Dim-witted bulb?

[schultz]

Recently, I acquired a Halcyon Mini-Scout. Problem is, it's bulb seems a lot dimmer than I would have expected for such a light from a "rigorous mission critical" manufacturer. In fact, I'd say it's probably half as bright as any of my UK mini Q40's with about the same battery life. Is there a particular reason for this, or do I simply have a bad bulb in this Mini-Scout? Are there replacement bulbs readily available for this light, if so, where do I get them? Please don't plug the Halcyon LED replacement as that is not the answer I'm looking for.

The manufacturer states:

\"Nearly all widely available reserve lights overdrive the bulb to create a brighter beam. While overdriving the bulb is effective for short term use, it increases the stress on the filament, resulting in a greater frequency of bulb failure.\"

However, I've had two mini-Q40's for about three years, and the bulb has never burned out, even after roughly 10-12 battery swaps.

[overclock]Any ideas on how to step up the power to the bulb?[/overclock]

Thanks all...

[matt t.]

Strange that the "manufacturer" would put that in writing. As far as I know (which admittedly isn't much) is that a back-up light is supposed to be UNDERdriven to make it more reliable. My "Photon Torpedos" are as bright as I would expect, though I keep fresh batteries in them and don't use them unless needed. Maybe you can get another bulb from somewhere and try that. It never hurts to have a spare anyway. As to the LED replacement; what, you don't want to spend half again as much for the upgrade that you did for the light? ;D

[WIdiver_Paul]

Here's the fix, get one of instead- screw loose to turn on, LED's that last 100,000 hours, batteries last forever in it. I've used mine as a primary in a cave, beleive it or not, due to it's incredible brightness and color temp. Or if you're attached to scouts, i'll sell you my extra that got replaced with this.

[schultz]

Not attached to scouts in the least...problem is I don't think that dive rite yellow is a DIR approved color. >.  I picked up the mini-scout at a pretty reasonable price... one of those "well I guess I can take it off your hands" kind of things. Now I'm wishing I hadn't since I'll probably never use it due to the dimness.

Maybe I can duct tape the sucker to my ds-50 flash and use it as a modeling light.  ;D

I think I'll stick to mini Q40's since I have those in my inventory. Although I know LED's may be the way of future, I still like incandescent ones better.

I've used LED's in terrestrial caving and I still prefer my halogen headlamps to LED's from the same manufacturer. It's kinda like using regular bulbs versus compact florescent.... stupid, I know.

As far as replacing the bulb... it almost looks like it is glued into the light module, so I probably have to replace the entire module.  Thus Halcyon is  forcing the Microsoft philosophy of must buy our stuff even to  replace a stupid little bulb.

[headshake] It figures... [/headshake]

[matt t.]

If nothing else I'd at least swap bulbs with someone else and see if it's any different. At least you'll know if it's the bulb or not......Then it's off to E-bay ;D