SunForce 25 Million Candlepower HID Rechargeable Spotlight

[ScottFHall]

Thanks, DM51--it's fun to be here. I guess I should take some pics and show another fairly non-invasive/non-destructive mod I did a while back. A simple one: I installed an extra spst on-off switch on one of those little yellow Stanley Ultrabright LED spotlights. Now, instead of starting up to 50% brightness, it's runs straight on up to %100 with just a single trigger pull and hold. It's a complaint I saw here once so I worked it out. I'll post that when I get pics.

BlueBeam22, regarding my 100 watt high pressure sodium lamp and ballast, I think what I'll do is get (or build) a fairly large parabolic reflector and scratch-build the casing. In all, it will be yet another spotlight--nothing to do with my Sunforce 25,000,000 which I like too much to dissect much more.

uknewbie, the Sunforce 25... doesn't exactly run straight from the 12 volt car battery--what I meant was that it comes supplied with a cable that connects from the cigarette lighter socket to the flashlight and that slowly trickle charges the internal flashlight batteries. So, while you're driving along, you can be charging it up. I think when either charge port on the flashlight is plugged in, you cannot get the light to operate--you have to disconnect first and be back to running on internal batteries.

Regarding buying, what do you mean? The dealer that comes up in a search engine for the Sunforce 25... won't ship to UK? Or are you having trouble finding a 100 watt high pressure sodium lamp and ballast over there?

 

[ScottFHall]

By the way, here's a pic of my 100 watt 6,000 lumen high pressure sodium lamp and ballast just starting to warm up and also a pic of it contained in the first (intentionally distressed) casing I built for it. That was not an entirely satisfying result because I didn't have much of a reflector in there--certainly not parabolic. It worked as a sort of mega-flood for lighting up the whole countryside.

More on this later sodium lamp later when I have some progress. In another thread if that's more appropriate (?) Word of warning if you fiddle with these: put that bulb behind some ultraviolet blocking glass (or wear UV goggles) if you try these sodium bulbs out. If you have one on in the same room as your unprotected eyes for just a few minutes, your eyeballs get sunburned. Feels like you've been swimming open-eyed for half a day in a heavily chlorined pool!

 

[uknewbie]

The only place I can find it for sale is Northern Tool, and they don't seem to list international shipping. I am just assuming due to the size and weight that shipping would be very high.

Incidentally, the two reviews on there are not so complementary of it.

http://reviews.northerntool.com/0394/160455/reviews.htm

Thanks for the clear up about the 12v supply. It did seem too good to be able to power it directly from your car, rather than just charge it from it.

Craig.

 

[ScottFHall]

Craig, I think your power concerns are easily overcome thereby making this light accessible to you in one sense.

The house mains power supply (AC-DC "wall wart") that recharges this flashlight is rated...

Input: 120 volts AC ~ 60Hz 7 watts

...and it outputs...

12 volts DC at 300mA

The center pin is positive on the tip that plugs into the flashlight recharge port.

All you have to do is find yourself a UK-made wall wart that can be plugged into your 240 mains with that huge three pronged plug you guys use and yet outputs just as mine does to...

12 volts DC at 300mA

I guarantee you that rating device does exist there.

Once you have that, your only concern is the tip. The simplest solution is to use the tip that comes with the flashlight--cut the wires and the wires on your UK wall wart and solder the two together. And then you can recharge this light by simply connecting to UK mains.

And what about those electric shaver sockets that you guys have in bathrooms over there? Aren't they rated at 115v? You might be able to simply use that with the stock 120 volts AC ~ 60Hz 7 watts to 12 volts DC at 300mA wall wart if you have the correct plug in tip converter.

Another option so you can start using all sorts of appliances intended for the US market is: get a 240 to 120 volt step down transformer. Those look like they cost about $15.

Regarding the US seller of this flashlight, write them email and ask if they'll ship to you.

Regarding those two sort of lame reviews:

Pilot msr is reviewing the older yellow version of this light. That's not the same version I have. I have the newer grey and black one. And his review isn't so bad anyway. Neither is BlueBeam22's who gone so far here to do a comparison with a light known to be quite good.

These complaints about short run time--I haven't experienced that yet. I'm not one to sit and watch a flashlight burn for an hour, after all.

The second reviewer is clearly comparing a 3 million cp halogen (yellowish) spotlight to this new 25 million cp blue xenon--that's a questionable comparison from the get-go. Also, he assumes that 25 million cp literally means that it will appear to be 8 times brighter. I doubt that is the way it works in any case. I know more about sound waves myself--I know the math is not linear in terms of trying to multiply loudness. I bet it's the same for light.

And again, he's reviewing the older yellow one with two switches. It's clearly been through a redesign. It's new design is quite similar in ways to that of the Sunforce 40,000,000 cp monster floodlight.

As for labeling and lack thereof, this is the typical modus operandi here in 2009, right?. Just about everything is made in China and then gets labeled elsewhere in order to pitch the brand that's retailing it. Take a look sometime at legendary high dollar German Leica cameras and Panasonics. Several of their digitals are exactly the same, different labels.

