My Arc AAA diffuser mod

[greg_in_canada]

This is a followup to my "best diffuser" question
in the Arc forum.

Here's what I did.

1) Light on and flash used on camera

2) Light on, no flash used. I like the glow around
the head.

3) Beamshot (my first!) from about 6" from the wall.
Coin used to prevent the Arc from rolling away.

I'm very happy with the beam now.

I put 1/2" clear heatshrink over the body to minimize rattle
when in my pocket with my coins. I also put my name
and phone number under the heatshrink so that I (hopefully)
get it back if I lose it.

The diffuser is some thin acrylic type plastic I had.
I cut out a square the size of the AAA head. Trimmed it
to an octagon with my wire cutters, then filed it round.

I put one layer of Scotch Magic tape on the inside surface.
Then a short piece of heatshrink over the head that touched
the stuff on the body. After shrinking there is a small
gap between the two sections and the diffuser is held
in place.

It's not at all waterproof but the head heatshrink is
easy to replace if and when needed.

I'm now 100% happy with my Arc AAA.

Cheers - Greg

 

[greg_in_canada]

Forgot to mention: the lip from the folded over heatshrink
doesn't seem to have any effect on the beam.

Greg

 

[paulr]

I like it.

 

[Glenn]

It looks like a nice EVEN beam.
It looks like it should eliminate the glare from the hot spot.

 

[greg_in_canada]

The best part is that it gets rid of the purple/blue
spots. The hotspot is now very smooth (though more
blue in the middle, tending toward yellow at the
edges).

If anyone is interested in reproducing this, just
stick a piece of Magic tape over the front. Then if
you like it you can get the heatshrink and plastic
to make in permanent.

Greg

 

[greg_in_canada]

Re: Update

I've learned that heatshrink can un-shrink /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

The small piece on the head got loose about a week
ago and would slip if you din't grip it tightly when
turning the light on or off. So
I re-shrunk it with my BBQ lighter. The next time it
gets loose I may take it off and put some double sided
carpet tape around the head to make it last longer.

The heatshrink on the body started getting loose too.
It wasn't slipping but would make little un-sticking
noises if you rolled it between your fingers. So I
re-shrunk it last night. No it's back to perfect.

So I don't know how great a solution this is for long
term use. But I really like my diffused head so I'll
stick with that. I might give up on the heatshrink on the body if it's too much troulbe (and live with a little
more rattle in my coin pocket).

Greg