I like LED Dive lights but don't like lugging around my 8xC UK C8 ELED since it can't fit in your pocket when diving. I'm going to dive some wrecks in Chuuk Lagoon next week and wanted a bright but pocketable LED Dive light. I have a 4 cell magled and managed to fit it with some dremeling into a Tec 400 4 C cell light. It reproduced the incand beam perfectly, a murderous throwy hot spot and room-filling dimmer spill, perfect for diving. But, as noted in numerous reviews, the magled dims noticeably after 5 mins, and the PR shell was hot to the touch. I noticed the -VE wire I had soldered to the side of the magled was conducting a lot of heat, so I soldered about a foot of 12 ga insulated wire to the other side and routed it up and coiled around the reflector. From my subjective tests the dimming, if any, is far less dramatic. The wire gets warm, and the PR base of the magled gets less hot. This would make a good all around weatherproof light with a lot of throw and a wide dim spill. Total cost about 40 bucks.
Here are some pics.
The coiled red wire you can see is the heatsinking.
The beam really looks better than this, and the spill continues outside the range of the photo. This is at about 6'. The coronas outside the hotspot do not really look like this. Terrible photo:
Underside detail
Top detail
Here are some pics.
The coiled red wire you can see is the heatsinking.
The beam really looks better than this, and the spill continues outside the range of the photo. This is at about 6'. The coronas outside the hotspot do not really look like this. Terrible photo:
Underside detail
Top detail
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