I mentioned something related to this on the "other" forum, but you all know how that goes.
Figured I would throw it out here and see what you guys think, maybe someone will implement it and get rich.
What if you could make a P60 reflector that eliminated the hotspot altogether? By that I mean something that distributed the light equally throughout the entire area covered by what we would normally call the spill. With the strength of the XML at 3A, that would create an amazing wall of light. It might not extend past 200 feet, but for a lot of applications it would be quite suitable.
Or maybe I'm just delusional, I dunno. But I think the XM-L is ripe for that kind of application in a P60 host.
i am no expert in this area. but i think in order to create an uniform wall of light, the light from the LED needs to be reflected randomly b4 exiting the flashlight. u can try putting a piece of wrinkled aluminum foil ( cut out a hole for the LED of course) in the p60 reflector and see if that works.
Candle mode. Can be useful too. Lots of lights with their heads removed make high powered candles. The HS-802 does nicely once you've got the @$%^^%& head off and put in a more powerful emitter - then all you have to do is make it tailstand. The original AA maglites and the first generation LED ones could have their heads removed and used as stands for candle mode. Worked well too.
It can be done with a dropin and a battery, some wire and some duct tape.
Doesn't Malkoff have a diffusing lens he puts on some of his drop-ins? Like something they use with floodlights for your house. Gives a totally smooth beam, or close to it.
With the reflector off (Candle mode), you get a 180 degree spill as opposed to about the 60 degree that you obtain with the reflector.
I was thinking about a chromed mini-deflector somewhere right above the emitter, shaped like a sharp cone with the point of the cone aimed down at the emitter. That might reflect light back to the sides and out, eliminating the hotspot but giving you all the original light.
Due to Cutter mistakenly shipping the wrong lens, my triple XM-L 1D mag is still sporting the CUTE wide frosted lens. Although not a P-60 drop-in, at 3k L it definately qualifies as a wall of light.
> "I was thinking about a chromed mini-deflector somewhere right above the emitter, shaped like a sharp cone with the point of the cone aimed down at the emitter. That might reflect light back to the sides and out, eliminating the hotspot but giving you all the original light."
That's actually the wrong idea. Light from the emitter that does not hit the reflector produces the spill. All light hitting the reflector is focused into the hotspot. Your idea would reduce the spill, not the hotspot.
If you want an even flood without hotspot you need a strong plano-convex lens and place it very near the LED (much closer than the focal length), like all the flood-to-throw zoom lights in flood mode (pretty much what oldbobk described, too). That lens may be quite small; I've seen someone using an SST-90 dome for that purpose :)
From your original description of even flood in the coverage of standard spill you've described what a flood-to-zoom torch gives in flood mode. Zero hotspot and a pure bath of even light. If you don't have a zoomer you need to get one. They are very practical for all around use and lots of fun to play with on a humid night.
