Submerge Inc - UV-18, UV-26 and UV-38 deep rated, long range underwater scooters / DPV

2004: Rodney and Suzie are invitied to video document Indian Springs Cave YMCA. From the one dive we produced a short video of the upstream section of the cave, for the first 3000 feet. This video is now used to give a presentation to the new camp attendees. On the return from the upstream passage, once back to the upstream/downstream junction, we all decided to take a look into the downstream section.

Now, the upstream passage we had just dived lived up to it's reputation as one of the best cave dives in the USA, with pristine white limestone walls and the incredible black formations in the "Bone Necrosis" room.

So we were completely unprepared for what awaited us in the downstream passage... stunningly immense rooms over 100 feet wide and almost 100 feet floor to ceiling. Neither our 18 watt HID primary lights nor our 100 watt halogen video lights were able to illuminate more than tiny sections of the cave at one time, making it difficult to compose a mental or video image of the whole passage.

This dive began an obsession to illuminate larger secions of this cave and many others we had dived in both Florida, Mexico and France which had inspired a level of awe at the scale of the cave passages and rooms. These amazing cave features are always a challenge to capture on film for others to experience.

Many high powered video lights were available, but none matched our idea of the "ideal" 200 watt HMI light. Due to the large current draw and also the limitations of the chunky ballasts required for 200 watt HMI lighting, the battery packs are not only large and bulky but often quite negative. Whilst these cannisters can be accomodated on a divers harness, the extra equipment loading in addition to the stage cylinders required for filming deep or far from the enterance made covering any distance more difficult than it needed to be. We wanted something which we could integrate seemlessly into our standard configuration so we could dive just as comfortably with these high powered lights as on any regular dive.

So it seemed natural to utilise the scooters as both the power supply and method of transport for our interpretation of the ultimate underwater light! And after 2 years of effort we are very pleased with the results.

The backbone of the system is the UV scooter. We manufactured an new nose cone with a commercial diving rated bulkheaded power outlet. This outlet is accomodated within the front of the nosecone and the cable directed in such a way to be both streamlined and protected from the inevitable bumps. Internally, the charging plug in the nose of the scooters is utilised to draw power from the scooter. Thus, the Death Ray 200 is compatible with all lead acid UV scooters and the 2007 onwards NiMH UV scooters. (Not N-19 due to current draw)

The light head contains the ballast, magnetic switches for the light on/off and 100/200 watt settings, the bulb, test tube and adjustable reflector assembly. This light head is longer than than it needs to be to simply accomodate the internal components; the aluminium light head is made longer to make it close to neutral buoyancy. Thus, the integration of this light onto the UV scooters is seemless, without the need for external buoyancy tubes often required for other video equipment.

For the reflector we experimented with may different designs. Several film makers we had spoken to requested a reflector which eliminated hot spots and "rings" at the edge of the beam, WITHOUT the use of diffusers which change the color temperature and waste valuable wattage. The conclusion of our tests was a method that differs from anything currently available; I hybrid of a test tube and parobolic reflector with a flooded, glass wide angle lens. The test tube design ensures a depth rating in excess of 500 feet; the flooded glass lens diffuses the light without absorbing many lumens in the process. We are very satisfied with the result.

BURNTIMES:

To be conservative, cut the scooter runtime by 50% if running the light on full power.
However, the light can be used on the 100 watt setting which is more than adequate for most dives. The full 200 watts can be called on when needed with a simple magnetic switch located at the rear of the lighthead.

As an example, we have scootered with a UV-26 for 100 minutes, covered about 10,000 feet, and ran the light on full power for 30 minutes.

For the ultimate scooter runtime with the light activated for most of the dive, try the UV-N-37. This will run the light and scooter both on full power for more than 60 minutes, and probably 2 hours if using a cruising speed and 100 watt setting for most of the dive.

200 watt HMI video / dive light