Introducing Mockbug: The story of my first flashlight build.

[AER-Lights]

Mockbug reflector mod

Is it modding if you're changing your own design? Or would that be development

The initial stage of this went a lot faster than i had anticipated.
In addition to adding the reflector the power was upped from 0,7 amp to 1.0 amp which should theoretically translate into approx. 360 lumens at maximum "umph".
I also changed the driver code to be a two mode only. High and Low.

1. Centering the LED is a bit fiddly but doable as Obviously i don't have a centering jig for this experiment.
2. I may have developed a thermal problem but further testing will show. (Further testing showed this not to be the case)
3. There's an odd anomaly in the hot-spot i need to figure out where comes from. It might be down to centering. (Centering issue which is now sorted)
4. Had to cut down a winding on the switch spring. (not much i can do about that)
5. It will no longer take over-sized e.g. long protected 16340 cells. (not much i can do about that)

But other than that it's pretty much a drop-in kit (Yes... highly inspired by pc_lights comment)

The driver now extends a bit into the body tube. I needed another 3mm or so.
And the wires are now thinner but double as that means i can route them around components within the pill.

@ Badtziscool
Thank you. And i guess i'm sorry but for now it's pretty much sorted. Unless off-cause i choose to go with pc_Lights suggestion.

@ pc_light
Thank you!
Yes i would indeed consider an optic. I'll have to look into that.

I think "option b."- shoehorning would be a great idea. Particularly if you make retrofit kits available for both the remaining lights and those already sold. You would have the start of a "system" of lights with interchangeable engines/reflectors and keep existing customers coming back for more!

That's actually a pretty interesting concept. Thank you.

 

[AER-Lights]

Quick update.
Had to go back and verify the anomaly in the hot-spot.
Simple... LED alignment.
Once centered it came together just fine

Best
/ÆR

 

[AER-Lights]

Mockbug reflector mod

Comments:
I updated the "reflector mod post" but i forgot to mention that since this is designed to add some throw to the light i figured i should up the power a bit as well. It's now running 1 amp at maximum which should translate into approximately 360.

The code is also updated to run two mode. Low and high as to me at least moonlight doesn't make much sense with this mod.

Although it seemed simple from the post above a lot of time went into this mod and due to the construction there's not much room for efficiency gains if more are to be built.

Testing:
Worrying that the mod had an inherent thermal problem i went off and did a bunch of testing. Basically i "dumped" four battery charges through it in continuation and in the end that turned out to be pretty boring.
The light and engine handled it with no issues what so ever

So at this point all i would need to do is come up with a LED and Reflector centering jig and that's about it.

If any of you guys want this send me a PM.
If there's enough interest i'll build a small batch and we'll off-cause process it through the WTS thread.

At this point all i have to add is that "well this was good fun" And it would seem that shoehorns really do come in big versions

Best
/ÆR

 

[wosser]

Re: Mockbug reflector mod

Regarding the comments about reflectors, I'm not sure if you have already tried this but instead of adding optics, how about removing the silicone dome from the LED? Does that cause the beam to throw a little?

 

[badtziscool]

Re: Mockbug reflector mod

Regarding the comments about reflectors, I'm not sure if you have already tried this but instead of adding optics, how about removing the silicone dome from the LED? Does that cause the beam to throw a little?

Typically, slicing the dome off of an LED helps with tightening up the beam profile, but you still need to have some mechanism to focus the light forward. A de-domed/flat-dome led would still be pretty floody without an optic or reflector.

 

[AER-Lights]

Re: Mockbug reflector mod

Thank you guys for the suggestion and rebate on dome slicing.
As suggested i've been looking into lenses including regular domed optics as well as lenses based on the Fresnel principle.

I do have a bit of background knowledge in optics. Not a ton but still.
You need some distance between the emitter and the lens for any of them to work and at this size from what i can tell it turns out it doesn't matter much in regards to the complete length of the system if it's a reflector or a lens. Although i might be able to pick up a couple of millimeters with a "tuned" lens.

