The 30" Night Hawk

[LightSward]

Another couple beam shots. I'll get the spot light running again, (hopefully just a loose wire inside the 120 / 220 volt converter; and get some more distant beam shots.

Beam shot from front door

Here is the beam shot from another angle.

Night hawk beam from a block away

Beaming the clouds

Beam shot of the Night Hawk

Beam is somewhat near horizontal, and still lights the clouds up.

The reflector is a little translucent...
Even with three coatings of paint, reflective material, almost as reflective as mirror, and the fiberglass itself, the 1200 watt HMI bulb is very intense, and shines through! I need to work on the focus a little.

I may try the double ended bulb.

 

[2100]

2100, are these HMI Sharx lamps you're describing or HTI's? I was looking at the HTI type's and they have some serious ventilation requirements
and limited burning positions. Can you post a link to a site describing the 1200 Watt 7 mm gap? I think I saw that lamp in Osram's line-up.
Thanks!

Bro, those are HMIs. http://www.aliexpress.com/product-gs/247701380-HMI1200W-S-metal-halide-lights-wholesalers.html
I am sure you can a single unit for sale either there or alibaba. I have located a 400W searchlight, probably one of those PAR64 CP60 VNSP cans, ballast and fixture, runs off AC so shouldn't be really expensive....but they just would not reply my emails.

 

[[email protected]]

Wow, your lights are beautiful.. Congrats..

 

[LightSward]

Wow, your lights are beautiful.. Congrats..

Thanks. Lots of fun to make these Lights.

Great learning experience; much easier to make, and now obtaining a better product. I am going to concentrate on optical purity now:....making a smoother surface. The parabolic shape is getting quite accurate now, but the slight ripples, blemishes, etc., on the fiberglass surface, need to be smoothed out to the 'immmpth degree of precision...that goal is going to be my next step in making these "monster reflectors", a high quality, affordable item...

I'm also working on other hardware; such as housings, yokes, etc., and will put out a product with maybe a choice of Lamp installations; brand names: such as Jenbo, versus GE, Phillips, etc., or clients can choose to install their own with detailed mounting requirements.

 

[Bill Idaho]

Is this a bulb/ballast combination I can fit into my VSS-3 reflector/housing?

 

[LightSward]

Is this a bulb/ballast combination I can fit into my VSS-3 reflector/housing?

:naughty: I'm not familiar with the exact dimensions, but what I do know is the 1200 watt HMI is fairly small and the Jenbo ballast is small, about the size of a motel room Bible. The 1200 watt HMI puts out the Lumens of a 2400 watt Xenon...but the Xenon has a much smaller arc, which means you can use a small reflector and get great performance, plus you can turn the Xenon on and off a little quicker than an HMI.

If you switch to HMI or HTI, metal halide, the double ended bulb may be good, because the arc chamber is directly cooled by fan, which allows fairly quick cool down, so that you can turn on and off the lamp in relatively short time. If you use HMI you will have a brighter beam though it widens a little faster.

It is worth looking into, if cost of the Xenon replacement are high or hard to get. HMI are fairly inexpensive. :thumbsup:

 

[LightSward]

I figured out why the 120 to 240 volt transformer quit. Two things, one there was a cold solder joint on the fuse holder that failed when it warmed, two, the the fuse holder was poorly constructed and could barely support the fuse. This is why I was getting 'flickering' with the light. I thought it was the Jenbo ballast from China...if you know what I mean... I fixed both problems with some solder. I am in conversation with the manufacturer about this, as other customers had the same issue, and just threw the transformers out...too expensive to ship for refund.

I got a couple pictures of the Night Hawk, competing with sunlight, and one beam shot just seconds before the solder joint failed the other night.

Close up of the failed solder joint


Carefully opened, unplugged transformer...I've wound, wired and built transformers, so I pretty much knew what was wrong...

carefully opened, unplugged transformer

I figured out why the 120 to 240 volt transformer quit. Two things, one there was a cold solder joint on the fuse holder that failed when it warmed, two, the the fuse holder was poorly constructed and could barely support the fuse. This is why I was getting 'flickering' with the light. I thought it was the Jenbo ballast from China...if you know what I mean...

Night Hawk, on second floor deck.

Night Hawk, on second floor deck, so that I could drive away for a few minutes. I put cardboard near Night Hawk, to keep wash light from shining on neighbor's home.

Beam, as seen half a block away, shining over homes

Beam, as seen half a block away, shining over homes, onto cloud, over a mile up.

As seen from a quarter mile, Night Hawk lights the clouds, over a mile above ground level!
You could see the beam, but the light polluted clouds, made it tough to photograph.

Here is a moving beam shot from five blocks away

Here is a moving beam shot from five blocks away, beam shining directly overhead. the transformer cold soldered joint, failed at about this point. Not too good of a beam shot yet.

 

[LightSward]

Night Hawk close-up

Night Hawk close-up, with HMI bulb partly in view.

Night Hawk shining for daylight tests

Night Hawk shining for daylight tests on garage doors and sidewalk next to sunshine.

Turned around to see the Night Hawk shining on ME!

Turned around to see the Night Hawk shining on ME! this is what I saw when I turned around. Very warm in beam, don't want to look directly into searchlight...even in broad day light!


With the Night Hawk a hundred feet from this door and me about fifteen feet, makes a nice shadow.

My shadow on garage door 100 feet away from Night Hawk searchlight!

My shadow on garage door 100 feet away from light! Beam seems to spread about thirty inches every hundred feet. I am about fifteen feet in front of garage.

The night Hawk is shining on the garage door

The night Hawk is shining on the garage door, next to car, before it is shined on driveway to compare sunshine brightness.

Night Hawk beam shining with sunlight

Here you can see the Night Hawk shining on the ground next to direct sunlight. :naughty:

 

[2100]

Bro, you lux metered the beam at say 100m? It'd be good to know.

 

[LightSward]

Bro, you lux metered the beam at say 100m? It'd be good to know.

At 100 meters, (I don't have a Lux Meter), but figuring the mature life output of the 1200 watt HMI bulb, inefficiencies of the reflector, and geometry of the light paths and the associated losses and just eyeing it to the 'Lux Chart' on line, I'd say it is around 4,500 to 7,500 Lux on a beam that has spread to around 10 feet in diameter for the bright spot and 12 feet with corona. This is just an educated guess. :wave:

 

[2100]

That's a cool 45-75 million CP. The Francis 560mm (22") searchlight with 2500W gets 141 million CP. So that is quite belivable for your 30".

 

[LightSward]

I will be traveling to Las Vegas soon, to pick-up the 36" Gorilla searchlight, parent of the 30 Inch Night Hawk. I will compare beam results, but I can already see that I need to smooth out the Night Hawk reflecting surface. The small ridges and blemishes, I allowed, are causing the beam to widen too fast. It still lights up the clouds a mile and a half up, but not like I wanted.

I thought I could make do with a more accurate parabolic shape, and not worry as much about the surface quality...Wrong! The orange peel effect is worse than I should have accepted. So I will make a duplicate reflector and concentrate on getting rid of the orange peel surface. The Gorilla searchlight makes a better beam; of course because it is bigger, but because it has a fairly smooth surface, even though it's parabolic shape has a few minor incorrect areas. This is part of the fun of all this, finding issues, and fixing them. I'm excited to see how the two lights compare, and then make improvements!:thinking:

More to come!:twothumbs

 

[LightSward]

I compared the Night Hawk and Gorilla Reflectors, and realized the Gorilla has a much smoother surface, giving it a much better beam. I will focus spending a lot of time finishing any future surfaces to a mirror like smoothness.

While building the Night Hawk, I moved quickly, thinking I could get away with the orange peel look. I will either re-finish the Night Hawk, or go ahead and make another one, and concentrate on mirror like smoothness. I may bring the Night Hawk with a 100 watt 10mm arc HID installed to compare beam quality, to the next Seattle CPF Get Together.​

 

[2100]

I compared the Night Hawk and Gorilla Reflectors, and realized the Gorilla has a much smoother surface, giving it a much better beam. I will focus spending a lot of time finishing any future surfaces to a mirror like smoothness.​

I have that cheapo 8" reflector HID, I just had to own it even though BVH said it was crap due to the lousy hotspot shape, it is like a mess of corona and no real hotspot, hence it is like a tight corona hotspot like a 40mm reflectored XP-G in throw but no real bright hotspot in the middle so the PBCP is not going to be high. The shape of the parabolic is ok, hence the tight corona, but there are like minor dimples spread all over the reflector surface, but it is very mirror smooth so the dimples are not like Orange Peel or stippled, so it gives a wierd hotspot. Luckily i got it cheap, 55W for 52 bucks shipped, not too bad....part of the collection I guess.​

 

[LightSward]

It is interesting how reflectors are. The Night Hawk and Gorilla beams, at first looked somewhat similar. They both light-up the clouds, a mile and a half or so up, quite brightly, but the Gorilla hot spot is much tighter, brighter and better defined, with a thinner, farther traveling beam.

