Feedback on DIY 10,000 lumen dive video lights

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there is not currently a video light on the market that is capable of those burn times with that much light output. If you are able to get 110l/w out of those lights it would be very impressive and more efficient than anything on the market today, but without a seriously big battery pack in there you aren't going to get that much output for that long in a reasonable size. Certainly not keeping it neutrally buoyant.

also, make sure you have a temperature cutoff sensor in there that will knock it down to low. These things produce an insane amount of heat when they're putting out that much light and if you have guys doing stupid sh!t like half hour surface swims with them on high, you need them to protect themselves from overheating.

Yea definitely will have a thermistor for shutoff/throttling protection. This thing would for sure quickly overheat in air so the protection is required if accidentally left on. I'm not fully sure how hot they will get underwater. For one of the first units I may try and add some EEPROM to the atmel controller and log light temperature and power. I'll compare it to water temps logged by my dive computer on an actual dive to get some nice delta T info.

The LED emitters that I've spec'd are actually rated for 125 and 143 lm/W at test current. (10K and 7.5K emitter respectively) Granted this is the lumen output at the emitter though a good glass should have close to 95% transmittance. I'll be driving them a bit harder than the test current in order to hit 10K and 7.5K lumens which will cut into their efficiency but overall though I think i should be able to get close to 110lm/W

p/n's if your'e interested:
CXA3070-0000-000N00AD50F
CXA2540-0000-000N00X250F
 
you're going to want to look at emitters with higher CRI values. I'd target 90CRI instead of 70. You're going to sacrifice some lumens, but you'll get much better color quality in your video

Ah! didn't know about that parameter but can see how it would be important for video. How does that relate to correlated color temperature(CCT)? Is there a preferred CCT for underwater video?
 
it's artificial light so you don't have to compensate for color loss, but I think the higher end ones are in the 5500K ish range which is close to natural daylight
 
Update: Most of the mechanical parts have come in. It'll take me some time to get the electronics board ready though...

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looks good. You did make sure that you have direct contact from the emitters to the outer housing for heat sinking yeah? looks like you do, but wanted to double check
 
Like the project. Am not experienced enough to really chime in, but hope you don't mind I offer these thoughts anyway - and I have a way to find the thread again...
-- why four output steps, why not 5 (just curious)?
- why 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%... why vary the output step width in F-stop terms? Why not have the step width e.g. in constant 1 F-stop size? E.g.: 100%, 50%, 25%, 12%, (& 6% if 5 steps)
Added benefit: that lower setting to let you check something on yourself or very nearby (or tight passage) or ... w/o going completely blind or having to use another light ... and plenty of runtime if not needed on high.
- so, you are diving along, not filming or taking pics., frugal miser that you are with your lights on a lower setting (or off) and you realize you must take a pic of something or film something that instant.... how do you get to high with one button push / slide / turn from where ever the lights were set to? (As in a 4 or position hall effect slider or rotator with end stop would be a lot nicer than having to cycle thru modes, or a dedicated button per mode). Extra bonus: one button that does both lights (yeah, I know...)
- blue... for fluoro diving or another purpose? If yes, best wavelength for it? How does the output compare to other blue lights? Power levels on that ... or no?
- I use my red lights at times (for observing, not filming), just because it seems less bothering to some wildlife than white.... may go the route of getting flashes (photography obviously, not video) where the red focus light goes off the instant the flash goes on (not sure if the flash wouldn't drown it in either case) Curious: might video lights that strong also be used for still photography.... if yes than that would be a nice added feature.
- depth rating: I suspect the market for this powerful a video light not rated to at least closer to 300' might be quite smaller than if it was rated quite there. Not only for tech divers also for people who take comfort in having plenty of rating margin on stuff they spend mone on.
- charging batteries / changing for another set of charged ones: How long, how many screws, how many seals, what seal configuration, how safe against inadvertent seal twisting, dislocating (e.g. ring in barrel groove usual dive light) vs."loose ring" in perimeter grove (camera housing)) , pinching?
- replacement seals easily obtainable?
-housing does it look like it's clear in the pics (on phone)? If so, why not thermally more conductive... like anodized or hard anodized alu?
- hall effect switch: I have a cheap light with issues that has a slider version that is engineered such that it will slide to on with certainty if you leave the batteries in your light while off. Had to add a means of locking it. Anyway a way to keep the light off for sure, when the intent is to do that would be nice.
- individual batteries vs. battery pack: so far I always get to display my individually bagged 18650s and 26650s on the airport to the TSA or whatever a local authority may be called. They are the size they are, they look like batteries, they are clearly labelled... I wonder how much more complicated that might get with a battery pack and at which point some local authority chooses to decide that now it's theirs because it exceeds some arbitrary capacity... Also, my charger may claim to get each individual battery to "full"... how would that work when charging a pack...? The individual cells don't all behave the same -or?
 
looks good. You did make sure that you have direct contact from the emitters to the outer housing for heat sinking yeah? looks like you do, but wanted to double check

Yup, thermal paste in between, and then they are screwed down to the aluminum to provide good contact pressure. I'll be able to run the lights alone with just a bench top power supply to see how the thermals are.

The white LED will be on order soon, still deciding between two of them with higher CRI (like you suggested!).

BXRC-40G4000-C-73: 90CRI, can get 8,000 lumens driving at ~1.6A

CLU048-1212C4-403H7K4: 97CRI, can get 7,500 lumens driving at ~1.75A
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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