P7-D can light

I'm currently considering buying a P7-D based can light from a local SBer at a price that works for me. I'd like some opinions on whether it's likely to be an appropriate choice for me. Pretty much all my diving is Northern California. I recently had a situation where I needed to signal my buddies and my R2 backup wasn't bright enough. I have some interest in exploring caves and wrecks, but not in the timeframe that would necessarily set requirements for the light.

Any thoughts?

Never heard of it... I would stick with Salvo, Halcyon or Lightmonkey... Might take some waiting but there are some deals under $500 every now and again.

Sorry, I should probably clarify, it's a custom/DIY LED. I was considering building one myself with almost the exact same parts earlier, but the I judged the parts cost to be too high for my inexperience. By the time I allow a 50% overhead for me to break bits, etc, it would have been way too pricey.

I had decided to wait for a 10W HID to be available at a price I could stomach, but the durability of a LED-based solution really appeals to me. I also like that this is local, given the high ticket price.

If you cling to the back of your buddy's tank like a scuba gremlin, you'll have no problem signaling them ever
Also you won't have to worry about buoyancy and trim, it'll be all on them.

If it's local, see if they'll let you take it for a test run. Then you can get a pretty good idea.

Yeah, I think we'll do that. I'm a little concerned I won't know what I'm looking at

Hi

I think i can chime in here. Couple years ago, i started a DIY P7 light, made my own can out of PVC pipe, head was made out of a converted maglite. Spent many hours researching and working things out. Used a P7 LED, D bin, with a claimed 800 lumens at 3.7 volts. I split my 12v pack (from a diy 50w halogen project) and ran the P7 with a 2.1 amp constant output driver. I used a fresnel lens to improve the beam angle to about 12 degrees, the best i could do at the time.

I used it exactly twice- it just didnt cut through the murk of an average vis dive on the pipe. My PT torrent xenon had a better hotspot out to 6 or so feet so i ended up using that. Above water tests suggested a 10W HID equivalent, but frankly it sucked. I abandoned the project shortly after, spending roughly $300 on all the bits and pieces. The following week i kicked myself as a 10W dive-rite went on the classifieds for the same price.

To be honest, unless you do this sort of stuff for a living, your DIY skills probably arent up to it and youll end up never quite achieving what you aimed for. As a qualifier to that, i have built high intensity LED and HID light sources for microscopy applications for my research and they are better than i can buy commercially. Its my personal opinion that an LED based light solution at the DIY price point is out of the question. Your'e talking about building a Light Monkey/Halcyon etc 21w clone at a minimum, for a 1/3 or a 1/4 of the price. Isnt going to happen. m not talking about stuffing 3 or 4 P7 or R5 Leds in a head with a 30 degree flood pattern and getting a 90 minute run time. I could do that, but i wanted something that was going to be useful for our waters. Im currently figuring out how to repurpose the components to make a video or focusing light where those specs arent such a bad thing.

With all that, id say hold off on the purchase and wait for a deal on a 10-15 W HID. I just picked up 2 Dive Rite H1000 (15 w, 3.5 hour burn on the slimline canister) for myself and KLJ. Cost $700 for the both of them and they only have maybe 15 dives between them. The replacement bulbs are expensive -$85 from Dive Rite directly, but you can get them direct for $40. But they ARE HID bulbs and they are specialty pieces of equipment. Of course they are going to be expensive. Given the rapid progress in LED technology the past 2-3 years, i dont doubt the situation will be different in another 2-3 years, just in time for us upgrading. Saying that though, i really cant imaging ever buying a flashlight for more than $400, regardless. I just dont do the sort of diving that would justify the cost.

Early on in our diving, my regular team mate and I decided to make our own can lights. He even bought a lathe to turn the light heads, etc. I'd like to think we're both reasonably capable in the mechanical dept.

To make a long story short - We both have factory made, brand name canister lights.

I've never seen a home made can light that could hold its own with a decent brand name light.

I dont know guys, dont flame me i make my own lights, just because i like to mess with submerged electrical things .
During when weather was up last year i made about 10 lights, tank tumbler, O2 meter, Pressure tester and changed latex seals on both of my suits and overhauled all of my regs.

if i may summarize, above thread.
0. if you have friend with lots of lights and tanks thats a way to go.
1. If you going to make 1 light to save money, forget it.
2. If you make lights for fun, research this board or candlepower forum you be surprised.
I make different lights for different purpose, flood for video, spot for diving but i made a bunch of them by now, and i already spent 1000$ to learn what not to do
here small production site Technical Lighting Specialties | 350xFire Hector is a very nice guy to deal with if you want custom light, he can build one with 2300 lumen led.

np251 IMHO

1.you can not use lens to focus multi die LED, it is not efficient, you need deep reflector , the best i found if this DealExtreme: $22.28 SSC P7-C 2800mA LED Module with Copper Base (3.6V~8.4V) with proper driver and D bin it will be very focused and great for Monterey waters,

2. you need to drive it at 2.8amp, using LI-IO batteries (2 x 4 of 18650 will do ) at 2.1A you just lost 20% of its output.



3. about canisters just use OMS canisters they only 40$ each

My main concern with purchasing one-off/custom/DIY lights is aftermarket support. LEDs may be considered "more reliable" than HID, but like everything scuba, lights undergo a lot of stress, and eventually something breaks. What do you do then? Can you fix it yourself? If not, will the original owner or fabricator repair it? Can you even get in touch with them? How long will it take? How much will it cost you?

One of the things that constantly amazes me about retail can light manufacturers like Halcyon and Light Monkey is how amazing they are when it comes to service. I've had regular service and failures on my lights (NONE of which have had to do with the lamps/bulb/HID components btw, it's always stuff like seals, hoses, batteries, switches) and every time Halcyon has gone above and beyond to restore the light to new, working condition (when was the last time you weren't charged a cent for a new E/O cord?). IMO that more than makes up for any initial cost savings you may get with a DIY light.