andrewwynn
Flashlight Enthusiast
First off.. wonderful news.. i got it all working.. better than i'd ever hoped... the key was being able to make a parabolic reflector out of the cone that was there... the trick was this computer model:
The model is based on calculations from an excel spreadsheet i made for calculating a parabola around a luxeon emitter.. here is the chart:
The key to making the parabola work was first 'guessing' that the 'hot spot' should be 1/2 mm above the 'shoulder' of the emitter.. my spreadsheet lets you pick the hot spot and calculates the appropriate focal length to use that hot spot... then to fabricate it, took just a little bit of luck..
That luck is that dremel has a bit that has a curve that very closely approximates the parabola in this particular reflector... i just had to model the bit and play with position and angle 'til i got it to match the model...
It turned out that a TEN degree angle, and 3/8 inch into the reflector worked just about perfectly... it took quite a while to make.. i'd love to have had a lathe, but goes to show it's possible with hand tools.. took about an hour to grind the hole and another hour to polish it smooth..
The results? See for yourself:
before & after:
both of those shots are taken at one meter with a fixed exposure of 1 sec.. it's not a bad approximation of what you actually see.
The 'before' is actually an ARC AAA light... the after is the PEAK AAA on 'hi'.. about 450mA on that shot (a little drained battery).
here is a low-med-high of the new, quite improved AAA:
The current levels on the Peak AAA are about 100, 330, 450mA in these shots... works out to about 1/3W, 1.1W and 1.5W.
On a fresh charge, the high beam pumps out about 1.9w (for about 5 min before it's down to about 1.7W... in 5 more it'll be 1.5... haven't done a full runtime test yet.. but the estimations are: high beam will avg. about 1.4W for about 30minutes... med beam will average about .75W for about an hour.. and low beam will average about 1/4W for about 3 hours...
on 'low' beam, it just absolutely SMOKES the ARC AAA... on high beam it smokes a 3D shmaglight.
You may notice that the beam is a little bit yellow.. the reflector is BRASS so that's not surprising at all.. it actually just 'looks white' when not comparing to the ARC... and it's more pleasant than the slightly blue ARC as well.
If i had to guess the 'useful light'.. on 'low' it's maybe similar to a 2AA light... on 'med' it's similar to a BRIGHT 2D light.. and on 'hi' it's more like a bright 3D light... but it's 1/2 inch by 2 3/4 inch.. pocket monster.
here is a picture of the light with it's partner-in-crime the ARC AAA for comparison:
So... WHEW i did it... anybody else have a 1.9W luxeon AAA light? i'm curious if i pulled off a first (well, other than that it's 3-stage brightness.. pretty sure that's a first on a twistie light w/o any PIC control). It was a long hard couple weeks of planning and building and buying parts... it took 3 tries to get the last gnat-sized resistor on.. one fell on the floor and disappeared... 2nd one managed to self-destruct (apparently the silver end fell off... wouldn't accept solder anymore)... and I was having some serious problems with shorting out which took about 8 trial n errors to solve.. bad news to short out a LiON AAA battery, fortunately it was only like 1/10th second shorts because i was prepared for it to happen.
I will mention that a light like this would never work w/o the power of LiON.. i got my AAA LiONs from Slavin Batteries. I wouldn't look elsewhere, top notch stuff.
So.. questions, comments?
I may be able to answer at least one of the questions: I am going to try to develop a 'pill' I could sell, but it will likely come after minimighty so not 'til middle next year.
The good news.. in developing the driver for the next gen of this light (infinitely variable, constant power).. I came up with some neat stuff that may enable me to release another light, based on minimighty actually before it.. i'm really hoping by Christmas.
hate to have to pat my own back, but this thing is 'badass'... can't help a little gloating it's so fun and amazing.
For more beamshots and comparison to 'regular' lights.. check out the website
Oh just for fun.. one more comparison:
that's my dad's maglight 3D on 'spot' and 'flood' compared to the PEAK AAA at about 1.5W on 'high beam'.. all from about 1M.
I plan to take some distance shots tonight when it's dark.. i'm quite happy with the results of the handmade parabolic reflector, i did not expect to get as nice of a spot at all.. i would have been happy with a 1.5W flood.
I hope to have some actual runtimes soon... but i can say that on 'hi' it takes a good 7min or so to get 'warm to hold'.. and on 'medium' it just gets to 'warm' and stays there... apparently i was correct in realizing that the fact brass is about 1/2 as conductive as aluminum was a good reason to use brass for the host of this light... the tradeoff is that the lux runs warmer of course... but i only can run it at about 1.7W max (it starts at 1.9 but drops off pretty quick).
