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

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 :smiley:

Thanks :slight_smile:

Thank you!
I always try to document the whole process for other people who want to learn or build the same, since thatā€™s 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:

Thanks :stuck_out_tongue: I donā€™t think most normal flashlight manufacturers are interested in extreme stuff like this, but maybe for military or search and rescue applications :slight_smile:
Maybe thatā€™s what I might do as a job when I finish university, who knows.

Also, unfortunately that isnā€™t my home, just a place in Spain Iā€™m on vacation at. It is very nice.

I love this build. It is very well engineered and executed. Great job, and thanks for sharing! Iā€™ve also had good luck using hot glue to affix a wavien collar.

Thank you! :slight_smile:
Yeah, hot glue works excellent as long as it doesnā€™t get hot enough to soften.
With that huge heatsink and lots of airflow it is very solid even when on max power :smiley:

I love this build. Excellent job. I zoomed in on the boat pics expecting some guy to be holding up the middle finger at you :smiley:

Hahaha thanks :smiley:
I do my best to not shine my lights at buildings or people :stuck_out_tongue: or else I will get in trouble fast that way.

The other day when I went out for another night test there was a police officer watching me for a while, but he never came to say anything to me.
I guess he saw I wasnā€™t pointing it at people, just the sky and ocean, so it was fine.

A few more picturesā€¦

And the standard 1000m beamshsots I do to the antenna at the top of a mountain:

:slight_smile:

Shouldnā€™t you put some kind of light shield in the front side of the tube?

So that the PVC tube doesnā€™t get lit up from the inside?
Yeah I could, but that would prevent me from sliding the LED assembly up and down the tube for focusing.
There are also the holes on the bottom side of the front for air exhaust, which I canā€™t cover up.

I didnā€™t really feel it was a problem, so I just left it as is.
This is the stray light that passes through the wavien collar without getting reflected back to the LED.
If it was light coming directly from the LED it would be much brighter.
I did line the inside of the head section with blackout paper, since some LED light does hit there directly with this longer focal length lens.

Nice pics! :+1: :beer:

Thanks :slight_smile:

Wow, great pictures and a fun read. Great job on the build!

thanks for sharing this project, very nice build

Thank you! :slight_smile:

So you are doing a reflector build for your next torch. What if you make it so you put an aspheric focusing just the hotspot opening? @#$% with the spillā€¦

Should net you some gain.

In a reflector-based light, the hotspot comes from the light which goes sideways into the reflector, and the spill comes from the part which goes forward directly out the lens. This is exactly backward from how an aspheric thrower works, so they donā€™t really combine well.

As far as I do understand, ToyKeeper, the reflector hotspot is a combination of the sideways carefully bounced at the right angle emitter output and the corresponding narrow central angle emission (the longer the throw the narrower this part is, doesn't it?). However I can see how increasingly difficult to manufacture, costful and shape emitter optimized a reflector is to be for maximum performance.

I'm no expert in optics, Enderman may shed some additional light for sure (like how big and how far the lens would be required to sit). The question is: What'$ thā‚¬ namā‚¬ of all of that gā‚¬ar and $tuff?

Cheers

:slight_smile:
It will be a reflector light but there will be 0 spill, without needing to use lenses or anything else.

Recoil thrower? Inverse wavien? Other? Secret recipe?