IsaacHayes
Flashlight Enthusiast
5W Green bin V2T in pewter 2D Mag, cut down reflector, .5ohm resistor, and 6AA battery pack.
Label was made in photoshop, printed on a laser printer, and laminated, then secured to the light with clear packing tape.
It reads: ! WARNING: high output device. avoid direct eye exposure at all distances. Type: InGan Diode. Wavelength 505nm. Approx. Output: ~950mW.
Yes, I know 505 is cyan and not green, as I was going to go originally with cyan, but could not find one that wasn't traffic light green. So instead I got this pure green, which you don't see every day unlike traffic lights. It's not a yellowish green which I've seen, but a pure, perfect, neon-green.
Below: The one on left is the 5W Green, Right is 1W Red-Orange. Notice how the green's heatsink is recessed into the body. This allows the head to be screwed almost all the way on, and reduced head wobble. Infact, there is none with this light. I measured before installing. The R/O light isn't recessed as far, for fear of scratching off the anodizing, and no longer having isolation from the negative body, which would short out on the R/O's positive slug. I used AA epoxy on the emitter, and the pedistal, and 4 layers of black sharpie, and the anode still conducts to the heatsink! The heatsink doesn't conduct to the body though. The 5W green had Artic Alumina Grease applied around it before being forced into the body. The 5W's wires are multi stranded, and are way easier to work with than the solid wires I used for the R/O. It's hard to tell but the 5w's wires are perfectly aranged around the emitter. The R/O luxeon is mounted on top of a little aluminum "square" peice to ensure it would focus correctly. I found out on the 5W, to get the tightest focus, you need to sand the backside of the reflector a bit. You do not remove any of the reflective surface, or enlarge the hole, but simply reduce the thickness of the plastic, which keeps the reflective surface from laying flush with the heatsink. I removed just a little bit, and can focus even beyond the tighest focus to wide again. After assembling the R/O and figuring I would need to raise the luxeon with the "pedistal" for correct focus as I have read before, I realized I probably do not need it at all. I measured at the tighest focus with the lens removed, and found that the top surface of the pedistal, sits well below the bottom of the reflector. The next R/O or 1W/LuxIII HD mod I do, I will test this out, and use the method I did for the 5W, as it's one less thermal interface, and looks a lot cleaner!
Here are some beamshots. I had semi-used 2D batteries in the R/O. The bin of the R/O is S2F. The 5W green was still using the same Wallgreen cheapie alkalines that I have first put into it. I measured current of 300ma for the R/O and 130ma for the 5W green. The R/O was brighter, but thats to be expected with such little power going into the 5W. With 6 fresh AA's the 5W pulls only 800ma! I now wish I would of left out the .5ohm resistor, but was afraid of the low T Vf. I have some NiMH that I will eventually run it on, once I get a charger. Hopefully those will push the draw up to 1amp or more, as I do not want to take it apart to remove the resistor, as I did such a perfect job soldering the wires onto the luxeon!!
After taking these beamshots I realised the R/O was not at the tightest focus. When both are focused tightest they can go, the beams are the same size, except for when at long distances, the 5w green will spread out more than the R/O.
Here is the modified 6AA battery holder. This was the hardest and most time consuming part of the mod. I used a peice of wood and a screw for the postive side, and a cut peice of galvanized straping bracket hardware of some sort that was lying around for the ground. To the side is a beamshot of the 5w green running at 130ma still, vs a flourcent lighting fixture. It's doing pretty well still for being so underdriven! When on fresh AA's at 800ma, you can shine it on a wall in broad day light and the reflection will hurt your eyes. For some reason though, I like the R/O more... I guess the color is more natural and fun to play with. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif I'm going to hate to see it go as I built it for someone for hunting purposes. I find myself playing with it more than my 5w green!