I was trying to produce the Night Hawk reflector in a quick and efficient manner, sort of a pre-production run, but, among other things, I was distracted by a phone call during part of the finishing process, and didn't pay as close attention as I should have.

I am still impressed with the initial results of the Night Hawk so far, but I will work on the Beta model over a longer time period, and work out the little bugs that blemished the results. I figure, if I spend quality time and precision, the results should be at least, if not better than the Gorilla in it's present condition. (...of course, if I made a better surface on a beta- Gorilla...watch out!)

Over-all, I like the design of the Night Hawk type lights, and the fact that the reflectors are strong enough to act as the frame and case for the light. Next few models, I hope to cast the reflector and essential components all into one "Uni-body' with plenty of access for service. Low weight, relatively compact size, and cost.

Fun, Fun, Fun!!!:naughty:

I will fire up the Gorilla, next few nights...but I have to be careful, as it does seem to instantly draw strangers into our block area. Sometimes I wait until 2 0r 3 am, when no one is out and about, and no one is thinking "Store Sale, or "Party", just a hallucination, typical of that time of morning...Heh heh heeeh...lol

 

[2100]

Attention is good, that means your light is good!

I am still searching for a smaller HMI/MSR whatever MH spot. 10 deg beam is still alright if its 575 - 1200W power for those moving head effects spot, good for short range few hundred metres fun. I seen a 575W mini follow spot stage light which is 55cm long x 15cm x 20cm, but i think the beam divergence is 15 deg. Not pretty. The good thing is that it is cheap, 220 bucks shipped with EMS.

I am actually quite ok with 10 deg. My chinese triple XM-L light has 9.5 deg so i am aware of the technical performance. Probably about 500k CP for the 575W at 10 deg.

 

[jaws]

Awesome stuff. These parabolic spotlights have me doing alot of reading. I started gathering parts for a build of my own. I have a 48" plastic satellite dish that is a lil over 5" deep. As for the light I was thinking an 100w automotive xenon projector with the boundries and cutoff removed would be perfect(although it is slightly elliptical) and throw some pretty even light. I dunno how it will work as it throws light relatively sharp and focusing the beam may be dificult. The chrome I did some searching and found someone did all the work for me. spaz tix is the name, dunno how durible it is yet. This is just an idea at this point, I need all the input I can get.

 

[2100]

Actually with that big a dish at 5 feet, getting an micro OP surface may be desirable. But the OP must be consistent.

 

[LightSward]

Attention is good, that means your light is good!

I am still searching for a smaller HMI/MSR whatever MH spot. 10 deg beam is still alright if its 575 - 1200W power for those moving head effects spot, good for short range few hundred metres fun. I seen a 575W mini follow spot stage light which is 55cm long x 15cm x 20cm, but i think the beam divergence is 15 deg. Not pretty. The good thing is that it is cheap, 220 bucks shipped with EMS.


I am actually quite ok with 10 deg. My chinese triple XM-L light has 9.5 deg so i am aware of the technical performance. Probably about 500k CP for the 575W at 10 deg.

You could buy the light and maybe cannibalize the parts.

 

[LightSward]

Awesome stuff. These parabolic spotlights have me doing alot of reading. I started gathering parts for a build of my own. I have a 48" plastic satellite dish that is a lil over 5" deep. As for the light I was thinking an 100w automotive xenon projector with the boundries and cutoff removed would be perfect(although it is slightly elliptical) and throw some pretty even light. I dunno how it will work as it throws light relatively sharp and focusing the beam may be dificult. The chrome I did some searching and found someone did all the work for me. spaz tix is the name, dunno how durible it is yet. This is just an idea at this point, I need all the input I can get.

You could make / improvise a split reflector....a small bowl shaped reflector to focus the light opposite the main reflector, back through the light source and onto the main reflector...a common design.

Nice chrome choice...!