AuroraLite Hotwire Question(s)

BobbyRS

Enlightened
Joined
Dec 21, 2005
Messages
267
I recently purchased this kit from Lighthound to go with my Carley H1499 bulb from Litho123. It comes with a Mineral Glass Lens and a modified reflector. I already have a UCL and was wondering if I could use it with the hotwire instead of the Mineral Glass Lens. I figure it would be ok since it is a glass lens as well, but was wondering if the heat would affect the anti-reflective coating on it. I also have an MCR-18 reflector and was wondering if it is safe to use it instead or if it is better then the modified reflector that comes with the kit. If anyone has any experience with these please let me know. Thanks!
 
I recently purchased this kit from Lighthound to go with my Carley H1499 bulb from Litho123. It comes with a Mineral Glass Lens and a modified reflector. I already have a UCL and was wondering if I could use it with the hotwire instead of the Mineral Glass Lens. I figure it would be ok since it is a glass lens as well, but was wondering if the heat would affect the anti-reflective coating on it. I also have an MCR-18 reflector and was wondering if it is safe to use it instead or if it is better then the modified reflector that comes with the kit. If anyone has any experience with these please let me know. Thanks!


sorry, can't really address your questions. so why am i posting?

recently performed this mod myself using the parts provided by Lighthound.com.

the results are really quite impressive. not sure you need the UCL and MCR-18 to be suitably impressed with the HotWire kit. also, and i could be wrong here as i'm just guessing on this point, i'm not sure that even if the UCL and MCR-18 performed a bit better that a human eye could tell the difference. Maybe a light meter or integrating sphere could, but i wouldn't be surprised if a human eye couldn't tell - even at a suitable distance.
 
The Carley H1499 is not a very powerful bulb, though it is very nice, and so it is unlikely to thermally shock the UCL lens. The UCL will give you something like 3-4% more light output than a mineral glass lens, and the UCL anti-reflective coating will not be so easily melted. In fact, the UCL would crack from thermal stress long before the coating melted, and no bulb is going to get it hot enough anyway. Anti-reflective coatings are typically made from magnesium flouride, which has a melting temperature of 1263 degrees C.

But in the end I agree with half-watt that you would be unable to discern the difference in output between the two lenses with your eyes.

I'm not sure about the reflector question.
 
Good point. With it being so bright already, I probabaly won't be able to really notice any difference..... but I was still wondering if they could be used safely in case.

the results are really quite impressive. not sure you need the UCL and MCR-18 to be suitably impressed with the HotWire kit. also, and i could be wrong here as i'm just guessing on this point, i'm not sure that even if the UCL and MCR-18 performed a bit better that a human eye could tell the difference. Maybe a light meter or integrating sphere could, but i wouldn't be surprised if a human eye couldn't tell - even at a suitable distance.
 
Interesting. Thanks for the information!

The Carley H1499 is not a very powerful bulb, though it is very nice, and so it is unlikely to thermally shock the UCL lens. The UCL will give you something like 3-4% more light output than a mineral glass lens, and the UCL anti-reflective coating will not be so easily melted. In fact, the UCL would crack from thermal stress long before the coating melted, and no bulb is going to get it hot enough anyway. Anti-reflective coatings are typically made from magnesium flouride, which has a melting temperature of 1263 degrees C.
 
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