Spot reflector for OSRAM Golden Dragon series IR leds?

Hello.

I have 7 pieces of SFH 4233 IR leds (500mW radiated power, 940nM). I want to fit them with a reflector, to get tight beam for night vision illumination. The problems is, that most commercially available reflectors, which claim compatibility with these leds, actually can't produce focused beam with them, only wide spot. I've tried to use collimator lens, but seems that plastic adsorbs IR light strongly - light was even weaker than without lens!

At the same time, I have Streamlight Super Tac IR flashlight, which uses same type of led, and produces very tight, focused beam. The problem is in price - this flashlight costs $80. I've examined it's reflector and found out that it is quite unusual shape, it is almost 3 times longer than it's diameter. So I assume, for IR, we need different reflector shape.

So anyone experimented with tight beam reflector for these lens?

Do you have the ability/resources to cad your own design? If you do, you can have the reflectors made on a rapid prototype machine and then have them meatalized appropriately.

The "tallness" of the reflector helps produce the sharp cut-off for tighter beam angles. If you haven't already, try Ledil optics; they usually have something.

Optical Inferno said:

Do you have the ability/resources to cad your own design? If you do, you can have the reflectors made on a rapid prototype machine and then have them meatalized appropriately.

The "tallness" of the reflector helps produce the sharp cut-off for tighter beam angles. If you haven't already, try Ledil optics; they usually have something.

Click to expand...

Compare the graph of radiant distribution from the datasheet to the graphs of some white led lights, then pick a TIR that is suited for the best-matching-white-led with around 120 degree viewing angle?

Very curious, why did you choose the domeless Dragon and not the domed Oslon SFH 4725S?
Especially suited for aspherics. They eat them on www.nightvisionforumuk.com.

Dragon
Intensity 170 mW/sr
Flux 500 mW
Viewing angle 120 degrees

Oslon
Intensity 935 mW/sr
Flux 400 mW
Viewing angle 90 degrees

I choose them because they were on great sale on ebay - lot of 10 was for about $8. Regarding the reflector for white led, these leds look much like 5050smd leds, I haven't seen any reflector for them so far...

For a reflector design it does not matter whether IR or visible they work the same. You need a deep reflector if you want a tight spot. You also need to ensure the led is at the focal point.

Semiman

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Have you purchased the TIR optic for the golden dragon yet?
have you compared the mr-16 halagon to the LEDs for brightness and throw?

Just figured out that mr16 IR is just a coating on the inside of the reflector to bounce the heat back to the filament.

boy do I have egg on my face.

good thing I did not order a Fivemega adaptor for maglite thinking that the mr16 was a heating light. It sounded to me that I had thought of a great illuminator.