Looking to build a super thrower based on a aspherical lens from a car headlight...

[koti]

Im looking for somone to build me a MONSTER thrower that will blow away by far anything else that is available on the market.

I have a front bi-xenon headlight from my Dads new BMW 5 series.
The headlight had a tiny crack inside the "eye-brow" reflector and they exchanged the whole headlight to a new one and I ended up trying to sell this old cracked reflector but nobody wants it because its missing the high voltage circuit and some other crucial parts (guys at BMW took care of it)
The good news is that the headlight has an aspherical lens (BMW should have quality optics at least in theory) that I might use to build a throwing flashlight (at least thats what I figured)
Since Im not able to sell the headlight for 2 months now I might as well use it for that
I was thinking about putting as many Q5's as possible in some kind of a semi-portable body that would use a couple of 18650's.
I will make photos of the headlight later today and post them here.
Anybody in for a project like this ?
Anyone capable of buidling this for me ?


Edit :

The headlight pix :

 

[tx101]

What is the diameter of the lens ... 70mm ???
You would need someone to make you a head that the lens will fit in.
also find out the focal distance of the lens, ie the distance between the
lens and the emitter so that the resulting beam is perfectly focussed.
I have not seen anyone use multiple emitters with an aspheric lens
I dont think having multiple emitters will make the resulting beam
any brighter. What you need is a very good quality lens and a very bright
emitter (R2 maybe ??? )
I would use a Maglite as a host, pretty straight forward to install an emitter.
Your problem you be, who would build you the head.
If you can find someone, I bet it will cost mega $$$

 

[saabluster]

Im looking for somone to build me a MONSTER thrower that will blow away by far anything else that is available on the market.

What you want is the DEFT. And don't try the multiple LED thing. The end result will not be pleasant.

 

[AlexGT]

Hmmm. If that is a 70mm x 69 mm FL it may fit into a FM throwmaster head as a simple drop in.

If you get the aspheric out of there,Can you confirm the dimensions and focal length?

I been wanting to put an aspheric into a throwmaster and see how it looks.

AlexGT

 

[koti]

I will take the headlight appart tomorow (its poker time tonight with some friends) and confirm the diameter. Im not sure if I will be able to check the focal length, Im preaty much a newbe at all this.

BTW..."The Deft" looks awesome, especialy with that carbon bezel
It would be more awesome though, to make something totaly custom from the stuff thats available to me at hand. Money is not realy an issue for me but I wanted to try to make something that will be one of a kind
Im not even sure if that BMW lens is good quality...it might be for a car headlight and not especialy that great for a handheld thrower ?

Edit :
Heres a close up of the lens, I hope Im not gonna get slaped for the photo being too large :

 

[B@rt]

You will get slapped if you don't resize to 800x800 max...

 

[Mike Painter]

A Fresnel lens should work just fine for your NWYDYDL*. They are also pretty inexpensive

*Now Will You Dim Your Damn Lights.

 

[koti]

You will get slapped if you don't resize to 800x800 max...

Done

Now Will You Dim Your Damn Lights - I love that

 

[DocD]

her's two picture's of car aspherical projector lenses

from a ford I-MAX

and number two lens with optic ribbing the same as BMW

and from the side

the ribb lens don't focus a clear image of the led it acts like a diffuser
ribb lens height is 20mm and 67mm dia, clear lens, 24mm and 67mm dia
higher the dome short the focal point is i think the info on the BMW head light is 70mm dia 69 focal point from the head light bulb, hope this helps some how cheers DocD

 

[koti]

the ribb lens don't focus a clear image of the led it acts like a diffuser
ribb lens height is 20mm and 67mm dia, clear lens, 24mm and 67mm dia
higher the dome short the focal point is i think the info on the BMW head light is 70mm dia 69 focal point from the head light bulb, hope this helps some how cheers DocD

Yep...I have the same ribbing on the lens I've got.
I guess it means its totaly unusable as a thrower
Thanks for the input DocD.

