Teego
Newly Enlightened
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2008
- Messages
- 43
Hello hello everyone. I'm working on a multi LED mag sized build at the moment utilizing a 52x37mm Aspheric Condenser lens from Edmund Optics. I'm at the "playing in SolidWorks" point in my development, though I am about to start toying with simplistic mock-ups to find relatively optimal focal lengths and whatnot.
One of the fascinating characteristics I have noticed about the LED + Aspheric combo is that the lens will throw a pattern of the LED die when focused appropriately. I've got a bit of experimenting to do to see if this is going to be an issue when dealing with three LEDs offset by 120 degrees each. I'm fairly confident that it will simply display three LED outlines when focused properly, but have no experience to really prove that. It's faith, really.
To the point of the post: I'm not entirely a fan of throwing the emitter pattern. I have been looking at light diffusers with the hope that I can homogenize the light source from the various LEDs to a degree that it looks like a single smooth light source.
I know that I'll be losing some amount of light output. I'm not positive how much, really, but I know it is going to happen. I'm hoping to get a beam of light that is such a lovely shape that I won't really mind the loss of lumens, but you never know.
I'm going to give a basic ground glass lens a shot. I picked up a 50mm from Edmund Optics and we'll see if that yields any sort of reasonable result.
If it looks nice, I may well take the next step and pick up, ugh, a Holographic Diffuser. I have no idea why these are as expensive as they are (I have SOME idea, they're a pain to make), but they look like they allow the most light to pass through while allowing you to select to a degree the angle at which light is diffused through them.
This illustration is what got me thinking about this as some sort of a "homogenize the light source" solution:
I'm picturing three OSTAR led banks, in all of their glory, in a triangle pattern in the first picture. Then through the power of holograms they are changed to a single perfect light source, perfect to throw through my aspheric lens.
My question is probably broad enough to ask for any experience anyone has had with Holographic Diffusers, light diffusers in general, or if this is an entirely asinine idea. I've been commuting a lot lately, and I think of these things on the road when the hum of the highway starts to take over and I haven't been able to get rid of it.
I presume it mostly isn't used because you're losing a good ten percent of your light output at a minimum and beam quality is such a marginal kind of thing that it isn't something people would spend money or time on. But hey, it could be neat.
Thanks for your time to share your ideas or experience. I'll toss up a few SW renderings of what I am considering as I have some time.
One of the fascinating characteristics I have noticed about the LED + Aspheric combo is that the lens will throw a pattern of the LED die when focused appropriately. I've got a bit of experimenting to do to see if this is going to be an issue when dealing with three LEDs offset by 120 degrees each. I'm fairly confident that it will simply display three LED outlines when focused properly, but have no experience to really prove that. It's faith, really.
To the point of the post: I'm not entirely a fan of throwing the emitter pattern. I have been looking at light diffusers with the hope that I can homogenize the light source from the various LEDs to a degree that it looks like a single smooth light source.
I know that I'll be losing some amount of light output. I'm not positive how much, really, but I know it is going to happen. I'm hoping to get a beam of light that is such a lovely shape that I won't really mind the loss of lumens, but you never know.
I'm going to give a basic ground glass lens a shot. I picked up a 50mm from Edmund Optics and we'll see if that yields any sort of reasonable result.
If it looks nice, I may well take the next step and pick up, ugh, a Holographic Diffuser. I have no idea why these are as expensive as they are (I have SOME idea, they're a pain to make), but they look like they allow the most light to pass through while allowing you to select to a degree the angle at which light is diffused through them.
This illustration is what got me thinking about this as some sort of a "homogenize the light source" solution:
I'm picturing three OSTAR led banks, in all of their glory, in a triangle pattern in the first picture. Then through the power of holograms they are changed to a single perfect light source, perfect to throw through my aspheric lens.
My question is probably broad enough to ask for any experience anyone has had with Holographic Diffusers, light diffusers in general, or if this is an entirely asinine idea. I've been commuting a lot lately, and I think of these things on the road when the hum of the highway starts to take over and I haven't been able to get rid of it.
I presume it mostly isn't used because you're losing a good ten percent of your light output at a minimum and beam quality is such a marginal kind of thing that it isn't something people would spend money or time on. But hey, it could be neat.
Thanks for your time to share your ideas or experience. I'll toss up a few SW renderings of what I am considering as I have some time.
