Did a shallow water dive last night with the new light.
45ft.
Visibility +/- 25ft.
High beam.
I turned it on to high mode before entering the water to avoid any shorting problems.
Left it there for the duration.
There was a variety of other lights on this dive. eLed Shockwaves and an assortment of small secondary type plastic lights. One brand new GreenForce 900lm as well.
Nothing remotely matched the output of the TR.
I didn’t note any pitting/bubbling/corrosion occurring around the lanyard attachment point during the dive.
Turned it off once I got back at my vehicle.
I poured fresh water on it to rinse.
Back at home I submerged the light in my rinse tank with it turned off.
It came on when fully submerged. Shorting.
So, turned it on to rinse it.
If I try to change modes or turn the light off while submerged it shorts through the surrounding water and begins to corrode/pit where the anodizing has been scratched off. If the anodizing remains pristine then the light would function perfectly as it does on dry land. In real life any dive light is going to get scratched/dinged.
Thanks for the great video. I’m really loving the beam on this light. As great as I’ve always thought my MagicShine MJ-810 MC-E LED Dive Light is, the TF seems even better. Very unfortunate about the O-ring issue. I’m going to be using mine for a dive off my boat with some friends very soon. I’ll have to be careful with it and remember not to change modes while under water. If I run into any issues, I’ll be sure to post them.
I took apart both lights and was able to fix the one with the loose module.
The other light is toast, the black wire coming from the LEDs broke off the board and shorted something, I soldered it back on but it only stays lit up for a split second before turning off. To make matters worse the store I bought it from is playing games trying to make me give up on getting it fixed.
Oh and a charger for one of the lights just died… along with the 2 o-rings at the tail cap. Apparently they have sent me 2 new o-rings already… without the new boards and the bigger o rings for the head I asked for.
And while I’m ranting why do I keep getting asked what does the letter “F” in “BLF” stand for? I figured they should know by now I’m not an alien invader.
JP: thanx for the video, good to see what these lights look like under water!!
Amazing video… please do post more. Some day I’d love to take up that sport. Side note… It seems a shame for me to grow up and continue to live 40 minutes from the California coast line, an animal / nature / wildlife lover and not be into the sport of recreational diving.
Too bad about the O-rings and tail anodizing wear causing a permanent contact. The next logical question is, why then do manufacturers make twist-switches that rely on anodize as an electrical insulator? I am 90% certain its because Surefire has a patent on their twisty design, that relies on an internal metal contact “plunger” piece to conduct -B current. That patented design does not rely on tailcap anodize to isolate the -B contact.
And the next logical question after the above is answered is, why didn’t they just copy the Surefire design? I mean really, since when do the chinese care about violating any patented design?
Is this flashlight really waterprooof, and are there any instructions about how to take care for this light (I mean if used for it’s primary purpose - diving )
I haven’t been able to dive yet with this light, but I did test it here at home in a 30 gallon trash container filled with fresh water. I wanted to see if my light has the same issues as others have reported. Obviously there’s a huge difference in how I’ve tested it thus far and actually diving with it in deep water.
After properly greasing all threads, I turned it on HIGH mode and tossed it into the container for 15 minutes. I then removed it and dried it off while still turned on and then manipulated the tail cap and all was great. The light worked perfectly on all modes and turned off just fine.
Then I turned it back onto HIGH mode and tossed it back into the water, and while on the bottom of the container I proceeded to manipulate the tail cap and found it wouldn’t switch to any other mode and would only stay on HIGH mode. As soon as I removed it from the water, it would work perfectly, changing to any mode and would turn off.
It’s unfortunate this design is a flop and may not be a reliable light on an actual dive, but since I do use all my dive lights out of the water, I still like the light alot and will be keeping it. I just wish I could figure out an appropriate fix for it, but I really don’t have a clue.
I got my replacement O-Rings from Nowell yesterday.
Replaced the tail and forward body rings.
The replacements are much nicer O-Rings than the originals. Better fitting, not as stretchy.
I took it down to 90ft today. Vis was in the area of 50ft. No leaks .
Still experiencing the shorting problem so I switched to high mode on the surface by holding the light up and out of the water. I left it on high for the duration of the dive.
In the video that’s my buddy’s GreenForce light in some of the footage.
When diving I don’t see all of the backscatter that you see in the video and the hotspot in the center of the beam is exaggerated on the closer shots by my camera’s exposure settings.
Despite the problems with the switch or lack of a switch actually, I remain impressed with the light this thing generates. It is very bright!
Rookie alert:
I’ve never done any mods on a light so I have no idea where/how to start.
I’m hoping there is some way to change out the tail or maybe drill it out and install a switch.
Any way I’m going to hang on to this light just because of the reaction it gets from other divers. I love that.
Yup it bright! Can’t wait to use it in the cenotes!!!
JP, can you do me a favor?
Next dive can you put regular scotch tape over the lens before jumping in and show us what the difference is like?
It’s the best diffuser I’ve found so far but I have yet to dive with the lights.
Kramer 4140 says “… I am not trying to degrade what looks to be a well thought out design… Just stating a commonly known fact that a traditional O-ring gasket is susceptible to water intrusion when the mating parts are subject to rotating twisting and sliding motion. Yes this is why many dive lights have magnetic switches or mechanical switch designs that do not place gaskets under sliding motion when power cycled.”
Well I can testify to having used “twisty” dive light with no switch at all over and over and for many hours and to pretty respectable depths. Some of them were PrincetonTec and there were others. The proper O-rings with a reasonable lubricant works FINE if everything else is in order. I’m not quoting someone else or reporting rumors here - this is from my own experience. I’m not saying that this light is adequately designed or manufactured but the O-rings it comes with are certainly no adequate. It’s obvious that they’re a bad fit and they’re probably not made of the right material either. That could be why there’s a guy on eBay who’s selling a replacement set that he claims will do the job. I’ve ordered one of these lights and I’ll try to experiment with some O-rings to see if I can come up with the answer for this one.
Hi you all,
Every time I search for a led flash light, I came accross this forum, and it helped me not buy one so far. Because every time I decided to pull the trigger on one, I did not like some reviews and decided to wait untill the perfect one (Yeah right!) arrived. Posts on Trustfire vs sky vs dry vs … fried my head. 3TX? I wander if I can fit 5 xmls in it. Oh, wait! There is j12 now. Could I mode it to get rid of the flashes and power it up more? J16? When did this happen? What is the difference between this and J18? Holly crap X100! Would I be shot to death if the soldiers take it for a bazooka? And now I need a diving flash light for which I have been hunting for sometime. When I first saw this one by chance I set my heart on it. Searched for comment and here I am. So what is the final verdict? Corrotion on the un-anodized parts, shorting underwater, leaking due to shredded o-rings? Seems like this one is a good deal except the problems with the light. Free shipping here. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Mail-free-1-Set-TR-DF003-TrustFire-LED-Flashlight-CREE-XM-L-T6-LED-35W-3000/903269_582654178.html
Comes with the Tr-006 charger. I think it is capable of charging from a car power plug if I get an optional cable. Only one seller confirms this while others don’t even mention it, and another one said it can’t. I need a confirmation on it as well. If I have to wait for a better one then I might consider this one on land.
This way I won’t have to worry about different type of batteries. I will have just tr-006 charger with cap plug cable (since I travel with my motorcycle a lot). Then use it for the diving one (hoping that the one I will have in the future will be something like df-003. But then again I will have to wait until Kaidomain comes up with a driver that has no flashing but more dimming ability and for inputs up to 4 batteries and output for upto 3 A. Do ask for too much? (I know one can never ask for too much in this forum )
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