I’ve got a kind of strange query but I recon someone will know

I have been recently doing sea kayaking down the east coast which involves going into many very very dark caves and I mean dark, with the tide low as last evening several of us went going very far only to be stopped by a walls of total blackness none of us were willing to go into any further. We tried using some camera flashes but that was all but useless and just lit up lots of staring eyes! At that point I thought to myself how nice it would be to have some good lights on the front to see where we were going or to avoid being mugged by the crowd of annoyed seals who obviously did not appreciate the camera flashes! I also do filming while out but the caves are a waste of time as the camera can’t see anything in there.

I was thinking of a couple of high power LED mountain bike type headlights mounted either side of the bow running off an separate battery inside the kayak and with a remote waterproof switch to the side of the spray deck or about 2.5 metres from the actual lights.

So far the ones I have seen have a button on the lamps which is no use to me as I can’t reach that far. Is there anything someone has used that would do the trick, my budget is £100 for this project btw

Obviously they need to be well waterproof being soaked by the sea.

Thanks



[Edited on 31/7/12 by Mr Whippy]

why not just buy a helmet light and strap just infront of the straydeck. the LED ones are very bright and you could turn it on no probs....

I saw a guy who had a rear light too on his which was a waterproof light with red lens I think.

underwater lights are cheap and they could be altered to have external switch i guess.

[Edited on 31/7/12 by jossey]

cheers, I had thought of fitting the lights futher back but the bow of my kayak curves up very steeply which would put most of the view in front in shadow, hence fitting the lights closer to the bow to reduce this problem. They can't be mounted to the side either or would be rubbed off on rocks, same applies to mounting them on the helmet as I bang that a lot!

go to a scuba shop, they will sell plenty of underwater torches. Might be over kill but will certainly be waterproof.

Cave divers strap torches to their helmits, I guess you could do the same.

if you aren't on your own - why not get your friend to turn the lights on? Simple solution?

Keep a helmet light for you so you can turn your head and look about as needed.

Helmet torch or strapped to your bouency aid

I would steer clear of anything that gets hot......


because you can't have you kayak and heat it.

Back on topic, for switching you may want to look at gun lamps as they often have a lead out the rear for switching on and off

Hi,

You could use something along these lines.

3x CREE 2400Lm XM-L T6 LED +2x XPE R2 LED 8.4v Bike Bicycle Light Rechargeable | eBay
?????

Regards

Bob

Dive torches are pretty cheap. you could forward mount one of them on the front.

Can you get an auto light sensing one i wonder????

Silly point, any light that has it's switch mounted on the lamp can also be run with an external switch. You just leave the lamp switch permanently on, and control the power from a more convenient location...

quote:

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Originally posted by bbwales
Hi,

You could use something along these lines.

3x CREE 2400Lm XM-L T6 LED +2x XPE R2 LED 8.4v Bike Bicycle Light Rechargeable | eBay
?????

Regards

Bob

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quote:

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Originally posted by jossey
Dive torches are pretty cheap. you could forward mount one of them on the front.

Can you get an auto light sensing one i wonder????

---

Use rechargeable batteries and LED torches - just switch them on before you get in - in my experience the LED torches will last as long as you can paddle for anyway! I have one of those 3.0AH/ 18V hitachi battery drill jobbies which came with a torch head (halogen bulb) and that goes for over 4 hours on one charge. If you went into maplins and set up some LEDs instead I'm sure you'd get a very long time out of one of them (Of course you'd have to waterproof it all). Screwfix list quite a range of torches/fluorescents for makitadewalt/bosch etc to choose from in the £30 -£60 range (if you already have suitable battery drill to provide the battery) . Some of the bosch and DEWALT 14.4/18v ones are already an LED type, so if you have a Bosch/DEwalt 14.4 or 18V cordless drill you just need to sort the waterproofing and attachment to the boat)
Regards
Hugh

My embilical diving torch has the battery pack and switch with a lead to the lamp. It has three brightness settings and can last for an hour or all day depending on the brightness. I dont have the details handy at the moment.

last time i encountered this problem i just concluded the best approach was a single car headlight and a 12v car battery. I would expect that even a bright torch might be a bit poor when it comes to lighting up a whole cave. It was a canal tunnel i was trying to light.

Here you go

Click me!

Whats more I can offer a 4Ah Lithium motorcycle battery, yes, that's right, lithium, weighs next to nothing & can be recharged by any normal low amp trickle charger (not the super intelligent chargers, they don't understand lithium & may be inclined to blow it to bits!!!), for £67.95, so with a bit of wire & a switch you can have a brilliant headlight that will last for most of an hour & be only just outside your budget.

Is lithium not very dangerous, when near water

Well, pure lithium certainly would be, but I would assume if the manufacturers are confident enough to sell theses batteries for use on motorbikes (particularly in the UK!!!) the cases are pretty well sealed!