turbo or boost is useless to me (rant)

[Stay Sharp]

If a light is advertised as 2000 lumens but only runs at that output for a minute and then drops down to 600 lumens, then sell it as a 600 lumen light!!!!!

Ive spent about 2 weeks searching for a light for a specific project.

Drone mounted light for search and rescue

Ive poured over many many web pages and reviews and spec sheets and videos for a lot of lights and have gotten frustrated with the whole turbo or boost claims. Since my project is drone mounted, I dont have the ability to adjust the settings. The light will be far away from me. I want max lumens 100% of the time and no ramp or step or drop down.

I dont know if these step downs are timed or heat regulated or why or how they happen but in my case, the lights will be mounted under the drone props and will receive a lot of downwash of night air from the rotors so they will get active cooling.

If the step down is timed thats one thing but if its a product of heat then I would not know how much the active fan cooling of the rotors will stave off the step down.

This whole process has left me pretty confused.

I ended up buying 6 sofirn SP35. 2000 lumens and no step down. giving me about 14 lumens per gram of weight the drone must lift.

The criteria I care about is lumens per gram of weight.

Lumens (the more the better)

Throw (in this case, SAR operations will be conducted at 100 150 feet high) This light has a throw of 1,100 feet

After all my searching , I think this is the best I can do for this project.

Rant off.

https://sofirnlight.com/sofirn-sp35...iver-works-with-your-typec-charger-p0165.html

 

[richbuff]

This topic comes up with dizzying frequency. I have 58 high performance lights. The larger ones I categorize by 30 second lumens. Medium size I categorize by 15 second lumens, the small ones I categorize by two second lumens, and the tiny pocket rockets I categorize by turn on lumens.

I already know that ultra high performance lights will get hot in a few seconds on max. I already know that if I do not throttle back to a lower mode in a few seconds, the flashlight will melt down. I do not expect that the flashlight can run safely for longer than briefly after it gets hot. I already know that the advertised max lumen spec is only for a few seconds, until it gets hot, and then I need to throttle down to a lower mode to prevent the product from frying.

Ultra high performance lights are not marketed to target purchases to be made by neophytes.

Some of us, who are enthusiasts, already know that ultra high performance lights need to be quickly throttled down by the user to a lower mode to prevent the product from melting down.

Some of us, who are enthusiasts, already know that the advertised max lumens are for short burst only, due to limited fuel supply capacity and heat management.

Yet, when any manufacturer offers an ultra high performance light that is marketed to target purchases to be made by enthusiasts, we complain that the light gets hot too quickly, and that the flashlight melts down when it gets too hot.

I feel grateful that manufactures continue to offer new developments in ultra high performance lights, even though when any manufacturer releases such an new, exciting product, there will be enthusiasts who point out that the light gets too hot too quickly.

I like to use my high power to size ratio lights in max turbo for a few seconds to quickly light up as large an area as possible, as deep as possible, as many lumens as possible, for a few seconds or only two seconds, to very quickly identify target spots in the area field. Then I quickly throttle back to lower mode from there.

All of my pocket rockets, hand held rockets and shoulder fired lumen rockets also have normal modes to provide for normal run time and normal heat generation.

A very large light, due to very large fuel supply, that has only one medium caliber emitter, that on max mode can run for days: I have not bought such yet. Maybe I should.

A very expensive light of normal edc size that on max mode is a fraction of max mode on other lights that are a fraction of the cost: I plan on buying one soon, but I have not done so yet.

My lights.

 

[xxo]

I ended up buying 6 sofirn SP35. 2000 lumens and no step down. giving me about 14 lumens per gram of weight the drone must lift.

The criteria I care about is lumens per gram of weight.

Lumens (the more the better)

Throw (in this case, SAR operations will be conducted at 100 150 feet high) This light has a throw of 1,100 feet

Some random thoughts:


I would think that it might be better to concentrate on throw instead of lumens. Generally, to get high lumens manufacturers go with an LED with a larger surface area which will not focus into as an intense spot as a smaller, lower lumen LED with a less surface area in the same size reflector.


ANSI FL1 throw is only providing ¼ Lux on the target (about the same as moonlight) and is obviously not near enough light to see much of anything from a distance. I would think a more practical level of light for your application would be civil twilight (3.3 Lux) which can be calculated by multiplying the FL1 beam distance in Meters by 0.275, which gives you the beam distance in Meters that provides 3.3 Lux.


And last, don't rely too much on specs from manufactures as many do not have any of their lights tested and simply make up or guestimate the numbers.


I know this will make your selection more complicated but hopefully it will help you get a light that does the job that you need it to do.


Good luck with your project.

 

[idleprocess]

Performance cars are sold on peak horsepower peak torque 0-60 times but most are used to commute at mundane speeds and rates of acceleration; similarly trucks are sold on towing capacity that the average owner will never need 1/10th of. Graphics card performance is engineered to benchmarks that might not be reflective of reality.

Such is the nature of marketing.

