75 Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

[FRITZHID]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

Another update: After really tracing out the board, I, with the help of FritzHID determined that there is No Current Limiting happening on the PC board. No components to do so, not even a "ballast resistor". Input power + lands on the spade terminal, goes thru the small copper coil (which operates an ignition controlling reed switch) to the main power Diode, thru the diode and out to a trace that goes to the spade terminal where a wire from the main ignition coils lands and thru that wire direct to the ignition coil windings and then to the lamp Anode.

I can't very well carry along my 40lb Sorensen power supply to the field so I set out to find a current regulator. Member FritzHID suggested member DIWDriver who suggested TaskLED's H6CC tiny round 6.7Amp CC driver made for driving LED's. I bought one from George, mounted it to a small heatsink, wired it up to my PS and my electronic load so I could preset output at 5.7 Amps and then temporarily hooked it to both my lights, one at a time and it works perfectly from the PS and from a 6-cell LiFeP04 battery. 5.6 Amps gives me 77 Watts to the lamps. I just spent about 2 hours aligning and focusing the lamp on light #2. It's difficult to move the lamp 004" or 006" with your fingers. Its not that far off from my Gen3 MB

So somewhere in or on the original battery vest/pack, they utilized some type of current regulator. I wish the lights would have come with at least one setup. So now I need to design and build a battery pack with integral TaskLED current regulator. Probably around 9AH for about 70 minutes of run time. I'd like to do a comparison beam shot with my Gen3 Maxabeam with enhanced reflector running at both 75 and 80 Watts. But I need to find a new test range.

It's alive..... ALIVE! WooHoo!
'Gratz B.! glad it's work'n!
I Can't speak for TaskLED or DIW but we're all here to help each other so i'm glad we could assist in your revival!

 

[kuna]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

Now that is cool. Definitely very similar to a Maxabeam, a proto-Maxabeam I guess. I recognized the company Pichel industries right away, as they are the company that first designed those four-beam skytracker systems we're all aware of, back in the late 70s I think. If you ever get it working smoothly it would be cool to see some beamshots

 

[BVH]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

They both ignite and run perfectly using the TaskLED current regulator and the new $10.00 Chinese Ebay larger current regulator i just received and set up. Now I just have to efficiently package the regulator and either a 3S/4200 mAh LiFeP04 pack or 2S/8400 LiFeP04 pack to wear on my person. I should get either 45 minutes or an hour of run time to 80% DOD.

 

[PolarLi]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

That's great news!

 

[BVH]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

Here's a couple of comparison shots at about 100'. First is with Maxabeam at 85 Watts and 2nd is Maxabeam at 75 Watts. Of course Maxabeam is on the left.

The 4 hotspots are a little optimistic as compared to what i saw but are good relative shots. Overall lighting is very representative of what I saw.

 

[BVH]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

Double post

 

[PolarLi]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

I'm a little surpriced it appears to be that big of a difference. How does the beam look on the Pichel if you widen the hotspot a little?
Also, do you know if the Maxa run enhanced rhodium or a protected aluminium reflector? You mention Rhodium for the Pichel, and that was my initial thought too. That would give it 75-80% reflectance. But could it actually be a bare nickel reflector? That would only reflect 55-75%

 

[BVH]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

Focusing is a pain in the backside. Loosen a tiny set screw and then use two or three fingers to try to move the lamp and it's bases a few thousandths. Re-ignite the lamp and see the results. Repeat, repeat, repeat. I ran the MB through it's focus movement to try to guide me in focusing the MN. The front lamp base slides back and forth within the Spider hub which is also the electrical conductor. Once, I carefully tried to move it with gloves on when running but the lamp went out I quickly got out of the way expecting a re-strike and an ignition pulse. I was focusing at 8' or so but would like to try the same thing at the 100-300' distance at some point. It could be Nickel? If reflector materials have "color" to them, the MN reflector is darker than the MB and my NightSun by comparison.

 

[FRITZHID]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

that reflector "color" sounds more like a nickel/chromium dep to me. was common then for spot PAR lamps. they darken some in oxy/heat. almost looks like a smoked mirror.

