Arc-AAA question

Lately ive been noticing that the arc-AAA is not very bright with even a little sunlight leaking into my room, but it's only really bright when iam in a pitch black room. I have come up with 2 theories. The first one is that since it's a white light...sunlight will cover up the light...and the second theory is that the arc-aaa doesnt have a good reflector so the throw is not great. So if my second theory is correct, why not make a real reflector in the arc-aaa, like a mirror or something.

i think it's the relativeness of the brightness of the sunlight compared to the arc aaa.

best regards, albert einstein /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

BT1324,

The reflector in the AAA is fine. Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding
you, but the obvious answer here is that dark adapted eyes are
more sensitive to light. That's one of the reasons why I love
the Arc AAA. It's just about the perfect amount of light for
dark adapted eyes. The throw isn't great, of course, but on the
other hand the light is nicely spread out. Great for walking
around or working in the dark.

This is not to say that a person couldn't configure things so
that the AAA had more throw. You could. But I like it just
as it is.

I guess you guys are right but i just wish the arc-aaa had more throw.

Does anyone know a simple mod i can do to make the arc-aaa's throw better?

you could fit some sort of lens or optic to the front of it i guess.

As js said, it's about our eyes being adapted to the dark.
ANY light will appear dimmer in ambient light than in the dark. In the dark our pupils dilate allowing even dim light to appear bright in contrast to the darkness around us. This sensitivity increases during several minutes in the dark.

You could get more throw with an optic, as chamenos suggests, and the beam WILL appear brighter, but also more narrow. Your not going to actually increase output, in fact you'll lose a little in the optic itself. A narrow beam is not as useful as the wider one the AAA provides, IMO.(extreme example: the narrow beam of a laser has a very bright hotspot, with super long throw but useless as a flashlight.) ARC is already overdriving the LED in the AAA, to put out as much light as is reasonable. The reflector is well designed to direct side spill forward, which isn't that much to begin with. An LED already has a lens, which determines the beam angle. The AAA is 20 degrees, I believe. Tighter angle LEDs ARE available, but I think the 20deg. is optimal.
There IS an LED light out there than has a very tight spot beam. The Dorcy "cool blue". Craig reviewed it here .

Be content in knowing that LED technology is improving brightness and efficiency, and future lights will always be better than their predessessors. And ARC will most definitely be at the forefront, as it is now.

gyverpete,

Excellent post! Very informative. Thank you.

js,
Your Welcome. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

----
Pete

thx man well said, but how do i install a lens.

BT1324-

Machine a tube that would slip fit over the end of the ARC-AAA install a lens into this adapter. You might be able to focus pulling it outward, pushing it in?

If this is too much trouble, you might just have to live with it, sorry.

The Inova X-1 or whatever it's called, is suppose to be a 1-AA cell LED light WITH A LENS!

Now do you see how this goes? There is a never ending progression of improvements (or perceived improvements) that cause us flashaholics to buy one light after another.

GregR

Um, if there's sunlight coming into the room, why do you need a flashlight?

Generally, small LED lights should have wide angle coverage since they're mostly used for close-up tasks. If you want one with more throw, they do make a few with focusing optics. The UKE 2aaa eLED is about 2x as big as the Arc AAA (runs on two AAA's, natch) and has a lens for more throw. The Princeton Tec Impact and Impact II (4aa and 4aaa) have even narrower focus. But I think the Arc AAA is best for throw-vs-brightness in a small light just as it's made. The way to improve throw would be make it brighter, i.e. use a Luxeon and more power, but that would reduce runtime a lot, so you may or may not like that trade-off.

I haven't tried it but CPF member SNAKE did. From what I understand in his thread easy ARC AAA optic upgrade he used one of those stick-on clear rubber bumpers with a hemisphere shape that is used on cabinets. It can be seen here.. It is made by 3M and the product name is "bumpon". Likely available in hardware stores.

Optionally you could use an acrylic ball or half-round like these.
Some CPF members have used these on other lights. These are more optically clear than the bumpers.

You might want to start a thread with the words "ARC-AAA optics ?" or "Improving ARC-AAA throw?" or something along that line to get response from those more knowledgable about such things esp. in the Modified Lights forum.

sweet thx u guys, now i have so many options.