Experimenting with 50 mm aspheric and Uniquefire HS-802

[gcbryan]

My Uniquefire HS-802 arrived today along with the 50 mm aspheric lens I ordered.

I tried to replace the switch with some forward clickies that I have but I wasn't initially able to make everything work correctly. So, for the moment I replaced the original resistored reverse clicky with a regular reverse clicky.

I don't need two modes for the particular light and I dislike two modes when those modes come from a resistor in the tailcap. You click to turn it on high, another click for low, and a third click to turn it off...annoying.

I also was able to replace the tailcap button with a pistachio (green) one. Hey, I like them!

It's not dark yet so I haven't been able to try the light out. I did verify that I can get the bezel off and could take the reflector out easily. Since this came from DX I'm excited just to have it work on arrival!

I've borrowed a bench belt sander so I'll have a go at trying to grind the lip off of the 50 mm aspheric later. It will take more than that as it's not in focus when it simply replaces the standard front lens.

With more grinding I hope to be able to slip it down the head to the point where it is in focus and then I'll work on how to mount it there.

I'm thinking about seeing if there is a standard size PVC pipe that would work. I would cut the pipe to the focal length, glue the aspheric on one end and glue the other end to the head assembly after removing the reflector.

For today, I'm just going to test out the throw with the reflector and try a little glass grinding just to see how that goes.

It may be that the focal length is short enough that it won't be in focus until after the neck narrows. If that's the case there would be little point to modifying this light. I already have a P60 host with an aspheric.

I also have a 42mm aspheric and a 41 mm head flashlight due to arrive soon where I plan to try the same thing so I have two chances to come up with something that throws further than the 28mm!

I'll also going to do a rough test tonight using a tube from toilet paper. I have a light where I can easily get down to the bare emitter and can use it like a candle. I'm going to slip the light down the tube to the point where the emitter is in focus (with the 50 mm optic held in front of the tube).

I should be able to roughly compare throw with the 50mm and with a smaller 28mm.

 

[^Gurthang]

Good luck w/ the experiments. Keep us posted w/ what combinations work.

 

[gcbryan]

It finally got dark! This light throws further than the 28 mm aspheric that I have and of course has a lot more spill.

It looks like the head ID is more like 42 mm in the portion of the head where the lens focal length would require it to be mounted. I'm not sure if I'll be able to grind this 50 mm lens down that much. I'll work on it. It also may not be worth converting this from a reflector to an aspheric with a diameter of only 42 mm.

I have another light coming that is 41 mm and presumable 38 mm ID and I have another aspheric (42 mm ) coming so I may keep this light as is and convert that light. I won't know for sure until those items arrive.

I will attempt to grind the 50 mm optic down and try it out without permanently mounting it (and therefore permanently eliminating the possibility of using this light with a reflector).

I was impressed by how narrow the hotspot is for a reflector. Indoors shining across just one room the hotspot is only a few inches but then there is a larger circle around that of maybe a foot diameter and then several more feet of spill.

Tomorrow I'll try to grind the lens down and see if I'm going to be able to get it small enough to at least drop in manually to the focal point to see whether the performance improves enough to matter.

I have gotten used to (and like) my 28 mm aspheric with just the emitter image for a hotspot and no spill. That's more or less what I think of when I think of a spotlight.

This (HS-802) light may be more useful in some circumstances but it also draws a lot more attention to the person holding the light.

I wish I had more to report . My usual method of quickly converting reverse clickies to forward clickies didn't work with this light so I'm leaving it as a reverse clicky but without the resistors so it's now a single mode light.

Some of these lights supposedly come with the bezel glued on. It looked like that might be the case with this one as it didn't unscrew easily but as I was boiling water to speed the process up I got it off so no glue or Loctite was on this one for sure.

There's been some discussion lately regarding using two optics (one for pre-collimation). I located a few eyepieces for telescopes and tried various combinations of using those along with the 50 mm aspheric and I wasn't getting good results at all over only using the aspheric.

I'm sure with the right lens it's an option but apparently I don't have the right lenses!

More later.

Edit: I was able to make the forward clicky work. The problem was that the spring was too short and the switch not deep enough to fill the gap between the bottomed out retaining ring and the bottom of the light.

I used a washer to make the light deeper and used a spring off of another switch as a spring extender. I had to wrap the spring in electrical tape to avoid making contact with the washer and thereby completely the circuit whether the button was pressed or not.

Someone with better soldering skills would be able to just take off the shorter spring and solder the longer one on in it's place.

 

[gcbryan]

I'm going to have to wait for the 42 mm optic to arrive however if playing around with the aspherics that I do have I noticed that they focus in reverse at a different focal length (basic physics I suppose but I don't know much about optic theory).

A 50 mm aspheric that was way over focused as a replacement for the front glass lens came much closer to being in focus when I reversed the lens with the curved side toward the emitter.

 

[Sprinkles]

Pics of the new clicky??

 

[gcbryan]

Pics of the new clicky??

From the outside of the flashlight it looks the same. If you want to look at the actual switch it's just the Rominsen forward clicky sold on SB. They have a picture on there.

The spring was a little short but some chrome button magnets arrived today and a couple of those fixed that problem so I don't have to use the add-on spring anymore.

 

[Sprinkles]

The romisen fits the diameter correctly?

(That would be really good if it does!)

 

[gcbryan]

The romisen fits the diameter correctly?

(That would be really good if it does!)

No, the Romisen has a smaller diameter and is designed to not need a retaining ring as it's body is threaded and is designed to screw in itself.

However, it works in conjunction with the existing retaining ring. It has a shorter spring however so you have to do something for it to make contact with the battery so the easiest thing is to just used a button magnet to make the battery a little longer.

You also need to use a washer between the button cover and the switch to make the switch a little deeper.

So, a $2.00 Romisen switch, button magnet, and a washer and you're done!