New Halcyon light

[graham_hk]

Halcyon: Explorer Lighting Systems

This is the result of many years of development and after working with brightstar over the years quality is finally in a place Halcyon is happy releasing them for sale. Initially when I heard I had mixed feelings since I have never broken a WA bulb (I use it for diving rather than as a ball or hammer) - but having seen one in the flesh (it is smaller and really neat) I'll have to buy one

I could go on about its unique features but click away and the link above will do a much better job.

The best just got better.

Graham

[nickb]

Will they be recalling the old ones? After all, they have all the attributes of the competitor's torches that they outline as being inferior and, by inference, unsafe.

[graham_hk]

How so? The Explorer series lights have all the same features.

[Bardo]

Originally Posted by graham_hk

Halcyon: Explorer Lighting Systems

This is the result of many years of development and after working with brightstar over the years quality is finally in a place Halcyon is happy releasing them for sale. Initially when I heard I had mixed feelings since I have never broken a WA bulb (I use it for diving rather than as a ball or hammer) - but having seen one in the flesh (it is smaller and really neat) I'll have to buy one

I could go on about its unique features but click away and the link above will do a much better job.

The best just got better.

Graham

Hmm - now that is an interesting development. Our of interest, do the new Brightstar Explorers have longer ballasts? ie. do they now look more like the original Salvo 21w torches?

[Brian of Aquanauts]

There is no doubt that the old benefit of a brightstar compared to a welsch allen light was the alleged strength of the bulb. But everyone takes very good care over a piece of equipment that costs £500-£1000 so the actual incidence of problems with bulb breakage was small compared to the numbers of owners. The Halcyon light flickered less and was easier on the eye.

Brightstar quickly improved their bulbs, and Halcyon stayed with the WA bulb and worked on improving their light design. This design is now streets ahead of the competition, however the bulb strength although not an actual concern (because we take care of them) was a main selling point of the companies using the Brightstar bulb.

Now that the brightstar bulb quality has increased, and that this has been proven in the field, it seems logical for Halcyon to go down that route.

7 months ago I bought a 13.5A 18W Halcyon Explorer, with a Welsch Allen bulb. The "new" explorer design then is similar to how it is now, just the bulb and ballast has changed.

I see no reason to change lights, they have nearly identical features. A couple of weekends ago i dropped my light from a height of about 5 foot, the bulb was fine. Last weekend someone tripped and kicked my light head when it was waiting for a fill, bulb still fine. In my mind the strength issue was never as much as people made out.

I can see the new H lights maybe being better than the older Halcyon lights, but compared to the New Explorer lights with WA bulbs, I see little point in changing.

[graham_hk]

Originally Posted by Bardo

do they now look more like the original Salvo 21w torches?

Jason - They don't look anything like the above captioned torch. The ballast is the similar to a WA ballast but slightly smaller in width.

Graham

[Garf]

"above captioned torch"

will you burst into flame if you type it or are you trying to keep the word off as many web pages as possible?

haha go on. try saying it. S A L V O. Salvo. See, it's easy. Salvo. try that on for size, see how it feels. Salvo. whoops I said it again.

[Digger]

When they say "competition" they must mean that none of those things exist on any other dive light out there eh? This is going to be difficult to prove, that no dive light manufacturer tests their lights down to 90m? That no manufacturer does any of those other things?

Curious.

Personally, I'll see it for what it is. Halcyon has realised after years of people telling them they were using an inferior bulb that if they don't start using a better bulb they're going to lose even more sales. It's pretty simple. We have all been saying it for a long time, and finally someone in Florida got their head out of a cave to hear what was being said, and did something about it.

Whatever the reasons, I think this is a good move for Halcyon lights. The bulb was one of few potential weaknesses I could find with my torch (a 5 year old Pro 3) and yet I've not managed to break a bulb on it so far. Yes, the bulb is far far more robust than people think, but it's like saying a Discovery isn't very robust by comparison to a Defender. You're not going to have any problems in normal use with either.

As for the larger and more powerful bulbs, I've seen and heard all sorts. But I say what I see, and the Pro 3 has been good to me.

Digs.

[Mark Chase]

I am surprised that its only depth rated to 90m.

My buddy flooded a Halcyon at 105m a couple of years back which also surprised us at the time. My Halcyon 10W Protius was fine on the same dive.

Its a very complex design which i supose does away with the problem of cables breaking in the head. Thats a good thing but it also done away with any potential to field repair. Snap off a spade conector and you can both repair it on the boat. Snap one of those bayonet fittings off and your screwed.

However on the whole I supose the advantages of doing away with cables out weigh the posabuility of damage to the bayonet fitting.

I like the bulb locking ring idea but as far as i am aware i have never suffered from a loose bulb.


ATB

Mark

[milldog]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

I am surprised that its only depth rated to 90m.

My buddy flooded a Halcyon at 105m a couple of years back which also surprised us at the time. My Halcyon 10W Protius was fine on the same dive.

Its a very complex design which i supose does away with the problem of cables breaking in the head. Thats a good thing but it also done away with any potential to field repair. Snap off a spade conector and you can both repair it on the boat. Snap one of those bayonet fittings off and your screwed.

However on the whole I supose the advantages of doing away with cables out weigh the posabuility of damage to the bayonet fitting.

I like the bulb locking ring idea but as far as i am aware i have never suffered from a loose bulb.


ATB

Mark

Have to agree with mark here spade connectors can be repaired quickly and your back diving even twisting the wires with some electric tape would work!

As for the locking bulb again i have never suffered a lost bulb, but i can see how a frantic shaking the light from left to right might cause the bulb to fly out under centrifugal pressure and hit your buddy that will then loose the deco gas and crack his mask screwing the dive and ending it sooner all because you didn't have the locking bulb option

Graham