As far as I'm concerned this 25,000,000 cp spotlight is a great one. The construction quality is high, the beam visibility and throw is astounding, it's got room inside for access and custom modification, the reflector is very well made and perfectly polished, the lamp is dead-centered to throw an absolutely perfect round spot. When I set this thing up vertically on my car and bring anyone outside to see the beam, they all immediately yell out "Wow!!!" and then voice concern about this infinite tree trunk of white-blue light upsetting air traffic! For some reason when aiming straight up, the beam looks just enormous.

 

[uknewbie]

ScottFhall, thanks for the reply. I agree that this light, based on this thread in particular, looks very good. It is also very cheap for what you get.

I know I could charge it here in the UK without any problems, that was not a concern.
I had just thought that initially the review was saying it could be operated, and actually used by means of a direct power supply from your car's 12v power outlet, rather than just being re-charged from it.

The only thing I have close to this is a Thor and by all accounts it does not appear to be in the same league. It is the type of monster light I would love to have in my car just for the sake of it.

Something similar might actually hit the shops in the UK at some point, like the Thor did, cash and carry type of purchase.

Now that I think of it, does anyone have a beam shot comparison to a Thor?

 

[BlueBeam22]

As far as I'm concerned this 25,000,000 cp spotlight is a great one. The construction quality is high, the beam visibility and throw is astounding, it's got room inside for access and custom modification, the reflector is very well made and perfectly polished, the lamp is dead-centered to throw an absolutely perfect round spot. When I set this thing up vertically on my car and bring anyone outside to see the beam, they all immediately yell out "Wow!!!" and then voice concern about this infinite tree trunk of white-blue light upsetting air traffic! For some reason when aiming straight up, the beam looks just enormous.

I know exactly what you mean about how its beam looks in the night sky. It is like a blue laser of light that goes up forever and looks kind of like an advertising searchlight when viewed from close up. I am very glad to hear you are so impressed with yours.

Now that I think of it, does anyone have a beam shot comparison to a Thor?

I don't have a beamshot at this time but I do have both the SunForce 25 million candlepower light and a 15MCP "Thor". The SunForce 25 million candlepower blows away the Thor in both brightness and throw. The SunForce is an outstanding performer and to my knowledge the new lux/throw-per-dollar champion of all spotlights and HID lights.

 

[ScottFHall]

Yeah, BlueBeam22, I got pretty lucky picking up this SF 25 million cp light as my first HID. It's got power, it's affordable, and looks big, dark, and dangerous. Naturally, I can't resist putting a key lock switch on it to prevent the unauthorised from powering it up--I'll post a pic of that later, of course :thumbsup:

 

[ScottFHall]

I finally got a couple of shots of my Sunforce 25 million cp spotlight across the street at the riverside--this is my one mile beamshot test. I'm at the Georgiana edge of Merritt Island (southern half of Cape Canaveral) and it's one mile across the Indian River to a town called Rockledge.

What we have here is my spotlight perched on a 5 gallon paint bucket--just a foot and a half above the ground. Note the light spill away from the beam--not bad at all.

The beam streaks fiercely across the whole river, very tight, nice and blue-white.

At the opposite shore, you see two low pressure sodium streetlights glowing--I've marked these with the purple arrows.

In between, marked by my red arrow, you see the spot cast on a house by this amazing spotlight: one mile away! I think it's a house. House? billboard? It's something big and light colored.

The first pic is the standard view of my camera--entirely unenhanced and unretouched except for my insertion of arrows and cropping down the overall picture size to focus on the action.

The second pic is a 3 times max zoom produced on site by my digital camera itself (12 megapixel Olympus FE-26). Again, this picture is likewise unaltered except for the arrows I inserted and some cropping of excess.

Note that last night was a full moon--so tonight it is still 99% full and the sky is clear here and it's cold--about 50 degrees F. It's a bright night out and yet the beam emitted from this spotlight remains just spectacular.

As stock light goes, this thing is just awesome!

 

[kramer5150]

ONE mile!!! holy moly!!

Judging the brightness of the beam it looks like it will go on MUCH farther than that. I'd love to see some cloud bounce shots.

 

[ScottFHall]

Yeah, I'll certainly pursue that next, Kramer5150 (getting a photo or two of this beam putting a tight circle of light on a cloud). I see that Ralf Ottow's Maxablaster does that very well at 4 miles--I guess my Sunforce 25m cp should be able to equal that effect at 1 mile, maybe 2 miles, possibly 3. We will see...

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/125819&page=3

 

[ScottFHall]

Today, I've added a keyed switch to the Sunforce 25 m cp spotlight. This provides me a way of locking out use of the spotlight--from kids, for example--by just taking away the key. Adding it in makes no change to the slide switch at the right of my photo--it continues to operate but I think it is a post-circuit board switch. My key switch has been added pre-circuit board.

