Sofirn SP70 Alone $50, PM for AMZ US CODE(LIMITED)

Better late than never I guess. :wink:

Once its here customs won’t care its getting it on the plane on the other side that is hard but that falls on the seller and you can get a refund.

Good to know - might grab a few then. Would be nice if we had more options for local 26650s though. But I guess the market isn’t here for them.

Looks like fun right? I can’t even find a place to test lights where its dark now days to many people in and around the city. You would have to drive for at least an hour to find a dark open spot from my house in either direction with no people. Driving up north not many spots till after Newcastle my girlfriends parents live around there and its quieter but not empty i might go fishing like 11pm or 12am and people are still out. Probably closest would be the royal national park down south.

Its winter soon should be better.

Looks like mine has cleared customs this morning so I may get it around lunchtime Monday :slight_smile: Best charge up my Keeppowers.

Mind you, I’ve purchased this light already so that should speak something… but, for those wondering, the proper parabolic curve to optimize for throw should have been observed as the red line I overlaid on the cutaway drawing below…

And it would have been wider and considerably deeper to really go for it…

Also, please keep in mind that I didn’t design this, I only overlaid it… this comes from the lights that have already succeeded in throwing over a mile from a reflector…. like the TN42 and GT (although the GT missed it somewhat as well), the MF04 came closer but still didn’t nail it. The TN42 throws almost as far as these other lights and is smaller.

If I can assume a 32mm MCPCB was used, this overlay shows just where the reflector deviates from optimized throw…

All this also assuming anyone cares…

And to clarify, I’m not meaning to be criticizing only offering Sofirn suggestions for future use… my intent is to be helpful, that is all. As said, I put my money down already….

Dale, thank you for the overlay.

1) We need to assume the original cutaway diagram is accurate and to scale which I wonder if it is.
2) I thought the parabola shape needed to be different to take the larger die (XHP70 vs XHP35) into account?
3) I wonder if the parabola shape also needs to take into account how large the flat circular area is at the bottom of the parabola where the LED is mounted.

The Russian video, although having a very green tint, shows a pretty bright and small-ish hot spot and rather dim spill area - all of which bode well for decent throw.

By and large it has been determined that the flat space at the aperture should be eliminated and a centering ring that is non reflective replace that mirror plated flat zone. I am almost 100% sure that the GT did not re-design the reflector for the change to 70 over 35.

I have even had the 70 x 3 in a BTU Shocker that had great throw, because the Shocker used a correct profile for the reflector cups. But oh well. In this case the light is complete and it is what it is.

I do like the overall design style of this light, and I will probably not focus on throw but tint quality in mine when it arrives… I’m thinking I might like the beam an MT-G2 produces much better than the 70 series, will have to check it out and see. The wider/shallower reflector they went with, having some orange peel to it’s surface, made me think of the MT-G2 right off the top.

I was curious about the shape of the reflector so I did the overlay to see, just shared it for those that might be interested and thought perhaps Barry could file it for future reference. :wink:

Have you seen how a sliced and diced 3V XHP-50.2 performs in a C8? Really impressive, and 4000 lumens if set-up properly, from a single 20700A Sanyo cell in my case. Quite the pocket rocket. :smiley:

Reviewing the Russian SP70 video again, it shows some Lux readings:

SP70: 85K (1xXHP70.2)
Q8: 65K (4xXPL-HI)
C8T: 50K (1xXPL-HI)
SP31T: 40K (1xXPL-HI)

The SP70 with the large XHP70.2 Domed LED does better than the others - all of which have the small XPL-HI flat dome.
This also bodes well for decent throw while still having a useful non-pinpoint beam (pinpoint beams are not useful IMHO).
Sure, it’s not going to out-throw an XPL35-HI but I’m hoping we’re all going to be surprised by how much it throws….

I would disregard all those lux readings.

My Sofirn Q8 measured 120kcd, not 65kcd.

Sofirn has measured the SP70 at 148kcd on one of their earlier prototypes. Well above 85kcd.

So something seems off with the measurements in that video. The amount they are off seems pretty consistent, though.

65 - 120
85 - 150

Both seems to be about 43–46 too low. Maybe he’s not measuring correctly? IDK.

Ok, a comparable light (albeit heavily modified in that the entire system was changed) I tested my TK61 with 3V XHP-50.2 at 4490 lumens and it makes 294.5Kcd. This is a smooth reflector, plastic even. But that figures out to 1,085.36M throw. So it will be interesting to see if this XHP-70.2 light can best that.

Of course, I am eagerly anticipating the new Sofirn’s arrival. :smiley:

Expect closer to 800-850 meters.

Wellp, a parabola is a parabola is a parabola. Only “stretching” in either axis is what makes them different. Lop off just the very tip of a deep parabola, and you end up with a very shallow parabola, exactly.

So rather than changing the shape of the parabolic reflector, all you’d need to do is adjust the spacing, deeper into or farther away from where it is now.

In fact, by fixing the diameter of the “mouth” of the reflector and the depth, you end up with one and only one parabola. And the focus is in exactly one spot in 3D space. So just put the LED in that sweet spot, and you’re done. And that’s as simple as either using a shim/spacer, or flattening the end of the reflector so the chip sits deeper inside it.

Of course, that might not fit the existing head as-is, but…

I can confirm, I used my own tools and got the same shapes as Dale.
Good catch!

Not true Lightbringer, sorry. The parabola has to follow a formula to achieve the desired result. If it is close to a 1:1 ratio of depth vs height it will exceed in long distance throw. Stretching wider or taller distorts the formula as well as the result. Sometimes it’s more optimal to go with a combined effort, a mix of flood and throw that is more generally appealing, as is the case here. Good throw, but with enough spill to light the way to get to where the beam is shining. So it’s a compromise for the greater good. :wink:

Because you’re referring to a square that’s the LED’s surface, vs a single point-source (small-gap HID, eg), absolutely. Was just saying that in theory, a parabola is a parabola is a parabola. So yeah, the light coming from the corners of the LED are the farthest away from that “sweet spot” and would distort the overall beam.

But it looked to me that you just wanted to adjust the focal point by changing the shape of the reflector, vs just raising/lowering the LED. Yes? No?

Not sure what you were going for…

The original idea, or so I recall, was to build the thrower that would fit between existing margins. Big lumens, big throw, a catchall light for a lot of folks. So I was just looking at the parabolic curve used by the top throwers, trying to see how the Sofirn team deviated from that maximum mindset. The wider shallower reflector should have a much more general use beam profile and as such appeal to a broader audience, but I thought it was supposed to be more about throw. I probably forgot what it was all about and then the parameters changed with the hand off and all that…. I know the guy that has the original prototype though (When it was a Kronos thing) and so I know what they were originally targeting, even if they gave up on it.

If Sofirn was designing the maximum throw HID then again, a very specific formula for throw would have to be applied to the reflector for it to work properly. A parabola is a slice of a cone, true, but the size and overall shape of the cone to begin with directly influences results. Like your typical mega horsepower sports car getting new tires, a tire is a tire is a tire…. or is it?

I ’think’ you pretty well remember correctly. From what I remember it did start out a dedicated thrower. I guess that changed a bit over time. This should have a useful beam hopefully. Looking forward to hearing the first feedback & reviews. :+1:

Suuurrreee…… ’some’ might say or think that.:wink:

This light has nothing to do with the Kronos.