Possible Primary Light Issue

[tflaris]

I?ve been cave diving for quite a while and have noticed with the innovation and proliferation of LED lights while cave diving could possibly lead to signaling issues between team members especially when team member?s primary lights are of different intensity and beam spread.

While I?m not suggesting that we all dig out our 10 Watt HID Canister lights I would suggest team members to think about the possible complications that could arise from significant differences in the output of our primary lights when team diving.

Just a thought from a dive yesterday where signaling a team member was extremely critical.

Thanks for your time.

TF


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[tbone1004]

great reminder Tony. My light thankfully has multiple output settings so I can turn it down to light match. Before I got my current UWLD, I had a light that was ~1/3 of the output of my primary buddy and it meant I was always in front for signalling purposes. If you can't light match with different heads or output settings, at least put the big lights in the back so you can signal.

[bamafan]

I have had issues with a wide spread primary. A tighter beam definitely helps.

[FW]

I have had issues with a wide spread primary. A tighter beam definitely helps.

Same here.

[rddvet]

It's definitely one of the problems with the new lights. When we moved to UWLD from HID, it required a completely different signaling protocol. The lead diver has to lower their light to lower than the diver behind them. It can also be easy to miss the other persons signal if they're not deliberate due to overspill. It's not an issue, just takes a different approach than and HID.

I would've thought it would be common sense to divers making the switch, but based on you starting a topic on it I guess it's not.

[helodriver87]

I ran into this problem a bit with Light Monkey's 32W LED. It's a fantastic light, but you can easily blow out your buddy's light. I just dial it down to match his light when I'm up front and crank it back up when I'm in back. Just takes a bit more awareness.

[chrpai]

Interesting. I'm replacing my 21watt HID with a new LM 32W LED. I haven't actually seen one before... are they that much brighter that I might not notice my buddies light/voice?

[LiteHedded]

It's definitely one of the problems with the new lights. When we moved to UWLD from HID, it required a completely different signaling protocol. The lead diver has to lower their light to lower than the diver behind them. It can also be easy to miss the other persons signal if they're not deliberate due to overspill. It's not an issue, just takes a different approach than and HID.

I would've thought it would be common sense to divers making the switch, but based on you starting a topic on it I guess it's not.

not all of them though. y'all need to get yourselves a halcyon focus 2.0. just as tight (tighter even) as a 21watt HID

[helodriver87]

Interesting. I'm replacing my 21watt HID with a new LM 32W LED. I haven't actually seen one before... are they that much brighter that I might not notice my buddies light/voice?

When it's at full output, it can be an issue. My buddy was diving an older focus and I could only see his signal at the outside edge of my beam. Focusing it helped a bit, but in some smaller passages it got pretty difficult. Dialing it down 1 or 2 levels fixed it and it still puts out a ton of light.

You can pretty much illuminate for the whole team if you're in the back.

[T. Bix]

Maybe my instructor(s) was (were) the exception rather than the rule but this was covered extensively in Intro and reiterated at every step along the way. It has been as important as bailout/gas planning/matching in all of our dive plans.