In any event.. boo-rah.. dang i'm a happy camper today.
-awr
The model is based on calculations from an excel spreadsheet i made for calculating a parabola around a luxeon emitter.. here is the chart:
The key to making the parabola work was first 'guessing' that the 'hot spot' should be 1/2 mm above the 'shoulder' of the emitter.. my spreadsheet lets you pick the hot spot and calculates the appropriate focal length to use that hot spot... then to fabricate it, took just a little bit of luck..
That luck is that dremel has a bit that has a curve that very closely approximates the parabola in this particular reflector... i just had to model the bit and play with position and angle 'til i got it to match the model...
It turned out that a TEN degree angle, and 3/8 inch into the reflector worked just about perfectly... it took quite a while to make.. i'd love to have had a lathe, but goes to show it's possible with hand tools.. took about an hour to grind the hole and another hour to polish it smooth..
The results? See for yourself:
before & after:
both of those shots are taken at one meter with a fixed exposure of 1 sec.. it's not a bad approximation of what you actually see.
The 'before' is actually an ARC AAA light... the after is the PEAK AAA on 'hi'.. about 450mA on that shot (a little drained battery).
here is a low-med-high of the new, quite improved AAA:
The current levels on the Peak AAA are about 100, 330, 450mA in these shots... works out to about 1/3W, 1.1W and 1.5W.
On a fresh charge, the high beam pumps out about 1.9w (for about 5 min before it's down to about 1.7W... in 5 more it'll be 1.5... haven't done a full runtime test yet.. but the estimations are: high beam will avg. about 1.4W for about 30minutes... med beam will average about .75W for about an hour.. and low beam will average about 1/4W for about 3 hours...
on 'low' beam, it just absolutely SMOKES the ARC AAA... on high beam it smokes a 3D shmaglight.
You may notice that the beam is a little bit yellow.. the reflector is BRASS so that's not surprising at all.. it actually just 'looks white' when not comparing to the ARC... and it's more pleasant than the slightly blue ARC as well.
If i had to guess the 'useful light'.. on 'low' it's maybe similar to a 2AA light... on 'med' it's similar to a BRIGHT 2D light.. and on 'hi' it's more like a bright 3D light... but it's 1/2 inch by 2 3/4 inch.. pocket monster.
here is a picture of the light with it's partner-in-crime the ARC AAA for comparison:
So... WHEW i did it... anybody else have a 1.9W luxeon AAA light? i'm curious if i pulled off a first (well, other than that it's 3-stage brightness.. pretty sure that's a first on a twistie light w/o any PIC control). It was a long hard couple weeks of planning and building and buying parts... it took 3 tries to get the last gnat-sized resistor on.. one fell on the floor and disappeared... 2nd one managed to self-destruct (apparently the silver end fell off... wouldn't accept solder anymore)... and I was having some serious problems with shorting out which took about 8 trial n errors to solve.. bad news to short out a LiON AAA battery, fortunately it was only like 1/10th second shorts because i was prepared for it to happen.
I will mention that a light like this would never work w/o the power of LiON.. i got my AAA LiONs from Slavin Batteries. I wouldn't look elsewhere, top notch stuff.
So.. questions, comments?
I may be able to answer at least one of the questions: I am going to try to develop a 'pill' I could sell, but it will likely come after minimighty so not 'til middle next year.
The good news.. in developing the driver for the next gen of this light (infinitely variable, constant power).. I came up with some neat stuff that may enable me to release another light, based on minimighty actually before it.. i'm really hoping by Christmas.
hate to have to pat my own back, but this thing is 'badass'... can't help a little gloating it's so fun and amazing.
For more beamshots and comparison to 'regular' lights.. check out the website
Oh just for fun.. one more comparison:
that's my dad's maglight 3D on 'spot' and 'flood' compared to the PEAK AAA at about 1.5W on 'high beam'.. all from about 1M.
I plan to take some distance shots tonight when it's dark.. i'm quite happy with the results of the handmade parabolic reflector, i did not expect to get as nice of a spot at all.. i would have been happy with a 1.5W flood.
I hope to have some actual runtimes soon... but i can say that on 'hi' it takes a good 7min or so to get 'warm to hold'.. and on 'medium' it just gets to 'warm' and stays there... apparently i was correct in realizing that the fact brass is about 1/2 as conductive as aluminum was a good reason to use brass for the host of this light... the tradeoff is that the lux runs warmer of course... but i only can run it at about 1.7W max (it starts at 1.9 but drops off pretty quick).
In any event.. boo-rah.. dang i'm a happy camper today.
-awr
