Mega Illuminator 3515 info sought...

[mark_2cv]

Hi all
This is my first post on your esteemed forum (puts on tin hat and ducks) so go easy on me..

I work for a U.K. charity - the Royal National Lifeboat Institution - which provides marine search and rescue craft and volenteer crews covering the whole coastline of the U.K. and Ireland.

I have taken it upon myself to seek out a replacement searchlight for one of our new classes of lifeboat. At present this comprises the front end from a Lightforce Blitz mounted in a custom made housing containing a 24v ballast and 35w bulb and little else, for which we are paying lots of money.
The money is bad enough, but it has come to light (no pun intented) that these are overheating and destroying the Blitz reflector and lens.
The supplier claims that they were used for too long a period and hence the damage! - so either we say sorry - cant search any longer for your loved one as we have to let the searchlights cool down - or find something else.....

Well I've looked long and hard to find something to replace the existing effort - which I should say has worked well up till now - So i have narrowed down to lamps of a similar size and type.
I have ordered a sample Mega Illuminator 3515 from BatteryJunction as it looks like it might fit the bill with a bit of modification. I need a lamp that can be mounted on a yoke so the legs will be the first thing to go, along with the battery as it will take it's power from the boats supply.
This leads me to the question of whether it can cope with prolonged use without harm.
Has anyone experience of running one for several hours on external power?
Sales at BatteryJunction said it would be fine, but then a salesman would!

Is there anything else I should be looking at on the market? I checked out purpose made yoke mounted marine seachlights first of all, but prices for even a small model have just gone crazy. keep in mind that we are a charity!
Limitations I have are size, mounting, weight and no modification to the boat, so may'be you can see why I have ordered a Mega...

Any thoughts and comments would be most welcome - who better to ask than enthusiasts!

P.S. I was suprised that BatteryJunction said they did not keep spare bulbs, nor did they know what type of base fitting the bulbs have! I will need to obtain spares for this no doubt - Can anyone help me with this info?

Many thanks (sorry it's a bit long winded!)
Mark.

 

[BlueBeam22]

It should be perfectly fine to run it for hours on external power. It should come with a 12V DC adaptor to plug directly into a cigarette lighter outlet.

The Mega Illuminator with its stock bulb and ballast will easily illuminate objects out to 1 mile away, and should have more output than your current HID modified Blitz.

:welcome:

 

[Flashanator]

I would expect long hours to be fine, those bulbs have like 1000's hr life.

If your going to strip it of the battery, maybe have a setup with a small cooling fan & cut out some vents to keep the ballast cooler. Must be mostly cold weather at night in that part of the world?

 

[mark_2cv]

Hi BlueBeam22/Flashanator
Glad to see you think long hours will be okay.
I did wonder myself about fitting active coolingas I should have the room - maybe it's possible to connect the ballast to an external heatsink through the case as I dont want to vent it unless through Goretex breathers which are expensive!

Anyone know the bulb details needed to get the correct spare?

 

[BlueBeam22]

Anyone know the bulb details needed to get the correct spare?

The Mega Illuminator uses a 35 watt 4200K type H7 HID bulb.

 

[BVH]

I wouldn't worry about installing a cooling fan. Once you remove the battery, you'll allow more cooling air to reach inside the casing towards the ballast. The light itself, is huge which will act as a decent heatsink.

If you're going to remove the batteries anyway, have Matt ship them without them so it will save you on shipping.

You'll find my HID lamp poll thread on this site that shows very, very, very few people have experienced a "burned out" HID lamp due to normal usage. I would not buy 1 spare for each light. Maybe a couple amongst them.

 

[Flashanator]

I too find it hard to believe battjuct don't have spare bulbs,

Jusst get some 35W 4300K H7 bulbs off ebay or HIDWorld etc.

 

[mtbkndad]

The Mega Illuminator will be fine, the reflector is aluminum.
The ballast is an auto ballast sealed in a special weather proof silicone or epoxy type material called "__________gell", I forget the proper name right off hand.
The connectors on the inside are weather proof auto connectors.
The bulb is rated for 3,000 hours of use.

This is a proven auto bulb and ballast combination that the manufacturer adapted for spotlight use.
I highly doubt your application will ever get as hot as the ballast and bulb will get in the engine compartment of an automobile in summer.
I am pretty sure replacement bulbs can be acquired .

Take Care,
mtbkndad :wave:

 

[electromage]

The only problem I can see with that light would be that it's not exactly weatherproof. The Lightforce lights are meant to be mounted on cars, and are designed to get wet. The Illuminator has vents in it, and the parts aren't fastened tightly enough to keep water out.

The ballast is potted, of course, but I would worry about the wiring and connectors. The terminals are probably not stainless steel, given the economical nature of the light.

I would go for something like this http://magnalight.com/pc-931-60-hid...er--handheld-with-coil-cord-and-cig-plug.aspx

It's designed as an HID, not modified, it's waterproof, it's smaller and lighter than the Illuminator, it's externally powered... it seems like it would be a good fit.

 

[mark_2cv]

Thanks guys for all your help!
I'll let you know how I get on...

This is what it will go on by the way

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Lifeboat.16-01.underway.arp.jpg