Haha, considering I haven’t driven long distance at night in years I don’t have a need either. I am just dreaming of the good old days.
I hadn’t considered the possibility of a BLF light bar impacting on MTN, more of a rhetorical thought but I wonder how much impact it would really have? I don’t think MTN light bars are too expensive for what they are and as far as I am aware they are close to the best, if not the best product on the market, but they have a price tag to reflect that. IF, and that is a big if, I were to ever attempt to get a BLF light bar going it would be something to bridge the gap between blinted Chinese light bars and the MTN and still outperform something like a Rigid. However this is really a discussion for another thread and another time.
Actually, I think that would be a good place to target. It wouldn’t really step on Richard’s toes, but would show how underperforming and overpriced those others are. There have actually been a couple guys working on Light Bars within the past year or so here, but neither of those has updated recently.
Lots of things going on, and lots of things to start saving money for. My one way premature thought is that I hope anything new and small on the horizon can use 18350 cells, since they are a lot better than 16340, as far as I know, for now.
As far as recoil throwers, yeah, harder driven, newer leds make heat an issue. I had a lot of fun with one of those in the past, but maybe we’ve evolved past them.
I have been staring at my little Olight and On The Road i3.
With a short S2+ tube for 18350 besides it
Toykeeper please chime in.
Yes a 16340 is smaller but is the shorty D4 really big?
The Olight design is kind of really good. It is just the clip that can be better.
This is not like poor SRKs or lights that step down fast, there was and is so much to gain there.
Making those projects scream at me to be made.
If one manufacturer creates ramping on a small Olight clone it becomes very hard to see why a lot of time should be put into making a BLF special very small light.
Please elaborate on it, what you want or have in your mind?
I doubt that.
In my most recent idea about it the LED will have 3 (looks awesome) or 4 (easier to make) copper “spokes” from the LED to the body, made from 3 or 4 mm wide 30 mm high copper bars in front of the lens.
The lens will then have to have a hole in the middle for the LED.
But the surface area of the spokes will probably be a sufficient heat radiator / convector by itself.
But they will be fixed on the aluminum body too, so i don’t see a problem with heat.
But i noticed there’s only 2 months left for the scratch build contest…
Still have to order stuff for a recoil build, which will take a month to arrive…
And i fear pounding a 5” copper disc into a good parabolic bowl will be next to impossible :person_facepalming: , but i can silver plate it when it’s good enough…
Here are some pics to illustrate why theoretically a recoil is better than a regular reflector:
It has very little spill and very little ‘corona’ because the focal distances are similar at each angle.
why smaller? I think the appeal is extreme no spill throw.I bet that if people see the pencil beam reach far over the ocean and beach (Jerommel lives close to the sea) it could kick start the topic and get a interest list going, showing there is a demand for it.
Newer people like myself have not seen a good recoil thrower ever, we need a little show and tell to convince us reflectors, lenses can have an older way (recoil) alive as extra option
Unfortunately small lights don’t throw as good as big lights.
Or rather, the optic has to be large in relation to the LED if you want serious throw.
None the less, a Brinyte (Brynite?) B158 with a dedomed XPG2 is not that big, but it sure throws very well.
But it only uses half of the emitted light, maybe even less than that.
Same goes for the Supwildfire reflector light. (in a quick test i found out the Brynyte (Brinite?) uses what would be the spill of a Supwildfire, the Supwildfire uses what the Brünüte does not use, roughly)
A recoil light collimates practically all of it.
But okay, 5 inches diameter is very large.
4 inches would be okay, maybe 3 inches, which is still roughly 75mm, which is still not small…
The former is true. The latter - I have some basic theory, but little practical verification. In theory what you say is untrue.
Throw = (optic area) * (surface intensity) * (optic efficiency).
In a simplified model, with a N-emitter light you can have N * (optic area / N) * (surface intensity) * (optic efficiency). Turns out the same as single emitter.
Really, you can’t fit a circular area with a number of smaller circles, you either lose some area or use siamese optics and lose efficiency. So single-emitter large-optic light will indeed throw better than a multi-emitter one with the same frontal area. But the difference is not big and you can definitely get serious throw with multi-emitters. Also, note that multi-emitters will tend to be shorter and may end up with better throw / volume. At least, that’s the theory.
Today I got a thought about a moderate light that I’d love to have.
Not big, not small.
Not a flooder, not a thrower.
Not high output, but not a weakling either.
Not the runtime king, but nevertheless very good.
In my mind I call it a Jax of all trades because of one inspiration.
Details:
3*18650
head just slightly larger than body
XHP35 HI, driven hard
efficient driver
compact package
side switch
zoomie!
Could be significantly cheaper with linear driver and SST-40, but efficiency would suffer a lot.
3s linear or boost won’t work at all.
4s buck runs out of regulation at high currents, though when it does work efficiency is great.
4s linear would work, but be grossly inefficient.
For 3 cells, 1s boost and 3s buck-boost are the only sensible options that I see.
Stupid question maybe but
If we use the exact same driver as the Q8 to power 1 led (XPLHi or SST40) would that be fed 20A and blow?
If we add a bank of 7135 chips, say 8 and a zener pad
Would this make the driver ideal for regulated output for a single LED and easy to adapt to allow 2 series input and a 6V emitter?
Yeah I am thinking that BLF ST and double length tube.
With the Q8, 2 heads, 3 tubes
Dang what a set that would be.