I finished the 5W Green mod late St. Pat's day and took it over to a friends house. It was super foggy that night too, and it was like having a light saber that reached 50 feet into the air! Also, I had not sanded down the reflector yet so it wasn't quite at it's tighest focus. One thing to notice is if you shine it on a CD to see the spectrum, you will see a lot of orange in it as well. This makes since because flourcent orange items like a bottle of Tide will glow back orange! So it's not totally monochromatic! Also, closing your eyes and getting blasted with this causes the victum to see lots of green light through thier eyelids! The R/O will cause the victum to see bright yellow/white as it goes right through their eyelids even more so!
The R/O was built for someone who wanted a Red one after seeing my 5W green. He wants it for hunting as animals don't see reds/oranges/etc as well as we do at night. I asked him if he wanted R/O as it's brighter and he said yes. I also verrified that the R/O wouldn't be seen by animals over the Red. Not only does the R/O make 10 more lumens over the Red, but it's color is inbetween amber and red, so it preserves your night vision, but has great contrast over deep red! And it runs super bright on only 2D batteries for a long time! Perfect for him! Easier for me to mod! You could hunt or leave it on all night long as a decorative lamp and the batteries wouldn't be run down much at all since they are large D's and the draw is only 300ma!
I tested out the R/O the night it was finished and shined it outside. The side spill is less detectable and more covert than the green, and yet contrast is way better and you can make out things within the hotspot. The R/O doesn't have a beam in the air like the green does, due to different wavelengths. You can still see dust in the air though passing through the beam. While shining it far into the woods, I saw 2 reflections. I figured they were some object, but while keeping the R/O on it, I switched on the green. As soon as I did that the animal would close their eyes. I repeated it several times noting the eyes closing or moving/shifting around. I guess it was a racoon or something it was so far off all I could see was it's reflective eyes. It didn't know I was there with the R/O or it didn't care much. But it sure didn't like that green!! I think the guy I built this R/O for will love it. It actually works for what he is wanting to use it for! I heard a noise the other day at some apartments and turned it on and saw a racoon climbing a tree, and his eyes were like two red laser pointers shinnig back at me! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif So the animals actually stick out at you!! This is very effective!
I got a plenty more cool mods in the works. 5 more mods! 2 large torches, 2 small pocketables, and 1 for the car! I'll get 'em made when ever I get time!
That's all for now! Nighty-Night! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif
Label was made in photoshop, printed on a laser printer, and laminated, then secured to the light with clear packing tape.
It reads: ! WARNING: high output device. avoid direct eye exposure at all distances. Type: InGan Diode. Wavelength 505nm. Approx. Output: ~950mW.
Yes, I know 505 is cyan and not green, as I was going to go originally with cyan, but could not find one that wasn't traffic light green. So instead I got this pure green, which you don't see every day unlike traffic lights. It's not a yellowish green which I've seen, but a pure, perfect, neon-green.
Below: The one on left is the 5W Green, Right is 1W Red-Orange. Notice how the green's heatsink is recessed into the body. This allows the head to be screwed almost all the way on, and reduced head wobble. Infact, there is none with this light. I measured before installing. The R/O light isn't recessed as far, for fear of scratching off the anodizing, and no longer having isolation from the negative body, which would short out on the R/O's positive slug. I used AA epoxy on the emitter, and the pedistal, and 4 layers of black sharpie, and the anode still conducts to the heatsink! The heatsink doesn't conduct to the body though. The 5W green had Artic Alumina Grease applied around it before being forced into the body. The 5W's wires are multi stranded, and are way easier to work with than the solid wires I used for the R/O. It's hard to tell but the 5w's wires are perfectly aranged around the emitter. The R/O luxeon is mounted on top of a little aluminum "square" peice to ensure it would focus correctly. I found out on the 5W, to get the tightest focus, you need to sand the backside of the reflector a bit. You do not remove any of the reflective surface, or enlarge the hole, but simply reduce the thickness of the plastic, which keeps the reflective surface from laying flush with the heatsink. I removed just a little bit, and can focus even beyond the tighest focus to wide again. After assembling the R/O and figuring I would need to raise the luxeon with the "pedistal" for correct focus as I have read before, I realized I probably do not need it at all. I measured at the tighest focus with the lens removed, and found that the top surface of the pedistal, sits well below the bottom of the reflector. The next R/O or 1W/LuxIII HD mod I do, I will test this out, and use the method I did for the 5W, as it's one less thermal interface, and looks a lot cleaner!
