Medium Iron Beam Shots

EDIT: Added L35, N30, Blitz w/new bulb (with crushed off return wire insulator) and Locator HID Found a new test range close to the house and wanted to give it a test run. Conditions were not great due to an 8 knot wind and lots of small particulates in the air so visibility and throw performance would have been better. I used 4 and 5 second, F3.8 exposures and when I look at the pics, the hotspots look very representative at 5 seconds but there was much more peripheral spill that is not showing up. I just noticed I used F3.5 for the added shots. I thought they looked just a tad bit brighter but not by much.

Control, no zoom: (Iphone photo) Square=350yd, Circle=900 yd, Triangle=1115 yd



Control, Zoomed (Iphone Photo)



MaxaClone 75 Watt HID @ 350 Yds - Straight Tube bulb This light is hard to start and the bulb flickers on low. I had to make a focusing extension for the stock bulb because the focusing knob would shove it forward enough. Also, I had to carefully move the front glass around (and so the front bulb alignment nub) because the glass is smaller than the I.D. of the bezel ring making it "float" and end up not perfectly centered which greatly effected the tightness of the spot. Even centered, to me, it does not focus as I believe it should. I'd love to borrow a true Maxabeam because I believe it would perform miles better! Parker VH's Ushio bulb adapter arrived today so I'll mod in the Ushio and give it another shot.



I could not find the 900 Yd. or further targets with the MaxaClone so no pics. Maybe when I get the Ushio bulb installed.


Maxaclone 75 Watt HID with Parker VH Ushio bulb adapter and Ushio bulb 350 Yds. Clearly, the Ushio performs far better than the straight tube bulb the clone came with. It's even more dramatic in-person. I could tell when I carefully collimated and focused the light in the garage, that the hotspot was now down to about 2" @ 20 feet, whereas the straight tube bulb hotspot was about 4 or maybe 5".



Maxaclone 75 Watt HID with Parker VH Ushio bulb adapter and Ushio bulb 900 Yds. Cropped and enlarged in Photoshop, I could see the spot on the tree. I would not really call it usable at this distance.



Maxaclone 75 Watt HID with Parker VH Ushio bulb adapter and Ushio bulb 1115 Yds. Again, cropped I could see light on the target but definitely not usable by humans at this distance.



Maxaclone 75 Watt HID with Parker VH Ushio bulb adapter and Ushio bulb 1780 Yds. over 1 mile. Yes, enlarged, I barely saw light on the target but that's it.



N30 32 Watt HID @350 Yds.



L35 35 Watt HID @ 350 Yds.



AmondoTech 46 Watt HID (3152) ((POB)) @ 350 Yds. Using the original Costco HID 6000K bulb overdriven at 48 Watts.



Vector 192 150 Watt HID @ 350 Yds. This is my modded twin 75 Watt, Philips FatBoy bulb'd light running at 3900K. It took this test range to show me how powerful this light really is. It's now up high on my favorites list.



Vector 192 150 Watt HID @ 900 Yds. If you look close, you can see the tree.



Vector 192 150 Watt HID @ 1115 Yds. If I were standing to the side and using binocs, I believe I could see the 1115 Yd. treeline glowing a bit.



LarryK14 600 Watt Incandescent @ 350 Yds. This LarryK14 uses a GE Q4559X 28 Volt bulb and is driven by a 44.4 Volt (Nominal), 12S/1P, 5300 mah Lipo pack thru JimmyM's 70Volt/40Amp regulator board. In the pic, it is running at precisely 29.8 Volts at the bulb - around 650 Watts.



LarryK14 600 Watt Incandescent @ 900 Yds. The tree is visible, you have to look closely. Look how much of the 900 Yrd hill is visible! The 900 Yrd. hill is even visible in the 350 Yrd. shot.



There is so much peripheral light given off by LarryK14, that I could not see the far treeline. Again, I'd guess with binocs and standing away from the light, I could see some glow. No Pic.


Blitz, 84 Watt HID @ 350 Yds.



Blitz 84 Watt HID 45 Watt @ 350 Yds.



Blitz 84 Watt HID @ 900 Yds. 84 Watt



Blitz 84 Watt HID @ 1100 Yds. 84 Watt (The hill behind the tree)



Locator 350 Watt HID @ 350 Yds.



Locator 350 Watt HID @ 900 Yds.



Locator 350 watt HID @ 1100 Yds.




Non-Standard distances:



Blitz @ 700 Yds. 84 Watt



Locator @ 530 Yds.



Locator @ 700 Yds. to tree on left, 750 Yds. to tree on right - looks like my aim was a bit low.

Wow Bob, great pictures! It must of been a bummer to find out that the Blitz bulb is acting up. Seems like it would have been a contender. The Vector is really impressive as well. Nice to see the newly "re-powerplanted" Larry 14K lighting up the hillside as well. Thanks for the fun stuff!

