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Hi Frank, You bring up a good point about being able to focus the beam. The MAG light lens allow the LED replacement bulbs to act like the old ones. From what I've seen from how bright the 3 or 4 D cell battery large MAG lights, using just one large very bright LED, they put out a lot of lumens. I have not seen any specs as to how many lumens they put out. Perhaps someone here might come across that data. So that's why I was thinking that 3 or 4 of these bulbs might be enough for one sub light assembly. If I understand correctly, the 3 D cell bulbs run on 4.5 volts each, and the 4 D cell bulbs run on 6 volts each. So I'm interested in how to combine 3 or four bulbs, and run them off a 18 volt Li-ion cordless tool battery. I thought the pricing on the 3 amp hours, large Li-ion batteries was pretty reasonable, at about $100 U.S. a pair for the Makita brand. I can see we are going to have loads of fun when I get down there to visit. Regards, Szybowski From: ShellyDalg@aol.com Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 00:13:29 -0500 Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] LED Lighting Options To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org Ya, with a big flashlight in the cabin, I'm sure reflections will be a problem, not to mention the heat.
On building a dive light....... If you have say 6 or 12 of the LED's in a mirrored tube with a parabolic reflector in the back, and a lens set-up like the Maglites have, seems like you could focus the beam.
If the LED's are arranged along the perimeter, and the spacing is correct, it should be possible to get the curve on the reflector to focus the individual lights into one larger beam, then use the lens on the front to focus it further. I think I've got some old lenses around here somewhere.....might be a fun thing to play with.
Maybe the back reflector would need to be a segmented dome shape made of pie-shaped triangles, with each triangle angled so it directs the LED that's closest. Each triangle/pie-shaped segment would need to have a parabolic curve to capture and focus as much light as possible from it's corresponding LED.
I have a glass "diamond" about 3 inches in diameter. I think I'll try putting some small seed lights on it and see what happens.
Anyway, a housing would be a snap to make, and I like Brent's idea of using 18 volt tool batteries. They charge quickly and can be replaced easily. ( Although they are a little expensive to buy )
If I find anything useful I'll pass it along. Frank D.
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