That_Guy
Enlightened
I am quite annoyed at myself. Tonight I thought it would be fun to see the Barnburner from "the other end". Since I don't have a tripod I rested (or balanced) the light on top of the railing on my back porch with the light aiming towards the end of my backyard. Initially it was resting on the large, flat circular tripod mount and was quite stable.
However being my usual stupid self, never satisfied and always pushing things to the limit (or till they break as is more often the case) I wanted to point the light at a higher angle. So I repositioned it on the railing balancing between the protruding tripod mount and the flat base plate. This time it wasn't stable, and really was balancing. I nudged it lightly to see how stable it was, and determined that it would be fine as long as a strong gust of wind didn't come up. I turned around and less than two seconds after I started to walk away I my initial conclusion was proved wrong.
It toppled backwards over the railing, hitting the pavers top side down handle first with a loud clunk. As it was falling I was terrified, but was relieved to see that it was still operating after the fall. It didn't even flicker. I picked it up and immediately noticed that the beam shape was out of whack, obviously the bulb had been jolted out of place. I turned it off and headed inside to inspect the damage.
Looking at the lamp it was immediately obvious that it was out of alignment. It was pointing off axis by at least 15 degrees. No problem I thought, I'll just have to realign it. I was more worried about the medium sized gouge in the handle. I had no intention of keeping this light as a shelf queen - I planned on using it and getting it scratched up if necessary, but I didn't plan on it getting "character marks" quite so soon or quite so prominently. Apart from the gouge there were only a few very minor scratches around the edges
The gouge itself is located on the top of the handle at the rear. Thankfully it isn't in a position which makes hand contact so the damage is aesthetic only. It is around 8mm long and 1mm deep. The colour of the gouge is only a slightly lighter shade of black compared to the rest of the light so it doesn't stand out too much. I'll take a picture on the weekend, but I doubt my camera is capable of taking a clear picture.
I was surprised to find that the entire body of the light is made from plastic. I assumed it was painted or coated aluminium. It's no wonder there were initially problems with heat - the only way for the heat to be dissipated is through the aluminium base plate - the rest is an insulator!
Next I removed the front of the light/reflector to get at the bulb to realign it. It was seated properly in the socket - the problem was that it was bent at the point the bulb itself attaches to the large plastic base. I noticed that the lamp itself has a small metal base which clips into the large plastic base, secured by four small metal prongs (sorry about the confusing terminology, but if you look at a lamp you will see what I mean). I hoped that it was just misaligned in the socket but I was not so lucky.
The quartz outer bulb has broken at the point it attaches to the small metal base. It hasn't broken clean off, but you can wriggle it and hear a "broken glass scraping against something" sort of sound. The spare bulb on the other hand has very little wriggle room and makes no sound. I was able to bend the bulb back into alignment, but there is little structural strength, so even a small bump would knock it out of alignment again. Apart from that there is also a possibility that the inner arc tube has been damaged so it isn't a good idea to try to use it.
I don't know whether it's my imagination but the replacement bulb seems to throw a tighter beam. I also measured a slight increase in throw: 690 000 candlepower, up from 620 000, although my test setup isn't very consistent. Unfortunately the beam pattern isn't as good as before. The replacement bulb is slightly off centre creating a slight but noticeable distortion in the beam pattern.
So for those of you who have been wondering how well the Barnburner can survive a drop you now have an answer. To sum up:
0.8m Drop test onto concrete:
Result: FAIL
Damage: Bulb broken, minor aesthetic damage to case, no structural damage
The fact that the bulb was damaged but everything else survived fine shows how fragile HID bulbs really are. Marketing literature for HID lights commonly states things along the lines of: "HID bulbs have no filament to break or burn out so they are immune to shock" or my favourite: "HID bulbs have no filament to break or burn out so they never need replacing". Despite what the marketing says most people have known that HID bulbs are very fragile for quite some time and my experience shows this.
The point where the outer bulb mates with the large plastic base is a real weak point. Because there is no wiggle room there is no option but for the bulb to break in the event of a large shock. The body of the XeVision Barnburner is already quite durable. The most important change would be some sort of shock isolation system for the bulb socket.
