Huge incan illuminator

Hello members!
I just got an interesting “flashlight”(well, 5kg ) on a garage sale.
I can’t identify what is it, but maybe you can help me:
It looks quite old, but very-well designed, some kind of military/industrial light. It also has serial numbers.
Has a 12V 75W bulb, actually it is 62w form DC.

The reflector is nowhere to perfect,it has point corrosion but it works. The diameter is 29.5cm

It is also focusable via sliding bulb:

I tested it, and from 5meters, it does more than 20kLux, that is the limit of my measurement, but i ill re-measure it from farther.
And, i got it with the transformer for 9$.

My question is that under a “budget” renovation, should i install an automotive HID bulb in the place of the incan?
How much increase could i achieve, if any?

This thing needs a cree cxa3590 :slight_smile:

I think the reflector won’t focus a led well, it us designed for bulb type lights.
I wonder if anyone had made such a conversion.
I measured the luxes from 11meters, and it was only 1700lux, or 205kCd. From 5meter, i measured 20klux, which is 500kCd. How is it possible?

probably due to the size, the beam isnt fully collimated yet

i see similar results when measuring high end throwing lights above 300klux - need to measure them at 8-12meters for an accurate throw #

And it is collimated in 5meters, then not in 10?
Anyway, it bounces off the clouds, very faintly, but it reaches them.

You are an experienced modder, do you think that the reflector is suitable for a HID bulb? Or only the try will tell? On eBay i saw a lot of cheapo bulbs and drivers, if you suggest it i would try one. IMHO the hot spot would be more even, due to the more even light emitting.

I've put some HID bulbs in normal halogen car headlights. In each case the beam became quite uneven. I think its' because the cheap bulbs I purchased did not have well shaped bulbs in the light emitting portion of the lights.

EDIT: If I had that reflector in the OP, I would put a HID in it. I think H3 bulbs go in pretty easy in normal ican lights, but I'm not sure.

Well, the beam pattern isn’t very even now, i think because of the filament that is perpendicular to the reflector, not parralel. I just want more power, a lot more power

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I bet it kicks some serious A.

I imagine you already know that 4300K is the most efficient tint for HID's. Wallbuys has a bunch of automotive conversion kits for good prices.

I ordered an 55w kit, but until it arrives, i set up the light with a h3 55w halogen bulb just to see how it performs.
From 5m it is still 500kCd, from 10m, it is only 270kCd, and from 25m, only 230. Imho it is impossible to focus. The beam pattern is also much worse than a led light either with stock bulb or halogen.
If the hid xenon(actually MH) is really 3x brighter than halogen, i can expect only about 700kCd with hid? :frowning:
I knew that its 51 year old reflector isn’t a top performer, but man, it is nearly 30cm. 700kCd and even more can be done with cheap handheld spotlight hid mods not involving super reflectors and dlp bulbs

Are those above throw measurements calculated to 1 meter?

I don't know enough to answer your questions. Your reflector reminded me of a guy on CPF that scratch built a 24" reflector and used a 35watt HID. I don't recall any measurement data, but the beam shots looked amazing. I know your reflector is a little less then half the size, but I would expect that it still has some awesome potential.

I wonder if there are any tricks to finding the focal point. That might help you. Your halogen bulb may be too short to reach it.

Yes, these are converted back to 1m, just measured from different distances.
I can adjust the position of the bulb back and forth easily, but with incans, the beam is just not seems it is perfectly collimated in every position. Maybe it is due to the filament, idk. It has swirls and ugly fog around the center.
I hope the hid will be better in terms of focusability. Unfortumately the shipping time from china sucks recently.

I’ve installed the eBay 55w hid kit. However, it draws only 45watts, so it has to be modded anyway :smiley:
with this ballast:
eBay 55w driver

As you can see, it is nowhere to perfect alignment, in fact even the glass bulb is tilted in its plastic holder(eBay quality sucks)

In my measurement, it does 980kCd measured from 30m. It is quite a throw, but i expected more, a waaay more candlepowers.
Maybe with better positioning, and properly drived bulb i can reach 1M, or 1.2M

It can bounce off the clouds, but imho it isn’t a challange at this diameter(and weight)

You guys if you worked with this type of bulbs i have some questions:
Has anyone dealt with this driver, and can it be tweaked?
What about UV-shielding? IIRC the discharge lamps emit a lot of harmful uv light that has to be shielded? or is it included in the bulb?
what can cause flickering? bcz mine is flickering,i see that the beam is slightly moving and vibrating