DIY water-cooled & sectional P7 UW light

[hanachan]

Hi, I made a P7 UW light and tested it. I'd like to show it.

It consits of SSC P7 LED regulated by AMC7135x8 and powerd by 18650x2 in pallarel...it's a standard light. Although all the UW lights are cooled by water, I made a light part effectively cooled by water with attention.
All the components, light, switch, regulater and battery are independently waterproofed. This may decrease the damage by wataer invasion and make it easy to improve and maintain the light.

The lightning part

Allt the components are waterproofed.

Union the components

to be cont.

 

[hanachan]

test the DIY water-cooled & sectional P7 UW light

test at home

practical run time is about 2h10min. This light is brighter than my mod MTE P7 light.

test under sea (day dive)

A: this light B:mod MTE P7 attached over G10

beam shots inboard

G10 with DIY semifisheye lens

Photo with only this light

G10 macro mode SS=1/400!!, F=4.0, ISO=100

I had two dives max 27m 45min & max 25m 30min. No water invasion.:twothumbs

I'm glad to have a bright & compact UW light with low cost.

You can see the details at my HP.

Thank you.

 

[Packhorse]

Re: test the DIY water-cooled & sectional P7 UW light

Please dont be offended but you make some really ugly stuff!

Love the last pic. Great shot!

I quite like the idea of using a AMC7135 regulator for driving a dive light. It means the light will slowly dim down as the battery goes flat but the actual burn time will be quite long.

 

[hanachan]

Thank you for comment.
Oh, I don't think it's ugly but even if so no problem.
Making a tastefull canister, you put all the parts in it.

The waterproof & pressure-resist method in this light entirely different from that in the usual ones.
The parts consiting of light are individually waterproofed & pressure resisted mainly from inner side that is acheived by full filling silicon sealant in relatively thin acrylic or aluminum cavity, namely 'solid state'.

This method has the advantages as follows;
* when leaked the damage may be limited at one part.
* remaking or version up the part is easy.
* no need of outer canister. This enables the light (LED) to be cooled easily by water.
* waterproof (about 30m depth) is attained without O ring. No O ring is used in this light.
* This light may fit various situations by varaiety of connection of each parts.
Putting the parts in one canister->usual UW light
one or two battery parts + multiple light parts->video light etc.

I have been testing which reflector is good for water cooled light.
next small light part has been made;

I'm now making the third big one.

My DIY motto is as cheaper and easier as possible.
To make something beautiful costs much money and time.
For the moment I will unite 3 these light parts and use it for video light as it stands.
That looks really ugly, I think.

 

[bhvm]

Very beautiful!

Both the light and the underwater corals! (or whatever it is)

 

[hanachan]

Thank you for the comment.

New stuffs have joined the group:
SSC P7 LED+somewhat large reflector & a small canister for 18650x4 parallel battery.

I'm now making the switch stuff

and camera (TZ7+G10) frame.

in the near future they will join together and go diving with me.

 

[Goldigger]

Thank you for the comment.

New stuffs have joined the group:
SSC P7 LED+somewhat large reflector & a small canister for 18650x4 parallel battery.

I'm now making the switch stuff

and camera (TZ7+G10) frame.

in the near future they will join together and go diving with me.

Is that frame the start of a bookcase?
Wheres the pony mount?

 

[hanachan]

Nooo. This is a bookend.

 

[65535]

Don't look pretty, but be damned if it doesn't work like a charm, that is a stunning pic.

 

[sdnative]

Get er done.

Interested to see how that alum holds up against the saltwater. Better rinse it very well is my advise!!

Neat how the light illuminates the anemone as if it's lit up from inside.

Working on a can light myself, will post when I can be sure it'll ward off any "ugly" remarks Not as tough skinned as yourself

 

[hanachan]

Thanks for comments & advise.
If 'alum' means aluminum, I have used it for various DIY stuffs of WU digicame over 5 years with no trouble.

The prototype of my lighting system has been almost finished.

L1: mod RC-T6 lighthead previouly reported at this forum.
L2,3,4: SCC P7 with 40mm reflector (Kaidomain sku:s006537)
with 53mm reflector (Dx su:13803) and 26mm one (Dx su:5937).

L1-L3 are arranged for wide photo & video taken by Panasonic TZ7 (upper camera).
L4 is for macro photos by Canon G10 (lower camera).

Power supply is as follows:

L1 is powered by 3x18650 series in a newly DIY battery canister (B1).

L2-4 are powered by 4x18650 parallel batteries (B2).
L2 and L4 have the current regulator (AMC7185x8) outside the light while the L3 has it inside.

All the lights is 1 mode ie ON-OFF.

