My W30 fell apart

Possibly Yes. In lasers the light from the diode exits almost straight so the optic really just needs to true the beam up a little (double convex) to keep it parallel (collomated)

with LED the light from the emitter exits at quite a wide angle with considerable divergence, the lens really has to make a massive adjustment to get it even close to parallel its not true collomation and should really have a second double convex lens after the aspheric to fully collmate the light. this is why you will always have the beam diverging the father it gets away

In LEP i believe because the phosphor is being excited from the top emitting side the light has way less divergence probably not as a tight as a laser diode but a good deal tighter than a conventional LED so they are able to collomate it properly with a double convex

Eye protection is a must, you could put an eye patch on then you will only damage one eye. I AM JOKING!!
i was thinking about hitting a dedomed led with a laser. XPL or XHP35 HI would be the best to start with.
It looks like the diode is soldered into the centre of the PCB and the dump is to the side. might have a few jack daniels for courage and desolder it.
The plastic lens is probably lighter and cheaper and i think the beam could be made tighter with a different lens
Enderman posted links explaining aberration in the 2 lens types remember seeing them but dont know where.

Correct do you think a resistor mod is the way to go? i can do the mod on this driver and do a swap, the new one should be here by friday. Also have a new laser distance meter coming for measurements

I was wrong you are correct

BTWā€¦I wonder if one could use a collar to improve performance and efficiency. Fitment issues aside - it should work with precise enough placement.

I have ordered a marinebeam for the collar i was thinking it was a gimick although i am probably wrong.

I believe this is to prevent dangerous Coherent laser emission from the business end of the light :sunglasses:

See my earlier post , not convinced this will have much effect on this setup

That makes sense so the phosphor is the dump

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Yep exactly that!, phosphorus doesnā€™t reflect it just converts energy to luminescence.

I donā€™t think so. LEP is a Lambertian emitter (much like a LED) and light is scattered in all directions. I just checked it upā€¦
So the beam needs to be narrowed down rather than widened.

While making sure that the emission is Lambertian I stumbled upon a patent for a RLT collar on a LEP. :person_facepalming:

When a layman (like me) can come up with an invention by themselves, it shall not be patentable. But reality shows otherwise.

Oooo well in that case you could massively improve performance :smiling_imp:

it really sucks how they have tied up those collars so no one can use them, they have so many applications and i mean really they could be making a fortune selling them as an upgrade

There greed will backfire because sooner or later the chinese will rip it off and they will have missed out on all of those sales (rant over)

When a layman (like me) can come up with an invention by themselves, it shall not be patentable. But reality shows otherwise.
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Yeah now i will call it Light Recycling Reflector. Today I was talking to a fitter about machining them out of brass and electroplating the inside.

The problem with making them is they need to be Retro reflective , not reflective

I have a hunch the patented ones use the refraction of the glass to adjust the reflected beams angle

They pretty much just make the mirror spherical.

Then any reflection from the focal point goes right back into that point. LEDs and LEPs are not point sources but they mostly symmetrical and an off-axis reflection just hits the opposite side of the emitter.

look at this in reverse with your emitter at the focal point

Bit of interesting info here stars from the paddock

Well the parabolic version could well be doableā€¦ Im still not convinced on the hemispherical one maybe im just being thick here I cant see why they would choose a difficult costly material like glass unless it was needed , and the only reason iv got is refraction ? my understanding is that curving the mirror does not change the angle of reflection , it would still be reflective not retro reflective , having it spherical will however correct for the divergence and refocus the reflected beam

ā€œSeems my W30 fell apartā€¦ā€

The W30 is marketed as a dive light (claimed 100m water resistance), and it just ā€œfell apart?ā€ That doesnā€™t give me much faith in their water resistance claims.

I think it had helpā€¦.

No, they are simply reflective, not retroreflective

But that doesnā€™t work on the hemispherical design

Only the parabolic version can work with reflection alone