Diving, focus, spotting & macro lights modified to red color.

My first post. Been hunting for the optimal focus and spotting light in terms of size, price, red light and evenness of beam and there’s not a lot to choose from if not wanting to spend 100s of $ on a FIX or Sola. The fixation to Red light is the fact that lots of Crustaceans (shrimps crabs and so on) only come out at night and really dislike white light but can’t see red light with wavelenghts over aprox 600 nm.

Will post my mods here, it’s really simple stuff without expensive tools. First up is the favourite, a shortened AA Mini Maglite incan with standard P60 Red Cree Bulb & single 14500 Li-Ion.

Sounds good, I’m watching!

A shot of the Horde, not all are finished yet. Not sure what’s needed to post when it comes to tools and so on. Better ask about specific lights if there’s any interest. No light pattern shots as 14500 & 10440 is stuck in post somewhere.

The ugly looking stuff is self vulcanizing tape for protection and secure mount on the cameras.

2 last Mini Maggies is before and after tube cutdown and retap threads.

Basically the waterproofing is exchanging O-rings for better, slightly thicker, ones. Also adding a O-ring on inside of glass since air inside light gets smaller on depth and sucks glass inwards.

From left: Foursevens Atom A0 Red, 3 Maglite Solitaire 10440, Gerber Infinity Ultra Red, eBay 1€ waterproof mod, 5 Mini Maglite 14500 red & white Q5.

Behind: 5€ “XM-L T6 18650” with 3€ Red Cree P60.

Welcome to the forum. Sounds like cool stuff you're doing both underwater and in your shop. Did you shorten those mini mags yourself?

Another member just converted a RMM level one modified Supfire M6 to red LEDs and an appropriate driver for me. It has the 7 level RMM user interface so output can be low enough for a good night vision preserving <1 lumen output to a very bright maximum red output for wild animal observing night use. Actually the lowest 2 or 3 levels are still good for night vision preservation. Surprised that RMM or someone else is not offering something similar as a standard light or a upgrade for some light.

I note that the OP’s converted lights are all relatively compact models while the M6 is huge in comparison and in high is now driving three red XP-E2 LEDs at 2.5 Amps each which should be about 1000 red Lumens out. Per the below link that is near maximum for these red LEDs.

Unless he sees this and wants to identify himself I will not identify the individual who volunteered to do the conversion but I would like to publicly thank him. I ended up with a unique light that fulfills multiple functions.

That Supfire would be a great focuslight for bigger DSLR rigs if one could mount 2 white and one red and switch between those. It would work as a videolight, common divelight and also red light for stealth just like the Solas and FIX. What’s the “damage” on that one Rich?

Yup, basically common tools and sandpaper except for the 5/8 - 28 UNF Tap. Also got a Dremel with diff bits n pieces that makes life easier…

If someone knows a cheap driver that fits 3.7v, P60 pill, red Q5 (or similar) with 3 modes, low med high, please post link. Also looking for visible red cree with high wavelength, like over 640nm. Those cheap ones have a lot of orange in the red.

The level one modified light was about $50 from Mountain Electronics and the volunteer that did the conversion did it for my supplying the needed parts for the conversion and him retaining all removed parts. The parts bill was about $40 as I recall. He covered the cost of returning the light too. After seeing how the M6 is constructed he said that he was ordering one for himself. He described it as much better than his Skyray King lights.

The only light I know of with the available option of individual control of three LEDs is the Fenix TK76 and it is NOT a cheap light to start with. To convert something like the M6 would need a custom driver and somehow installing multiple control switches.

“The only light I know of with the available option of individual control of three LEDs is the Fenix TK76 and it is NOT a cheap light to start with. To convert something like the M6 would need a custom driver and somehow installing multiple control switches.”

Thanks Rich, suspected that.

Should have built with this from start: http://www.fasttech.com/products/1612/10001686/1122401-4-amc7135-2-group-3-5-modes-led-flashlight-driver

and: https://www.fasttech.com/products/1103515

Well, will be an easy mod, pills and head is already modified to fit.

The custom driver isn’t a big deal around here. If you don’t mind an interface like Richwouldnt is using now (cycle forwards or backwards through modes with one button, like [white low, white high, red low, red high] or similar) then no additional buttons are needed. Frankly only a mild custom firmware is needed for that and a piggybacked Nanjg-105c with some cut traces on the M6 PCB will do it.

In fact, if [white low, white high, red high] was acceptable then I could do it right now without re-writing anything, just a quick change to the values in modded STAR momentary firmware Werner recently posted in my 17mm DD+7135 driver thread.

If that is possible it would make a whole lot of video/photographers very happy. A light with similar output is 700-1000$. Cycling through modes is no problem at all. Optimal is lo/med/high white and lo/med red but the 3 mode is ok too.

Have anyone been diving with the M6? Found it on ebay and couple other places and it says IP67. Esp the glass/bezel seal is a weak point.

Do you make and sell the mod or is it DIY?

In order to use existing code one output gets levels and the other output does not. So you could do L/M/H for white and on/off for red, or on/off for white and L/M for red.

I suppose that the code could be fairly easily changed to put levels on both outputs, but I have not done it.

Is the idea to sneak up on these creatures with the red light and then hit them with the bright white light once you get close and want to film?

PM sent.

Red is only used on shy critters at night. If hitting ’em with white they just hide so better use levels on white and on/off for red. A 660 nm 30 lm like above might be a bit too dim but there’s no need for high output on red as it’s very close anyway.

I wouldn’t assume that the generic LED does what is specified, but it might.

I have used a Luxeon Deep Red emitter. As mentioned by another user or two here on BLF, the Luxeon Deep Red emitter really puts the Cree red to shame. (It also puts some generic 20mA red LEDs to shame. Beyond those two things I have nothing to compare it with.) It’s spec’ed as 650nm min, 655nm typical, and 670nm max.

Guess they Luxeon come mounted on 16mm stars too. Have a link to a supplier that delivers worldwide?

They are available that way. http://www.luxeonstar.com/search.asp?keyword=deep

EDIT: My mistake. I misread your post. They are NOT available on 16mm stars. They’re available on good 20mm aluminum SinkPADs as well as what appear to be TERRIBLE 10mm FR4 stars.

I didn’t catch if you know about the Philips Luxeon Rebel deep red or Cree photo red (if it really exists). The usual red LEDs look orange next to the Philips.

Yeah, wight adviced about ’em. Will get some on 10mm stars for the Maggies. Heat sinking is rarely any problem for underwater use and the maggies are excellent conductors. Whole head and body is basically a sink and water conducts heat 7 times better than air. What would be a good driver for the Luxeons? Optimal current is 700 mA.