DIVER TESTS

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TECHNICAL LIGHTS


Finally we come to lights evolved from those used by the cave-diving fraternity and favoured by technical divers. These are distinguished by their heavy, high-powered battery packs, attached to the diver's tank or weightbelt and included in the weight configuration.
This gives the advantages of a high output and long burn-time for a separate lamphead supplied by an umbilical cable.
Technical Lights Underwater with this type of light, we detected a bright hot-spot with a very useful bright peripheral halo. We were able to measure the diameter of both, although the measurement of the halo is approximate.
Technical diving lights usually come with a wide range of accessories allowing for different power-pack and lamphead mountings.
Because ni-cad batteries in these larger sizes tend to be very expensive, and because they need to be stored in a fully discharged state, some manufacturers opt for the older technology of sealed lead-acid batteries. These can be left permanently on trickle-charge without harm and are always ready for use. However, they do produce a small amount of explosive gas while charging, so venting must be taken into consideration.
Ni-cads produce a full voltage until they are finally discharged, whereas lead-acid batteries "go down" gradually in use.
US NiteRider lamps are the lightweights in this technical light category, but their popularity among all types of diver bears testimony to their successful design concept. Their lampheads are neutrally buoyant and come with either 6 or 13.2V ni-cad battery packs in a choice of amp/hour ratings. The smallest, the Cyclops Sport Diver Light, was outsmarted by its own sales success; the distributors were unable to supply one for our test.
NiteRider lights come with a choice of bulb wattage, and mounting accessories allow you to use a pistol-grip, mount the lamphead on your wrist or on your head. You can also connect and disconnect lampheads from their 13.2V battery pack while underwater, and run more than one lamp from any 13.2V powerpack by means of a Y-connection. The powerpacks clip conveniently on to the weightbelt.
The most modest performer in the range that we could get our hands on for the test was the 6V NiteRider NR 600, which seemed to give the brightest hot-spot of all its siblings. We were fascinated to discover that the performance of the more expensive NiteRider NR 1200 was little different. Its beam had a less bright centre but a greater spread to the peripheral halo.
The more senior NiteRider NR 2000 and NR 4000 are differentiated by the amp/hour rating of their batteries, which affects the burn-time of a given wattage of bulb. These more expensive examples come with dual-bulb lampheads, each with a narrow-beam 12W and wide-beam 20W bulb. They can be switched to be used individually or together, and our table reflects the different performances achieved. The NR 4000 provided the longest burn-time of any of the technical lights when running only the 12W bulb.
Another US example which uses a ni-cad battery pack is the newly imported Canyon Marine TD12. Its extra weight is not significant, and the 50cm stainless-steel battery canister, only 4.5cm in diameter, buckles discreetly onto the BC tank camband. It is a simple system and it works. The remote, anodised aluminium lamp unit is switched by means of a knob at the opposite end to the cable connection. Only the British-made RoHo Umbilical Light was better value among the selection we tested in this class. The RoHo came with a sealed lead-acid powerpack that could be mounted in a pouch but which we found worked best with AP Valves' Pony Tank Bands. It has a big pistol-grip moulded to the plastic lamphead and its output was among the best.
A lamp that proved popular with divers who tried it while in our care was the Ikelite SPD Light, also from the USA. This uses a large ni-cad battery complete with its own tank camband assembly, and has a metal and rubber lamphead. The SPD was almost neutrally buoyant in the water and gave the widest, softest light, with its actual output again in the first division.
Long-term favourites with technical divers are US DiveRite products, and the latest offering is the DiveRite MLS MR16. MLS stands for "modular lighting system" and MR16 refers to the lamphead. A sealed lead-cadmium (acid) battery in a pack is slung from the D-rings of the tekkie's BC by two karabiners, or may be mounted on the tank camband. This is another outfit that gives a broad soft beam, this time from a substantial lamphead made from solid anodised aluminium. In the form tested, it is switched on from the powerpack.
The "modular" part of the product name refers to its ability to be customised. Several battery-packs can be ganged together by means of a novel male/female cap to the cylindrical battery container to provide more power. Different lampheads in varying numbers can also be added.
The British-made Custom Divers light outfits use lead-acid batteries of different sizes. The larger Custom Divers ST1 Super Torch 6.4 produces the most light for the longest time, whereas the smaller ST1 Mini M3.2 represents equally good manufacture and exceedingly good value for money in this class.
The stainless-steel containers for the battery-packs exuded quality and we admired the way the unit was sealed by cam-buckles and multiple O-rings. The lampheads are available either in black anodised or polished heavy-duty aluminium.
We particularly liked the optional (around 50 extra) CDQR quick-mounting system, which puts the battery-pack securely and efficiently on to the tank camband of the BC.
For overall performance and total manufacturing quality, the laurels must go to the MetalSub products from the Netherlands. These are built with the sort of precision one might expect of a modern military weapon and look tough enough to stand the most "professional" of treatment. They produced wide, bright beams from lampheads with pleasingly precise switching mechanisms which are easily connected to and from the powerpack with a bayonet plug.
The long ni-cads are housed in substantial rectangular 'gunmetal' casings mated to the tank-camband mounting assembly in the way one would expect a machine-gun to mate to its tripod.
The MetalSub KL1270 gave the brightest hot-spot of all the technical lights we tested, with a usable two-hour burn-time. The cheaper MetalSub KL1255 comes with a less powerful ni-cad for less burn-time and a smaller hot-spot. Both give excellent large peripheral haloes.
The problem is that they could make the rest of your diving gear look cheap!

TECHNICAL LIGHTS
MakeModel BatteriesBurn
(min)		Wattage
(W)		Hotspot
brightness		 Spread
(cm)		Price
(£) 		Distributor
Canyon MarineTD1212V Ni-cad25 7530060250Hydrotech
Custom DiversST1 Super Torch 6.412V Lead-acid90 5051260405Custom Divers
Custom DiversST1 Mini M3.212V Lead-acid50 359655286Custom Divers
DiveRiteMLS MR16Lead-cad35 10040940450Sea & Sea
IkeliteSPD Light13V 4.5A/hr Ni-cad 9050 51236507Oceanic SW
MetalSubKL127012V 8A/hr Ni-cad12050 71267785Northern Diver
MetalSubKL125512V 5A/hr Ni-cad68 5071247588Northern Diver
NiteRiderNR 6006V Ni-cad 20010 40933260ALS Marine
NiteRiderNR 120013.2V 2.5A/hr Ni-cad160 1230033377ALS Marine
NiteRiderNR 200013.2V 2.5A/hr Ni-cad160 1230033432ALS Marine
NiteRiderNR 2000-48 12+2032560--
NiteRiderNR 2000-90 2011550--
NiteRiderNR 400013.2V 5A/hr Ni-cad300 1223044500ALS Marine
NiteRiderNR 4000-9012+20 35860--
NiteRiderNR 4000-18020 12850--
RoHoUmbilical Light4.8A/hr Lead-acid50 5051240225Robin Hood W/sports