Cheap China HID aspheric mods?

treysoucie

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Is this worth the effort? I just recently bought a cheap china HID and am toying with modding it with an aspheric lense to focus the beam... Id want to be able to go from a large beam or even flood to a throw beam.
 
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Throwjunkie

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I am also interested in this for better throw I dont have an aspherical to try it out but have a good place to get some large ones just dont want to spend the cash if it isnt going to work


Joe
 

seven11

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I think this would be an awesome MOD as I don't think anyone has tried it yet. Because the aspheric lens would gather and focus the light, I think you would get some incredible lux ratings out of doing it. I would encourage you to do it just because I haven't seen anyone else do it.
 

curby

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As others have said, it would be an interesting project. However, you have to keep in mind that the radiation pattern from an HID is totally different than a LED, so the appropriate reflectors and lenses to use are likely different as well.

Again, it's not to say that an appropriate lens couldn't further focus the light from a given HID. But the usual aspheric that's put in front of a bare LED will almost certainly not give you the results you want.

2c
 

Throwjunkie

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Yea thats the concern I have I guess I could hover my 50mm aspheric over the lense to gain a basic idea of what might be possible. Also wondering if using a reflector combo would be better in this case rather then bare Aspheric. I dont have alot of exp with this stuff but do know a great deal about lenses and mirrors as I build telescopes. In any even should be fun playing around with it.

Was just thinking about this, it will work because I have projector lense HID headlights on my wifes car and they throw the light very well. I guess at this point I'm now looking for a lense lol

Joe
 
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2filthy3

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Been there, done that & it doesn't work.

Copy that, the light from the lens (~70mm) was extremely non uniform, non focussed and full of artifacts, I suggest you purchase a cheap DX aspheric and at least find out for yourself.

However if you really want to try and make it work, research "polyelispoid reflectors".
 

Throwjunkie

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who did it? They do work I have a set of projectors on the wifes car my guess is you have to figure some ratio to figure correct size and focal lenth for it to be effective but they do work well on cars so that should apply here as well.


Joe
 

2filthy3

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Your torch most likely has a parabolic reflector, for your project you will need an ellipsoidal reflector, to gather the light and then pass it through the lens.

Headlight_projector_schematic.GIF


The small parabolic reflector on these hid flashlights just doesn't collimate the light effectively enough for it to be used with a lens, not stock standard anyway.
 
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treysoucie

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ya I didnt think about how the reflector would still scatter the light... if I went with say an ellipsoidal studio type reflector with an aspheric lense I wouldnt be able to really do the "flood to throw" thing would I?
 

ma_sha1

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Be interesting to pit the Mega Blaster against a good-mirror'd 60" carbon arc - an HID. Throws enough light to be able to read a newspaper at 5.7 miles when new.


Noooo, not the Carbon Arc :D
I was thinking about a Carbon Arc DIY but decided against it, don't want to risk playing with Carbon Monoxide as I do all my mods in the kitchen.

Seriously, I didn't think that's in the HID light bucket?
 

Throwjunkie

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Was for sure gonna replace the reflector its pretty crappy even for its intended purpose I think having one made would be the best option will have some math to do figuring out the best option big problem rite now is finding a 76mm lenses so till I find that I'm on hold
 

taurasmark

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Due to the 3 post rule I figured you guy's would be the best peps to get advice from as I am unable to start a new thread as of yet :)

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what determines the firing time of a HID touch?

I currently have a 35w HID torch that I purchased from China, the only problem is that is can take up to 8 seconds to reach it's maximum.

Would it be a simple case of just buying a new HID bulb such as Philips or Osram?

Thanks in advance :)
 

BVH

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Most HID's require warm-up time - usually 15-25 seconds for full brightness. If your light is fully bright in 8 seconds, you're doing very well. Short Arc HID lights usually require no warm up time but usually have fewer Lumens but longer throw capability.
 

Throwjunkie

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Agree with BVH My 38/50W ebay HID takes around 15 seconds to come up to full brightness. As for the Bulb I have a Phillips in my Cyclops HID mod and its rite around the same amount of time to warm up and get to full brightness. I do have a question for you Taurasmark the HID you have is it the 35W flashlight style if so have you had the ballast out of it or would you be willing to take it out and measure the ballast lenth minus the bulb. If you need help I can help you its held in with 3 screws under the reflector. The reason is there are replacements ballast for these lights 3 different sizes some of us are trying to find out what each size is rated at, but for some reason we all seem to have the same size ballast so far.
If it's not something you wanna do its no problem and I understand. But it would have just killed me not to ask LOL

Joe
 

ma_sha1

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I currently have a 35w HID torch that I purchased from China, the only problem is that is can take up to 8 seconds to reach it's maximum.

Would it be a simple case of just buying a new HID bulb such as Philips or Osram?

Thanks in advance :)

I don't think different bulb changes the start up time, that's is controlled by ballast.

You can change ballast & look for the quick start type. The ballast programs the
lamp with ignition followed by high amp warm-up period, the higher the programed
warm up current, the faster it finishes warm up, at a cost of reduced lamp life.
 
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