Here are some beamshots. I had semi-used 2D batteries in the R/O. The bin of the R/O is S2F. The 5W green was still using the same Wallgreen cheapie alkalines that I have first put into it. I measured current of 300ma for the R/O and 130ma for the 5W green. The R/O was brighter, but thats to be expected with such little power going into the 5W. With 6 fresh AA's the 5W pulls only 800ma! I now wish I would of left out the .5ohm resistor, but was afraid of the low T Vf. I have some NiMH that I will eventually run it on, once I get a charger. Hopefully those will push the draw up to 1amp or more, as I do not want to take it apart to remove the resistor, as I did such a perfect job soldering the wires onto the luxeon!!
After taking these beamshots I realised the R/O was not at the tightest focus. When both are focused tightest they can go, the beams are the same size, except for when at long distances, the 5w green will spread out more than the R/O.
Here is the modified 6AA battery holder. This was the hardest and most time consuming part of the mod. I used a peice of wood and a screw for the postive side, and a cut peice of galvanized straping bracket hardware of some sort that was lying around for the ground. To the side is a beamshot of the 5w green running at 130ma still, vs a flourcent lighting fixture. It's doing pretty well still for being so underdriven! When on fresh AA's at 800ma, you can shine it on a wall in broad day light and the reflection will hurt your eyes. For some reason though, I like the R/O more... I guess the color is more natural and fun to play with. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif I'm going to hate to see it go as I built it for someone for hunting purposes. I find myself playing with it more than my 5w green!
I finished the 5W Green mod late St. Pat's day and took it over to a friends house. It was super foggy that night too, and it was like having a light saber that reached 50 feet into the air! Also, I had not sanded down the reflector yet so it wasn't quite at it's tighest focus. One thing to notice is if you shine it on a CD to see the spectrum, you will see a lot of orange in it as well. This makes since because flourcent orange items like a bottle of Tide will glow back orange! So it's not totally monochromatic! Also, closing your eyes and getting blasted with this causes the victum to see lots of green light through thier eyelids! The R/O will cause the victum to see bright yellow/white as it goes right through their eyelids even more so!
The R/O was built for someone who wanted a Red one after seeing my 5W green. He wants it for hunting as animals don't see reds/oranges/etc as well as we do at night. I asked him if he wanted R/O as it's brighter and he said yes. I also verrified that the R/O wouldn't be seen by animals over the Red. Not only does the R/O make 10 more lumens over the Red, but it's color is inbetween amber and red, so it preserves your night vision, but has great contrast over deep red! And it runs super bright on only 2D batteries for a long time! Perfect for him! Easier for me to mod! You could hunt or leave it on all night long as a decorative lamp and the batteries wouldn't be run down much at all since they are large D's and the draw is only 300ma!
I tested out the R/O the night it was finished and shined it outside. The side spill is less detectable and more covert than the green, and yet contrast is way better and you can make out things within the hotspot. The R/O doesn't have a beam in the air like the green does, due to different wavelengths. You can still see dust in the air though passing through the beam. While shining it far into the woods, I saw 2 reflections. I figured they were some object, but while keeping the R/O on it, I switched on the green. As soon as I did that the animal would close their eyes. I repeated it several times noting the eyes closing or moving/shifting around. I guess it was a racoon or something it was so far off all I could see was it's reflective eyes. It didn't know I was there with the R/O or it didn't care much. But it sure didn't like that green!! I think the guy I built this R/O for will love it. It actually works for what he is wanting to use it for! I heard a noise the other day at some apartments and turned it on and saw a racoon climbing a tree, and his eyes were like two red laser pointers shinnig back at me! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif So the animals actually stick out at you!! This is very effective!
I got a plenty more cool mods in the works. 5 more mods! 2 large torches, 2 small pocketables, and 1 for the car! I'll get 'em made when ever I get time!
That's all for now! Nighty-Night! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif
