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A few points- -It is really stupid to put your power switch on the light head. This means that the entire cord is "live" at all times when the battery is plugged in. This further means that you have to fuse the lamp because of this. And students, what is a fuse? Right! A horrible failure point. Also head switches are prone to failure due to their convoluted reed switches and jam-prone tight tolerances. -So to do it right the switch has to be on the cannister, which it can't be if the cannister is back mounted where you can't reach it. -A cannister on the belt is removable underwater. So if you have your gear configured for no weightbelt it can be easily ditched if you need additional flotation. -Another advantage of easy removeablility is if you get it tangled. You can pull it off, clear the snag and put it back on. You can't do this with the spd or any other tank mounted light. -I think it's pretty obvious that long convoluted runs of cable like Cristina describes are ridiculous and uneeded. You need to be able to follow your cable back to your cannister by hand. -Cobbling together a makeshift goodman handle out of PVC is BS. To do it righ you need to have a lighthead wish has one designed in. -As far as the argon tank is concerned, the if the folks that have it on the side of the tank are doing it right it should be velcroed on and easily removable. What *is* really stupid is having it metal-to-metal fastened to your backplate on in an unreachable spot like in the gully on the back of your doubles. That is a brain-dead stroke way to do it. -Finally on your belt the cannister is in a streamlined position in the wake of your right arm. Tank mounts ruin your streamlining, wearing you out. I think that Ikelight is a fine company and they had their hear in the right place when creating their light, but they do target their equipment to neophytes and novices. Their price structure makes their products heavily promoted in the proverbial stroke-shop with their glossy brochures and slick marketing the strokes lap them up. I am glad that Christina has good luck with her light, but I prefer putting my money into a product that has been tested a bit more strenuously then what she has put her spd through, which is the case with AUL 14 type units. Jim On 8/8/98 10:41 AM Christina Young wrote: >About the SpD, agreed that standardized parts, batteries, etc. >available at Home Depot is desirable. However, this hasn't affected >my diving one bit. I've never had to replace anything on the light, >and I use it every weekend. Therefore to me, this disadvantage >hasn't offset any of the benefits I've gotten out of the light. Not >having a Goodman handle is also a disadvantage, but one can be made >out of PVC. And I like the twist-on handle, and never had any problem >with it. > >About the mounting... I mount mine on my left cylinder of my doubles, >as forward as possible. It presents a low profile, and is much less >of a snag problem than the idiotic practice I've seen of mounting the >argon bottle on the side of your doubles, where it sticks out and >catches the monofilament. I've never snagged the battery pack even >once, and most of my diving is on the mud hole wrecks, not even on the >Gulhune, the nastiest snag wreck you've ever seen. > >About the cord... I route the cord up the left cylinder, across the >top of cylinders (behind my the top of my backplate and wings), and >down my right side. If you do it this way, the cord is almost a >perfect length. > >Again, I like this light because of the small, less bulky battery pack >(you shouldn't carry what you won't need for that dive), and the >light, rubber head. > >With regards to other lights, I like the thin canister battery pack >and the way it mounts on the backplate for that new OMS light, but >they absolutely ruined the light by making the head a monster size and >very heavy weight. It negates any advantage of having a separate >battery pack / canister at all! You might as well get one of those >Blue Water lights instead, which doubles as a wreck hammer. What I >would really like is the thin OMS canister and the SpD rubber head, >together. > >Regards, Christina > >P.S. If anyone wants to give their SpDs away like Mr. Sadler, please >e-mail me, I'll take them. > > > > > >_________________________________________________________ >DO YOU YAHOO!? >Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com > >-- >Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. >Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. > ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix At http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/trimix.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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