longest throwing mag

[parisot]

I have been lurking around these forums for a few months now trying to take in an overwhelming amount of information. I am new to the flashlight modding realm and am ready to take my first stab at it.

I want to make the longest throwing mag as I can. I am unsure what the best option would be for this, a led with an aspheric lens, an incandescent or a hid. My only stipulation is that I want to keep the stock head on it (don’t want to put a throwmaster head on it)... Run time really isn’t too important to me, but I would like to get at least 30 min out of it. Also, I have been leaning towards making an aspheric, but could be persuaded to do otherwise.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[HarryN]

Hi - nice project.

Throw usually implies high surface brightness and as small of emission area as possible, regardless of the source.

Since you are limiting yourself to using the traditional mag head, then this puts an upper end limit on reflector / optic size.

As far as incan vs led, IMHO, LEDs are probably a better choice for sub 25 watt builds and incans are a better choice for above 50 watts. There are a couple of reasons for this:
- If you look at Luxluthor's incan bulb tests, those bulbs really start coming alive at 50W+, overdrive, and 12 - 18 volt packs.
- The incans dissipate the majority of their waste heat as IR, making these hand-holdable.
- It is always stunning just how much light and throw the incan guys can coax from a light.
- LEDs, especially arrays of LEDs, can be made into very nice lights, LEDs disspate their energy by conduction to your body, making 15 watts a practical upper end for long term running, and 25ish watts for shorter runs.

If you do build it using LEDs, then aspherical optics or the pre- made plastic optics will give excellent throw for the price (gets important in an array).

The Lumileds Rebel LED package is worth strong consideration for a thow type light due to its very high surface brightness and small emission area, especially when driven up around 700- 1000ma. Cree also makes nice single die LEDs.

 

[Aircraft800]

A HID would be the way to go if you don't want the aspheric lens hanging out the front. The Welch Allyn Solarc 14W will give you 1000 lumens regulated and a ton of throw in a HS reflector. The 14W Solarc is a little hard to get a hold of, but you can contact Welch Allyn directly. The prices have come down a bunch. If you have some hand tools, I believe you could do it yourself. You would have to run it off 3 Li-Ion and open up the top of the tube .010" or so, a die grinder or a dremmel and a steady hand could do it.

 

[parisot]

thank you both for your replys.

I have been leaning towards an led with an aspheric, but an hid would be neat as well. Dou you know what type of run time I might see if I did go with the hid?

 

[parisot]

Also, I have been reading about the deft (an amazing light), and how it uses approximately 90% percent of the light emitted by the led, where as a mag with an aspheric only utilizes approximately 40% of the light emitted. Is this just because of the size of the aspheric used by the deft or is there something else there that I’m missing?

 

[HarryN]

I don't know that much about HIDs, except that they are fun to shine around at CPF events. :twothumbs Their main downsides, IMHO, is that they require a fairly large + expensive electronics control, and the turn on is not instant. I think a lantern format is better for HID than a converted mag body, but there are a few around.

I don't sweat an LED build from scratch, but an HID conversion of an existing, sort of lower end light like you are proposing is - IMHO - a big step for project number 1.

The DEFT was built by a very creative guy who pulled out all of the stops to achieve throw. More or less, to get this sort of result, you need at least 2 stage optics vs. a simple reflector or optic. (think video projector) In fact, you can use video projector optics setups to get amazing throw.

I can tell you from personal experience that building up 2 stage optics by hand is time consuming, expensive, and the yield is not 100% even after you have built a few. That being said - it can be done - or you can just salvage them from projectors, at the risk of being a bit large for your project.

Sometimes it is useful to put this in budgetary terms. For me, this meant getting into the special batteries (>100), a Triton II charger+ power supply(200), test optics (with minimums and experiments - about 2 K), machining (will never tell that $) circuit design and boards (more $s), etc. Of course, I have some spare parts now - lol.

I would imagine that with experiments, scrap, accessories - it will cost around $ 300- 500 to build a decent thrower for incan or LED. From HID - prob 4 - 5x that.

Do you have a budget or power level in mind?

 

[Billy Ram]

My 9AA m*g85 with the FM deep smo reflector throws pretty good with a bit over 30mins run time. My longest throwing light is my 3x26500 FM 1909 with the FM 2.5 vlop Throw master head and about 25 mins run time. I'm building another one with 3x26650s for over 40 mins. run time.
Billy

 

[parisot]

From what I have read, I think that I have decided that I want to make some type of aspheric led. By nature I am unable to start off with a simple project(and usually end up way over my head), but thats how I learn.

I am starting to read up on projector optics now.

Do you have a budget or power level in mind?

No not as of yet.

Thank you for your reply

 

[Walterk]

Quote: I would imagine that with experiments, scrap, accessories - it will cost around $ 300- 500 to build a decent thrower for incan or LED.

Totally agree.

 

[007adan]

Just made a real nice 4d Aspherical Mag. I made my own heatsink out of a brass coupler I found. I tossed the reflector because it didn't make any difference having it in for throw. I used a Xre-r2 led and a 50 mm glass optic lens from Dx. The biggest problem with this mod is the heatsink.