Thrunite TN 42 ,a new record in Throw

Looks good. :+1:

I like it!! Good idea and good luck.
You have a good ‘wifey’ if she is willing to help you in these matters and you don’t have to wear ear plugs. :+1: … :smiley:

This is very cool. While ur at it, why don’t you bring one or two more of your best throwers just so we can see if it’s possible to read with those lights?

My L6 de-domed XP-G2 does 439Kcd (1325M throw), simply won’t reach a mile. The L2 with XHP-35 makes 332Kcd (1152M throw) , again, just not putting anything out there at a mile to see by.

Light travels in an exponential manner, it takes 4 times the light to travel twice the distance. Numbers get thrown around a lot in the forums, but achieving in excess of 600Kcd is just not easy. Wouldn’t surprise me if my 3 watt blue laser would’t reach a mile. Yet my 200mW green one easily does twice that, virtually all about the spectrum and the power it takes to push it.

Giving a quarter lux at a given distance, or the equivalent of a full moon, is difficult to read anything unless it’s in your hand. Looking back at a light source one can see the source from much further out than said source can lay down visible light. A reflector will light up far beyond where you can tell there’s light being made, for example, which is why people should remember to dim their high beams when driving… while the light being made doesn’t seem to reach far, it can cause the oncoming driver to lose night vision and quite possibly run into the one that failed to dim… just sayin. Everyone’s eyes are different of course, and while 90% of the folks here might call BS on what I just said, my daughter’s eyes are hypersensitive at night and she can be night blinded from quite a distance away. Many women suffer this phenomenon. My daughter says an oncoming cars lights pierce her eyes like needles, causing physical pain and making her look away. Obviously potentially dangerous.

My point here is this… tonight if my wife looks at the TN42 at a mile off her eyes won’t be able to see the paper illuminated as well as if she refuses to look at the light directly. At a mere 1/4 lux, the sheet of paper won’t be lit up brightly and will be difficult enough to get a good picture of. I’m planning on using my normal beamshot settings of ISO 1600 , f/5.6, 1/2 sec shutter. I haven’t done anything like this before so I’m not exactly sure what settings to use. I know if it were me on the target end with my main Canon camera I could use settings to make it look like daylight, but of course that’s not the point is it? Imitating what the eye is seeing, that’s the objective. So I’m fairly certain the first attempt will be bogus, would almost bet money my wife will somehow get the camera settings wrong. To that end, I’m debating switching ends with her, let her turn the flashlight on and point it at me, but that brings a whole new set of alignment issues into play.

This just isn’t as easy as it might would seem.

Granted, we are “only” a mile apart, across the lake. But the marina my wife will be at is in a small community, it’ll take some 10-15 minutes to drive between the two spots. The place I will be stationed is a pretty much abandoned loading ramp and dock, trashy, difficult to access, and with a less than desirable public that uses it more for drinking and what not than fishing or boat launching. So it’s got to be me at this site, my wife at the nicer marina. But there are some parking lot lights at the marina, she’ll have to traverse some rocky lakeshore area to get away from the lights, it’s gonna be somewhat tricky. All’s we can do is try, right? :wink: (while watching out for critturs, both creepy crawly kind and vertical ones)

Stepped it up, have 3 tripods now, one to hold the printed target sheet, one to hold the camera taking a picture of the sheet, and one to hold the light and my camera. I printed the sheet on 300gsm Museo Rag photo paper, it’s like cardboard. :wink:

New moon on Friday, so tonight should just have a sliver of moon visible, we have almost zero wind, a storm system just cleared out yesterday so the air is clear, should be perfect conditions, the lake will be glassy smooth, gettting excited! :smiley:

I will go to her site first with her, set up the double tripods, explain what I’ll need her to check and maybe adjust on the little camera, then travel to the other side of the lake and begin the sequence.

Also, I have a honking big “20 Million Candela” spotlight, 12” lens, big 12V sealed lead acid battery, charging at the moment. I’ll give it a go, see if the Automotive H4 bulb can do a mile in that big reflector. I think I have a Phillips Silver Eagle or something like that bulb in it, supposed to be the more pure white higher output car headlight replacement bulb. (It’ll be pathetic, I know) Supposed to be 55W on high beam, it’s got low and high beam, just like in a car.

Now, if only my wife is up to it… fingers crossed, hunting for a rabbit to borrow a foot. :stuck_out_tongue:

Got my fingers & toes crossed…… good luck! :+1:

(Thinking I might just have to take the 3 watt blue laser to shine across the lake and get a photo of that plasma looking beam over the water. :wink: )

Looking forward to your test Dale, it’s crazy how stock lights are now surpassing modded lights.

