need sharply cut off beam pattern rather than bright throw

cityevader

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
302
Location
San Jose, CA
Following is copy/paste of email from brother. I'd guess he would want a limit of, say....$50. But if something more expensive truly fills the bill, he'd want to know about it for comparison purposes.
"Throw" isn't necessary, as that implies brightness. A dark hospital-type room won't need lots of light.
Perhaps a MC-E type light with a lens that'll throw a square beam and can be throttled back to a decent low?


I have to check on patients throughout the night to make sure they don't die while going through detox. But I don't want to wake them up while I'm checking on them. It would be really cool to have a light that has a very narrow beam. I want to be able to illuminate their body so I can see if they're breathing, but not shine onto their face at all.
I have a couple Cree Ultrafires, nice and compact with the single AA battery. But the problem with all flashlights is that they have a bright center spot surrounded by a huge circle of dimmer light. I tried making a snoot from black paper, but it didn't work so well. I was wondering if something could be done to make the light come out in long, thin, rectangular pattern with no light fall-off (just want a sharp edge).
I was tempted to put a polarizing filter over the lens, and then make something with a slit in it to block the top and bottom. But I don't think that would help a lot with the light fall-off. Maybe two slits set a certain distance apart? I dunno...

Any Ideas?
 

netprince

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 7, 2008
Messages
547
Sounds to me like you need a light with an aspheric lens. The smaller hand held ones are harder to find, but can still be found. Now that you know what to search for take a look.
 

TEEJ

Flashaholic
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
7,490
Location
NJ
An aspheric lens would do exactly what you are requesting...as they essentially project an image of the led itself onto the surface, using the surface the way a projector would use a screen, etc.

The PROBLEM is that the aspheric lights ARE designed for throw (Which is NOT implying brightness), its implying RANGE.

The beam SHAPE is your concern, and, you don't need brightness per se, you need what is called less SPILL.



So, the available aspheric lights will give a sharp cut off, but, the light itself on the patient will only be on a few square inches of the patient at a time. This is probably not as useful as being able to see say the entire body w/o the face, or at least a few feet at a time of the body, etc.

Plan B might be to USE the spill AS the outer edge of what you see, as many lights have a fairly well defined spill boundary. The spill is very soft compared to the hot spot and corona, and most people would be able to sleep through a little spill from a reasonable powered beam.

Would your brother's eyes be night adapted during these checks on patients, or would he be essentially coming in from the typically brightly lit halls, etc, and popping into a room with the lights out?

I'm trying to guess at the effective LUX that would be appropriate for the patient's body.

:D
 

rufus001

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 29, 2012
Messages
281
Location
Melbourne, Australia
I was thinking that pointing the torch at the ceiling and using the reflected lumens would be enough to see if the patient is ok while not enough to wake them up. I do it with the mrs all the time. :)
 

cityevader

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
302
Location
San Jose, CA
hmmm, that Bushnell would be good if it had multi-output...

I had suggested trying two strips of black electrical tape on the lens with a narrow gap to allow a slit of light...but a purpose-use light would be better.
 

kpeevyhouse

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 7, 2010
Messages
3
Thanks bro! For some reason I never thought to put up a post in here.
I thought that you already knew everything about flashlights. :p

So...

I deal with patients going through drug/alcohol detox who almost always have a hard time sleeping, and shining lights on them doesn't help. I walk from a lighted hallway into a dark room. I've tried reflecting the light off the ceiling, but that provides too much overall illumination. The paper snoot sounded good in my head, but isn't practical or very effective (gets crushed while in my pocket). The best I can do is try to cup my hand around the front of the barrel. The dimmer spill-off part of the beam is too dark for me to see since my eyes are accustomed to the bright hallways. The inner hot spot is the perfect brightness, but I would love to have a sharp edge so that I only illuminate a couple feet at a time.

I have no idea what an aspheric lens is, or an MC-E.... all I know is that the light goes on when I press the button. :cool:
But hey, at least that's a start. Google is my friend.

Thanks guys!
 

greenlight

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Aug 18, 2004
Messages
4,298
Location
chill valley
A lot of LED lenser lights have this beam profile and are small and inexpensive. Search on amazon and limit your price to 20$ Buy a few and pick the one you like best. Try to stick with one AAA or one AA battery. I have the BMW version and I like it a lot.
 

cityevader

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
302
Location
San Jose, CA
Would your brother's eyes be night adapted during these checks on patients, or would he be essentially coming in from the typically brightly lit halls, etc, and popping into a room with the lights out?

I'm trying to guess at the effective LUX that would be appropriate for the patient's body.

:D

I directed him to this thread, and maybe he'll he'll join. At the moment I don't have many answers. He works graveyard and is likely asleep now.

Greenlight...now I remember hating Lensers because I have a 180° difference in light needs to my brother's, and have only looked at floodier lights.

Anybody know of any brick and mortar stores down south in the Laguna Beach area where he could fondle some lights?
 
Last edited:

Echo63

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 26, 2004
Messages
1,777
Location
Perth - West Australia
An old Inova X1 would probably work pretty well for this job.
its a single AA light, with a TIR lens
it throws a nice smooth even spot of light, with a crisp edge, at 6ft the spot is maybe 1 foot across (maybe a bit bigger or smaller, I haven't fired mine up in ages)

The beam is reminiscent of an old theater spotlight, a smooth wash of light with a very thin blue/purple cutoff edge and then nothing, no spill at all.

As for where to get one now, the MP is probably your best bet (shouldn't cost to much either)If you really struggle to find one, I think my local surplus store has a few left but the will charge a small fortune.
 

Norm

Retired Administrator
Joined
Jun 13, 2006
Messages
9,512
Location
Australia
Have you looked at lights like DX SKU 103914? if you search through the Ultrafire lights there are a few similar models.

Norm
 
Last edited:

LGT

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 10, 2011
Messages
789
Location
Massachusetts
I don't own one, but I wonder if a Mini Maglight would work for him. From what I've read, they have adjustable beams from "spot to flood." They're well under his price line.
 

Yamabushi

Enlightened
Joined
Apr 16, 2012
Messages
761
Location
Canada
Some bike lights such as the Philips SafeRide claim to have a sharp cutoff like automobile low beams. Also, there's mention on some bicycle forums about custom bike lights with sharp cutoff.
 

cityevader

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
302
Location
San Jose, CA
The dereelight looks promising...just need to research beam pattern.

As for the mini-mag, we're too much of modern-light-snobs to do that. :)
 

TEEJ

Flashaholic
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
7,490
Location
NJ
On a side note, in triage, etc, and are looking at a wound needing bright light to make out details, we can simply hold up one hand, empty or holding a folder or something, to cast a shadow on the victim's face (Or keep them from viewing gore, etc...).
 
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
910
Location
Seattle, WA
Most doctors and nurses that I've come across carry a pen light. Have you seen or considered a 4Sevens Preon 2? It's small, and multi-level, and there's a high-CRI version which would he helpful for accurately checking on skin/eye color, and reading charts that might have colored lines or text. On low it only puts out 2lm, which should be enough to walk around, and check patients without waking anyone.
 
Top