Cutting the Cord?

[Lorenzoid]

I seriously considered going cordless, but my cave instructor would not allow it. Once that changes and the majority of cave instructors endorse them, I'll gladly get rid of that entanglement hazard - see the other thread.

An instructor advised me to learn to manage a corded/canister light even thought they may soon be obsolete even for extreme diving. His reasoning is that I may be in a situation where I have to use someone else's gear.

As for the "advantage" of a cord tethering the light head to the diver in case it's dropped, couldn't some other tether be rigged up?

 

[PfcAJ]

A corded light also has the option for e/I underwater pluggable connectors.

Isolates potential leaks in the battery pack or light head and allows for the ability to swap heads/ canisters mid dive or on the surface if somethin breaks. For instance, I can start the dive with a normal light then switch to a video light.

 

[JohnN]

Corded lights have been obsolete for everything but cave and serious wreck diving. For night diving you do not need or in fact want super bright lights. Even my smallest handheld is too bright for some tastes.

N

You should come out to the PNW and enjoy our crystal-clear waters :cool2: (particularly in the summer). I don't think it would be possible to have too much light. I'll stick with my LED heads and can.

 

[Redshift]

A corded light also has the option for e/I underwater pluggable connectors.

Isolates potential leaks in the battery pack or light head and allows for the ability to swap heads/ canisters mid dive or on the surface if somethin breaks. For instance, I can start the dive with a normal light then switch to a video light.

And also for using heating.

 

[Kevrumbo]

The practical advantage for a cordless Primary Light is for the Wreck Diver running a lot of penetration reel line: again no hip mounted canister cord to get entangled or fouled with reel line -or worse- along with trapping the Primary Reg Long Hose if you have to donate to a teammate while running line. The disadvantage is that it's easier to accidentally drop/fumble a cordless light and lose it to the abyss because there is obviously no tethering power cord like in a conventional hip mounted canister light.

One of the configurations I used in the Truk wrecks -especially on sidemount dives- was the cordless Viz35 Primary Light; and a wet pluggable E/O corded battery canister (UTD's small profile Power-Z model) mounted on back waistbelt and initially powering a wetsuit torso heater as needed (UTD's Solar Heater), but also capable of plugging into a redundant or auxiliary Primary E/O corded small Vision 18W head stored as back-up in pocket shorts.

For instance if I lost the cordless Viz35 Primary (light failure or "fumbled" it), I would turn-on one of my conventionally mounted shoulder harness back-up lights, disconnect the power cord to the wetsuit heater and plug it into the Vision 18W light head (with hand mount bungied loops) retrieved from my pocket shorts. The practical advantage in this contingency is that I would still have the option to continue the wreck penetration or abort with much better illumination than a standard shoulder harness mounted redundant/back-up light alone. . .

 

[PfcAJ]

....but you've lost a frickin light....

Im not too keen on needlessly losing equipment. Although if I had a cordless light id probably be glad that I lost it.

 

[danvolker]

With cordless primary lights becoming increasingly commonplace in diving and seem to be advancing in technology rather quickly(like light and battery technology in general). So with that in mind, if you still use a corded primary light at what point in their advancement would you consider switching to a cordless one? Burn time? Brightness? Proven track record of dependability?

I know I personally made the switch to the Dive Rite RX-20 because the burn times and brightness were comparable to my 10W LED corded primary.

My wife Sandra is looking for a light right now, that she can use for her night dives at the BHB Marine Park.....Her Halcyon Explorer does a good job of helping her in her scouting for finding more nudibranchs, or other tiny creatures, so she can set up to photograph them with 100 mm lens and 7x diopter, but the Halcyon light she has only lasts 2 hours...... ( she does dives that last between 3 and 6 hours routinely....though most night dives have time restrictions preventing her from being in past 4 hours)

