Can a SuperFlashlight III be OSTARed ?

LEDBE
ArsMachina

ArsMachina

Enlightened
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I think and hope so :)

For my taste the SF III is still one of the best looking flashlights ever produced, and probably will stay for the future.
But LEDs made a huge development since the SF III was released and today one is used to brighter lights in this class.

I already own the SF III modded by Mac using three LEDs, reflectors and a flupic and this one is really bright.

But I love the single reflector look of the SF III especially with the downturned MCR38
So I ordered a an Ostar and a Shark driver to see what might be possible.
The shark did not yet arrive but I could not resist making this teaser pic :)

sf3ostar.jpg


Probably and unfortunately the Ostar will not work fine with the MCR and I need to switch to a Fraen reflector, but we will see...

I will keep you informed :)

Jochen
 
where did You get the Ostar from?
Was there a real and sure choice for the brightness?

(because they are not cheap and the 4-die can be 180 - 520 Lumen, depending on the bin one gets)
 
I agree the Super Flashlight is a beauty to hold and behold - if it can be given the lumens that it deserves now this will be about the best 2x123 out there.
 
Hello Yellow,

there are not many sources delivering the 4 die Ostar, the 6 die is much easier to get.
The only source I found is Reichelt Electronics in Germany.
I have no idea about the bin and the Lumen, but I wanted something to start my project with...

Jochen
 
I have to agree the SFIII is still my favorite (standard) designed Flashlight.

Mac
 
Here we go...
I had a test wiring of the Ostar and the Shark at my desk ans played around with a Pila, one RC123 and also two RCR123.
The interesting thing is, that even with 3.7 Volts of one cell the emitter is terrible bright.
I cannot tell if it is brighter with two cells because I could not see a difference how much I was blinded by looking in the emitter ;)
The second interesting thin is, that the MCR38 seems to work quite well with the Ostar, as much I can tell from just holding it above the emitter and looking at the beam at the roof of my room.
And I realised that this beast is getting terrible hot, even after very few seconds. Also the shark seems to produce quite some heat.
So thee was no decision what to use for heatsink material as it could be nothing than copper.
I believe you know how funny copper is turning at the lathe :(

I decided to make the heatsink out of two parts.
A lower one where I will glue in the shark. Then a can above and around that, where I will glue the emitter on the top. Both copper parts will then be glued together, all using AA heat conducting epoxy.

But now to the pics:

sf3ostar_01.jpg


sf3ostar_02.jpg


sf3ostar_03.jpg


I believe that I will have finished the light during the weekend and then I will compare it to the triple cree mod from Mac...

Jochen
 
Hello Jochen, a lot of work you've done :sweat:

But...:thinking:... for me it looks like a stove for the Shark, heat occurs by the Led and will transfered to the backside ( the copper stage looks not thick underneath the star).... the Shark by itself produces heat too.....I hope your setup will work well.

I wish you good luck and will push my thumbs for success.:)


Very best regards

____
Tom
 
Tom,

you are right, the emitter and the shark will produce a lot of heat and there is not much room to transfer it away.
I will fil the complete room around the shark with thermal conductive epoxy, and I will put the copper heatsink with thermal conductive into the SF III head.
This is all I can do, if it does not work like this it will not work any way, as there finally is no more room for a heatsink.
Only using a lower reflector would change that a little...

Jochen
 
Hmmm, no way turning the heatsink from one piece copper?

At the backside an opening in diameter of the Shark, so that the massive heat from the Led will better transfer by the side-contact to the housing, same way the produced heat of the Shark.


Only a suggestion:grin2:

Best regards

____
Tom
 
Hi Tom,

if the shark would have a center battery contact as the flupic does, this would be the way to go.
But as this is not possible, I believe yo always need to put the shark inside some canister.
We will see how it goes ;)
 
I've heard Ostars require special reflectors to focus them properly....I wonder what might happen when used with conventional reflectors:crazy:
 
should be the same as with the Lux V:
compared to any single emitter the beam is wider, because of the larger glowing area.

with the deep and very tight focused McR 27 (is this an 27? You typed "McR") it should give a nice spot to medium beam, imho
 
I am just back from my workshop where I finished the light.
Here you can see the parts beside the ones of Mac's triple Cree mod:

sf3ostar_04.jpg


When I fired the light up I realised a little dark spot in the middle of the beam, the reflector was not perfectly focussed.
Some days ago I hot a hint from Leonid (CPF: Spearfisher) that an MCR 38 would work well with an Ostar if it is shortened by 0.5 Millimeters, so I gave it a try.
Now the focussing was just perfekt, Thanks al lot for this tip, Leonid !!!

Sure the "sandwich" gets warm, but not as much as I expected.
For my taste it will work well, even it is for sure not a light for long run usage, but this was never my intention.

And the Shark-Ostar combination needs Voltage, so the setup is definitively brighter with two cells. No problem I just put two RCR123 into the tube ;)

But how does the light compare to Mac's triple Cree mod of the SF III what was definitively the most interesting question.

First a picture of the two contrahents at the table:

sf3ostar_05.jpg


First I compared the light in a dark room with white walls.
The brightness seemed to be quite similar, but the triple cree has a whiter color, the Ostar is a little bit yellowish. Finally not a big difference in the 2-3 meter range.

But outdoors this does completely change. The ostar easily eats up the triple cree but I believe this is because of the somewhat narrower beam of the MCR 38 against the wider beam of the three MCR 16.

The Ostar SF III really has a lot of throw so I took out my SF V with the 6 die Ostar to compare it to the 4 die Ostar SF III.
Here the winner is the SF V which is much brighter and has more throw as also a wider beam. But this was clear, as it has 2 more emitters and the especially for the Ostar made Fraen reflector.

I am very happy with my mod. It finally brought the power to the SF III one ever wanted for this beauty.
But I do not yet have finished ;)
I have a third SF III here and first thought about modding it with 4 Cree emitters with smaller reflectors. But after the Ostar mod came out such good I decided to go another way.
I will again put an Ostar inside, but this time I will use a Fraen reflector as it is intended. Maybe I will think about the 6 die Ostar, but I believe the voltage of the two cells will not be enough for it....

I will add beamshots these days, but currently it is snowing outside so fotographing is no big fun ;)

I hope you had some fun here and - this light is not for sale ;)

Jochen
 
Congratulations Jochen for your finished light:twothumbs...:thumbsup:

It looks great, I'm anxious for some outdoor beamshots:grin2:


Very best regards

____
Tom:wave:
 
Thanks for your kind words!

I just ordered the parts to mod the next SF III - a 6 die Ostar and two Fraen reflectors with different beam angles to play with :)

Jochen
 
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