I contacted them a while ago asking what kinds of conditions they would require for a âflashlightâ but they never got back
The definition isnât really clear, it just says a âsmallâ portable battery powered light source, and there is no exact definition of small.
Guiness called this ginormous thing a âflashlightâ so I guess for them there is no size restriction as long as it doesnât need to be plugged into a wall and is âportableâ.
So basically just buy a giant fresnel lens, stick some wheels on it, and you basically quality as a âflashlightâ and win because you have the biggest diameter.
Someone else want the record? just increase the diameter.
Thatâs no fun IMO. Iâm 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.
6â diameter and 500mm long is about max what I can fit while still closing it, or 12â diameter and 6â thick cylinder.
I have thought about it some more. Endermanâs 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.
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.
Some stuff that I realized during this build that is a good learning experience and will be applied to future builds:
a parabolic reflector will be used in the next build, too many down sides to lenses such as chromatic aberration, imperfect aspheres, clear apertures that are smaller than the lens diameter, etcâŚ
- temperature meter needs to be tested outside the flashlight at all LED brightness levels, and it needs to have better electrical insulation from the heatsink
I will also not glue it down next time
- some felt or foam needs to be added between the heatsink and the PVC tube to help it slide easily when focusing
- the LUW Q8WP will theoretically have higher intensity than the Oslon Black Flat LED, when it becomes available
- a larger heatsink or liquid cooling will be used next time inn order to achieve even higher current and intensity. TEC/peltier cooling will also be considered
- a custom hemispherical collar might be used in the next build to increase intensity further by using a smaller aperture, and wasting less light that doesnât hit the optic
- non-LED light sources will be tested, potentially achieving close to short-arc lamp performance without any bulbs (very early experimental research)
- next build will hopefully have a larger optic to make a thicker - and more visible - beam while also increasing lux. Hopefully between 6 and 12â
- a more powerful fan(s) will be used in the next build, rather than a quiet fan, in order to obtain the best cooling possible regardless of noise
Yeah, it used to be pretty popular like a decade ago for PC cooling, but CPUs output too much heat for it to make any difference.
For a sub-30W LED it will probably work great, maybe like sub-0 degrees
Thanks
Thank you!
I always try to document the whole process for other people who want to learn or build the same, since thatâs how I learnt to start building flashlights from old BLF/CPF threads.
*WOW!!!* Very impressive. You engineered that build like a professional scientist. Man you did very well. You should be working for a big flashlight or led manufacturers. By the way, if that is your home you took the picture from, you have a lovely home. Where is it that you live? Very nice place. I'm very impressed with everything you did here. As we say in the US Navy submarine service " Bravo Zulu"!! :THUMBS-UP: