Uniquefire uf-1405 with a xhp-70 and fet driver crammed inside. Running on two laptop pack pulled 18650s. When I have a few extra bucks to blow I’ll grab some high current 26650s :evil:
Screenshot from Google Earth with an approximate length of 950 (+–100) feet!
EDIT: Looking back I think I was actually hitting the rock face further to the left at 880 feet
I had a lot of moonlight (about 3/4 full), so it was pretty bright out. Here’s a slightly overexposed control shot. Just a touch brighter than how it looked to my eyes.
Canon Powershot SX110is f/2.8 iso 200 equivalent 13 second exposure for both pictures.
Fully zoomed in
It’s got a lot of rings and not the prettiest beam, but it does go past focus just far enough to not show the cross in the die. Still needs a few tweaks, but I’m pretty happy with it.
Nothing but ranches and bomb range out there. It’s about 10 miles outside of Socorro, which is a town of only 10,000. In a place where it’s normal to hear several explosions a day it takes a lot to get people’s attention and they’re used to seeing weird stuff.
With the beautiful Cibola National Forest near there, you live in zoomie land… There is not a good way to get the scale of the area out there, it is truly a beautiful region. Perfect land for throwers.
I’m surrounded by perfect thrower terrain here. I’ve got the Quebradas, San Lorenzo Canyon, Box Canyon, and the Magdalenas all within a half hour drive from me. Plenty of proving grounds here. This is the first zoomie I’ve used that I actually like. I never thought I’d build something that outdoes my 6x SRK in this terrain, but I think I’ve finally found it.
Thanks for all the kind words folks, I’ll try to get some more pictures of my “comet” canon when I head back home in a few days. :bigsmile: I’m in the process of moving, but once I get settled in I’ll see if I can dig out a lux meter and get around to building an integrating sphere.
Awsome light. I’ve wonder about building this same set up for awhile but wasn’t willing to risk it until I saw somebody else’s results first. Based on that throw and beam I believe I may have to build me one for a general purpose, grab and go light.
De-doming might be coming in the future after I do a bit more research. I’ve only done it to XMLs, but if I can use the same gasoline method it might be worth a try.
Is the beam blue like that in person? I built an xhp70 light and the beam starts white then fades to blue, I thought it was an issue with heatsinking, but I've seen the javelot beam is blue too so is that normal In some high output lights?
A lot of convex lenses will turn the beam blue, it’s a trick of light caused by the curvature of the lens. It’s actually the same effect you see when you look at a rainbow, only it’s limited to part of the color spectrum. By the way a rainbow seen from above is a circle.
Fantastic light! I’ll have to give that a try one of these days. I also live in an area where zoomies can really reach out a long long ways. I often get asked to make them for the local charter fisherman on lake Huron too. Pretty easy to spot a buoy with a light like that I would imagine.
From what I understand de-doming can only be done on these by very carefully cutting the dome off. Gas will destroy the underlayer like an MT-G2.
I use gas on any of them that I can, but in lights like the MT-G2 I use a very very sharp knife and I heat the dome up first with a hot air gun. Then I take one little slice at a time off until I get right down to it.
The beam isn’t nearly as blue as it appears to my camera.
Shame about the de-dome not working with gasoline, I’ve never had a chance to try the heat and razor method and I’m nervous about doing it to such an expensive LED. At least it gives me a good excuse to buy another heat gun.
8)