Canister Lights

SPEEDSTER · Jul 12, 2002

I was reading through oxyhacker's link to his books and got interested in his book on home made canister lights. Has anyone here made their own light? Does it still work? How hard was it and how much did it all cost? I'm looking at doing a HID light, but not if 'your' responses are negative. Your thoughts are much appreciated.

Thanks,
Mike

P.S. Here's the link to his site:http://www.airspeedpress.com/ and here's the link to just the dive light book:http://www.airspeedpress.com/newlitebook.html

scubaturek · Jul 12, 2002

Mike, I have the book and I made a light. I used 4" PVC for the can, and Cyclon XCells to get 12V @ 10AH. I made a MR16 lighthead with various halogen bulbs. My total material cost was about $80 (I got a deal on the Cyclons). Yes, it works quite well. It really helps if you have a lathe at your disposal.

Any lighthead can be used, of course, and I'm waiting for HID to come down in price. My next can project will use ABS, and hopefully NiMH batteries, and, fingers crossed, HID in a test-tube head.

You could make one without a lathe, but it would be much more labor intensive. Depends on how imaginative you are.

Joe

Padipro · Jul 13, 2002

Mike,

I just built two lights, one was a dual 12 volt, 7 amp battery version and the other was a single 12 volt, 7 amp battery version.

Scott

bwollard · Jul 13, 2002

Can you upgrade a halogen light to HID by just changing out the lighthead or do you have to have a new canister/battery?

Padipro · Jul 13, 2002

You should be able to upgrade the light head from a standard halogen light to a HID light. The balast for the HID light is contained in the light head and the canister and batteries are the same. A HID uses much less power for the same amount of light so most HID lights seem to have smaller batteries which make the light smaller and much easyer to carry. The only draw back I can see to trying to do this is the cost. HID light heads are expensive and it may cost you almost as much for a HID light head as it would cost for an entire new light. When I made my canister light I looked at buying a Dive Rite MR-16 light head instead of trying to make one myself but the light head alone cost $150.

Scott

bwollard · Jul 13, 2002

Padipro:

Does this mean that you made a HID lighthead? If so, how hard and expensive was it versus the cost of buying one. Thanks for the info!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bill

deepocean · Jul 13, 2002

Hi

can you also say something of the quality of these regs?

Xerxes

deepocean · Jul 13, 2002

Hi

I mean with quality: Your light VS for example the Halcyon light.

The ups and downs and the differences.

Also include how many watt is your HID.

Xerxes

Padipro · Jul 13, 2002

This is the third time I've tried to enter this post!!!

I thought about building a HID light but I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know that there was a book out buy Airspeedpress on how to build a HID light until after I was finished. My light is a 50 Halogen.

The quality is just as good as the Halcyon or Dive Rite lights. In fact I modeled mine after the Dive Rite version using the same on/off switch, batteries, latches, and power cord. I could have used the same liquid tight feed throughs as the Dive Rite light but they were a lot more expensive then the ones I found at a local hardware store.

Scott

SPEEDSTER · Jul 15, 2002

Nice light Padipro! Thanks for all the pictures, I think I'll email you for those pics you mentioned. Thanks for the help Scubaturek and Padipro.

-Mike

Canister Lights

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