Homebuilt ROVs Forum

I am building my first deep diving rov and I am not sure how powerful my lights need to be or if they should be halogen/LED. I am expecting to go to about 30m and the water has 10-15 foot visibility, so I am looking for options. Also, I have a tight budget so preferably something under $30. Any ideas/suggestions?

Hi ROVenthusiast. Unless someone else on the forum has experience with distance, camera type and lamp type, I would suggest trying out something like this http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.as ... rm=KEYWORD . There is a data sheet on the page and you will see the current draw is very small compared to halogen. Depending on where you are, you should be able to find similar locally or certainly online.
Much easier to implement than halogen too. Just solder on the wires, blob some epoxy on and you're set to go. As for where to position the lights, see how the divers do it for their photography

Ross

Thanks, I'll look into that!!!

Hey Ross,
I do like the look of that LED module! Much easier to throw into a system then a high power LED that requires a special driver! I might just have to investigate this part a bit further!

No worries. Don't know how good they are but at $10 worth playing with I recon.

Only prob is that they are currently out of stock...

What do you think about a laser?

(Explained on my IR laser post)

I have seen numerous post, on a divers forum for building lamps, about CREE LED boards which have included driver boards. If you add a mirror to shape the beam it will work as a charm. And some of them dive a lot deeper than 30 meters.