Planning a DIY Canister Light build, need some help

[Klem]

That's and interesting plug and it looks like it will work. Where did you source it from? Stainless steel?

If you want to play it safe you can go down without a battery in the canister for the first dive. Or even knock-up a quick-n-dirty second canister without gland to test that plug. Don't need to waste a good dive to test it, just fill it with weight and drop it from a boat, bridge or a wharf into the water attached to a piece of cord. Or sit it in a bucket of water for a day or so without depth pressure.

That wing-nut can be replaced with a couple of normal nuts if you want to keep clean lines on the canister (no snagging or accidental opening underwater). Your canister is a bit long to sit in a BC pocket so that wingnut will be sitting out waiting to get caught on something...and it will! Obviously have a small wrench above the surface in your gear to open it. Or you could use an ABS press-fitting end-cap over the end of the canister to protect the wingnut, drill a few small holes in the cap to prevent any unwanted buoyancy.

Have the gland coming in from the other end, not the side. Your battery is triangular so there will be space in the canister to run the leads to the plug end.

 

[darkavenger]

Source: Home Depot, Lowes, actually any major hardware store should have them. Cost was $3. I'm going to swap the nut out for something similar but low profile or modify the existing one for now. The screw needs to be cut to size as there as quite a bit of unnecessary length to snag stuff on. I got the idea from a topic h̶e̶r̶e̶(Scubaboard), however the application was for a storage tube.

I might drop it off a boat if I get the chance, it would be nice to test everything to well past my depth limit(120' or so) Dropping it down to 200' would be a good test.

 

[Klem]

No need to test it past the deepest point you will ever dive. If you believe it will fail eventually then why risk the cost associated with proving something you already know?

Plus let's face it, if you're a recreational air diver and you drop the torch to 200' you are not going down to Davy Jones' Locker to get it. If the viz is good enough and it's still glowing then enjoy the spectacle and live to make another one.

 

[darkavenger]

Update!

 

[johnohuk]

Is it waterproof

Anyway, I tried to get one of those plugs.. I think they are call used by plumbers and called drain plugs... couldn't find any cheap ones in the UK...

This chap was selling a light based using them on ebay..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF7MbTDOb90

What's the black end plate made of and what type of section/construction is it..? thanks..

 

[darkavenger]

No, it's not waterproof. Yet.

The plug has been reportedly tested to 250psi. I'm going to guess it works well. The o-ring is massive! Kind of hard to imagine any water getting through it. I like the SS plug, mine is made mostly of plastic. It's an Oatey test plug, commonly found here in the states since Lowes and Home Depot both had them in multiple sizes.

Haha... the 'back plate' is spare ABS piping that I cooked in my barbeque for a few minutes to get it flat. For future reference, foil is not as flat as you'd think and laying the plastic on a solid metal surface would have worked better. Everything turned out great though, I'm happy enough with the way it turned out. There are two layers glued together, however one is cut to the ID of the pipe and fits snugly inside, and the whole thing is glued together with ABS glue.

 

[lucca brassi]

this ''dryplug'' is very clever used in battery tanks ....i plan for a while to do that but my tanks are still OK and because of that is no realy reason to do that

still version of dry plug here (you need two conical plates faced to each other , thick oring , screw in the centere and guidelines prevent diccs from twisting - simple

 

[darkavenger]

 

[darkavenger]

Ok, so I have everything setup, now I just need help with wiring/soldering the driver between the battery and LEDs.

Again, the driver is here: http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S020121

Also, can I use thermal epoxy to attach the driver to the heat sink?

 

[darkavenger]

I did a waterproof test for over 8 hours in water today. The light is fully functional. Beam shots, SL3 vs my light.