Was on ebay searching for a used light I could buy to salvage parts from for my light and came across this. Dont know what to make of this as the normal price is nearly $10k.
Wouldnt that be a great price? :bigsmile: A C&F was my first xenon arc that started all the madness.
The part# you linked is for the remote focus control station. Youd still need the power supply and searchlight.
http://carlislefinch.com/orig/marine/specs/4441xrfdim.pdf
http://carlislefinch.com/500%20Watt%20Xenon%20Manual%20Control%20Configuration
The VS3 I previously linked is at least twice the light and far better made. If it were made today, I think it would very likely exceed $50k
Ahh false ebay titles. What a disappointment...
More pics of the mounting mechanism. The red stuff is a high temp silicon centering ring for the reflector. It might not be pretty but it does its job very well. Its gonna be covered when the reflector and lens seal is installed anyway so no need to worry about it looking good.
Looking good!
Thank you flashpilot.
I also got the basic bulb mount made. Allows for full, easy, and precise adjustment of the bulb. Probably the most important function needed to be able to get the perfect beam pattern. Got to get my brother to make the bulb holder in his lathe but since I don't have the bulb yet I don't know the dimensions it needs to be.
And for fun here is a cool pic of an automtive HID being used as a test mule in the reflector.
very nice project!
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Great job! As you said, a good lamp adjuster is vital for these SA lamps and you can’t go wrong with springs and threaded rod.
Thanks guys. I thought on how to make the mount for quite some time and I'm actually pleased with how it turned out. Just hope it works as good as it appears to when I actually have a bulbs mounted and all the extra weight it's gonna add. I have several different length and strength springs to fine tune it's performance if need be.
Should work fine. Another option is to focus the lamp with this setup. Measure the height of the adjusting plate on each corner. Then remove the springs and use two nuts on each rod. One over and one under the plate. Since you have the measurement, you will be very close on fist try. That will never move, and you can still adjust it. Just a little bit more inconvenient.
Good idea! That would definitely hold the bulb in the proper place as you said. Ill keep that in mind.
Made the lens holder out of bent L brackets. Used some super glue to glue some rubber onto the bottom of the brackets to keep from scratching the polycarbonate lens. I dont think the outer edges are going to get very warm and thus the super glue should hold up just fine.
So I got really curious and wanted to know exactly how my light with a 35watt automotive HID bulb will stack up against the maxabeam. Since I finally got the lens holder made I was able to take it back outside again tonight without having to worry about beatles going up in smoke from flying into the bulb.
Here are some of the images I took. The Maxabeam is on high in all the images.
Maxabeam on the right
Maxabeam on the left
About 150ft away from the lights. Maxabeam on the right.
About 300ft away from the lights. Maxabeam on the right.
The automotive HID is clearly much brighter as is evident in the first 2 pics. The Maxabeam still dominates on throw as is shown by the last 2 pics. I think this reflector is doing a great job at collimating the beam from a bulb with a much longer arc than a short arc. I'm thinking that means this will be a stellar performer once paired with a high output short arc.
That is some beautiful shots! Looks like you have a dark night sky and not too much light polution at your place? As for the beam, you will always get a tight hotspot and a bit of “corona” with a short focal length reflector as yours, but it will definitely collimate a lot more with a shorter arc.
We have the usual what appears to be about a 500watt Metal Halide security light in our yard as well as in several of our neighbors yards. Other than that the nearest bright lights are in the closest town about 5 miles away. Our night time sky is pretty clear. Just after I snapped one of the photos a really bright shooting star went streaking across the sky. One of the brightest I have seen in a while! Wish my camera had still been rolling...
It just kind of suprising to me how the maxabeam's reflector is several times smaller than mine and has a dimmer light yet is still able to out throw it. Arc length must have everything in the world to do with throw.
Just ordered the ballast but I have a few questions that I may have to call the mfg. about. So I found the ballast used on ebay. Its the Lumina Power XLB-300. Its rated at 300 watts. But when I look at the pdf file with the ballast specs it has a maximum output of 23amps and 25volts. If you do the math thats 575watts max output. If that's sustainable for a significant length of time I may be able to power a 500 watt bulb with this ballast
. I'll write Lumina power to find out for sure.
I’m 99% certain that is a 300w max output supply. The values has to be separate max values (or a print error) On some xenon lamps, voltage can go down to 12 volt (12*25=300W) so that make sense.
So am I understanding you correctly to mean that if the ballast is outputting a max of 23amp the volts must be 13 volts or lower? And if the ballast is outputting a max of 25 volts then the amps must be 12 amps or lower? In other words it cant output 25 volts at the same time its outputting 23amps?
Correct. But you can of course contact Lumina power and ask them.
That makes sense. I sent Lumina Power a message just to confirm that its right.
Small update. Ballast is here. Got most of it wired up. Might be able to test it Monday!
Think I'm gonna ditch Xenon short arc. Too inefficient, hard to mount, and very big. Osram HMI bulbs look like a much simpler solution and they are more readily available and cheaper. The biggest advantage though is they are way more efficient. Seriously thinking about using the Osram 800W/ SEL but Osram does not list the arc length of the bulb.
I remember reading a post a while back on CPF about bulbs having a tubular arc chamber do not focus as well as bulbs with a spherical arc chamber. At such high lumens as the Osram HMI bulbs and the Phillips MSR youll get extreme throw either way but I was wondering if the Philips MSR bulb, though less efficient and dimmer, would out-throw the HMI bulbs because of the spherical arc chamber they have vs the tubular arc chamber that the HMI bulbs have. Anyone have any knowledge about this?