Pointless Dorcy AAA tweak

I tried to get more throw out of the dorcy one night and decided to ground the lens of the LED flat so that more light would be emitted to the sides to be reflected forward. However, now most of the light goes out forward actually missing the reflector creating a strong spill but a weak green ringy hotspot /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif with a darker ring between the spill and hotspot.

This is the weirdest beam I've ever seen. Shoulda learned not to trust the reflector as it is small and is supposed to reflect small amounts of spill light. The original dorcy beam was better /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/banghead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif.

In conclusion, a very un-fundamentally sound experiment. The Led probably needs a deeper reflector imo to capture spill light. But I cannot get into the LED/reflector of a Rayovac grip-clip LED light to try the same experiment. Any ideas? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

OK, since no one else has touched this, I'll suggest leaving the poor little Dorcy's LED alone. It has a great beam. A little WriteRite makes it even better. If you want throw, get that little X1 thing and then leave it in your drawer because the Dorcy's beam is so much more useful. Nice try, though.

How about modding with a side emitting Luxeon. That will ensure that most of the emitted light hits the reflector. Actually, I am in the process of doing this very mod right now [epoxy is curing] on two Dorcy 1AAAs. One is a red and the other is a cyan.

EDIT SE's in a Dorcy 1AAA really rock. Needs a bit of writeright to clean up the beam a bit. Both the Cyan and red SE's are "Q" bin. With brand new cell, the Cyan puts out about 1/2 the flux of an ARC LSH-P and the RED about 1/3. Integrating photometry techniques used for these measurements.

The reflector shouldn't be good enough for a better LED. I cannot mod at all.
Yes, the original beam was brighter, Lurker. But after a little more tweaking, it got a teeny bit more throw but still way off. I guess I need to leave it alone for now. Thanks for your attention and advice.

Bill, I recall seeing where some modder here (can't remember exactly who) got pretty decent side-emitter type results from a standard 5mm LED by grinding out sort of a shallow cup or cone shape down into the top of the LED. Seems like the cup was maybe around 1.5-2mm deep, and the bottom of the cup was nearly all the way down to the LED die.

Beamshots? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

-Mike

Jack, i don't have a dremel. Thanks anyways; a cone/cup shape is interesting.

Xrunner, I can't do beamshots for the following reasons; sorry.
1. No digital camera, have to go through film, scanner, etc.
2. Am extremely incompetent in posting pictures, as i've never done it before. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
3. You don't WANT to see the beamshots. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/jpshakehead.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif