Fishing for scuba light ideas

[Firecop]

Hello again, gents!

I've been thinking about an idea for a dive light but I'm having some problems with the body. As some of you may know, (and fewer may care about) certain underwater creatures flouresce when exposed to UV light.

My thought is to try to make/modify a light that will be waterproof to 130' and have both a bright main light (a P7 maybe?) as well as a couple UV LED emitters. I was hoping to use a metal housing, thus eliminating the heat dissipation issues.

Does anyone have any thoughts on housings (the less expensive, the better) that might work well for this application?

TIA

 

[Spareair]

I did a dive light build a while ago...used a d-mag light system......now If I can find the thread there are alot of pictures.......

 

[steve6690]

I'm building a dive light at the moment. I got my housing from here :

http://www.miemczyk-shop.de/

it was about £80 for the housing complete with magnetic switch, cable gland, 10mm boro glass, o-ring, and supply cable. I looked around for months and couldn't find anything better for the money.

 

[bulrush]

Someone on www.instructables.com made a video camera housing out of a clear plastic pickle jar. I doubt it would go to 130 feet though.

 

[Firecop]

Thanks for all the help, guys!

Spareair - I'd love to know how you sealed the M@g assembly. I was hoping that I could somehow epoxy in a waterproof switch using the existing hole. Will the bezel/head/tail cap o-rings hold at depth?

 

[divinginn]

Look on scubaboard and or the deco stop,they have some posts from people building dive lights from maglights,the best way I saw on there to seal the head was to get 2 glass lenses,one slightly smaller than the other and glue them together with a transparent glue,then put a o ring around the smaller glass piece,that worked out the best for sealing,a magnetic switch worked best for sealing,they cut down the mag light eliminating the old switch hole and epoxied the head to the shortened barrel,also used a remote battery cannister to get long runtimes. I have been playing with one using a mr 16 spotlight bulb 37 watt overdriving it to 18 volts,the light output was awesome but with very short runtime about 30 minutes using 4 amp sla batteries,I dropped down to a 20 watt bulb and got increased runtime of about 80 minutes but lower light levels but still very bright,probably on par with a 10 watt hid can light,I have been thinking about trying a p7 led,that would get the light output probably equal to a 18-21 watt hid light but you could use 3 nmh d cells instead of the 15 cells it would take to overdrive the mr16 bulb,I was looking at a 150 dollar pack verses a 30 dollar pack in the led. I also just bought a vintage dacor dive light rated to 400 ft with a 6 volt bulb and lantern battery,I am going to mod it to blow away my buddies 500 dollar can light,not sure which way I will go with it ,led or overdrive a 9-12 volt bulb,it is a big solid chunk of alum with a big batt space,so I could use just about any battery configaration.

 

[nwbrewer]

Look on scubaboard and or the deco stop,they have some posts from people building dive lights from maglights,the best way I saw on there to seal the head was to get 2 glass lenses,one slightly smaller than the other and glue them together with a transparent glue,then put a o ring around the smaller glass piece,that worked out the best for sealing,a magnetic switch worked best for sealing,they cut down the mag light eliminating the old switch hole and epoxied the head to the shortened barrel,also used a remote battery cannister to get long runtimes.

Yep, that's the way to do it. I made my stepped lense out of a piece of 1/4" lexan and a router though. I use a P4 right now, and it's not quite as bright as a 10watt HID. I'm currently working on a design to step up to a P7. You'll need a thicker o-ring for the tailcap also. Use JB weld to attach the head to the body of the mag. I direct switch mine wit a magnetic switch. Turn on/off by rotating the head in the handle (handle has the magnet.) If you plane to use the Mag reflector, expect to do a bit of grinding in both the inside of the mag head and and the reflector.

More pics here - http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x264/jdvirnig/

I have a parts list if you want it PM me an e-mail address and I can send it. I'm working on a more descriptive document when I do my P7 canlight.

Good luck, it's a rewarding effort.

 

[Firecop]

Thank you very much! I'd be very interested in your parts list, nwbrewer...PM incoming.

The o-rings are what's tripping me up, I guess....If I take a 52mm lens (glass, of course), then glue a smaller lens to that, does the smaller lense fit inside the bezel? There's already an o-ring between the bezel and the lens at the front of the head, then another between the bezel and the head around the outside of the head.

When you said a larger o-ring around the tail cap, do you mean a thicker one in the same channel?

What did you do for the o-ring channel in your cannister?

4 more months 'till Turks/Caicos!