I find an effective turbo rating (say, a minimum of 10 seconds) useful, but I too would like to know the maximum sustainable lumens under relatively bad conditions - say 95F/35C still air. Good reviews will attempt to determine something like this with graphs of relative output over time since most decent lights in the kilolumen category have thermal regulation.

Some of us, who are enthusiasts, already know that ultra high performance lights need to be quickly throttled down by the user to a lower mode to prevent the product from melting down.

Some of us, who are enthusiasts, already know that the advertised max lumens are for short burst only, due to limited fuel supply capacity and heat management.

Yet, when any manufacturer offers an ultra high performance light that is marketed to target purchases to be made by enthusiasts, we complain that the light gets hot too quickly, and that the flashlight melts down when it gets too hot.

I feel grateful that manufactures continue to offer new developments in ultra high performance lights, even though when any manufacturer releases such an new, exciting product, there will be enthusiasts who point out that the light gets too hot too quickly.

I'm OK with this myself. An Emisar D4 is capable of something like ~400 lumen sustained output and <10 seconds ~4000 lumen turbo - such is the reality of physics in such a small package. It's neat that something so small can act as 'canned sunlight' despite the compromises.

I like to use my high power to size ratio lights in max turbo for a few seconds to quickly light up as large an area as possible, as deep as possible, as many lumens as possible, for a few seconds or only two seconds, to very quickly identify target spots in the area field. Then I quickly throttle back to lower mode from there.

That's my general usage pattern - >95% of the time I'm running at a sustainable power output. I suspect this lines up with a large percentage of use cases out there.

 

[IgNITEor]

I ended up buying 6 sofirn SP35. 2000 lumens and no step down. giving me about 14 lumens per gram of weight the drone must lift.

If I got your payload numbers right, you can support about 142 grams or +/- 5 ounces total?

Very cool project. A drone providing SAR field illumination :thumbsup:

 

[Scotty321]

Just some more suggestions... depending on the area you want the light to cover, you might: 1. Look at lightweight headlamps... additionally, if you get ones with internal batteries, you won't have to factor in the weight of the battery when you do your lumens/gram conversion. You might look for headlamps with more throw at the same lumen. 2. Compare candela at preferred distance (when available) rather than lumens OTF. This might allow a more efficient setup... especially if you are counting grams. Although frustrating, I would be wary about using any mode called "turbo" for continual use, especially for emergency purposes. You might run the danger of destroying the flashlight, battery, and potentially the $$ drone you have it mounted before even finishing your first test flight. Maybe test your SP35 outside, away from flamable material, and see how long you can sustain that mode before things start melting or exploding... the YT reviewer Sofirn has on their website page for this model said that the thermal regulation wasn't working on their first batch of this model. He manually turned the light off at 5 minutes 40 seconds because it was already at 176F (80C) and continuing to rise.

 

[turbodog]

If you are sensitive to 1) lumens 2) weight 3) cooling... then it seems clear to simply make your own light.

Take a head (preferably with cooling fins). Machine down to get rid of excess weight. Drill & tap holes for mounting. Have battery separate with disconnect plugs for removal/charging. Then, in the head, you can run a straight driver board, or use the board from the head itself. Might be possible to find the temp sensor and bypass it.

But I will mention something about picking your desired lumens. Eyesight is logarithmic... you can double the lumens on paper, but it's not reflected in how you perceive the light level. Sooooo, bazooka light cannon may not be the way to go...

Some of the old (4-7's) maelstroms were good lights. Few thousand lumens, Finned heads. They _did_ step down, but were still bright as heck.

I looked at the light you linked in. You can't overcome physics. It might NOT step down but it COULD burn up. Maybe you could add some heatsink(s) to the head???

Edit: read some more on that light. It might not step down via a timer, but it does appear to step down due to overtemp. So again... heatsinks will probably be needed. This light is VERY similar to the 4-7 maelstom. I had one of those. Got scorching hot. Insane brightness and beam pattern, but you could cook on it.

"14, Advanced Temperature Regulation (ATR) technology: As the temperature rises, SP35 is programmed to automatically step down and step up the brightness. These thresholds are set at 45°C, 55°C and 65°C. The higher the temperature gets, the more the brightness will drop. Once temperature decreases, brightness will be increased again according to your selected mode.
More operation details, please check the manual?

 

[idleprocess]

User HugeOne had a number of posts about his "flying searchlight" projects years ago. His projects were principally fixed-wing thus were lousy with free(ish) airflow for cooling, but might be some ideas there for a quad-mounted light.

 

[Kitchen Panda]

I was surprised how a little cooling makes a big difference to temperature rise and step down. I was trying out my new Olight S2R Baton II last night and wanted to run the unit long enough to see the battery status light turn red. I found just wrapping a damp face cloth around the head cooled down far enough that I could run the battery down in only an hour. I also note that taking lights out for walks in our recent -30 C temperatures means they stay on "turbo" until I'm ready to come inside. I think even a little airflow from a drone prop, across the light, will greatly improve cooling and may even prevent step-down.
Bill