Hey, you’re stealing my idea !
Well, i guess you have the funds for a reflector, and i don’t…
I’m obviously very interested in that project, can’t wait to see more.
On another note:
This aspheric light, am i correct in noticing you blow the cooling air through the Wavien collar?
Aren’t you afraid the surface will get dirty and / or oxidised?
I came up with the idea about 3 years ago, back when I didn’t know anything about flashlight forums.
I got pretty excited when I saw the Uber thrower thread with people that had the same idea as me
Unfortunately it has already been patented, but I guess that means I don’t need to worry about people stealing my design…or pay fees every year.
Until now I’ve been sticking to lenses because I thought they were better, but I’m kinda hitting a wall, and the chromatic aberration I discovered in this thread makes me not like lenses as much anymore.
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Yes, most of the airflow goes through the collar.
Thanks to the mesh at the back of the flashlight I don’t have to worry about large particles or insects getting inside the light or on the collar.
Some dust does settle, but very little since it is a very smooth surface and almost nothing sticks to it, the air just pushes right past.
Not really worried about it oxidizing, cold mirror coatings are pretty resistant to oxygen environments.
The reason I wanted lots of air flowing past the collar is to keep it from fogging up in high humidity environments, and water on it would almost certainly damage the coating.
How can one patent a parabolic mirror reflecting light in one direction?
That’s silly…
Yeah, of course it wasn’t ‘my idea’, i think it must have been invented discovered within a week of the invention of the ‘open air arc’ electrical light (that’s on 200+ Volts with 2 carbon rods and a big shunt resistor that can heat up a room…)
But i.m.o. an LED begs for a recoil light, since it emits light only one way, in a 120° cone, more or less.
I assume you’ll be using a beam or cross made of heat pipes?
Looking forward to your reports.
Yeah, the rainbow / prism effect is always there with an aspheric.
This is why i was wondering about monochromatic light, like 580nm yellow.
I guess you could use a multi lens set up like cameras do, to avoid it? Complex and expensive of course…
There was also another one that I can’t find again right now.
It’s not just a reflector that is patented, but the invention of a reverse facing LED + parabolic reflector + cooling and housing design.
It’s basically an entire product.
I’ll talk about LED cooling when I start the build log.
First I’m applying for funding from my university.
Achromatic lenses are extremely expensive, and would need to be custom made even for the 120mm size of the optofire.
I want to go bigger, but lenses about 6-12” in diameter would simply be impossible to either produce or afford.
Also, there will always be some chromatic aberration and spherical aberration no matter how precise the aspheric lenses are.
Since a parabola is an easily defined mathematical shape it is a lot easier to manufacture reliably and more ideal for light collimation
Most patents are really just that, a combination of different technologies.
There are different types of patents, and it’s perfectly fine to take several other things and combine them into a new device that does something
Reflector will be 11” diameter.
I wanted to go with 12” for even more lux but there are several logistical issues which I will probably just avoid completely by going with 11.
According to my calculations 11” should be enough to pass the maxabeam, which is my upcoming goal
It will actually be pretty flat, so the overall volume shouldn’t be much bigger than my previous builds.
As long as it fits in my backpack, can be carried in one hand, and runs on batteries for a long time I consider it ‘portable’
Obviously not a typical flashlight form factor, or EDC size, but it should still classify as a flashlight by definition.
Honestly your and djozz’s fresnel builds also fit the description so that’s why they’re on this list
Although I do personally prefer calling lights this size “searchlights” instead of “flashlights”.
I posted a video, finally with a decent camera you can see something that isn’t just pitch black
Heavy fog at night, visibility less than 100m so the beam doesn’t go very far, but it’s very visible and the people on the street were stopping to take pictures too
That torch is insane as the guy that built it.
In Australia they would probably lock you up for shining your light around like that. :person_facepalming:
Thanks!
Gotta be careful!
During the summer where I was doing some other pics of this light there was a police officer watching me.
Didn’t say anything though, but probably would have if I had been shining it at people/buildings.
Brilliant thrower… Enderman i have bought the same lens which you used in light canon 1… But it is not focusing the light projecting too much aberrations…instead i have used small Collimator lens 23mm which concentrates the light onto the second biconvex lens… By this time the biconvex lens is thin and of longer FL… I am unable to buy the optolife lenses which you used in optofire… But by this technique i have confirmed 859 meters… This two lenses technique is good and what if i use thick biconvex lens of 26mm same thickness which you used in optofire?.. Plz help…