[New Light] Azpheric 74mm Extreme Zoomie (Pic Heavy)

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Good day fellow flashaholics, today I want to present to you a light that a friend and I developed, which we are very excited about, and which we hope would interest a lot of you as well. Both my friend and I are engineers, proper flashaholics, and enjoy pushing all our hobbies to the extreme. As much as we appreciate extreme flooders like the 9xT6, we have a soft spot for very high powered dedicated throwers.


However, as engineers, we appreciate focussed specialization without sacrificing general use, and as we all know, extreme throwers with pencil beams are pretty useless at general use. As a result, they too often become our most expensive shelf queens. With this in mind, my friend and I set out to design a specialized thrower, but with the added functionality to turn into an everyday general flashlight as well.


We decided to base our light on the big 9xT6 host, slap in a nice big aspheric lens, and design the light with a zoomie slider action. Key features of the light are:
- All copper pill
- XM-L2 on copper pcb
- 5A driver
- 74mm aspheric lens
- Zoomie functionality
- 2-3 x 26650


Here are some first prototype pictures. Included in the pictures are my Solarforce L2P and AK-47 as reference for size. Shown below the light is in 3 x 26650 configuration.
Flashlight extended to the zoomed in position:


Flashlight retracted to the zoomed out position:

Flashlight shown from the front:

Next is the business end of the flashlight, the all copper pill and 74mm aspheric lens. The pill screws into the flashlight body, ensuring good thermal transfer from the pill to the body:



I scraped off a bit of the pcb trim to reveal copper pcb:


I’ve taken some preliminary beamshots. The air was very thick with moist and it started to rain, cutting my night excursion short. I have compared the aspheric with my Solarforce Masterpiece Pro-1 with XR-E driven at 1.8-2.0A, and modified AK-47 9xT6 with XM-L2's, each driven at 2.0-2.5A. I don't really have the right light to compare against the aspheric - the MPP-1 uses an old (albeit still good for throw) XR-E which is moderately driven, and on the other side, the modified AK-47 is a monster, 80 watts of light, achieving throw by means of brute force. The aspheric, although it is driven at 5A, can be pushed a lot harder, probably to 6.0-6.5A, but we want to sell the light to the general population as well :D

Below are a Google Maps pic of the 2 sets of beamshots that I took:


In the first shot (blue), it is 260m to the green, but approximately 250m (280yds) to the illuminated area:

First up is the MPP-1 with XR-E:

Which is clearly trumped by the aspheric:

The 9xT6 puts up a very good fight on shorter distances:

Mouse-over 1: MPP-1 (Mouse-out) | Aspheric (Mouse-in)

Mouse-over 2: 9xT6 (Mouse-out) | Aspheric (Mouse-in)


The second shot (red), is about 305m (340yds) to the green:

With the air being thick with moist, the MPP-1 XR-E struggles to reach the green at 305m (340yds):

The aspheric clearly has no issues :)

Even the powerful 9xT6 is starting to struggling in order to reach the green:

Mouse-over 1: MPP-1 (Mouse-out) | Aspheric (Mouse-in)

Mouse-over 2: 9xT6 (Mouse-out) | Aspheric (Mouse-in)


Below are some beamshots showcasing the light’s zoom functionality. The beamshots below were taken with a different camera, and on auto mode.
Zoomed out:



Zoomed halfway:



And finally, fully zoomed in to a square die, the camera just over-exposes and can't capture a clear die image:

Here is a beamshot of my Solarforce L2P with XM-L2 3C, running at 3.04A and in an OP reflector:

Our intention is to produce and sell this light, and to offer an exclusive group buy to BLF if there is sufficient interest.

Thanks for watching, we would appreciate any thoughts/comments?

2

Nice light but a little bit long.

KLUX ?

3

hi Lothar,

That is a nice project, but I have an opinion on these type of lights, bare with me :

To be succesful, your aspheric light must compare succesfully to the new and budget-friendly Uniquefire UF-1405. That can be in three ways:

1) the optical design is superior. This is not the case: the 1405 has a descent quality 71mm aspheric lens which is comparable to yours and the 1405 lens has a shorter focal length which makes for almost equal throw but with larger hotspot zoomed in and more light output zoomed out (more useful).

2) alternatively, you deliver the light at full capacity, so with a dedomed XM-L2 driven at maximum current (5A sounds great btw). The UF-1405 only reaches maximum performance after modding of the driver and emitter, not everyone is willing to do that, in stock form it is a very dissappointing big block of aluminium.

3) make your light more lightweight than the UF-1405. E.g. use 18650 batteries (1, or 2 perhaps in 2S configuration with batteries parallel, like the Small Sun ZY-T08) and a thinner construction but with enough finning to handle the heat of a XM-L2 at 5A. It will make your flashlight more versatile.

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For comparison, the UF-1405, after modding, is capable of 400+ klux@1meter on a dedomed XM-L2, more with a XP-G2 (I just showed 380klux 30 seconds after switch-on with a crappy dedomed XM-L2 3C emitter).

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@Xander: I'll try and measure the klux and tailcap readings tonight. The light can be used with 2 x 18650/26650 or 3 x 18650/26650.

@djozz: Thanks for the comments. Yeah, when we started with this project, the UF-1405 was still non-existent, and have since come to our attention. As is, there is a number of things which our light have, which the UF-1405 doesnt:

- XM-L2 (from the pictures on Fasttech, it still looks like XM-L)

- Driven at 5A (we have considered driving the XM-L2 higher, but not everyone will handle the light with care)

- Full copper pill with copper pcb

- 3-mode driver without any blinky modes

- Ability to use either 2 or 3 batteries

The question we have to ask ourselves is: is our differentiations enough. We wanted to create a robust and rugged flashlight, with above average performance and the versatility of extended runtimes, which can be used in hunting, searching, camping, etc.

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The aspheric seems of decent to good quality. Where did you buy it?

7

I don’t like the fact that the lens isn’t protected by the bezel.

I like that you set it up as a sliding zoom.

I don’t mind the length as a light like this benefits from good runtime.

You need a 6.5 amp option to really get the most out of the Xm-l2 with all that copper.

Price will be the deciding factor for a light like this. With the fact that it’s based on a host, it’s possible it’s going to be reasonably priced. If it’s not most people are going to go with a 1504 or 1405 and modify it if they’re looking for a 300-400kcd light on a budget.

Just the things that came to mind.