Red LED with long Throw

Anyone make a Red LED light that has lots of throw - good light in the 30 to 50+ ft range. Off the shelf or is this a DIY moding like a Streamlight 4AA Lux?

For night use on a boat for trimming and adjusting the sails at night without messing up the night vision of the driver ( helm ) and the rest of the crew?

thanx

mb

Probably put a red Cree in a big reflector. Sounds like a good MagLite mod.

A red 7 LEDs McKinley will throw like crazy

My red LED McKinley does not throw...it is a wide spot. I did have an HDS EDC moddified by Milkyspit with a red-orange Luxeon and it is very bright and throws 50-100 feet pretty easily. I think any bright light (red included) will mess with your night vision. From what I understand, the secret to preserving night vision is dim light, but our eyes are supposed to be least sensitive to red light.

The red should be fine since night vision is using the rods (black and white) and red is using the cones (colour). The red won't blast out the rods so night vision should be OK, within reason.

Thankfully, humans don't have complete night vision or there would be a lot of sad flashaholics.

Modify the 3W Cree projection with a Red Cree LED?

It won't be to expensive and should have good throw for a Red LED(the White LED with the reflector can throw for 100 meters).

Surefire and WOLF-EYES have filters that go over lights and they do work very well for hunters and fisherman.

Sounds like if you are adjusting sails you may need a colored headlamp?

My concern with a headlight is it would need to be very rugged & very waterproof - also I normally wear a hat with a brim that might make fitting a strap and such a bit tricky along with the foul weather gear - also with a higher powered light there is the part where I move my head around and everyone else gets painted red. Also I am looking up at a high angle -

I will be looking for a headlight soon but for a slightly different application -

Sometimes the one that can see the sail the best is not the trimmer - so plan is to have this light with the person that has the best sight line and they can use as required and give guidance to the trimmers -

any opinions on the Luxon K-2 ?? I saw that in red also - red seems not to be a real popular color once you get away from the 5mm stuff

thanks for the help & ideas -

mb

EverLED makes a red dropin for a maglite, as does diamond brand. However, the diamond one may be too bright. Might want to try both, and after using them decide which one is good for which roles. I'm sure you could find a use for both.

Bearcat said:

Thankfully, humans don't have complete night vision or there would be a lot of sad flashaholics.

Click to expand...

I nominate this for funniest quote of the week!

red lux III led in http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1112 using alkaline cr123 or rechargeable cr123 (3v) is very good and cheap combination. I have made such light.

Is there a possibility of getting a good thrower... waiting for the holidays, picking up some red saran-wrap at your local grocery store, using a rubber-band and voila?

Used to work back in the middle ages... *cough* about 8 years ago when I was using a white 1st-gen LED headlamp.

Bear in mind that red light and night vision is a low sensitivity thing. Not zero. A bright enough red light is going to mess up your night vision to some degree - particularly if you're looking for enough light to throw a considerable distance.

With night-adjusted eyes, is an X5 type not enough illumination? Just trying to figure out a benchmark. My green X5 easily illuminates that distance, but it's also green... so that's no good.

I'd suggest something with a focused optic. Reduces the power you need to throw a spot of light out to the sails if you don't need it to be too floody. Also reduces the amount of stray light into the eyes of the guys "downstream" who might glance back at whoever is pointing the light. DIY modding something like an older Inova TIROS model might be just the trick. An old X03 with a red LuxIII should do just dandy.

Or if you need a number of them - the "old" Task Force 2C at Lowe's should be pretty easy to mod with a red Lux as well.

how's the red cree doing for you folks?

you could use a solarforce L2 host and add the solarforce XRE-R2 Red led. I have this setup and it has lots of throw, has a tight hot spot. It is bright, I am guessing apx 120lms. you can get this whole setup for about $30.

For sail trimming, you don't need the high-acuity Photopic vision you need for reading charts etc, so you can use Starlight vision = Scotopic vision. Scotopic vision is what you're using when walking around in starlight.

The ONLY reason for using Red light is when you NEED photopic vision, but want to densensitise Scotopic vision as little as possible - that does NOT apply here.

So DON'T use Red light - Scotopic vision is not sensitive to red light. Use white light - but carefully controlled in BRIGHTNESS, so there's just enough to see by.

If you can see that it's Red on the object being lit, you have activated the Cones and Scotopic vision will be densensitised.

So if you need to modify a waterproof torch - you need to modify it to allow quick selection of very low light levels. The amount of light you need to check on on the peak of the sail 50 feet away will rapidly ruin your night vision, if shone at your feet to check on some lines on the deck.

A friend wanted a red led light for his 11 year old son. I got the DX ultrafire 501 model with the red led. Holy cow...is this light amazing! I cannot believe how powerful this light is for $10. Don't have the sku# anymore.

red xr-c + 53mm dx reflector\drop in, will give you lots of throw.

Any update on 44alux led?