 

[DocD]

these type of lens usually have a focal point say between 48mm and 74mm
i think also the angle of light out of the led dome on to the underside makes a difference to output in lumens?
the maybe a P7 with no dome or R2 but i don't know if you can remove the dome from a P7 or R2?
the way i'm thinking is this led has a dome/ lens shining onto a lens which we adjust to focus may wasting light output? so remove the dome more floods out ?
This is all guess work but from little seeds do great grow or wither, cheers DocD

 

[koti]

Judging by what I see here, Id be better off byuing a ready made custom thrower :thinking:

 

[kuksul08]

Nice headlight

I wanted to somehow use the one from my 330 (xenon) but the thing is just too big. Good luck with yours

 

[koti]

Nice headlight

I wanted to somehow use the one from my 330 (xenon) but the thing is just too big. Good luck with yours

I own a 2002 facelifted E46 325i myself but I have no xenons unfortunately :mecry:

 

[greenlight]

I would keep the stock BMW lamp. It's undoubtably brighter than an LED. When you show your friends they'll say, wow, that's as bright as your dad's car.

 

[koti]

I would keep the stock BMW lamp. It's undoubtably brighter than an LED. When you show your friends they'll say, wow, that's as bright as your dad's car.

lol, I knew this would come up sooner or later
So You reckon I should just strap on the whole headlight to my belt and walk around with it along with a back pack full of 18650's ? Or better just stick a couple of car batteries into the back pack...
It could work if the headlight was complete...unfortunately its missing the high voltage converter.
Thanks for all the input everyone, I think Im cured now

Edit :
I just realized that Im sounding like a 13 year old in this thread, its all actualy preaty geeky.
I should be safe though judging by this thread on CPF, lol

 

[DocD]

hi just been play around with those 67mm dia aspherical lens i got from car headlights or i was quite suprised
KD aspherical lens die size at 3 meters 15 cm
DX cheap aspherical lens at 3 meters 12 cm
67mm car aspherical lens at 3 meters 8 cm
outside it throws much better distance so maybe the way to go tried a P7 four dies still rubbish looking
good results and well worth more tinkering time,picture to be posted next time as Mk 1 is a lump of plastic pipe and 2 hours with a dremmel it works just looks bloody terrible
cheers DocD

 

[OCDGearhead]

Koti,

I think you are missing the boat on this one.


Clearly, this should be a light & fast / thru hiking headlamp. You already have the diffuser for it too....

I think we need to look into some super pills for the new mini's we just got. Another cpf friend / co-addict picked one up when he saw the sale.

There was a guy who had done a review on his Dmini mod that was putting out about 24,000 lux on a 16340. You could get some decent lightout of that setup running it on an 18650 with the extender tube.

I'm sure there would be a significant amount of interest in something like this given how popular the light is.

 

[koti]

Koti,

I think you are missing the boat on this one.


Clearly, this should be a light & fast / thru hiking headlamp. You already have the diffuser for it too....

I think we need to look into some super pills for the new mini's we just got. Another cpf friend / co-addict picked one up when he saw the sale.

There was a guy who had done a review on his Dmini mod that was putting out about 24,000 lux on a 16340. You could get some decent lightout of that setup running it on an 18650 with the extender tube.

I'm sure there would be a significant amount of interest in something like this given how popular the light is.

24,000 lux D-mini sounds realy interesting
Im still waiting for mine anyways so I guess your right...I'll wait till I get it and see how it performs.
I doubt though, that any small form factor light can compete with an aspherical light, even if it has 40,000+ lux.
I cant wait to get my Q5 D-Mini because it sounds like killer thrower in small for factor light but as an ultra/super thrower that will put me to my knees - I doubt it. I do have a 2x18650 tube from Fivemega plus a few 1794 incadescent bulbs (only 10 hours life but mine hasnt ran out in 4 months so far) and 2 reflectors in a Surefire 6P/9P size. This setup produces almost 700 lumens in a very small form factor and is an ultimate "wall of light" I strongly reccomend it to everyone, its a real "Wow!" light