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

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:

Cool!

:slight_smile: nice.

Really, really nice :wink:

Thanks again guys! :wink:

I think these might be the last ones for a while. The long distance ones where always my goal.

Maxabeam Gen3 @75W vs Project Excalibur :

270m:

impressive light!

Fine craftsmanship + advanced skills = near-priceless tech.

Respect.

The Osram Black Flat that is currently in the light has started to become damaged. There is a black dot in the middle that is growing over time when the light is used. To recap, this led has it’s maximum brightness at 4.45A (tested on a large, passively cooled heatsink) and it’s driven at 4.5A in the light. I sometimes run the light for longer periods at max output.

My plan is to put the new Osram Boost HX LED into the light when it becomes available. The light was designed with such a high-current LED in mind (driver goes up to 12A, lots of mass). Using a more conservative current (6A-7A?) and advanced heatsinking techniques (soldering the led with Indium, liquid metal thermal paste) should ensure that the LED never dies again. With a bit of luck the luminous intensity should stay the same and not drop as much when the light is running.

The wider beam with at least 50% more lumens will be more visible making the light more impressive.