Fun @ work...

Not sure if you guys have the same thing going or not but we always go back and forth at work over who has the brightest flashlight. Today i decided to do something about it..

*Edit, see page 2 for new rig..

Very resourceful, nicely done. What would you estimate the total build cost to be?

Superdave said:

I'm currently in the lead with a MC-E P60 dropin running at 800mA in a Z3

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Bump it up to ~2000mA, then even the P7 Mag will have trouble keeping up.

I'd hold back comments on the MC-E it may be doing 800mA at over 16 volts. Maybe 800mA at around 8 volts, or 800mA at around 4 volts. 2A at 4 volts is fine. 2A at 16 volts.

65535 said:

I'd hold back comments on the MC-E it may be doing 800mA at over 16 volts.

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Oops, you're right, I assumed a pair of Li-Ions.. What's your setup Superdave?

That is an outstanding set up! Ain't nothing wrong with having a little fun at work.

StarHalo said:

Oops, you're right, I assumed a pair of Li-Ions.. What's your setup Superdave?

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lol, just a driver from a Ebay Q5 dropin, 5-12V Vin range assuming around 3.5 Vout @ 800mA. I had it on a KD 5 mode driver with a protected 18650, it's about the same brightness in both setups.

I ran the same emitter up to 5V, 5.2A last night (wired 4P) and it was screaming bright and no angry blue. I bet i could direct drive it off of 2 123's and it would be fine.. lol

as for build cost.. i'm not sure how much the light meter was, the large piece of PVC was stuck in a wall, the smaller grey piece was from a vacuum system that we were building, all the plexi was just scraps and i used a hot-glue gun, roto-zip and a hole-saw to assemble it. Took maybe 45 minutes.

I might paint the outside flat black, right now i get 5-10 lux with nothing in it.


Thanks all!

I'll post up some more measurements of common lights tomorrow.

Thats a great set-up you got there! I did something similar with my light meter as well. It doesn't give exact lumen measurements, but it gives you great comparison numbers amongst different lights.

Superdave and I were doing more experimenting with the Integrating Cylinder today. The Lux readings were VERY close to Lux readings I have seen on FlashlightReviews.com and TheLEDMuseum.com.

Additionally cool is that Superdave did a SWAG (Scientific Wild *** Guess) calculation and concluded that a fairly pseudo-linear equation of "Lumen equivalent = Lux reading/27". It is not dead-accurate for every measure as the relationship between them is not truly linear, but it's close enough for government work. All in all, it is an excellent photon-measurement device.

The only expensive part is the light-meter (don't know the price of those), although we inherited ours.

Kind of makes me want to make one for myself for home...

I'm in the lead with 23,400 lux from my P7 mag.. I'll post the whole spreadsheet later.


the next highest LED light is a Milky U2x2 @ 8,670


my SWAG seems to be working fairly well, the lux/27 is giving me 80 lumens from a P60L, 233 lumens for a Malkoff M60, 159 Lumens for a unfrosted P90 on 3 fresh 123's.

Very cool and as you say all the measurements are pretty close. I can see where that's going to be a lot of fun while providing some good solid info.

I bring a flashlight to work, and people look at me like I'm crazy.

Very cool toy indeed. A quick search on Amazon saw light meters starting at about $33. Probably not the accuracy of the OPs but for a comparison tool I've ordered one to play around with.

Bob

addictedmatt said:

I bring a flashlight to work, and people look at me like I'm crazy.

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You shoulda seen my desk this morning.. there is 48 entries in my spreadsheet

people expect us to be weird where Socom and I work, the "normal" guys don't last very long. our boss even brought his flashlight in to be tested.

NotSoBrightBob said:

Very cool toy indeed. A quick search on Amazon saw light meters starting at about $33. Probably not the accuracy of the OPs but for a comparison tool I've ordered one to play around with.

Bob

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this is the one we have.. http://www.extech.com/instruments/product.asp?catid=10&prodid=64

i'd like to find the PC interface cable, that could be fun..

We also have a Sencore Color Analizer that should be able to map out the color temp of the light in the unit. I'll try to rig that up next week and see if it works. :naughty:

If you can't find the RS-232 cable then have Jordan let me know and I will get you one. That would come in handy for logging output vs. time for runtime plots and the like.

mudman cj said:

If you can't find the RS-232 cable then have Jordan let me know and I will get you one. That would come in handy for logging output vs. time for runtime plots and the like.

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It looks like it might be similar to a stereo headphone jack on the unit's end.. which would make sense since i doubt it needs handshaking. just tx, rx and gnd.

I'd need the software to go with it as well. i'll contact Extech and find out the price on it.

I don't happen to have a cable like that...I think. I need to check. But at any rate one could certainly be made and I would have at least some of the needed bits. Although I suspect you could make one without my help I just wanted to offer. As for the software - I think I can help. That link you provided has a blue/green colored link that reads, "407001 Software v.4.0". Just download that and install it. It is more than just an update as it seems at first. I downloaded and installed it to see if it would run without me having had a prior version installed. There is no indication that it is not working fine, though I can't actually test it since I don't have the meter. Give it a try.

mudman cj said:

I don't happen to have a cable like that...I think. I need to check. But at any rate one could certainly be made and I would have at least some of the needed bits. Although I suspect you could make one without my help I just wanted to offer. As for the software - I think I can help. That link you provided has a blue/green colored link that reads, "407001 Software v.4.0". Just download that and install it. It is more than just an update as it seems at first. I downloaded and installed it to see if it would run without me having had a prior version installed. There is no indication that it is not working fine, though I can't actually test it since I don't have the meter. Give it a try.

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Will do. I'm off work till Sunday and the meter is on my desk. I can't exactly just walk in on my days off.. lol

I believe i have the proper cable, I've got a nice stock of rs232 cables around for making null modem cables and random adapters. I think one has a 1/8" stereo plug on the end. We'll see if it works.


*edit

Here is a link to the spreadsheet.. excuse the bad grammar, misspellings and other oddities.

http://www.3500z.com/Misc/Lights/Integrating Cylinder Results.xls

Hi SuperDave

What are you sinking these MC-E on and are you using just one MC-E or have you tried a couple.
I was just curious because I have never burnt a P7 but I have to admit I have turned an MC-E blue a couple of times. The VF seems to fluctuate so much is why I asked if it was just one you had used.
I am glad to hear you have had luck DD the MC-E because that is when I had them turning blue was DD them, a couple did OK and a couple would not take it. I am quite careful about how I attach to the sink so I think it was low VF.

Thanks for the information and the time spent.

Dave

If you find out how to make the rs232 cable please let me know too! I just got one of these exact meters this week.




Cheers
Dave