How to make a throw monster??

Jarl

Flashlight Enthusiast
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Jan 11, 2007
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I have 3 PCB mounted rebel's (180 lumens at 700ma), a 1000ma buckpuck, 12 NiMH AA's, a fat heatsink, a variety of lenses (one 4' and two 6') and fairly decent soldering skills. I want to turn all this into a throw monster, capable of spotting something at about 300-400 feet, or as far as possible if these distances aren't possible. My initial thoughts were to just whack the lenses on, try and get them orientated correctly, glue it all down and hope some of the 750 lumens reach the target. I realise this is probably not a very good idea, but the PCB rebels mean I normally have to attack the lenses, as the solder contacts are covered by the lens otherwise. This limits my choice slightly; any idea's? (I'm uk based, so not all idea's will necessarily work...)


edit: Forgot to mention, current lenses are TIR jobbies. Would love to know if it's possible to get a single lens that will give a narrow beam from 3 rebels.
 
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Gunner12

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Dec 18, 2006
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Well, one LED with the correct lens can throw half a mile(Check this thread) so 300-400 ft doesn't sound unreasonable.

I think sticking on of those LEDs in a Maglite with the maglite reflector and driven them at 1 amp will give you the throw you want.

I haven't seen any tri LED optics made of the Rebel yet but there are some specifically made for the Rebel LED.

I'm not sure how you would use the optics you have without modifying them.
 
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Jarl

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I'm prepared to ditch my current optics; they're not very good. I've been reading some threads, and while you can throw stupidly far, I want something that's not totally unreasonable closer to (Someone who had an aspheric lens on an OSTAR said that the beam was 8 inches tall at 10 metres.... I'd be looking for a bit more to make it usable!).

Any optic ideas? I'm fairly clueless about where to start; I'd guess a 2.3' optic, which should give me a 4 metre wide hotspot at 100 metres, coupled with a 1' optic to give me a slightly tighter beam for even more throw (1.75 metre wide hotspot at 100 metres), and then possibly using a standard 6' lens for closer to.


How do I convert the 6' or whatever to focal lengths?


edit: Been looking around at aspherics and posts on them, and how do they work? Do you have the bare emitter in a specially designed slot (as with my current TIR's), the emitter placed behind the aspheric somewhere, or the emitter and lens left as standard, with the aspheric in front? Could I mount all 3 LED's on my heatsink with lenses on and chuck a large aspheric in front? (I'm guessing no....)

How would two aspherics of similar diameter differ with differing focal lengths, and how would 2 aspherics of similar focal lengths change as the diameter is altered?
 
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