It fit in there very easily along the right side and nothing is cramped inside. The rotation of the leg/foot to any position is not hindered by the added switch either.

The black wire coming directly from the battery was long enough so that all I had to do to add this switch in between the battery and the circuit board was cut the wire at midpoint, strip it, and solder the two tips to the two lugs on the keyed switch. The action of the rotary switch is very smooth and when you pull the key, a shield covers the keyhole just as an automotive keyhole does.

This is likely all I will do to this spotlight for some time now--I'll wait to mod it more until I can't resist trying to amplify the candlepower which is, of course, a much more serious and risky project. I think I've proven with these slight mods, though, that this rather inexpensive and yet powerful HID is a very good platform for those of you out there who might be want to create a real monster.

 

[strinq]

Omg, 1 mile...

 

[ScottFHall]

Yep, one mile!

And to allay any confusion in regard to your quote (which, no doubt, will set some readers wondering): yes, freight trains do run over on that side of the river, but they run north to south. My beamshot here is traveling east to west. So that big white ball there is indeed the hotspot of this HID light appearing a mile away, not the headlight of a freight train. In fact, the lower edge of the that circle of hotspot illumination has a dimmed, dark area in it that cuts into the circle. That is caused by the insulated wire that runs along the 6 o'clock area of the bulb (a wire you can see clearly in my close up picture of the lamp itself up above in this thread).

I'm still amazed with this light. I tried to get a cloudbounce picture or two last night but there just weren't any out there to hit. I guess this was due to the serious cold. Somebody please tell all the delegates up in Copenhagen--it got down to the freezing point of water in Cape Canaveral, Florida last night What's up with that???

 

[ScottFHall]

Okay: serious cloudbouncing with a cast shadow has been achieved with the Sunforce 25 m cp spotlight. 4 good pics to see here...

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/3230683&postcount=37

 

[Nanomiser]

I've had my SunForce HID now for about a week now and finally got a chance to go out and play alittle and put together a review.

First some pics of my new SunForce 25MCF 35W HID Spotlight. oo:



It's definitely a thrower! Although I'm only showing a max of 300ft here this light will easily do twice that in the right conditions. The last two pics were done using "night shot" mode as to enhance the beam. Unfortunately my camera is not a true SLR and I didn't bring a tripod so I had some problems rendering beam shots in regular mode. However, the actual beam is very visible cutting through the night sky and the spill is enormous! You can't see it here but the hot spot is on the ugly side with a very uniform geometry looking a bit more like a distorted star than a spot. I'm most impressed with the collimated beam produced enabling the tremendous throw. The huge spill is also nice for lighting up the surround area eliminating any risk of mishaps when walking around.

The weight to size ratio is very ergonomically comfortable when walking around even without the carrying strap. Basic dimensions are ~11.70"OAL X 7.25"H (Base to Handle Top) X 8.625" Bezel Dia. with a 6.875" Lens Dia which I believe is glass. The reflector is aluminum with a smooth texture; maybe an MOP finish here would have helped with the spot quality. The HID Bulb is a 12Vdc 35W Quartz Xenon. The body, bezel and bracket are all made of a durable plastic. No accessories, the weight comes in at 6.01 Lbs. User functions are straight forward with single mode on-off slider switch, AC & DC charging jacks with LED indicator, an adjustable locking position bracket, two strap loops and a handle. Upon initial fire up it does have that signature 20 or 30 second HID bulb warm up before the full power stabilizes. The majority of the slots you see on the back side of the head are in fact vents probably facilitating cooling for the reflector.

Aside from my option of the spot, this appears to be a really nice HID light with a very good build quality; I'm happy with it. :twothumbs

Thanks BlueBeam22 for the recommendation! :thumbsup:

It's a little sickening to say, but I'm already thinking about I can push this thing to 55W and higher!

 

[Roberts30]

Thanks for Sharing!

 

[ScottFHall]

Cool light, eh, Nanomiser? I trashed that sticker on mine immediately (lame little bit of garbage graphics that was just not up to the same standard aesthetically as the 3D design of the housing itself).

 

[Nanomiser]

Very cool light!

As for the sticker I would agree it's pretty cheesy, but I'm going to keep it for now. I would like to buy another as a host for a 55W mod and get rid of the sticker on that one.

Tried to do some cloud bouncing last night and got these instead. Image quality is not very good due to exposure setting and no tripod.

 

[cccpull]

As for the sticker I would agree it's pretty cheesy, but I'm going to keep it for now. I would like to buy another as a host for a 55W mod and get rid of the sticker on that one.

Why don't you just get the 10Million CP model as a host, which is a lot cheaper (on sale 24.99) and the case is exactly alike. Unless you're thinking you might be able to just swap the ballasts.:thinking:

 

[kramer5150]

Why don't you just get the 10Million CP model as a host, which is a lot cheaper (on sale 24.99) and the case is exactly alike. Unless you're thinking you might be able to just swap the ballasts.:thinking:

Are the reflectors the same between the incan and HID?