Hello all flaslight experts!
I recently bought two used Finnlight F100 50W halogen lights. They were sold by an army surplus shop and were therefore surprisingly cheap.
The first trick was to charge the old, probably broken, batteries, or battery pack to be precise. It runs on 12 1,2V 17650 batteries and thus have an oprating voltage of 14,4V. I was told that the lamp should be charged with 24V and polarity didn't matter. I was fiddling around with my DIY made from an PSU voltage source but couldn't get it to charge, to my dissapointment. Suddenly I thought about the polaritything and realized that it means probably that it uses AC to charge and indeed, there was a bridge rectifier on the PCB! It charges! It works!
It's a nice light and the plan is to replace the batteries for good new ones and eventually upgrade it to a LED.
When on full power it has an operating voltage of a bit over 9V. According to this thread http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?165383-Suunto-diving-light it it originally had an "overgdriven xenophot bulb" but the 9V oprating voltage tells me that it's not overdriven as I'd understand it to be driven with a higher voltage than the nominal 12V. Maybe the batteries are so worn out that I never see the highest voltage and therefore power? It SHOULD have three power levels so this might be the case...
It has a security measure, the voltage is controlled meaning that it doesn't drop during use. But when the battery pack drains it will drop to the lower power and eventually turn the main light off. It has a puny LED on the backside of the light so there is an emergency light so that you don't have to be in complete darkness. I think it might be nifty or then it's horribly unpractical. Only testing will tell.
My problems with the lamp are the following:
I'd like to replace the battery pack as it seems like it's out (or they, I have only two for now, I need to go and buy the rest
. But as I'm browsing nkon.nl where I have been buying my eneloops from I can't find these 16650 batteries there. The housing seems a bit small so I'll have to look into it if it's possible to fit 18650-batteries in it. So from where can I get these batteries? I need an reputable vendor in Europe (I'm in Finland) for this. Any tips?
The second problem is replacing the halogen for a LED. It would be cool to have the dimming feature of it working but that isn't necessary. Anyway, It runs on 9V (maybe even higher?) and the low setting is at 4,5V. So if I instead of the halogen fitting connect a LED driver to the output pins for the bulb itself. Then it will run as long as the operating voltage is in the required voltage range of the output voltage, right? I'd rather not muck with the internal electronics of it, it has two PCBs. I'ts nice to have the option to charge the lamp without opening it and the charging circuit is integrated in the PCBs. Also all the switches are magnetic swithes and that adds reliability to it, at the same tame making it harder to DIY a switch into it.
Is there a recommendation for a LED+reflector combo of a maximum power of 50W? I'd love as much loght output as possible out of the lamp, it's rare to have too much light when diving in the muck of the baltic sea. The diameter of the round front glass is approimately 62mm but it's slightly bigger on the inside. I haven't yet figured out how to remove the old reflector from inside the lamp, one needs to be careful fiddling around with diving lights as it's critical that it's still waterproof after the fiddling
Best regards
a finnish diver
I recently bought two used Finnlight F100 50W halogen lights. They were sold by an army surplus shop and were therefore surprisingly cheap.
The first trick was to charge the old, probably broken, batteries, or battery pack to be precise. It runs on 12 1,2V 17650 batteries and thus have an oprating voltage of 14,4V. I was told that the lamp should be charged with 24V and polarity didn't matter. I was fiddling around with my DIY made from an PSU voltage source but couldn't get it to charge, to my dissapointment. Suddenly I thought about the polaritything and realized that it means probably that it uses AC to charge and indeed, there was a bridge rectifier on the PCB! It charges! It works!
It's a nice light and the plan is to replace the batteries for good new ones and eventually upgrade it to a LED.
When on full power it has an operating voltage of a bit over 9V. According to this thread http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?165383-Suunto-diving-light it it originally had an "overgdriven xenophot bulb" but the 9V oprating voltage tells me that it's not overdriven as I'd understand it to be driven with a higher voltage than the nominal 12V. Maybe the batteries are so worn out that I never see the highest voltage and therefore power? It SHOULD have three power levels so this might be the case...
It has a security measure, the voltage is controlled meaning that it doesn't drop during use. But when the battery pack drains it will drop to the lower power and eventually turn the main light off. It has a puny LED on the backside of the light so there is an emergency light so that you don't have to be in complete darkness. I think it might be nifty or then it's horribly unpractical. Only testing will tell.
My problems with the lamp are the following:
I'd like to replace the battery pack as it seems like it's out (or they, I have only two for now, I need to go and buy the rest
. But as I'm browsing nkon.nl where I have been buying my eneloops from I can't find these 16650 batteries there. The housing seems a bit small so I'll have to look into it if it's possible to fit 18650-batteries in it. So from where can I get these batteries? I need an reputable vendor in Europe (I'm in Finland) for this. Any tips?The second problem is replacing the halogen for a LED. It would be cool to have the dimming feature of it working but that isn't necessary. Anyway, It runs on 9V (maybe even higher?) and the low setting is at 4,5V. So if I instead of the halogen fitting connect a LED driver to the output pins for the bulb itself. Then it will run as long as the operating voltage is in the required voltage range of the output voltage, right? I'd rather not muck with the internal electronics of it, it has two PCBs. I'ts nice to have the option to charge the lamp without opening it and the charging circuit is integrated in the PCBs. Also all the switches are magnetic swithes and that adds reliability to it, at the same tame making it harder to DIY a switch into it.
Is there a recommendation for a LED+reflector combo of a maximum power of 50W? I'd love as much loght output as possible out of the lamp, it's rare to have too much light when diving in the muck of the baltic sea. The diameter of the round front glass is approimately 62mm but it's slightly bigger on the inside. I haven't yet figured out how to remove the old reflector from inside the lamp, one needs to be careful fiddling around with diving lights as it's critical that it's still waterproof after the fiddling
Best regards
a finnish diver