@ badtziscool
This however makes me really curious about the "Fenix E16" any way you could try to assess if the lens is actually cone shaped?

Anyways… i ordered more reflectors as i figure I'll do a couple of reflector lights and post those in the WTS post.

 

[badtziscool]

Re: Mockbug reflector mod

Not too sure what you're asking about. The E16 looks like it uses some sort of optic to shape its beam profile. So there should be some inherent curve/shape to it to efficiently capture all of the light from the led. Is that what you're referring to?

Thank you guys for the suggestion and rebate on dome slicing.
As suggested i've been looking into lenses including regular domed optics as well as lenses based on the Fresnel principle.

I do have a bit of background knowledge in optics. Not a ton but still.
You need some distance between the emitter and the lens for any of them to work and at this size from what i can tell it turns out it doesn't matter much in regards to the complete length of the system if it's a reflector or a lens. Although i might be able to pick up a couple of millimeters with a "tuned" lens.

@ badtziscool
This however makes me really curious about the "Fenix E16" any way you could try to assess if the lens is actually cone shaped?

Anyways… i ordered more reflectors as i figure I'll do a couple of reflector lights and post those in the WTS post.

 

[TheFraz]

Re: Mockbug reflector mod

Thank you guys for the suggestion and rebate on dome slicing.
As suggested i've been looking into lenses including regular domed optics as well as lenses based on the Fresnel principle.

I do have a bit of background knowledge in optics. Not a ton but still.
You need some distance between the emitter and the lens for any of them to work and at this size from what i can tell it turns out it doesn't matter much in regards to the complete length of the system if it's a reflector or a lens. Although i might be able to pick up a couple of millimeters with a "tuned" lens.

@ badtziscool
This however makes me really curious about the "Fenix E16" any way you could try to assess if the lens is actually cone shaped?

Anyways… i ordered more reflectors as i figure I'll do a couple of reflector lights and post those in the WTS post.

I've found with reflectors and optics the difference between a smooth pattern and artifacts is less than .01" or even less for a focal point on the emitter. Even with a rule of thumb of the injection molds (or pdf schematics) created for popular optic seating it still has to be tinkered with. In my opinion, the useful light is paramount to the pattern on a wall and I can appreciate the engineering more than the beam pattern - just imo.

 

[pc_light]

Re: Mockbug reflector mod

@ badtziscool
This however makes me really curious about the "Fenix E16" any way you could try to assess if the lens is actually cone shaped?

Badtzicool wasn't sure because actually I was the one to mention the Fenix Lens in the post just prior to his.

Here is an image from Fenix marketing literature about the lens. -

The lens is almost pancake like in shape rather than conical and it produces a beam more like a reflector than that from a Fresnel lens. They do work but the issue is where to source them :thinking:

 

[badtziscool]

Re: Mockbug reflector mod

Ahhh. I understand now. Yeah that would be perfect in this application but you're right. The question now is where it can be sourced.

Badtzicool wasn't sure because actually I was the one to mention the Fenix Lens in the post just prior to his.

Here is an image from Fenix marketing literature about the lens. -

The lens is almost pancake like in shape rather than conical and it produces a beam more like a reflector than that from a Fresnel lens. They do work but the issue is where to source them :thinking:

 

[AER-Lights]

Re: Mockbug reflector mod

Apologies for the absence my day job took over for a while there

Thank you guys for chiming in.

This was the exact question and answer i was looking for.
And you're right. Where to source those???
I've been searching high and low but apparently my Google Fu isn't strong enough so if any of you find them please let me know.

Also my brain wandered a bit and i started thinking about a "reverse Maksutov" optic.
Although i have absolutely no idea how i would do that in the real world but it would make for an interesting experiment.

But ultimately a 3mm lens like on the Fenix would solve the problem.