Beam shots on land (at bathroom):

E-410 SS 1/50, F 5.00, ISO 400

Ln: only Ln lightning.
L all: all lightning(L1-4)

to the naked eye, the brightness was
L1(romisenRC-T6)>=L3(52mm ref)>L2(40mm ref)>L4 (26mm ref)
(L4 lighted slightly downward)
but the difference was small.
L4 showed the dark spot.

Lightning all together was very bright. IMO around 3000 lumen!? with no basis.

i'm now waiting for the hot bath water to become cool to check their underwater lightning
................................... sleepy :ironic:
cont.

 

[hanachan]

Test of underwater lightning at the bathtub has been carried out:

the distance between the frontal bathtub wall and the lights is about 60cm.

This picture shows the lightning position:

beamshots of each light:

underexposed pict:

L2 showed the higher color temp. than others
L4 showed the dark spot.

light up near side:

no dark spot in L4.

The run time of L2,3,4 with battery case B2 was about 2h10min.
The final voltage of 4x18650 in B2 was all 3.17volt.

The emission of L1 powerd by B1 stopped one hour after beginning of the experiment.
The final voltages of 3x 18650 was 3.75, 3.4 and 0 volt respectively.
The protect function of the battery might work.

No water invasion was observed in all the stuffs (L3,4 and battery case B1,2 worked first under water).

I sometimes touched the lights to check their temperature during experiment.
I felt L1 (RC-T6) and L4 slightly warm (L1>L4) while L3 no change.
I think the water cooling was effective.

I'm satisfied with their brightness for cost ( over 2000 lumen under 100 USD 3xP7 light system)
but the spots were too intensive and the color temperature was also too high for video light use.

Next I'll try to make the beamshot shape flood using DIY diffuser and
check how to correct color by the white balance of cameras.

 

[hanachan]

DIY diffuser for my DIY UW lights

Hi, Ive made the diffusers for my UW lights.

I purchased the 'touch light' at the 100 yen shop.
Its price is 100 yen (about 1.1 USD).

This light made in china has been reported easily broken but i used only its dome cap.

There are many small protrusions inside the frosted acrylic dome.

Its diffusion effect of light was decreased under water.
I sealed the dome with acrylic plate and glued the plastic mirror.

I made three size of diffusers, 8cm (for L2), 9cm(L3) and 10cm (L1) diameter.

Results:
all the lights ON:

all the lights ON photo taken under exposure

The effect of diffuser for each light:
left column: no diffuser, right: with diffuser

The diffusers seem to work well.

Sorry for many photos.

 

[lil_mac]

can't wait for new Under water shots!

 

[hanachan]

TZ7 Color balance

Hi, id like to show the picts taken with underwater TZ7.

These picts were taken with TZ7 program (normal) mode.

left: lighting all without diffuser. right:with diffuser

TZ7 underwater mode:

same as above

The diffusers seemed to work well.

Color comparison:
1) upper: on land with flash at normal mde,
2) middle: underwater with flash at underwater mode,
3) lower: underwater with lights only at underwater mode

violet (& green?) seemed to show a little change
but the color compensation was better than i expected.

next i'll go diving!

 

[hanachan]

Hi, i went diving to the Sado island on 22 sep with these lights.
ill report the results:

set up

In addition L1-4, two mod lights (L5: MTE P7 & L6:Ultrafire C2 MCE) were joined for a durability test.
Its size is in the bag. The weight is about 4kg including frame, two cameras and batteries etc on land.

It was cloudy.

The diving were not so good for testing the light function.
i had to continuously swim at middle water depth and could not stop for testing ( the self diving is not permitted at most diving points in Japan ).

1st dive was max 30m depth for 33min & 2nd was 24m 45min.

1) waterproof
L3,4 & B1,2 & all diffusers dived for the first time.
All the lights were not flooded. but after 1st dive all the diffusers were flooded.:mecry:

The battry boxes looked not to be flooded but the B2 was found to be flooded by checking home.

The water might invade from the point indicated by the yellow arrow(A).
The batteries seemed to have no damage for the moment.

There was a little water at the bottom of B2 (D). As the negative electrode was lifted slightly from the bottom, it had no damage (C).

my sealing method of light ( internal sealing by glue) worked well.

2) colour
i took photos & video by TZ7 with underwater mode.

The area illuminated was reddish!

some samples

left: with light right:no light

same as above

right: not focused

As shown above the illuminated area became reddish. The video also shows the reddish.
it may be NOT necessary to light at the day dive with TZ7 underwater mode. in other words it is necessary to adjust the white balance.
The reddish was not observed at my home bath ( no sunshine). So another story at night or cave diving.

PS:
have you seen the Etizen kurage ( the biggest jellyfish in the world)?
if interested you can see its video at youtube. This is not so big one.
Another one i saw at 2002. This color is slightly whitish but near to the real color by naked eyes.

Thank you