LED_ASAP
Enlightened
Although the initial impression on the Luxeon "modability" of Arc AA wasn't very good, the final result wasn't bad at all.
Even with similiar parts to those used in the Arc AAA mod, the battery draw of this AA mod can be made significantly higher---more than 700 mA---not too far from the 900 mA obtained in the Infinity mod. It seems like the lower internal resistance of AA batteries did make a difference in the maximum sustainable load. This is the upper limit I want to go considering the limited heat-sinking condition in the bezel---With 700 mA battery draw, there is already
over 200 mA through the LS emitter, twice the current recommended by Lumiled when heat-sinking is limited.
The reflector in Arc AA can make a very decent hot spot without any additional optics. I believe it should be very similar to the McFlood beam. Here are some bean shots against Arc AA:
The photos were taken with progressively more under-exposure.
If a chopped-down NX-05 is used, you will get the usual square beam and some lines running across the hotspot (didn't show up in the photos).
To give an idea of the total light output, I held a FULL NX-05 in front of the light to gather all the light.
Here are some beam shot comparison between Arc AA, MicroIlluminator, and Arc AA LS mod with full NX-05
Maybe somebody could lache me a Turbo Head for the Arc AA tube to fully unleash the potentials of this light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
With the lessons learned in the Infinity mod, I figured out a better solution for epoxying the lens on the bezel---I used a circle cut out from a borosilicate glass microscope slide as the cover lens to achieve a better-looking bezel and provide some scratch resistance to the mod.
Overall, I am happy with this mod /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Even with similiar parts to those used in the Arc AAA mod, the battery draw of this AA mod can be made significantly higher---more than 700 mA---not too far from the 900 mA obtained in the Infinity mod. It seems like the lower internal resistance of AA batteries did make a difference in the maximum sustainable load. This is the upper limit I want to go considering the limited heat-sinking condition in the bezel---With 700 mA battery draw, there is already
over 200 mA through the LS emitter, twice the current recommended by Lumiled when heat-sinking is limited.
The reflector in Arc AA can make a very decent hot spot without any additional optics. I believe it should be very similar to the McFlood beam. Here are some bean shots against Arc AA:
The photos were taken with progressively more under-exposure.
If a chopped-down NX-05 is used, you will get the usual square beam and some lines running across the hotspot (didn't show up in the photos).
To give an idea of the total light output, I held a FULL NX-05 in front of the light to gather all the light.
Here are some beam shot comparison between Arc AA, MicroIlluminator, and Arc AA LS mod with full NX-05
Maybe somebody could lache me a Turbo Head for the Arc AA tube to fully unleash the potentials of this light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
With the lessons learned in the Infinity mod, I figured out a better solution for epoxying the lens on the bezel---I used a circle cut out from a borosilicate glass microscope slide as the cover lens to achieve a better-looking bezel and provide some scratch resistance to the mod.
Overall, I am happy with this mod /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
