Optics shootout!

I'm starting to have a wider range of optics available, so I decided to test them on my EDC Brinkmann 3AA mod.

I also did the following to show something I discovered about the old (but not useless as first thought) NX01 optic in conjunction with a 1W HD luxeon.

The mod is a Brinkmann 3AA, with a 1W Q2J, DD, from 3 NiMH cells. For this test, current was measured at 1A.

And the contenders:



The target is a white door in my office. Distance to target is 24". The frame coverage for these beamshots is about 24". I locked the shutter speed, aperature, focus, and white balance on my camera.

A note about the NX01 - as you notice, there is a ring around the NX01. I took the original brinkmann reflector, and cut the lip off it, then glued that to the front of the NX01 - it's a perfect fit. It allows me to back the NX01 off of the LED - which actually achieves a tight focus!

In fact, the NX01 (in my observations) will focus the beam as tight as the newly discovered Fraen LP that everyone raves about. However, focusing back down close to the LED will also give a nice (albiet somewhat blotchy) flood beam about twice the diameter. The ring I glued to the NX01 allows the optic to remain perfectly centered, and perfectly aligned with the LED to allow the focusing effect.

I also included the NX05 (so we can see how truly bad an NX05 is with a high dome), Fraen 6 degree, two small reflectors, and the reflector from a Pelican L1 (it actually makes a pretty nice flood beam).



And reduced to 3BPP to show intensity map:



Obviously, the Fraen 6 degree has the brightest hotspot, but it definitely doesn't fit the form factor very well. The NX01 de/re-focused easily equals the LP in brigtness (and is a tad brighter from what I see). The NX01 doesn't offer much side-spill in either case - the beam has a pretty distinct boundary.

The first two reflectors could probably have a bit of a brighter hotspot, as they are not trimmed down ideally.

It's too bad more light makers didn't pick up on the usefulness/focusability of a HD+NX01.

The NX05 seems to perform pretty poorly with a HD, given the choice of optics we have.

evan9162,

Very informative and nice beam shots! I find the NX-05/HD improves if it is spaced .070" away from the LS. I hope you can confirm.

Larry

i like the NX01 the nicest on that light, i also like the Brinkmann reflector

cool! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
that was indeed needed, thanx for the work!
bernhard

[ QUOTE ]
tvodrd said:
evan9162,

Very informative and nice beam shots! I find the NX-05/HD improves if it is spaced .070" away from the LS. I hope you can confirm.

Larry

[/ QUOTE ]

It does make the hotspot wider, and turns the cross-shaped beam into more of a squarish one (more useful), but I think it makes it a touch dimmer.

Honest opinion I prefer
the Fraen 6 degree optics,
better hot spot and just the
right amount of spill.

Great info! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

BTW, is the part number of Fraen 6 degree "FHS-HNB1-LL01-H"?

evan9162 -

Thanks. Great reference. I'll bookmark this for sure.

I have just completed a Mag2C + Luxeon + Micropuck + NX01. I am very happy with the broad intense flood of the NX01 optics. Much preferable to the NX05 of the ArcLS.

[ QUOTE ]
kj said:
Great info! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

BTW, is the part number of Fraen 6 degree "FHS-HNB1-LL01-H"?

[/ QUOTE ]

kj, the part number you have is for lambertian/HD, narrow beam optic with the holder. It is the narrowest they offer for this size but when used with a white luxeon it's 10 deg. I believe that's the one used in the shootout above.

I don't understand why it's labeled 6 deg. though. According to Fraen's data sheet the only 6 deg. optic they have of this size is the HNB1-LB01 but is only 6 deg. when used with a amber or red luxeon. When used with a white luxeon it's also 10 deg. but this optic is meant for batwing/LDs.

The Fraen-LP however is 6 deg. and also comes in 30 deg. Most of us are used to the 6 deg. The 30 deg. is distingushed by the steps/rings around the optic. I have both and can put up pictures of them (not beamshots) for comparison. The 30 deg. is a flood type beam that comes from an optic rather than a reflector such as the McFlood.

Thanks. Yeah, as you said, I could not find the 6 degree with white, so I'm wondering there is another optic for the super narrow beam.

I also have Fraen LP 6 deg and 30 deg. I personally think the beam of the 30 deg is funny... er... interesting /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[ QUOTE ]
kj said:
Thanks. Yeah, as you said, I could not find the 6 degree with white, so I'm wondering there is another optic for the super narrow beam.

I also have Fraen LP 6 deg and 30 deg. I personally think the beam of the 30 deg is funny... er... interesting /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed, those are the best words that I would think fit the 30 deg. Interesting yes, but something I'd probably not use in a flashlight. Maybe to light up a display case?

Darin, I missed this thread until just now. Great work! Thanks for sharing. I am interested in the nice focusibility that you have demonstrated with the NX-01. Was the broad beam with the optic resting on the shoulder of the LED? Do you have a measurement of the distance the optic was raised to produce the tight beam pictured. Larry apparently has done some experimenting to find his figure for the "optimal" .070" lift for the NX-05. A great project for someone that has the means to build the test fixture easily would be to measure/photo the beams of the NX-01 and NX-05 at various calibrated distances of lift off of the LED. I'm visualizing the optic held in something threaded so it can be moved by turning.

Another question: what was the trimmed length of the MM and Brinkmann reflectors? I seem to recall that .340-.360" seemed about optimum for the MM.

Doug,

The wide-angle NX01 was with the optic up tight against the emitter (resting on the black emitter body). I'm not sure about how far it must be defocused to achieve tight focus, I'll have to mark and measure how far forward the Brinkmann head moves when I get it to tight focus - I'll see if I have time tonight.

I have the capability of doing the experiment you describe, just not to accurately measure the stand-off distance - I glued rims to both an NX05 and NX01 that allows them to be de-focused by unscewing the Brinkmann head. I found that de-focusing the NX05 resulted in a more even beam, albiet slightly dimmer too based on pictures (although not noticable with the eyes), so it would probably perform better slightly defocused as well.



I have no idea as to the trimmed length of the little reflectors. Basically, I took a file to the back, tested the beam, filed off some more, lather, rinse, repeat.

I decided to not use the reflectors because of how much had to be chopped off, and I felt that I got a more useful beam with a focusable NX01. In addition, I found that the emitter must be mounted on at least a 1/16" thick heatsink plate to the top of the brinkmann body, otherwise the head doesn't screw down far enough to achieve tight focus (even though the reflector may have been trimmed properly).

[ QUOTE ]
evan9162 said:
I have the capability of doing the experiment you describe, just not to accurately measure the stand-off distance - I glued rims to both an NX05 and NX01 that allows them to be de-focused by unscewing the Brinkmann head.

[/ QUOTE ]
Darin, it sounds like you could do it fairly accurately. If you know the pitch of the threads you can measure/count the turns and calculate the distance moved.

Good thinking. Anyone know the thread pitch for the head-body threads of a Brinkmann Legend 3AA?

Nevermind, I found an easy way to measure it - it's about 1MM per turn.

So about 1.2 turns out (about 1.2MM or 0.05") will bring the NX01 to a nice tight focus with a HD luxeon.

Hi Evan,

Thank you for the effort and great shootout.

And the best part is I just realized that I still have 4 untouched NX01 optics from the old 1w LS/0 era. What a treasure ! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Vic

Thanks for the confirmation. I traded a few NX-01 away for the Fraen LP, having heard so much about the Fraen and not owning one.

Well, tested NX-01, NX-05 and Fraen LP today with both high dome and low dome. I expected the Fraen to 'blow away' everything else given what I've heard from others.

However, with both high dome and low dome, I definitely prefer the NX-01 hands down. It is just a more even broad beam. In the HD, slightly elevated it is exactly that - a very even spot beam. With low domes, the NX-01 gives a broad beam that is 'closer' to the McFlood's even usable beam than any other collimator, and yet is narrower than the McFlood so that it is brighter.

Glad to have confirmation as I thought that I must have had an unusual high dome to get the great beam I did.

Thanks,
Moses

Just FYI:

I found that for spacing out the optics the plastic or hard paper donuts found on some rechargeables/batteries around the positive contact work great. You will need to rip of the plastic around the cells upper top to find those. I had best results with AA sized cells, some 123 sized ones were OK too. On some the donut fit about perfectly, on some others I had to enlarge the hole a little bit. Depending on the optic used and size of the donut you might need to use multiples of those donut pieces.

Klaus