Wow, blue-green LED's *really* mess up my night vision....

[MacTech]

I recieved a CMG Infinity (original non-Ultra version) in a trade with Blademan, it's the Blue/green (Cyan?) model, and it's actually brighter than i thought it would be, i've read that the original Infinities were primarily a dim, long runtime light

it would seem logical though that since the human eye is most sensitive to green, that it would seem brighter

what totally caught me off guard however, was how easily B/G damaged my night vision, just using the Infinity to illuminate my ceiling or wall and turning it off basically nuked my night vision, i had to start over from scratch, conversely, my IQ-Switch equipped Minimag with red NI upgrade didn't bother my night vision at all, even on high

Oh, and the Infinity is definitely a strongly constructed light, the thing feels darned near indestructable, the only issue i have with it is the ringiness of the beam, i'm trying to figure out an easy way to diffuse and smooth the beam without losing too much output, a piece of scotch tape over the head of the light seems to work temporarily, but it's durability is minimal

i'd like to find a solution that doesn't involve tearing the head apart or causing undue damage, maybe frosting the LED epoxy dome with the HF acid used to frost incan bulbs?

 

[cratz2]

Hrmm. I never had a Cyan Infinity, but I still have a blue LED Infinity and boy is it dim! MERCY! I'm guessing 1 Lumen. One of these days, I'm going to swap the stock LED for a PEAK Snow LED. It's one of the more effecient LEDs (the JELED and Nichias are more effecient, but the Snow is so pretty!).

As for smoothing out the beam pattern, I'd personally try sanding it with some 1500 or higher grit sand paper before trying an acid. One of my favorite basic mods is a Solitairs with a Nichia CS run direct on a 10440 cell with the LED sanded with 1500 grit paper. In the tiny Solitaire reflector, the beam shape is huge. I like to say it's like an L4, but only 5% as bright. Easily enough to dimly light up a 17x20 room.

Of course, with the dark 'reflector' of the Infinity, you are losing quite a bit of usable output there.

But you are right about one thing... these things are basically indestructable.

 

[2xTrinity]

I recieved a CMG Infinity (original non-Ultra version) in a trade with Blademan, it's the Blue/green (Cyan?) model, and it's actually brighter than i thought it would be, i've read that the original Infinities were primarily a dim, long runtime light

it would seem logical though that since the human eye is most sensitive to green, that it would seem brighter

what totally caught me off guard however, was how easily B/G damaged my night vision, just using the Infinity to illuminate my ceiling or wall and turning it off basically nuked my night vision, i had to start over from scratch, conversely, my IQ-Switch equipped Minimag with red NI upgrade didn't bother my night vision at all, even on high

555nm (yellow-green) is the peak for daytime adjusted vision, that's what the lumens scale is based on. Cyan around 500 nm is acutally the peak wavelength for night vision sensitivity. It's the absolute worst wavelength possible for preserving night vision. This is the advantage of red light -- the rods have almost no sensitivity to red, but your cones do -- so you can use red to see your way by, without interfering with your night vision. The common 620nm red-orange LEDs appear a lot brighter, as your cones are more sensitive to it, but your rods also have some (weak) sensitivity there, so it's still possible to impact night vision if you say reflect the beam off of something up close.

i'd like to find a solution that doesn't involve tearing the head apart or causing undue damage, maybe frosting the LED epoxy dome with the HF acid used to frost incan bulbs?

HF won't do anything to a plastic based epoxy -- it etches glass, but does nothing to plastic products at all (for one thing, it's usually stored in a clear plastic bottle of some sort). Sanding the LED with extremely fine sandpaper (600 grit) works nicely to give you a "smoothed out" beam. To get complete flood, I often sand the dome of the LED completely off -- that works well for LEDs that come with reflectors. Unfortunately, both of those involve tearing open the head...

 

[Led-Ed]

I have that same light, and If you want to smooth out the beam you can put a piece of Scotch"magic" tape over the end of it for an easily removable diffuser.
You can also chang the color to more of a green by just loosening the head a little bit until it makes poor contact.

 

[greenlight]

Try it outside on some plants/foliage. Any light will kill your night vision if it is bright enough regardless of color. You're just not using your light in the right way. Instead of modding it, try to figure out what it is good for. You can buy another light to test your night vision..

 

[2xTrinity]

Try it outside on some plants/foliage. Any light will kill your night vision if it is bright enough regardless of color. You're just not using your light in the right way. Instead of modding it, try to figure out what it is good for. You can buy another light to test your night vision..

Well, while the red won't affect the pigment in your eye associated with night vision adapatation, a very bright illumination of something will cause you to have "spots" or an afterimage that can fill your field of vision, and obstruct your night vision for that reason. Either way though, red is much better to use for working up close/reading. A dim white light though will work though if you light u pa big area with it, with no hotspot -- in that case, it will act similar to moon light.

 

[Barbarin]

After the CMG infinity blue-green dissapeared, what high quality AA single LED 5 mm type do we have?

Regards,

Javier

 

[Omega Man]

I've read with my new green CMG Infinity, and after an hour, the light looks less green. If I shine it on the white wall, it looks like it's lost most of it's color. Kinda hard to explain, but weird.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

What greenlight said.

I have that same light, and If you want to smooth out the beam you can put a piece of Scotch"magic" tape over the end of it for an easily removable diffuser...

I diffused the beam of one of my blue/green Infinities by lightly going over the LED with 0000 steel wool. It works very well. Go slowly and check your progress often.

The blue/green Infinity is my favorite. It's the brightest Infinity. It's brightness is only partly because of the human eye's sensitivity to that range of the spectrum -- the rest of it comes from the fact that since it is a monochromatic LED more of the energy in comes out as light. A white 5mm LED from the same era is actually a blue LED doped with a phosphor to make it emit a whitish light. The losses invloved in the conversion to white make green and blue/green 5mm LEDs 70% brighter than white. That's why a blue/green Infinity will seem nearly as bright as a white Infinity Ultra of the same era -- but will have four times the runtime of the Ultra.

The old Infinities were great and the blue/green ones were the best of the bunch. I also have a blue Infinity that is hidiously bright.

...red is much better to use for working up close/reading...

I'm one of many who find red nearly useless for reading or anything else that involves detail. The somewhat generalized color sensitivity chart linked below is accurate enough to give a rough idea of just how much brighter 640nm light must be to be as usable as other colors.

I've worked with monochromatic lights for decades both professionally and on my own time and I'm with those who prefer green or blue/green for preserving dark adapted vision. More often than not the old blue/green Infinity is way to bright for this use, even when cupped. A widely variable output light in green or blue/green, like the Rigel MIL-Starlite Mini or Covert Photon Freedom in NV green is far easier to see with than any red light and if handled properly won't take much of a hit on dark adapted vision.

YMMV