Love it thanks and really appreciate the work! In addition to the saved info after CPF crash I guess people embarking on such mods will have more info on what is achieveable. I really like the wider beams of the high-powered HIDs, which actually are more practical even though in lousier weather and if you are standing on a flat ground the spill reflection may cause your iris to contract making seeing difficult. But when using on a hill or elevated floor's window, woot! I am wondering if 120W-150W HID systems will be showing up soon (or if there will be any development).

All pictures are 5 seconds, f3.5, ISO 80. Except the "VEC192 @ LarryK14 working together @ 350 Yds" which is 4 seconds, f3.5, ISO80.

2100 said:

All pictures are 5 seconds, f3.5, ISO 80. Except the "VEC192 @ LarryK14 working together @ 350 Yds" which is 4 seconds, f3.5, ISO80.

Click to expand...

Guess I forgot to change back to 5 sec. Also, I was hand-holding the LarryK so there was probably some movement, the Vec was stationary on the stool.

Thanks for the work Bob. Excellent beamshots!

Pics added of Maxaclone with Parker VH adapter and Ushio bulb. Parkers adapters work fantastic!. They even eliminate some play in the front adapter pin-to-hole fit. And in these lights, .001" make a difference. Great improvement with the Parker/Ushio combo.

Question for you MaxaBeam owners. When in 50-Watt mode, I have a 2", very bright hotspot and a 6" first corona @ 20'. When I engage turbo mode, the 2" spot disappears/dims into the 6" corona but the corona gets somewhat brighter. (but not like the 2" hotspot was). Overall, I think it loses a lot of CP in the dead center of the beam. It definitely puts more light downfield but as I said, I think it's less bright dead center. Is this a function of the pin point light source in 50-Watt mode getting bigger when in turbo so naturally, the hotspot is going to be bigger? The smaller the light source, the further it throws.

I confirmed that the Blitz bulb is dead. The arc chamber has deformed considerably and as I mentioned, the color of light is very, very pink. I have some new bulbs coming. I'll remove the ceramic insulator because as you can see, it is a huge shadow in the pics.

BVH said:

When in 50-Watt mode, I have a 2", very bright hotspot and a 6" first corona @ 20'. When I engage turbo mode, the 2" spot disappears/dims into the 6" corona but the corona gets somewhat brighter. (but not like the 2" hotspot was). Overall, I think it loses a lot of CP in the dead center of the beam. It definitely put more light downfield but as I said, I think it's less bright dead center. Is this a function of the pin point light source in 50-Watt mode getting bigger when in turbo so naturally, the hotspot is going to be bigger? The smaller the light source, the further it throws.

Click to expand...

I noticed this effect with my older Gen2 as well. However, I'm not so sure that it's actually throwing further in low mode or that the lux figure is decreasing. Instead, I believe that the corona is "filling in" to the same intensity as the 50W hot spot. My MB always measured higher lux on the 75W setting as compared to the 50W setting. Only one of my bulbs actually behaved that way while my second bulb had a slightly different issue. It seems that the bulbs are a really wild card for these lights as well and we know that Peak Beam hand selects certain ones for more performance.

I just remembered that I wanted to ask if you got a new rangefinder or did you use google earth to get your range readings?

Google E for me! When Leica brings out a 1 mile, tiny unit, then I might pick one up.

BVH,
Glad to here the bulb adapters worked well for you. Thanks for the pics and I'm very pleased that there was a noticeable difference when using the Ushio bulb vs. the straight tube ARC.

Great beamshots. I can't see how I missed this link until now.
You really don't do anything small do you.

I simply love huge amounts of Lumens in small packages. My Carbon arc was an exception - gigantic amounts of Lumens in a very large package. I still enjoy 2 1/2" - 3" long, 800+ Lumen cr123 pocket rockets too.

BVH said:

I simply love huge amounts of Lumens in small packages. My Carbon arc was an exception - gigantic amounts of Lumens in a very large package. I still enjoy 2 1/2" - 3" long, 800+ Lumen cr123 pocket rockets too.

Click to expand...

Heh heh.....How about a 1.6-2W 445nm then? At 1.8A from the driver to the diode, it is probably pulling at least 3.6A from the battery. Hence for the majority of the "small" hosts the DIYers are using, you need to use AW IMRs. My one sometimes spikes to over 4A, if it were protected ones it would flicker and you can hear the caps inside making noises (I tried). I still marvel at what can be achieved nowadays though 1W diodes have been around for about 1 year. Apparently they just announced 4W ones.

2100 said:

Heh heh.....How about a 1.6-2W 445nm then?

Click to expand...

BVH said, "huge amount of lumens" not a pencil beam of excited molecules....:laughing: :nana:

You got a point. LOL!

2100 said:

At 1.8A from the driver to the diode, it is probably pulling at least 3.6A from the battery.

Click to expand...

My largest flashlight pulled 150 Amps @ 93Volts, DC. Now that's some power!

BVH said:

My largest flashlight pulled 150 Amps @ 93Volts, DC. Now that's some power!

Click to expand...

Is that really a flashlight though? Or was it your WWII searchlight. in any case, 14kW is plenty if oomph.

Of course my WWII carbon arc was a "flashlight" It just wasn't my EDC.

Great pics, nice update that ushio adapter