So while the Halcyon is a great light, it has two issue for her.....first, the burn time, which can be dealt with by going to one of the larger Halcyon canister lights...
The second issue is more related to the issue with the cordless lights....Sandra DOES NOT like to have to carry a large light head on her wrist---while the goodman style light of the halcyon explorer does allow hands free operation, the size and weight make it difficult for her to be handling all the controls of her camera, with the light on top of her wrist....Now the cordless lights would be TERRIBLE for her, as there is no way she could actually hang on to them with one hand and shoot pics...and if she rigged one with a Goodman handle, it would make the Halcyon Explorer light head seem very compact and comfortable in comparison... I don't really know why anyone would purposely want such a large light to be in your way, in your hand, preventing you from the use of that hand you may need for shooting or something else--especially when you have Can lights around to keep you hands free....or mostly hands free
We have been looking at this...STRYKR C1800 Combo Kit, 8-Cell, 150M - 1800 Lumen



Because it has a goodman similar on top of wrist way of being held so you are hands free....AND, the light head is a fraction the size of the light heads on the Can lights we are used to, so Sandra is looking forward to trying one to see if it is less intrusive...the Light power, from what we see on paper, would seem to be along the same order as the Halcyon lights.....with multiple power settings, and burn times that will last even through one of Sandra's 6 hour long dives at the BHB.

Does anyone have any experience with this light by watershot, or any other light suggestions?

 

[LiteHedded]

The practical advantage for a cordless Primary Light is for the Wreck Diver running a lot of penetration reel line: again no hip mounted canister cord to get entangled or fouled with reel line -or worse- along with trapping the Primary Reg Long Hose if you have to donate to a teammate while running line. The disadvantage is that it's easier to accidentally drop/fumble a cordless light and lose it to the abyss because there is obviously no tethering power cord like in a conventional hip mounted canister light.

One of the configurations I used in the Truk wrecks -especially on sidemount dives- was the cordless Viz35 Primary Light; and a wet pluggable E/O corded battery canister (UTD's small profile Power-Z model) mounted on back waistbelt and initially powering a wetsuit torso heater as needed (UTD's Solar Heater), but also capable of plugging into a redundant or auxiliary Primary E/O corded small Vision 18W head stored as back-up in pocket shorts.

For instance if I lost the cordless Viz35 Primary (light failure or "fumbled" it), I would turn-on one of my conventionally mounted shoulder harness back-up lights, disconnect the power cord to the wetsuit heater and plug it into the Vision 18W light head (with hand mount bungied loops) retrieved from my pocket shorts. The practical advantage in this contingency is that I would still have the option to continue the wreck penetration or abort with much better illumination than a standard shoulder harness mounted redundant/back-up light alone. . .

i've run quite a bit of line in my diving career and i'm not following any of this.

how on earth do you manage to get the light cord entangled while running line and why are you not able to donate the long hose while doing so?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Much of this sounds like people rationalizing personal preference ... which is, in my opinion, what this question mostly boils down to.

I own one of the original Salvo 21W HID lights ... bought it from Barry at a good price when he was raising money for his trial. The thing's got over 2,000 dives on it ... so while I figure I've more than got my money out of it, I'll use it till I decide it isn't worth fixing anymore. There's plenty of lights on the market I'd like to have ... but why spend money on one of them when I already have a light that serves my needs?

As for the lost cordless, I also own two DRIS 1000 lumen LED lights ... the standard and the shorty. I love them both ... and they're both plenty bright enough to serve my needs. When I go cave diving, these are my backup lights of choice. To remediate the possibility of losing one of them, I clip the light's bolt snap onto my compass bungee ... if I need to let to of the light I just let go. It ain't going anywhere ... and since it will point down when I let go of it, it's not going to distract a dive buddy either. When I get done with whatever caused me to let go of the light, I simply pick it up again.

I like simple. I like functional. Those are my preferences ... YMMV ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Kevrumbo]

i've run quite a bit of line in my diving career and i'm not following any of this.

how on earth do you manage to get the light cord entangled while running line and why are you not able to donate the long hose while doing so?

Take a wreck course with AG --that's how to experience it in "comtolled" training conditions. In real-world wreck penetrations, you are frequently layimg line not only straight ahead linearly, but also all dimensional axes X, Y and Z simultaneously, often in vision obscuring silt & percolating rust caused by your exhaust bubbles. I've tangled my canister light cord in my reel-line a few times in such conditions doing tie-offs.