Oh yes, now that you reminded me…. i wanted to PM you initially but if the others don’t mind the OT here i’ll just share it here for a fun read. Apologies for the OT, well at least this one is a thrower thread.
It’s not really a built thread per se. Note this is 2011’s tech, so it might look outdated when compared to current tech
Someone else also did a 100W swap after me. He got 2.6m lux with a 100W ballast but i am not sure what bulb was he using (100W bulb or 55W bulb?), and also fine-tuning the way how the bulb seats into the reflector is quite important as it is a small 3mm arc gap on a 11.5” reflector (host diameter is 13”) as initially i got only 1.8 million plus lux before getting 3.8M lux.
I remember that that were also quite a bit of variances in output between my 1 dozen or so 4300K 55W bulbs, such is the huge variances of low-cost China domestic quality components meant for the China market but conveniently shipped internationally as low cost aftermarket swaps. Same goes for the 35W bulbs, and to a limited degree the ballasts as well.
I made a mistake, it’s a 12V 5.5AH battery. After battery sag i guesstimate should be around 9V? I don’t know the current also, but i think it might be around 80W at most? These ballasts sometimes could vary quite a bit in power output as well.
But some years after 2011 I also tried on a 30A capable variable power supply with output at 24V just for fun, it’s visually significantly brighter than the above due to efficiency gain as I dialed up from 12V to 24V on the 12-24V 100W ballast (might be 80W on 9V, then on 24V it might be closer to 120-130W as i have read those figures on other 100W ballasts before). So if you don’t mind using some 4-6S RC pack and cables, i guesstimate it can hit 5 million lux easily if you have a decent 55W bulb and bulb seating is optimised.
But i think the bulbs won’t last more than an hour of total runtime even @ 1 min max burst each?
OMG i cannot imagine that i paid usd 165 incld shipping last time in 2011, $100 for the light and usd65 shipping. Of course It can be done nowadays for ~ 3 times less money with my current methods, oh well….that’s the hobby for ya.
PS. I know the hotspot looks yucky. But seriously such lights are really just for pure fun….no real practical usage. That’s why i was gunning the bulbs so much (good thing they are just a few dollars each), like how nowadays some would gun a XHP-70 to what, 7-8k lumens and 10k lumens on the bench?
I guess the Astrolux MF04 would get much more use, fingers crossed that i can get a better price on 11/11 so that i can make the dive. (no guarantees)