What is this magical plastic that can be compared to aluminum in terms of heat conductance?
Because the main limit on most flashlights isn't moving heat from the LED to the surface of the light, it's moving heat from the surface of the light to the surroundings.
Titanium vs. Aluminum has a dramatically different thermal conductivity score, but not much difference in real heat management. He might get acceptable performance here, but not while driving hard. Perhaps plastic is a thin layer over the metal - in which case I am concerned over insulating voids as part of the production process.
I'm skeptical of a lot of things. Barry seems to denigrate every other light project (That old one is junk, this new one is a scam) he mentions... and has some not-quite-right in his design or presentation (suggest me a voltage splitter to use my Barry-Beams light on my 1916 Harley [Is this legal? Who knows?]). There is a dearth of beamshots, so I borrowed some for his videos. Since these videos are posted in support of his "The Future of Bike Lighting" project, I am quite permitted to use them to consider the performance of the lights.
I watched one of his 'check out my awesome car-headlight-pwning bike light' videos and grabbed a random screenshot. I wanted to have taillights and streetlights to show the near-field glare from this light. There doesn't appear to be enough discrimination between foreground and distant lighting for my liking. Here's one with less light pollution:
Note the poorly-visible pine tree - there is a real cutoff here, until you tilt the bike to turn. That's okay. What bothers me is that about four fence-posts ahead (fifty feet or so) there is a black abyss of darkness. I don't expect this sort of performance from a high-dollar light, I expect it at the $50 price point.
From
Topica, Barry suggests interesting on-road lighting.
"
[SIZE=-2] Solving the antique motorcycle issue is part of a longer development
goal to produce an automotive Barry Beam to use as either fog/running
lights, or as the most kickass car headlights imaginable, if you can
imagine four of these screaming up the road, but still not blinding an
oncoming driver's eye."
[/SIZE]
I can't imagine he's gotten far enough into the vehicular lighting segment to realize the issues with having four lights on a car, much less matching output and directionality standards in civilized countries. I hope he doesn't take money before researching the issues inherent in his plan, so that he has a plan of action to proceed.
Your images are too large and have been replaced with links Please resize and repost.
See Rule #3 If you post an image in your post, please downsize the image to no larger than 800 x 800 pixels. - Thanks Norm
Norm - fixed pictures. Thanks kindly!