The OptoFire Searchlight | BEAMSHOTS on page 3 | record-breaking aspheric LED thrower

Thank you! :slight_smile:

Great project and story! :+1:
More expensive than I thought it would be, but you really optimized the heatsinking.

Did you ever measure it without the collar? It would be interesting to see how much gain is possible with this LED since it’s smaller and more cool-white compared to de-domed XP-G2s.

What is the tint like?

Thanks :slight_smile:
Most expensive part was the collar, second is the overkill battery :stuck_out_tongue: luckily I had that stuff from previous projects so I didn’t have to pay $400 up front to build this light.

Never measured without the collar, however the lens is farther away and doesn’t use anywhere near the full 60 degrees of light after the collar, so I’m working on some calculations to see what the benefit would be (for future flashlights) to have a collar with a smaller exit hole.

The tint is pure white and a little blue, likely due to me overdriving it at 600% it’s rated current xD

It’s rated for 1.8A :wink:

Concerning tint: that does seem a bit weird. Have you tried reducing the current to see if the candela go up (while using the collar)?

Calculations:
I get a luminance of 442cd/mm2 for your light. That’s high, but sma measured a XP-G2 at 470 with a perfectly alligend collar.

It’s tested values are for 1A
“Status
Product Type
Ordering No.
full production
LUW HWQP-8M7N-ebvF46fcbB46-8E8HQ65111A8023
Product Family
Color of Emission
Wavelength
Viewing angle at 50 % IV
Brightness
Grouping Current
OSLON white Cx,Cy 0.33/0.34 120° 107 cd 1000 mA”
it says 1.5A max on the datasheet, 2.5A surge.

How do you measure cd/mm^2?
Just measure the lux at 1m and divide it by the LED die area?

Also no I haven’t tried it at 5 or 5.5A in the flashlight, the driver I have just does 6A, the next mode is like 3A or something.

Your right, I had the wrong value in mind, it’s 1.5A.

It’s always the same equation for luminance:
Luminous_intensity[cd] = luminance_LED[cd/mm^2] * area_of _reflector_or_lens_as_seen_from_hotspot[mm^2] * -reflectivity_of_reflector]- * transmission_of_lens[

Since it is an equation you can can calculate any of the values if you have all the other ones. I calculated the luminance using 120mm diameter and 92% transmission (normal glass).

Oh ok that’s why it’s low.
The lens actually has a clear aperture of less than 120mm,
I would say maybe like 110-115mm because the outer edge is not properly aspherized, and just makes a big spill around the hotspot.
92% sounds accurate, since it’s not AR coated, and it’s just regular N-BK7 glass.
I get 487cd/mm^2 with 110 as the diameter.

Ok.
Why did you buy 10 LEDs if you only tested 2?

Price is cheaper per LED if you buy 10.
Shipping was gonna be like half the cost anyway, so I got 10 to have spares (I only killed one during reflow) and possibly use more in the future.
Maybe later if I feel like it and have some spare money I will buy more PCBs and see if there’s any that have better performance.

Originally I thought maybe just use the same PCB over and over to test all of them, but I didn’t have enough time or patience to do that.
Also it seems like the PCB gets damaged after a long time under high heat, with the top unsticking, so IMO it’s better to only reflow an LED onto it once.

For a real test you definitely need to put each LEd on it’s own PCB and reflow them all in identical fashion. Otherwise the test might be influenced by how good they were soldered.

Yup. Gotta buy more of those 32mm PCBs :stuck_out_tongue: they aren’t that cheap!

dang a light bazooka :smiley:
great detailed build log
very impressive!

Thanks :smiley:
PVC sewer pipes make great flashlights!

Very cool build Enderman! :sunglasses:
Thanks for walking us through the entire project. Very well done. :+1:

Tips to save money:
I would try to buy the displays, the heatsink and the pvc tube on ebay and replace the battery with an 18650 battery pack from some local shop. I would also replace the blackout material with something much cheaper, especially since you stil have visible spill.

Thank you :slight_smile:

I already had the battery from other projects, and the blackout material was from the previous build, it was pretty cheap too.

Cost isn’t really a big issue until it starts getting into the hundreds/thousands for a single part.
Which might happen with the next build I do… :sunglasses: who knows.

Crazy light Mr. Enderman. Crazy light indeed. :+1:
It reminds me on N10Sivern Zombie Slayinator build which unfortunately can’t be seein this thread: N10sivern's Zombie Slayinator - 3rd Annual BLF Contest Hand Made - Grand Finale Posted! cause photobucket images disappeared but you can see his video forwarded at 3.09 here: The Zombie Slayinator - YouTube

Thanks :slight_smile: That’s definitely an interesting looking light, I think I came across pics of it many years ago when I didn’t even build flashlights yet.
I originally got my PVC idea from this guy:

Pretty sure everyone on this forum has seen that video :stuck_out_tongue:

So you are now holding new world candela record when it comes to led flashlights.

So it throws around 2,2mcd without wavien collar?

Edit:

I can’t help myself thinking what numbers you would got with good XP-G2 here?

But since you only reflowed 2xOsram Black Flat maybe that means they are now more consistently build so maybe we don’t actually need to pick best of 5 or 10?

Excluding the big fresnel builds, yes.
You could argue that a big box with a giant fresnel lens in it isn’t really a flashlight, but a more clear definition is that this is the most powerful LED flashlight with a “less than 12” size optic”

Also the lux for those freslen builds was measured relatively close, like 5-15m iirc, so unless longer measurents are taken I’m not sure how reliable those are due to massive spherical and chromatic aberration.
It might be that they can produce that high lux at close range because of the diameter, but when measured farther away it decreases at a faster rate than 1/r^2.
Not sure though, because I don’t have a fresnel lens to test.

What I do know though is that when I get back from vacation I will try to save up money for better measurement equipment so I can confirm my lux numbers at even bigger distances (you saw in the other thread how measuring at 5m gave a completely incorrect value)
Currently on my shopping list is:
-second luxmeter from a different brand to double check values with
–150m laser meter (3x longer than I have right now)
–1300m laser rangefinder (less accurate than a laser meter but can do way longer distances)
.
I would guess between 2-2.2Mcd without the collar, yes.