A P7 flashlight for throw

i've seen a number of good P7 led's out there, but what would be the best for shear distance?

thanks for any info

I rebuilt both of my LumaPower MRVs with P7 emitters. When you drive them at ~3A they put out a LOT of light, but my quad Cree M@G light still out throws them.

bikenjam said:

i've seen a number of good P7 led's out there, but what would be the best for shear distance?

thanks for any info

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Probably a well driven and heatsinked P7 behind a quality ashperic lens. Can do that in a M@g, for example, with a good heatsink, 3 NiMH C or D cells, or various other combinations, and a good aspheric lens like Melles Griot. There are good threads on aspherics which focus the forward light from the LED that the reflectors miss, which is a lot on most LEDs.

Bikenjam:

I haven't seen a production model P7 yet that was built solely for throw.

I do have an Epsilon ED-P72 that does a decent job of focusing the hotspot. I'd judge its effective throwing distance at somewhere between 150-200 yards.

(I was on the golf course last night with it and that's how far it illuminated the red flag on the putting green. The quality of the night air wasn't as good as some nights (dust, pollen, urban light pollution), so maybe the figure should be closer to 200 yards. Of course, if you aimed at a tree or something with a higher target value, you could say that it throws much farther.)

LumaPower MVP P7 is probably the best throw in a P7 but multi-die emitters simply aren't suited to being 'throwers' a single die LED will make 1/3 the total output but still out-throw a multi-die.

The MTE SSC P7 isn't exactly what you'd call a thrower, but it does have more of a central beam, in addition to wide spill.... it's a bit more of a "thrower" than the Malkoff P7, for example, which has practically no central beam. The head on the MTE is significantly deeper and wider than the MP7, which no doubt accounts for it's somewhat more focused output.

MTE SSC P7 - 1*18650


Malkoff P7 - 1*18650

Solarforce's L900 and L900M are great throwers.

This looks promising: Electrolumens P7 Longthrow

i use to be on that longthrow list a year ago , that would be a nice thrower in that big head but its gonna be a long while before theyre made and finished

Alan B said:

Probably a well driven and heatsinked P7 behind a quality ashperic lens. Can do that in a M@g, for example, with a good heatsink, 3 NiMH C or D cells, or various other combinations, and a good aspheric lens like Melles Griot. There are good threads on aspherics which focus the forward light from the LED that the reflectors miss, which is a lot on most LEDs.

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P7 won't work with aspheric lens. You'll get reflection of four dies side by side. You can mod a M@g and use Fivemega ThrowMaster head - throws like crazy!

not a P7 but Tiablo ACE maybe?

JETBeam M1X Military?

Aleph III with McR38 reflector.
Mine throws amazingly well.

Not easy to come by but it does have an incredible beam!

A Surefire KT1/KT2 modded with a P7 does a great job as well.

phantom23 said:

P7 won't work with aspheric lens. You'll get reflection of four dies side by side. You can mod a M@g and use Fivemega ThrowMaster head - throws like crazy!

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If you want the most throw from an LED, then a single die (R2?) and an aspheric lens produces the best result (DEFT, etc).

HOWEVER, that was not what was requested. That was the best throw from a P7, for which I think that an aspheric lens is still the best answer, though I have not verified that yet myself.

This is not to say that the p7/aspheric will out-throw the single die/aspheric, merely to say that the best throw from the P7 will be to image the die out onto the target, which the aspheric lens does. It will be imaged as four dies, so the hotspot will be large. The throw should be the same as a single die, but the quad die spot will illuminate a larger area.

It may also be the case that the best lens for the single die will not be the best lens for the quad die LED. Some experimentation here, or some optical engineering calculations would likely tell the story.

I have an aspheric lens on order and am building some P7 mags, so the opportunity to test this will present itself in the not too distant future.

I have used aspheric lense with the P7 and it does indeed project the 4 dies and produces a large hotspot at distance.

I guess it does what its supposed to, but the beam is butt ugly IMO.

Alan B said:

If you want the most throw from an LED, then a single die (R2?) and an aspheric lens produces the best result (DEFT, etc).

HOWEVER, that was not what was requested. That was the best throw from a P7, for which I think that an aspheric lens is still the best answer, though I have not verified that yet myself.

This is not to say that the p7/aspheric will out-throw the single die/aspheric, merely to say that the best throw from the P7 will be to image the die out onto the target, which the aspheric lens does. It will be imaged as four dies, so the hotspot will be large. The throw should be the same as a single die, but the quad die spot will illuminate a larger area.

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P7@2,8A (0,7A for each die) will throw as fas as XR-E @0,7A. I don't think it can beat ThrowMaster or even Solarforce L900.

phantom23 said:

P7@2,8A (0,7A for each die) will throw as fas as XR-E @0,7A. I don't think it can beat ThrowMaster or even Solarforce L900.

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Hard to be sure. The reflector is working with the side spill of these LEDs, but most of their light output goes forward and misses it. The lenses get to work with the greater forward flux. But there are lots of issues in each case, so it depends on the details.

A well designed optic should out throw both a similar diameter reflector and lens. It would focus most of the light into the hotspot, the light that goes off to the side and the light that usually goes to spill with a reflector.

The narroest optic that I remember though it only 10 degrees, not less.

I guess we will have to see if the M3TL from Surefire will be our answer:shrug:

If i put the stock smooth reflector in my P7-2D Mag it throws better than my Surefire KT2 with a MN61 lamp on 4x123's. With the OP reflector it does pretty good as well, smoother beam but less overall throw.