Project Excalibur - Next Generation LED Thrower (many pics) - UPDATE 2018-01-24

Show them direct comparison with 300 kcd Brinyte you have?

This?

It's a bit too close actually, the beam of Excalibur isn't fully formed yet.

I thought on some fresh outdoor pics. Lets say 200 meters or less distance?

It is clear even from close pic that candela difference.

It might take me a while, it's cold currently . Here's a gif comparing it with my 330kcd Brinyte. I used the old beamshots ("only" 1.5Mcd) and brightened the pics a bit to make viewing them during daytime easier.

Distance: 280m

Crazy :slight_smile:

Very impressive project, love how the maxabeam head is so well integrated into the body, like it was always meant to look like that :slight_smile:

I am a big fan of long throwing lights, there is nothing like putting a spot of light over a mile away, i have a Gen3 Maxabeam and you can pretty much put a spot of light on anything the eye can see.

So 12-13 milion candelas?

That's a lot of work. The Maxabeam needs to measured in around 100m distance to get accurate values.

EDIT: here are some new 50m (164ft) beamshots, again with the 330kcd Brinyte. Unfortunately there are overexposed by too much. The hotspot of the Excalibur is blown out.

So this is 1.5mcd vs 300kcd. Impressive indeed :+1: Now I hope in future you will be able to reach even more than that with better led emitters and get close to that maxabeam V3 12mcd mark.

The pics are new, so 1.7Mcd. :wink:

Beating the Maxabeam will be possible with laser phosphor. With LEDs it will be very difficult. Could take 5-10years still or maybe never.

Oh. I see you are very optimistic guy lol :smiley:

My light should beat the maxabeam in less than 5 months :slight_smile:
Obviously it will be a bit bigger, but still counts as a flashlight :slight_smile:

Does it have wheels and a remote?

If not, I think it still can be called a flashlight!

Looking forward to you post&pictures.

Grtz
Nico

Well yes, of course.

I meant beating the Maxabeam by using the same head or at least the same reflector size. Not possible with LED currently.

With a lens the same size and a custom wavien collar that collects more than 60 degrees it should be possible using a synios LED.
Problem is that getting a lens that size will require a custom made option which will cost $1000, and another $1000 for a custom collar.
Also it will output like 100 lumens :smiley: not the most practical thing.

But you’re right if you’re talking about using the same optic, the reflector, then it will probably be at least 5 years or maybe never since the laser+phosphor will replace high intensity LEDs.
I think the acebeam W10 will also only produce a few hundred lumens or maybe even less, they don’t even advertise the lumen output lol.

It continues.

During a very clear night.

The camera was around 10-15m away from the light. I used the longest possible exposure.

Since many of you probably don't know the the driver that was used here, I have some more pictures.

From left to right: classic 105C, Ampere! driver, Stripe v4 dimmer module, USB programmer for the dimmer module (the linked pages are in German). You can ugnor the cables, they are not stock.

The inductor is rather large:

Awesome. Thanks for sharing! That Driver and Dimmer look so interesting!

I have added a clickable table of contents to the first post to make finding things easier.

Also, here's another beamshot (240m - 787ft). This time it was raining:

Finally it's done!

Beamshots in 3.4km (2.1mi) distance!

The conditions where very good which allowed me to make the beamshots I have been wanting for quite a while (ANSI distance of the light or further). They were taken with an Olympus E-520 using the following settings:

  • Aperture F/8
  • Shutterspeed 30s
  • ISO 1600

I purposefully overexposed them to allow for viewing under daylight conditions (in reality the sky was dark). The target is the water tower to the left of and behind the building (which itself was 1.4km away) in a distance of 3.4km.

14mm:

42mm:

cropped:

Gif:

Some more fuzzy smartphone pics: