Custom Aspheric Attachment...

[Tiresius]

Tell me what you guys think...MG P-Rocket XM-L NW @ 710 lumen+Aspheric lens

I've was thinking of buying the Solarforce Masterpiece Pro-1 as a thrower and then thought about how to go about getting it...Then I realized that I have a projector eyeball from disassembling my car's headlight due to collision damage.

What I did was cut a plastic bottle and fitted the aspheric into it...Then cut a hole at the nipple and fitted it into the bezel of the light...The part where the aspheric sits on is heated so the plastic molds itself around the lens.

Here's the unit...I know it's a starter for messing with it:

Here's the unit placed onto the head:

Here's how it looks like after taping it all together so I don't have to hold the whole thing together:

And finally...Beamshots. Note that I have no knowledge how to use a digital camera in the night so it automatically adjusted itself to the lighting: That wall is about 20 yds away @ the lowest setting.

If things go according to expected, I will buy cushion tape and a thicker, black funnel so it'll be more stable. This is just a test to see what you guys think of it...Any comments are welcome as they are to help me with this build. Yes, I do plan on making this unit detachable hence the cushion tape.

 

[AlPal]

The beamshot against the garage door looks interesting. It looks like your getting a little more spill light than most aspherical lenses provide. Would like to see some more shots at about 100 yards or more to see if you still get spill light at longer distances. Well done.

 

[Tiresius]

At 100 yards, the spill still shows but I can't get the camera to focus properly without adjusting lighting...The spill is hardly noticeable. I can't wait to take it out to the country side to test it...Was thinking of coating the inner tube to capture light bleeding through the tape.

 

[saabluster]

The beamshot against the garage door looks interesting. It looks like your getting a little more spill light than most aspherical lenses provide. Would like to see some more shots at about 100 yards or more to see if you still get spill light at longer distances. Well done.

That is because the lens is still there. It is generally considered undesirable to have the extra light from the reflector since the big gap of no light is off-putting. That said to each his own.

 

[Tiresius]

Sorry but this is the best I can do with cameras...I am extremely bad with using digital cameras....This is a Nikon Coolpix camera to which I have no idea how to set for proper dark filming.

Low Medium and High shots with the tree being roughly 75yds away. Yes, the spill pretty much vanished at those distances. It's a shame I cannot capture the actual image we see with our own eyes.

Anyways, enjoy.

 

[yifu]

Nice! Looks to have reasonably good throw! At least 60k lux or so i estimate. The hot spot is tiny for an XML!

 

[TEEJ]

Like the idea.

:D

I have essentially the same camera (Nikon Coolpix S630), and I did some test shots last night, and a tripod for this is definitely needed. On mine at least, on the hand held shots, it does look like the pics were pretty similar to what my eyes saw...if there was an earthquake while I was looking. I just turned off the flash, and left it on Auto.

:D

It looks like you could fine tune the head position to get the beam where you'd like it though.

 

[Tiresius]

That is because the lens is still there. It is generally considered undesirable to have the extra light from the reflector since the big gap of no light is off-putting. That said to each his own.

I saw some of your work, saabluster. I'm amazed at how the contruction of the head unit is and was pondering about the degree of the lens as opposed to the distance it needs to be from the emitter. Is there a mathematical equation used to determine the distance? It seems that the wider the degree the lens is, the shorter it can get to the emitter and obtain maximum focus.

My way of doing this project is simply moving the lens back and forth with the light sitting on the housing to obtain the optimal focus past 50+ yards. I know it's not the best way of doing so. Any suggestion is helpful.

By the way, I took my little idea of a attachment and took the bezel out of mines to get just the beam and no spill. It seems to have a weaker hotspot without the reflector on it. My guess is that the degree of the lens is too narrow and I have to put the base of the lens 2in away from the tip of the bezel...That's roughly 4in away from the emitter as well. Will put up more photos tomorrow as I will be going to the house in the country side with no street lights anywhere within a mile away.

 

[Tiresius]

Nice! Looks to have reasonably good throw! At least 60k lux or so i estimate. The hot spot is tiny for an XML!

The hotspot on the XML is much larger than the XR-E. De-doming the XR-E made the hotspot while in the aspehric MUCH smaller. Almost like a laser pointer and no useable light. The throw went slightly further but it became pointless to lug around.

 

[saabluster]

I saw some of your work, saabluster. I'm amazed at how the contruction of the head unit is and was pondering about the degree of the lens as opposed to the distance it needs to be from the emitter. Is there a mathematical equation used to determine the distance? It seems that the wider the degree the lens is, the shorter it can get to the emitter and obtain maximum focus.

My way of doing this project is simply moving the lens back and forth with the light sitting on the housing to obtain the optimal focus past 50+ yards. I know it's not the best way of doing so. Any suggestion is helpful.

By the way, I took my little idea of a attachment and took the bezel out of mines to get just the beam and no spill. It seems to have a weaker hotspot without the reflector on it. My guess is that the degree of the lens is too narrow and I have to put the base of the lens 2in away from the tip of the bezel...That's roughly 4in away from the emitter as well. Will put up more photos tomorrow as I will be going to the house in the country side with no street lights anywhere within a mile away.

Don't really understand your questions.:o By "degree" do you mean diameter? The larger the diameter the more light you can capture. The shorter the focal point is the more light you will catch as well- to a point. You said you removed the bezel to to get just the beam but I am assuming you meant you removed the reflector to get just the beam. Removing the reflector will in no way reduce the intensity of the main spot. It may be tricking your eye. Tuning your light by eye at a distant object is just fine.

 

[Tiresius]

Don't really understand your questions.:o By "degree" do you mean diameter? The larger the diameter the more light you can capture. The shorter the focal point is the more light you will catch as well- to a point. You said you removed the bezel to to get just the beam but I am assuming you meant you removed the reflector to get just the beam. Removing the reflector will in no way reduce the intensity of the main spot. It may be tricking your eye. Tuning your light by eye at a distant object is just fine.

Sorry to confuse you, saa...I was referring to the angle of the dome in which the aspheric is from the base to the tip of the dome. It's a math we got from Trigonometry that tells us how wide or narrow the parabola of the dome is based on its degree.

I'm trying to find the proper dome degree so I can use the light at 1.3in away from the LED. The giant sized aspheric I have with a narrow angle made it harder to focus the light at a closer distance to the LED. I'm still trying to learn the correlation between the distance of the aspheric's base to the LED and the aspheric's degree...

 

[saabluster]

Sorry to confuse you, saa...I was referring to the angle of the dome in which the aspheric is from the base to the tip of the dome. It's a math we got from Trigonometry that tells us how wide or narrow the parabola of the dome is based on its degree.

I'm trying to find the proper dome degree so I can use the light at 1.3in away from the LED. The giant sized aspheric I have with a narrow angle made it harder to focus the light at a closer distance to the LED. I'm still trying to learn the correlation between the distance of the aspheric's base to the LED and the aspheric's degree...

Well I'm not into trig. I would suggest looking around for a 50mm aspheric lens. That should get you right about where you want to be assuming you wanted 1.3" away BFL.