When we start hacking the status quo, engineers are forced to pick up their game. :wink:

Um, added a trit to my TN42. I had this big fat pretty blue trit sitting here that didn’t fit what I’d ordered it for, and the TN42 is such a go-to light I figured it needed to be seen in the dark, ya know? But how to add it without mucking anything up? So here’s what I did… I drilled a proper hole through a 1” bar of polycarbonate, then I cut off a thin disc after machining it down to fit on the center raised section of the tail cap. (23.5mm I think it was, reduced from 25mm)

Then I glued in the big trit with NOA61 and cured it good. Then I placed a single fat drop of NOA61 in the middle of this tail cap, pushed the polycarbonate disc down onto it so it spread, then cured it. Sorta. As it turns out, polycarbonate blocks UV rays. Ugh! So it took me a lot LOT longer to get a cure around the outer edges so it’s stuck good, don’t know if the middle section will ever cure.

But now I can find my TN42 in the dark. :smiley:

Did I say it’s fat? It’s 3mm x 19mm :slight_smile:

I did get it a little thicker than I intended, it stands proud of the wings on the tail cap. But it’s still capable of tail standing. (I don’t ever do that with a light this size though.)

Nicely done with that trit!

Thank you sir. :wink:

Ok, beam shot… Success! :smiley: Beautiful night, simply stellar. Crazy people going 50mph on the water at night, with no lights, no moon, insane. Other than that, I’m blown away with this TN42. Mind you, it’s not super bright out at a mile. And while my wife did capture it, she failed on the focus so you can’t actually read the print. :person_facepalming:

Here’s a shot from my 7DMkII with 70-200 at the same settings I use for beamshots on the little G1X on the other end of the beam… ISO1600, f/5.6, 1/2 second shutter.

I’ve circled the 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of typing paper in green, my wife is in a coral colored shirt with black pants to the left, also circled. You can actually see her black pants in the light from a mile away!

Here’s the same shot, no green circles so you can pick out the sheet of paper and my wife on your own…

Here’s from the G1X, same settings, right in front of/left of the sheet of paper, Mary swears this is as it appeared to her eyes.

And for kicks and grins, here’s the green laser on the sheet. :wink:

And here’s from my camera again, this time the 5DMkII full frame sensor with a 17-40mm wide angle, at 40mm, with the blue laser. Had to, the lake was so gorgeous. Millions of little minnows swimming right below the surface everywhere!

Oh, even the green laser had a hot spot about 3’–4’ in diameter at a mile. :wink:

Use a beam expander to shrink it.

Interesting possibility, but exactly WHY does my Sportwagen need to go 150mph?

This green laser can put visible light on a cell phone tower over 2 miles away. Can’t imagine why I’d need it to do more. Am blown away that it does what it does, like this TN42! I don’t need to see anything a mile away, but I do like being able to see things half a mile away in such good light. :smiley:

Not sure what you’re referring to in regards to light pollution. The lake was dark, dang near pitch black. The lights in the parking lot at the marina were not spreading far at all and walking out to where the sheet was set up on a tripod it was dangerously dark, without a light you couldn’t see where to step. In the first two pictures (same picture, one with guidance and one without, both full sized 20MP images) the illumination on the bank is purely the TN42. Without the light on, it’s black over there.

Edit: From the closest parking lot light to the target is about 60 yards.

Nice job Mrs. & Mr. DBCustom………… :+1:

Great beamshot Dale!

I remember when I first got into this hobby - which was more than 5 years ago, it was extremely hard to have a 1km LED thrower, let alone a one-mile LED thrower!

My 55W Sanmak SM5200 HID spotlight does around 680~700kcd, and if I am living near with you definitely I would want you to bring along my HID spotlight to join this one-mile beamshot!

My wife complained about not being able to get the sheet in focus, I had the camera set up in manual focus but she said she couldn’t see it well enough to know if the focus was right and shining her headlamp on it blew it out and she couldn’t see any letters at all. When we got home and I saw what she had, I asked her if she realized about 5 stops of exposure adjustment would allow the headlamp to be properly exposed to adjust focus, then reverse the 5 stops and shoot away. She got mad at me for implying she doesn’t know what she’s doing. No win scenario right there.

Winds are up again of course, last night was a rare opportunity. Sorry folks, really really wanted a nice clear legible shot of that sheet.

Here’s a dark shot from my 5DMkII, 21MP full size image at 40mm on a full frame sensor. You’ll have to look at it full size after clicking on it to be able to see across the lake. The target was clearly in full dark no ambient.

Hey DB, remember: “If mama ain’t happy…………. ” :smiley:
In focus or not, it can clearly be read. :+1: