MAXABLASTER BEAMSHOTS

[Stereodude]

I hadn't seen these before. The MaxaBlaster is very, very impressive.

 

[Flashanator]

:hairpull:

I'm not seeing the maxablaster in the 08 Guinness book of world records?????

 

[HIDSGT]

Wow that things beefy. Sweet!

 

[a4d]

All i have to say is WOW!! nothing else to say that thing is amazing.

 

[Flashanator]

While this thread has been bumped, thought Id ask.


Ra, wouldn't mind seeing some closer beamshots (just 2-3 good ones) compared to the maxabeam (If u have one, i saw somthing that looked like a maxabeam next to your Maxablaster a while back).

Maybe you would be so kind to do 50, 100, 400yards. I know this light can throw, but I wanna see close range.

thx :thumbsup:

 

[Xe54]

For those who want to know:

At first even I underestimated the dangers involved with a project like this:

One day, standing in the bathroom, I noticed a severe sunburned area on my forehead, at first not knowing where that came from...I suddenly remembered testing the Mercury arc lamp a few days earlier, protecting my eyes with a type 13 welding-filter. Conclusion: The rest of my face unprotected, in about 45 seconds (!!!) I 'ultraviolated' my forehead, causing those sunburn-marks!

That even when I knew the dangers involved: The downside of superhigh surface brightness: The 100watt mercury-arc lamp relatively has the highest UV-output of all short-arcs ! Down to the most dangerous, ozone creating UV-C !!

Oh.. and yes WINDSTRINGSS, very,very hot!! After switch-off the entire bulb glows yello-hot !! Thats why there always is the danger of lampburst! If I can find the time this week I'll try to photograph the bulb just after switch-off..

Regards,

Ra.

Ra, the correct technical term for what you are calling "surface brightness" is luminance. Why don't you just call it luminance, which is lm/(m^2 * sr) ?

Note as well that attempting to characterize the luminance of a HID arc would be very challenging, because it is not like an LED with a uniform flat surface, and fairly constant luminance per (x,y) point over that surface.

The HID arc, OTOH, is a 3-dimensional diffusely radiating volume, where for any line of sight into the arc, there is a differently appearing radiating surface, with highly variable luminance per coordinate point (spherical coordinates probably being more sensible in this case.) Thus, it probably makes sense to a 1st order approximation to consider that there is an "effective volume" to the arc, for which the arc can be approximated/modeled as a solid radiating surface of that determined effective volume and shape. Unfortunately, as you well know, the "shape" is not very spherical either, but rather something like an assymetrical dumbell with hotspots at the electrodes. In a DC arc, it's a little simpler, with really only one hotspot at the cathode, I think. (You can correct me if I have erred on that).

I also use XeHg arcs at work, as scientific light sources. We also have some special DC ballasts for doing high-speed videography with automotive D2S bulbs. But most of my work is with lasers. Very big ones. One of our scientists has completely modeled the radiance of a luminescent soot cloud inside a diesel engine. We have specially modified "optical engines" which allow us to view inside the running engine and probe the combustion with lasers/light sources. He uses this to measure temperature as a function of position inside the flame. Heavy stuff.

 

[Ra]

Hi Xe54,

I don't use the term 'luminance' because many members of these forums are not hat deep into the light-theoretics! Surface brightness is much easier to understand..

The reason that the uniformity of the Hg-arc is not much of an issue in my case lies in the optical theoretics: The difference between the arc-size and reflector-size is big, very big! Even the ever so slight imperfections in the high quality parabolic reflector I use, cause the inabillity to concentrate on hotspots within the arc..


And Flash,

I have some Maxabeam/M-blaster pics at 400 yards, but they are not very sharp.. I must resize them first. Will post them today or tomorrow.


Best

Ra.

 

[Xe54]

Hi Xe54,

I don't use the term 'luminance' because many members of these forums are not hat deep into the light-theoretics! Surface brightness is much easier to understand..

I see. I agree that luminance is a tricky one. I spent a few weeks chewing on it myself.

If there was a "suggested reading" list on CPF, I would recommend the following:

1. "Handbook of Applied Photometry," editor: DeCusatis, Casimir; 1998 Optical Society of America; ISBN 1-56396-416-3

2. "Radiometry and the Detection of Optical Radiation," Boyd, Robert W.; 1983 John Wiley & Sons; ISBN 0-471-86188-X

I reached the point of saturation at the theory of conservation of radiance/luminance. Egad. I was more interested in learning how to calculate CIE chromaticity coordinates from specral data anyhow. The first text listed above has a decent treatment of that subject.

