Best bright narrow beam light for special project?

[PitchWhite]

Hi everyone - I'm hoping you can advise me on a project I am doing.

Basically I'm modding a computer case to have the "batman" symbol shining out the top of the case onto the ceiling for a themed case I'm building. I have the template cut out already so I now need a very bright and tight beam with sharp fall off (not sure if thats the right terminology). I have heard "tactical" lights are brightest? It needs to be a bright white light aswell (i guess tinted slightly blue would be ok, but not green)..not yellow or anything or it wont look right.

Please advise me. I have tried to read up on these things on the web but actual pictures of torches WITH the beam they produce seem very rare.

Many thanks for any and all help on this,

PW

 

[Kryosphinx]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

hm....
this may not be the best place to ask for this kind of info.
General Light Discussion may be a better place

 

[PitchWhite]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

Sorry if I have made a mistake, but to fit inside a computer case it needs to be pretty slim..so I thought a flashlight would be most appropriate? From what I've seen the brightest are xenon bulbs flashlights? It wouldn't be left on all the time - only when its for show - so the short battery life isn't an issue.

 

[AtomSphere]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

more on the blue side u need led... narrow beam need bigger reflactor.......

 

[Blades]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

PitchWhite,
Welcome to CPF!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Sounds like a job for the Inova X1!! Tight beam, bright, slim, LED bulb for long life, and runs off an AA battery. Maybe even the Inova T1, uses a 123a battery, so it will be brighter. A little thicker then the Inova X1.
Let us know what ya decide, and maybe some pic's of the finished project.



Blades

 

[PitchWhite]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

I'll be sure to post the end pics and thank you so much for the advice..I can probably fit something larger than one battery - which I presume would result in more lumens? is just one aa bright enough to give a kind of "beam" effect?

Thank you so much Blades

PW

 

[kongfuchicken]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

You can get an x1 for not too much nowadays; if it's not enough, maybe try an xo or xo3 for more power?

 

[PitchWhite]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

will the beam be as tight with those? I need a really tight 'O' shape with ideally equal brightness all over then a very sharp drop off at the edge of the beam or it wont look very good :/

Do these torches give that characteristic of beam please?

Thank you!

PW

 

[floyd]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

I'm not sure that a flashlight will be able to give you a sharp cutoff on the beam and a clear image of what you are trying to project.

That said, a few questions:

1) Does this light need to be self contained, or can it be built into the case?

2) Does this light need to be self powered, or can it be powered off of, say, the computer powersupply, if it is low enough wattage?

3) How big can the light be / how much room do you have to work with?

And finally, how much are you willing to pay?

 

[Blades]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

The Inova X1 has a very tight beam, it is about 2-3 feet across when shined across my bedroom(say 12-15feet). It might not be a wide enough beam if shining straight up, but I bet it would look cool with the "Bat" sign.
Good Luck!
You might can do a search in the "reviews" for different beamshots from different lights. That will help in the decision process.


Blades

 

[TORCH_BOY]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

PitchWhite Welcome to CPF

 

[lightbox]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

inova x1:

inova x1 beamshot:

don't know if it's bright enough for your situation, but i think it will have the best beam. flashlightreviews.com will have a lot more info and beamshots on other lights. take a look at the X and T series for bright spot lights.

 

[PitchWhite]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

wow nice..thanks alot everyone /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

1) Does this light need to be self contained, or can it be built into the case?

The light will be placed inside the case with the beam shooting out a 120mm hole in the top.


2) Does this light need to be self powered, or can it be powered off of, say, the computer powersupply, if it is low enough wattage?

It could be off the computer power supply if low enough I suppose - but I'd prefer to keep it independantly powered if possible. Less likely to cause any problems and I dont have to worry about it needing to be a 12V supply - or worrying about using resistors etc!.

3) How big can the light be / how much room do you have to work with?

cant be over about 8" long - or 2" diameter (approx)


And finally, how much are you willing to pay?

~$200approx

Cheers!

PW

 

[KevinL]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

Wow that is a *BIG* budget! You could buy some ridiculously powerful premium Surefire flashlights for that and blow everybody's socks off - whether the light's mounted in the case, or elsewhere. The main problem though is runtime - high powered flashlights typically have very short runtimes, most Surefire lights are in the range of 60 minutes.

You may however want to check out the new range of extremely high powered Luxeon LEDs. These are not the wimpy little indicator LEDs found on keyboards, these are powerful enough to be used as serious, serious flashlights:

Luxeon 3 on the left, Luxeon 5 on the right - a Lux5 can almost turn night into day in a dark room by itself. If you want an extremely tight beam, I suggest you pair them up with the IMS SO27XA reflector. You can get them in a full spectrum of colors, blue, green, white, cyan. Red, orange, amber are available too, just not at such high power levels.

Resistor calculations using constant-voltage supplies like PC power supplies are easy. If you let us know your planned color, and power level (Lux1, Lux3, or LuxV), we can easily do the calculations for you. Lux1s are best driven off the 5V rail, 5.6 ohms is fine for a blue/green/cyan/white, 6.8 for a red/orange/amber.

Lux3s can tolerate a lot more juice, so you can feel free to crank it up. LuxVs must be driven off the 12V rail.

If you need it on while the computer is "off", tap the +5V standby voltage rail. This does not work when the computer is truly off (ie. unplugged), but otherwise ATX power supplies will continue to power the +5VSB rail even when 'off'.

 

[Mattman]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

If you want a light that looks the most like a spotlight, then I think the Inova lights are your best option. For $200, you could try the X1, XO and XO3! For general use, the perfectly focused beam of those lights is either perfect for what you want or not very useful at all, depending on your taste and intended use. For what you're doing, that round beam would be about as good as the flashlight world can offer. Good luck!

 

[PitchWhite]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

Thanks guys, yes - the beam profile is very important for the right effect. From that beamshot for the inova x1 - it is very nice to see no ring effects etc. Does the inova X0 give as good a beam except brighter? I suppose I can try and narrow the beam with black card or something if it seems too wide?

The Beamshots on the Luxeons seem to give too many rings for my liking - I dont know if that would change with the reflector you recommend?

Basically I want the brightest possible that gives that nice white balanced circular beam with no ring effect as I can afford.

Is the X03 the brightest of that series?? I cannot find that one on their website. I see they also do an X05..but I get the feeling it wouldn't give a good beam shot if its more than one LED?

I'd be really grateful for any more information and opinions!

Thanks so much!

PitchWhite

 

[PlayboyJoeShmoe]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

The only light I have with NO spill is the X1.

The XO (and from what I've seen XO3) has some rings around the main tight beam.

Good luck! And welcome to CPF!

 

[floyd]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

I don't think that placing a pattern in front of a flashlight will give you what you a sharp outline, assuming that's what you're looking for. I'd build a simple pattern projector into the case.

A pattern projector has three basic parts: a diffuse light source, a pattern, and a convex lens. The light source illuminates the pattern, and the illuminated image is projected by the lens. For the light source, a 3w luxeon driven at 1 amp would be my choice. You would need a driver for it, however. A fresnel lens the same size as the pattern or a piece of tracing paper or similar can serve to even out the light on the pattern. For the projection lens, you want a short focal length plano-convex or double-convex lens. All told, the parts shouldn't cost more than about $75, but you will need to do a bit of work.

 

[PitchWhite]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

That sound a little complex for me I'm afraid though it may well be the best solution - also not sure how robust it would be if I'm moving the computer to place to place for lan parties (computer game competitions).

At the moment I'm looking at the Inova X1 - do you think it'll give a decent amount of light in a dark room shining up at the ceiling (about 5 feet away)?

If no more info emerges I'll probably order this later this week.

Thanks again everyone - this has really helped me out!

PitchWhite

 

[PitchWhite]

Re: Best bright narrow beam light for special proj

Hmmm looking at the review for the X0 - the rings only seem to show when its shined at an angle? This will always be on a flat surface..think they will show?
Reason I really want to know is because the difference in light output between the two is huge - 100~ compared to ~2000!