED torch to another LED is easy.
But your toch is a HID bulb torch, there is no proper heatsynk for LED.

The Halogen and HID bulbs direct most of the heat to the front together with the light, also the bulbs can get very very hot with out burning.
The leds on the other hand give the most heat off thrue the back (synkpad and heat synk), and in the front is mainlly light coming out.... So they need coolink (heatsynking) otherwise they will burn.

This means you will need to make a round aluminium or copper piece wich barely fits in the torch, to have contact to exterior housing and disperse heat to water

This is a lot of work...... Honestly in your case I would thing on buying a 1xml chinese light for a few dolars (15-40$) wich take 1 or 2 18650 Li-ion. then you have a working light. and not much work

I hope that helped, let us know your plans so we can help
Cheers
Mark

this is a fun project more than a useful one. I already have plenty of backup lights. May end up trying to work something out with UWLD to see if we can figure a conversion to an LD-13. Have a few tricks up my sleeve for the battery, but was curious if there were any head modifications more recent than the threads linked as far as parts available for the head sinks and more importantly, best places to purchase the drivers, optics, and modules themselves.

I totally understand you!
I`m practically the same....

What I would do in your case is something bigger, like a Xhp70 or 7xml for exemple.... thoes are real fun projects! Of corse in other torches, because you need greater battery capacity!

For references on where to purchase parts you have a good library on the top of the "Dive lighting" forum.
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?292465-DIVE-LIGHTING-LIBRARY

Any ways I`m not telling the modification you`r planing is bad!....