Delving into LEP

I just got my first commercial LEP flashlight today. It is the Weltool W4 manufacturer rated at 1782Kcd. I tested it and got a result of 1643Kcd. That's pretty close to spec. It is an amazing performer intensity wise. I'm not as enamored with how narrow the beam is though. And the beam is very very uneven color wise. It is bluish in the center and more yellow towards the edge. It's yucky to look at. The color rendering is rather atrocious as well. My engineering goals are going to be improving LEP in all these areas. Wider beam, more consistent color, and better color. Oh yeah. And one more thing. More power.

What about heat? Any concerns that the LEP can overheat like an LED?

I have an Acebeam W30, nice light but compared to my Deft-x a little too blue. Looking forward to what improvements you can get from the current offerings.

The rotary UI of the JetBeam/Astrolux models is something I would like to see being offered also.

newbie66 said:

What about heat? Any concerns that the LEP can overheat like an LED?

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I don't know yet. I have a lot of tests to run on this. Will be busting out the thermal camera and getting shots of the phosphor and other areas. Just running a bit I didn't notice it producing a ton of heat but it did get warm to the touch. That of course could just mean they aren't getting the heat out efficiently. I'll find out soon enough. What I found in my research years ago was the phosphor was the choke point. It is the weakest link in the chain due to thermal quenching. With lasers you can always add more power.

Devildude said:

I have an Acebeam W30, nice light but compared to my Deft-x a little too blue. Looking forward to what improvements you can get from the current offerings.

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Yeah I may be biased but given the poor beam characteristics of the W4 I'd rather have the DEFT-X with less overall throw and the cleaner colors and wider beam. Hopefully I can fix this. I already have a higher CRI laser light engine. I don't know yet if I can incorporate it in this platform though.

Invest heavily on eye protection first though, it only takes one mistake and you`ll have 2 smoking holes where your retinas used to be!

saabluster said:

... I'd rather have the DEFT-X with less overall throw and the cleaner colors and wider beam.

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Agreed. And why I opted for the Atrolux WP2 to replace the W4 I passed along: Less overall throw, but with a nicer tint and slightly wider beam.

Katherine Alicia said:

Invest heavily on eye protection first though, it only takes one mistake and you`ll have 2 smoking holes where your retinas used to be!

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Thanks. Years ago I invested in laser glasses of OD 7+. I am very safety conscience. Still these lasers scare me. But I think that is a good thing.

adamlau said:

Agreed. And why I opted for the Atrolux WP2 to replace the W4 I passed along: Less overall throw, but with a nicer tint and slightly wider beam.

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I will check it out. Thanks. I have spent the last couple hours tearing this light down. They sure didn't make this easy.

Thanks for the hard work.

Moreover, the Atrolux does not use the standard mirror method, but appears to be laser directly through phosphor.

adamlau said:

Moreover, the Atrolux does not use the standard mirror method, but appears to be laser directly through phosphor.

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That was one of my earliest efforts with LEP 10 years ago. I quickly abandoned the idea as I had safety concerns and the phosphor quenching starts way too soon with that method. I've seen some are mounting it to sapphire which was my solution too. It's still too limited. Unless you take certain measures which are super hard to implement it is a very inefficient design as well. I may change my mind but I'm thinking the best plan would be to create my own light engine. So far I'm not liking the commercial solutions I'm seeing.

saabluster said:

That was one of my earliest efforts with LEP 10 years ago. I quickly abandoned the idea as I had safety concerns and the phosphor quenching starts way too soon with that method. I've seen some are mounting it to sapphire which was my solution too. It's still too limited. Unless you take certain measures which are super hard to implement it is a very inefficient design as well. I may change my mind but I'm thinking the best plan would be to create my own light engine. So far I'm not liking the commercial solutions I'm seeing.

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I for one am confident in your skills and adaptation and inclusion of current technologies within your designs. I offer You support in this next R&D phase moving forward, and appreciate the work You do to bring us some more sophisticated stunnig lights.

I am very glad to see that you are back!

There are several LEPs in my flashlight collection. The one with the greatest throw is a Vinh-modified Acebeam W30vn, having around 2.8 Mcd.

Now that you are working to develop new LEP flashlights, I won't try to buy a 4 Mcd Acebeam W50. I'm sure that with your expertise you can do better than 4 Mcd.