Also the following web sites:

http://www.optics.arizona.edu/Palmer/rpfaq/rpfaq.htm

This site has downloadable data sets for all the V-lambda functions and CIE color matching functions:

http://cvrl.ioo.ucl.ac.uk/

 

[Gunner12]

I already know about the light a year ago, but I'm glad that it got on Popular Science.

I see more members!

Congrats RA!

 

[Ra]

:hairpull:

I'm not seeing the maxablaster in the 08 Guinness book of world records?????

And you're not going to !! Guinness contacted me about this, but Maxablaster did not pass the exam: "THE LIGHT NEEDS TO BE COMMERCIALLY AVIABLE !!"

Can you beleve that? I told them that most record breaking stuff come from hobbyists and loners (that was meant positively..) that make one-of stuff..And is not commercially aviable.

Lets face it: The worlds biggest cookie is not commercially aviable, is it?


Best,

Ra.

 

[Thujone]

Seems I saw this beauty in Pop Sci today though... nice...

 

[electrothump]

I saw it in popsci also. Pretty danged nifty!

DN

 

[Flashanator]

popsci???????

got links maybe?

 

[Ra]

Beamshots Maxablaster vs Maxabeam:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/186233


Best,

Ra.

 

[AilSnail]

"And: Rhodium reflects "only" 76% of visible light! I needed rhodium because it can withstand the huge amount of UV-radiation produced by the lamp. The reflection of an aluminum reflector will decrease in matter of months."

mellesgriot website says 90%...?

 

[Ra]

Can you post a link..

I'm quite shure it's about 76% in the visible region and higher in the near infrared..


Regards,

Ra.

 

[andromeda.73]

Hi guyzz,

I've been on vacation for a while, but now I'm back..

In the south of France there are many oppertunities to use Maxablaster to its full extend!
So here some beamshots I want to share with you:

A comparision with Maxabeam:

BTW: During this vacation I had to fully reorganise the electronics-division of Maxablaster: The electronics I used earlier died on me!!

The bad part: I had to settle for an inverter/ballast combination: The best ballast for the job needed somewhere between 90 and 260 volts input.

So now Maxablaster has an inverter mounted under its belly:

So the overall efficiency of the electronics went down to a 75% or so, leaving a total burntime of about 70 minutes on one charge.

The inverter produces a 220Volt modified sine. The ballast has a wide input range of 90-264volts AC and DC and is powerfactor corrected!!

This has one big advantage: There are two voltage-buffers (and one of them is very wide!), that means that the lamp always exactly gets what it needs.

Even the illustrious Maxabeam does not have an uniform performance over one battery-charge!

If Maxablaster produces 4005.76 lumens with a full charge, it will produce 4005.76 lumens with the batteries almost empty!!

Do you want to know where I stayed?? Look at this little village at a distance of 6.2 km:

And:

With the new electronics-setup the power has increased, I still need to measure the candlepower output, maybe later this week.
Earlier Maxablaster operated at about 85watts, now it is operating at 105 watts: It lights up my livingroom with about the same power as 50watt HID does! So the lumens output must be increased quite a lot !!

The new ballast also has a 115watt output... I've not dared to try that yet..

Hope you enjoy this. If more is to come, you will be the first to know !!

Regards,

Ra.

awesome! is a monster of light without end! where you can 'find for sale? :devil:

 

[DM51]

awesome! is a monster of light without end! where you can 'find for sale? :devil:

Very sadly, you won't find it for sale. It is a superlative, magnificent, stupendous, one-of-a-kind phenomenon, desdigned, created and hand-built by Ra himself (the OP). Only one exists. It has no equal.

 

[andromeda.73]

Very sadly, you won't find it for sale. It is a superlative, magnificent, stupendous, one-of-a-kind phenomenon, desdigned, created and hand-built by Ra himself (the OP). Only one exists. It has no equal.

Tank's, is a sin!

 

[Ra]

Yep...

And it's still very much alive today !!! Once every three month's or so, I need to refresh the battery-pack by charging and discharging it a few times. Otherwise it cannot give the amp's needed for bulb-ignition. It still runs for about 60 minutes on the batteries I installed back in 2006, when I created the monster. It still is an awesome sight !!

Maybe I'll post some new beamshots soon..

All the best from Holland,

Ra.