Ok I am new to posting here guys, been lurking for ideas for quite a while, far as I can tell this is where I need to post this question. If not I apologize.
During the winter I tend to have alot of garage/tinker time on my hands and recently I've been into building a few hog feeder kill lights. Learned alot from this site on the makeup of LEDs. Well I decided to get into custom flashlights, specifically a Red LED thrower for night hunting coyotes and hogs (legal here in Texas).
So I read on CPF that the Small Sun ZY-T13 was a handy little thrower with a nice hotspot and very little flood. Well I got the light in and it is exactly what I'm looking for. Now for my question:
From what I gather both from here and checking out my light is that the T13 uses a 20mm star emitter. my question is, what is the brightest throw RED emitter available in the 20mm star base and where can I find it? I've seen a few threads on here with links to dealextreme for red emitters but the links seem to have expired. I'm thinking that I need a Cree XP-L2 or XPL type emitter, only problem is I am having trouble purchasing one in RED. Some people have suggested using a red lens cover and thats what I'm doing now but I believe with the right red emitter de-domed, heatsink, and driver I could get a much more quality red projection. My red lens cover works OK but doesn't really have that dark red color like my solarforce L2P with a red drop-in. So basically right now I have a stock Small Sun ZY-T13 flashlight with a homemade red lens cover.
So to summarize:
1. Whats the best, brightest "thrower" red emitter in a 20mm base that I can buy, and where can I buy it?
2. When suggesting an emitter could I also get a suggestion on a driver? Nothing fancy just a single mode driver. Would love a link to both of these questions if possible, if not with part numbers or specs I can probably hunt them down.
Thank you very much for the suggestions and help, I was able to find info on modding the Small Sun T13 on CPF but they took it in a little different direction than I was looking for
During the winter I tend to have alot of garage/tinker time on my hands and recently I've been into building a few hog feeder kill lights. Learned alot from this site on the makeup of LEDs. Well I decided to get into custom flashlights, specifically a Red LED thrower for night hunting coyotes and hogs (legal here in Texas).
So I read on CPF that the Small Sun ZY-T13 was a handy little thrower with a nice hotspot and very little flood. Well I got the light in and it is exactly what I'm looking for. Now for my question:
From what I gather both from here and checking out my light is that the T13 uses a 20mm star emitter. my question is, what is the brightest throw RED emitter available in the 20mm star base and where can I find it? I've seen a few threads on here with links to dealextreme for red emitters but the links seem to have expired. I'm thinking that I need a Cree XP-L2 or XPL type emitter, only problem is I am having trouble purchasing one in RED. Some people have suggested using a red lens cover and thats what I'm doing now but I believe with the right red emitter de-domed, heatsink, and driver I could get a much more quality red projection. My red lens cover works OK but doesn't really have that dark red color like my solarforce L2P with a red drop-in. So basically right now I have a stock Small Sun ZY-T13 flashlight with a homemade red lens cover.
So to summarize:
1. Whats the best, brightest "thrower" red emitter in a 20mm base that I can buy, and where can I buy it?
2. When suggesting an emitter could I also get a suggestion on a driver? Nothing fancy just a single mode driver. Would love a link to both of these questions if possible, if not with part numbers or specs I can probably hunt them down.
Thank you very much for the suggestions and help, I was able to find info on modding the Small Sun T13 on CPF but they took it in a little different direction than I was looking for