However being my usual stupid self, never satisfied and always pushing things to the limit (or till they break as is more often the case) I wanted to point the light at a higher angle. So I repositioned it on the railing balancing between the protruding tripod mount and the flat base plate. This time it wasn't stable, and really was balancing. I nudged it lightly to see how stable it was, and determined that it would be fine as long as a strong gust of wind didn't come up. I turned around and less than two seconds after I started to walk away I my initial conclusion was proved wrong.
It toppled backwards over the railing, hitting the pavers top side down handle first with a loud clunk. As it was falling I was terrified, but was relieved to see that it was still operating after the fall. It didn't even flicker. I picked it up and immediately noticed that the beam shape was out of whack, obviously the bulb had been jolted out of place. I turned it off and headed inside to inspect the damage.
Looking at the lamp it was immediately obvious that it was out of alignment. It was pointing off axis by at least 15 degrees. No problem I thought, I'll just have to realign it. I was more worried about the medium sized gouge in the handle. I had no intention of keeping this light as a shelf queen - I planned on using it and getting it scratched up if necessary, but I didn't plan on it getting "character marks" quite so soon or quite so prominently. Apart from the gouge there were only a few very minor scratches around the edges
The gouge itself is located on the top of the handle at the rear. Thankfully it isn't in a position which makes hand contact so the damage is aesthetic only. It is around 8mm long and 1mm deep. The colour of the gouge is only a slightly lighter shade of black compared to the rest of the light so it doesn't stand out too much. I'll take a picture on the weekend, but I doubt my camera is capable of taking a clear picture.
I was surprised to find that the entire body of the light is made from plastic. I assumed it was painted or coated aluminium. It's no wonder there were initially problems with heat - the only way for the heat to be dissipated is through the aluminium base plate - the rest is an insulator!
Next I removed the front of the light/reflector to get at the bulb to realign it. It was seated properly in the socket - the problem was that it was bent at the point the bulb itself attaches to the large plastic base. I noticed that the lamp itself has a small metal base which clips into the large plastic base, secured by four small metal prongs (sorry about the confusing terminology, but if you look at a lamp you will see what I mean). I hoped that it was just misaligned in the socket but I was not so lucky.
The quartz outer bulb has broken at the point it attaches to the small metal base. It hasn't broken clean off, but you can wriggle it and hear a "broken glass scraping against something" sort of sound. The spare bulb on the other hand has very little wriggle room and makes no sound. I was able to bend the bulb back into alignment, but there is little structural strength, so even a small bump would knock it out of alignment again. Apart from that there is also a possibility that the inner arc tube has been damaged so it isn't a good idea to try to use it.
I don't know whether it's my imagination but the replacement bulb seems to throw a tighter beam. I also measured a slight increase in throw: 690 000 candlepower, up from 620 000, although my test setup isn't very consistent. Unfortunately the beam pattern isn't as good as before. The replacement bulb is slightly off centre creating a slight but noticeable distortion in the beam pattern.
So for those of you who have been wondering how well the Barnburner can survive a drop you now have an answer. To sum up:
0.8m Drop test onto concrete:
Result: FAIL
Damage: Bulb broken, minor aesthetic damage to case, no structural damage
The fact that the bulb was damaged but everything else survived fine shows how fragile HID bulbs really are. Marketing literature for HID lights commonly states things along the lines of: "HID bulbs have no filament to break or burn out so they are immune to shock" or my favourite: "HID bulbs have no filament to break or burn out so they never need replacing". Despite what the marketing says most people have known that HID bulbs are very fragile for quite some time and my experience shows this.
The point where the outer bulb mates with the large plastic base is a real weak point. Because there is no wiggle room there is no option but for the bulb to break in the event of a large shock. The body of the XeVision Barnburner is already quite durable. The most important change would be some sort of shock isolation system for the bulb socket.
). Do you think silicone or epoxy will really be strong enough to hold the bulb in the correct position and keep it from becoming misaligned again if the light gets bumped? There isn't any visible crack to fill in with epoxy – the only way I know it is damaged is through sound and feel so the only thing I can do is cover the entire base with silicone/epoxy.