 

[PolarLi]

Re: XX to XXX Watt Pichel Industries Rare Handheld Short Arcs. Military Quality

Well, I can see why you keep your hands away if the lamp has the potential to lose contact/go out when you mess around inside it... If that ignition pulse hits you, it will probably not be the highlight of the day. On second thought, it will probably be exactly that...
I looked at the reflector pics again, and it don't seem to have the yellow hue pure nickel have, so it's hard to say for sure. If it's not Rhodium for some reason, maybe some variation of "bright" nickel. Either way, the hotspot is tiny, so i'm sure it put out some lux!

 

[Limbo]

It looks like a predecessor of the MaxaBeam. Any input Robert from PeakBeam?

Edited since I have more info now.

I got these lights and 1 battery charger for them off of Ebay. Pichel Industries, the manufacturer, is no longer in business and my searches yielded not even a mention of this light. Might be nice if better searchers than I could try to find any info on these. There was mention of Pichel Industries working on a fix for the VSS-3 tank light reflector problem. If I'm reading it right, Pichel just recently went out of business and they started back in 1967 in Rancho California, CA.

These are tethered lights that probably ran off an operator worn battery pack. The quality of construction is up there with Military hardware. I've not been able to find any documentation whatsoever. I have not attempted to fire them up yet because I need to determine what input Voltage is required. Typically, a small Wattage Short Arc handheld would probably require a 12VDC input. The lowest Voltage rated component I can see is 32 VDC. The label on the Pichel Industries OEM charger says it's a 24 Volt unit. I confirmed this by measuring an unloaded Voltage of 33.45. When attempting to charge an 8S LiFeP04 pack resting at 26.6 Volts, when connecting the charger, I saw a .1 Volt increase and a current flow of only .345 Amps. A 2S SLA pack resting at only 26.6 should call on full charger Amperage delivery I would think. So the charger is probably not working correctly but would tend to confirm that the battery used to power these lights was a 24-28 Volt pack. I don't have any of the OEM packs.

Beyond that, The reflectors are in great condition and I'm fairly sure they are Rhodium plated. I don't know if the lamps are good. They are not physically broken. So do I "hit" it with 25 VDC and see what happens?

Hello,
My name is Linden Black. I worked for Pichel Industries from 1980 to 1987. Strangely my uncle also worked for them as a sales rep when they were still in Pasadena. He and I never knew the connection until he asked where I was working. When I told him, he took me in his garage and produced a Mini-Nova and gave it to me. They were rated at 24 volt since they were sold to the military. I still have a manual from my days at Pichel. I also have a VAR 100. A halogen lamped version with a focus knob on the back which moved the lamp.
They are very similar to the Maxa Beam light produced by Peak Beam Systems.
The thing that makes both lights so good is the 75 watt xenon lamp coupled with the very accurate electroformed reflector, both with a 10mm focal length. We produce the very same reflector here a Phoenix Electroformed Products.

 

[BVH]

Hi Linden. Good to hear from you. You made a couple 14" reflectors for my ORC 500 Watt Gunfire Simulator Short Arcs a while back. Could I persuade you to make me a copy of the MiniNova manual? I'd pay all costs and for your time

Does your MiniNova also not have a mechanism for focusing? And do you simply feed your light 24+- Volts DC with no current regulator/special power supply prior to the light? As I posted above, feeding unregulated power to my light destroyed the OEM lamp in short order. Boy, did it burn bright for a few seconds!

 

[BVH]

For continuity purposes. Linden indicates that in the original battery pack for the MiniNova, there was a large ballast resistor in the input power circuit. This would be the elusive current regulating device that I have always thought had to exist somewhere. Finally, mystery solved! I'll soon have some documentation/manuals. Thank you, Linden!

 

[BVH]

A shameful plug for my sale of these two vintage gems.

For Sale - Flashlight - For Sale: Maxabeam Predecessor - Pichel Mini Novas 2 Each, Excellent Condition and Working With Digital Power Regulators.

Up for sale are my two Pichel Mini-Novas. These lights preceded the Maxabeam. Read all about the Pichels here: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/75-watt-pichel-industries-rare-handheld-short-arcs-military-quality.428526/ Own the pair including digital regulators and charger for...

www.candlepowerforums.com

 

[letschat7]

No worries BVH this drew my attention to a very interesting thread.