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

What I would really like to see in this monster aspheric light builds is zooming function. For example 300-500 kcd of very wide flood mode(pure large hotspot that no reflector in a world can compete to) but because of wavien collar flood mode would be very limited right?

The way the single long focal length lens system is set up, it would need to move a very long distance and only widen the beam to like 10-20 degrees instead of 0.
A multi-lens system would need to be used, especially if there is a wavien collar which prevents the lens from getting more than 35mm close to the LED.
In order to get the best throw, I stick to single-optic systems for the least possible loss, and large spill doesn’t really interest me.

Also, with less than 500 lumens coming out of the front, there’s no way to get 500kcd and a wide spot at the same time :confused:

500lm at front seems very optimistic also. I would say around 200 :slight_smile:

True, I just said ‘less than’, cause I have no idea :stuck_out_tongue:
I just checked and it looks very similar in brightness to my 240lm P5r.2.

Makes sense, it’s probably close to 1000lm at the current I’m driving it, wavien collar leaves about half of that coming out at 60 degrees, and then about half of that actually hits the lens.
As you can see, lumen efficiency is not key here xD


Black = reflector flashlight
All are LED lights except the Maxabeam.
X axis = candela (cd)
Y axis = throw (m)

PS - the “LightCanon V2” is this flashlight, which is now named OptoFire :slight_smile:

I measured my fresnel box at 13 meter, with the spot focused at that distance. When used at 500 meter I had to re-focus quite a bit. But the shape of the hotspot and tint-gradient was the same for 13 meter and 500 meter, I do not expect a different kcd number for measuring at the two distances.

I didn’t expect getting a difference at 5m than 50m, but look what happened :stuck_out_tongue:

Did you re-focus?

Yeah, as best I could for both cases.

Enderman,
You forgot Lumensteins Lux Monster
In the beginning: 2Mcd with 3 XP-G2 at 5A (this value was always too low…)
Then modded again, 1.9Mcd with three XHP-35 HI

Also another light from Xandre: the SR-90-in-kurz-und-heftig (SR-90 in short and extreme). It’s a Vinz mod from 2013 and was the main inspiration for my Project Excalibur. It did 970kcd with a de-domed XP-G2 R5 (measured at 70m!). Pics can be found here.

Kenji modded some lights too
Nitecore TM-36 with XP-G2 S2: 842kcd
Eagletac MX25C2 Turbo wirh XP-G2 S2: 790kcd

Also the Lemax LX70
Normal Version: 1.3Mcd
LX-70 Superpower - 4.5Mcd (is has a much larger reflector)

Lemax LX50 and Polarion PH50: 500kcd

Also the Megaray (3.125Mcd).

I think a new thread would be a good idea for this record list.

Yeah, I just added the ones I remembered, a separate “record throwers” topic sounds awesome :slight_smile:
I’ll do that in a few hours and update the graph with all of those.
Let me know of any others I should add!

Nice to make a graph of super-throwers :slight_smile:

I suggest to make the graph more interesting by putting on the x-axis the surface area of the largest optical element (lens or reflector) and the throw (kcd) on the y-axis.

Amazing build Enderman. I admire your skills immensely. Well done. :+1:
If the only issue you had was with the temp probe I’d have been ecstatic. :slight_smile:

That’s a great idea, I will make a second graph for that for sure :slight_smile:

Thank you!
Kinda sucks that the one thing I made difficult to remove was the temp probe, and that’s the only thing having issues… lol
At least it sorta works, every time I want to see the temp I need to set the flashlight to low mode :smiley:

Time to contact guiness book of world records?

I contacted them a while ago asking what kinds of conditions they would require for a “flashlight” but they never got back :frowning:

The definition isn’t really clear, it just says a “small” portable battery powered light source, and there is no exact definition of small.
Guiness called this ginormous thing a “flashlight” so I guess for them there is no size restriction as long as it doesn’t need to be plugged into a wall and is “portable”.

So basically just buy a giant fresnel lens, stick some wheels on it, and you basically quality as a “flashlight” and win because you have the biggest diameter.
Someone else want the record? just increase the diameter.
That’s no fun IMO. I’m trying to get the best lux per diameter while staying portable, which for me personally is something I can fit in my backpack an carry around.
6” diameter and 500mm long is about max what I can fit while still closing it, or 12” diameter and 6” thick cylinder.

I have thought about it some more. Enderman’s graph is acutally kind of nice because it shows the performance (ie throw) differences between the lights without evaluating how optimezed they are. It shows that there is indeed still a very large difference between the Maxabeam and most LED lights. I know from personal experience that this is definitely the case.

MORE BEAMSHOTS! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:










These were taken with my not-so-great point and shoot camera with 100 iso and 4-5 second exposure. Look very similar to what could be seen irl, although with some highlights a bit overexposed like streetlamps and lamps and stuff.
Uploaded in high res in case you want to zoom in.






Some simple beamshots pointing into the sky.





Pointed at some dark trees about 500 or 1000m away, can clearly see the branches if you zoom in.





A close boat a few hundred meters awaay.





A far boat, about 500+ meters away.















These ones I think are the most impressive, the beam is actually visible from the side, and cuts through the sky even when there is a lot of ambient light around!




More than 50 people stopped to look at it while passing by, I just pretended to be another random person as I walked down the street taking my pictures like everyone else.
Very little side spill, anyone can easily look at the flashlight continuously without it hurting at all.


Temperature at the probe was below 40C after about half an hour of runtime, so the LED is likely at very safe temps far below 85C.
It is important that the fan is running because one other time the fan cable got caught in the blades and I realized after a while that the light was at 70+ degrees inside the PVC tube!
Thanks for reading.

Nice. :laughing:

Very cool! :+1: