Today was the day for the flashlight depth testing .I'll cut to the chase and say both flashlights performed flawlessly.I had already gotten my modified LS down to 10 ft,So I started the lights at 20 feet for this series of tests.The lake itself is very deep.I don't exactly know the depth,and the fishermen I ran into didn't know either,but it is very deep.The lake is called Heritage Lake and it is located in the small town of Mackinaw ,Illinois.About a half hour drive from where I live.If I were to describe the lake,I would say it is a miniature Loch Ness.Very narrow,very deep.
I used a 100 foot reel type metal tape measure for the test.The lights were attached with zip ties through the split rings to the tip of the tape measure.I had intended to send my Arc LE down with the LS ,but the o-ring looked to be in pretty bad shape,so I sent my CPF edition aaa instead.I sent them down to 20,30 ,40,and 50 feet for 10 minutes each.My father was with me and paddled the boat to keep it close to the same place.At each depth the lights were brought up,dried with paper towels,inspected ,and sent back down.The lights were tested while on to make it realistic for underwater use. I should add that before the tests were begun,I lubed the o-rings of both with a teflon lube called Magic Lube made by a company called Aladdin.I did not bring the lube with on the boat,so the original lube was used for all of the series of tests.
After 50 feet,I removed the CPF edition and decided I would send the ARC LS down to the bottom of the lake by itself.I took it down to 95 feet,because I did not feel comfortable unwinding the tape right to the end.I should also add that the tape reel was wired to my ankle for all the tests so I did not accidentally lose the whole test rig.
After 10 minutes,I brought it up.It was still shining.I opened it up and it was unaffected by the submersion.I took some stills of the lake and test rig,but I did not bring the video camera out on the lake because I already had enough stuff I was trying to keep from falling out of the boat.
I guess I don't really know what this proves except that my Arcs have gone deep into Heritage Lake and survived.The O-ring setup worked great Peter,and I guess my mod worked nicely too.
I welcome any comments or observations.
troy