Help With Crash Test Lighting!

I perform automobile crash testing and am having a difficult time finding interanl car lighting that is sufficient enough to light up high speed video. The external lighting we use is so powerful that I believe it is making it impossible for any commercial lighting to be used. The external lighting we use consists of 30 2000w short arc metal halide lamps.(http://www.eye.co.jp/optics/crash/applications.html)

I need to light up the drivers side feet so for ease lets say its one square meter. The best I can determine is that I need about 10,000 lux in this area for the camera to not show a black screen. The space set aside for lighting is about 4"x4"x4". The onboard system can supply me with 28v maximum and 9 amps.

Does anyone have any ideas of what we can try? Lighting companies have brought us their ideas and none of them have worked. Where they have failed I hope one of you can succeed. If you can provide me with links to the lighting you have in mind please include them. Also, obvioulsy, these lights have to be able to withstand high G forces.

Thanks

General Motors in Michigan has purchased some of our 50 watt HID lights at their crash testing site.

We have a few customers using our products in high speed camera lighting situations.

We can offer both AC (~400 Hz) and DC output systems if needed for your high speed frame rates.

Our 50 watt system produces between 5300-5700 lumens at about 4000 Kelvin color temp.

www.XeVision.com

Crashtester:

You may consider this setup -

Polarion HID 43-watt system, approx 4,500 lumen
Input voltage 10-26v - 3.5 amps

You can mount it using an off the shelf Picatinny Rail or we can custom make the mounting solution to meet your requirements.



CAD Drawing without IR Filter setup


It's about as hard core in HID as you can get in terms of construction. Will it stand up the rigors of your testing? I don't know. Never subjected these searchlights to the specific forces you are dealing with. I do know that you can drop these things onto concrete from 6-10' and they will keep on going.

We have a high quality diffusion filter if you need to bring those lumens to bear at shorter ranges.

We also have several other lights ranging from 35-50 watts (3,400 - 5,200 lumens respectively) that might be adapted.

Best to you in your search for the proper setup.

Both of these lights are to big to fit in the area. Also they are spot lights and therefore will create a hot-spot in the high speed footage. We need something that can flood the area evenly with light.

We do offer a 45 X 45 degree flood worklight with very even beam pattern.

Also the lamp / reflector assembly does not have to be mounted with the ballast, The ballast can be remotely mounted up to 6 ft away with our current standard cable lengths. This could be accomplished in a 5" cubed area.

Dan

crashtester said:

Both of these lights are to big to fit in the area. Also they are spot lights and therefore will create a hot-spot in the high speed footage. We need something that can flood the area evenly with light.

Click to expand...

It sounds like you need a 12V, compact, video specific light. Efficiency isn't an issue so use incandescent since it will be more compact, right down to the bulb length. The output from a 100W bulb should be more than sufficient considering the working distance. Usually the G forces measured in most auto accidents aren't incredibly high and therefore shouldn't be a huge issue for the bulb.

I would call some companies like BH Photo, or other professional video specialists and tell them about your requirements. I have to mention that your 4" x 4" cube requirement will greatly limit your options.

I found this through a quick search.

http://www.adorama.com/BOVS100.html

Here are some other more robust incan and LED options:

http://www.uwimaging.com/sunray_elite/index.htm

http://www.uwimaging.com/sunray1000/sunray1000index.htm

http://www.uwimaging.com/sunray2000/sunray2000index.htm

Patriot36 said:

It sounds like you need a 12V, compact, video specific light. Efficiency isn't an issue so use incandescent since it will be more compact, right down to the bulb length. The output from a 100W bulb should be more than sufficient considering the working distance. Usually the G forces measured in most auto accidents aren't incredibly high and therefore shouldn't be a huge issue for the bulb.

I would call some companies like BH Photo, or other professional video specialists and tell them about your requirements. I have to mention that your 4" x 4" cube requirement will greatly limit your options.

I found this through a quick search.

http://www.adorama.com/BOVS100.html

Click to expand...

He needs at least 10k lux over one square meter. That means he needs at least 10k lumens.

If you are doing crash testing, I am guessing you are running with a fast shutter to stop motion. I would not waste my time on any continuously on light..... you are going to be throwing away the lions share of the light they are putting out. I would go with a special purpose strobe system. If you are running with a fast shutter, no other lighting system is going to compete. You can get strobes that will run 100+Hz. The issue may be where to put the power supply.

One other possible option would be to put literally hundreds of Luxeon Rebels on a board (with a heatsink backing). If you pulsed them at 2Amps with limited duty cycle, you could get 20,000+ peak lumens without any trouble.

Semiman

On the same note,

I was thinking about 10-12 "D" Bin P7 leds on a rather small
heatsink. That would not be a problem due to the fact of it only
being on for about 3-5 seconds at a time. A small ball-bearing
fan similar to a CPU fan could be implemented too. That would
give you about 10,000 lumens easy. The cost would probably
be around 575.00us to build it. I could make it easily run on 28v.
Shoot me a P.M. if you want to talk about it. Also, It can be made
much brighter if you want, and run continuously if needed.
PM me if you want to talk about specifics.

Robert M.