The SYNIOSBEAM - CFT90 recoil thrower

PARTS LIST

The original LED chosen for this flashlight was a Osram Synios P2720 KW DMLQ31.SG, hence the name of the flashlight. Unfortunately a flaw in the testing method made this LED appear very high eprforcming, despite it not actually being that great. For this reason, the Osram Oslon Black Flat is still the highest intensity LED available currently at ~260cd/mm^2. Tests of this LED can be found here: LED Test The price of one LED is $4 CAD.



The driver that will be used to power the LED is a 27.5mm MTN-MAX 1A-6A Buck Driver from Mountain Electronics. This driver can take 5V-18V making it perfect for the use of 3S lithium batteries. It will also be configured to output 6A just like the OptoFire which is about the maximum that the Black Flat LED can take. The driver costs $26 CAD.



The reflector is the most expensive part of this flashlight. It is made out of electroformed nickel plated in aluminum, a very large and high precision optic. There were several options for this reflector, such as 1 or 2 inch bottom hole and 11 or 13” diameter. In order to maximize the available area, the option with a 1” hole was chosen. Even though the 13” option would also increase the area, the LED only emits light in a 180 degree hemisphere so anything over the 12” mark would be unused area. A $100 USD fee could be paid to have the 13” reflector cut down to 12”, or an almost identical reflector could be purchased from Optiforms, the P76. The P76 is 12” diameter, and has an even smaller center hole at only .75”, however this reflector costs almost double what the Phoenix reflector costs, so for price/performance purposes it will not be purchased. The $100 option to cut down the Phoenix reflector will also not be taken in order to fit the reflector more easily inside the aluminum tube.

Overall, the 11” reflector will still perform extremely well and collect almost all of the light (96.5%) and the price is very reasonable compared to the competition. One reflector costs $402 CAD.



No radiators or fans will be used in the cooling of this flashlight, thanks to the aluminum body design. In order to transfer the heat efficiently from the LED in the middle of the reflector to the sides of the searchlight, liquid cooling will be used. Copper tubing will be used to transfer the heat from the fluid to the aluminum body. 25 feet of 3/16” copper tubing cost $42 CAD.



To move the fluid through the loop, a compact self-priming pump will be used. The pump has a flow rate of 1.3L/min and a pressure of 0.3MPa which should be enough for this small loop. The pump costs $16 CAD.



Flexible FKM tubing will be used to connect all the cooling components such as the LED block, pump, and copper coil. This tubing has a 1/4” outer diameter which will fit perfectly below the aluminum arms holding the LED block. A 3m length will be more than enough for this project as well as future projects. The tubing costs $31 CAD.



Small tubing barbs will be used to connect the tubing to the LED cooling block. The barbs have an outer diameter of 5mm which will fit tightly inside the tubing. The set of 10 barbs will cost $6 CAD.



The thermal compound used between the LED MCPCB and cooling block will be liquid metal. The three best options are Coolaboratory Liquid Pro, Coolaboratory Liquid Ultra, and Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut. Liquid Pro has better thermal conductivity than Liquid Ultra, however Liquid Ultra was made specifically because the Pro was very difficult to apply. Conductonaut on the other hand, has almost identical thermal conductivity as Liquid Pro, but is as easy to apply as Liquid Ultra. For this reason, Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut is the best of the three options. This liquid metal paste also has a higher thermal conductivity than most solders, and makes it much easier to assemble and replace the LED in the future. One gram of liquid metal costs $22 CAD.



To protect the reflector, a custom diameter acrylic lens will be used. The lens is 3mm thick and will be slightly below 12” in diameter. This ultra-clear AR coated acrylic has a light transmission above 97%. The custom size lens will cost $54 CAD.



The large LiPO batteries used in some of my other projects will unfortunately not fit inside this compact searchlight. In order to keep this a portable “flashlight” it will still require an internal battery. The Shockly 5500mAh 26650 cells are extremely popular for their very high capacity, more than the rated 5.5Ah, and discharge rate. Six of these batteries will be used in a 3S2P configuration for a total of $60 CAD.



To make the batteries easy to remove for replacement, shipping, or using external power, six 26650 battery holders will be used. The battery holders are sold individually, so six will cost $9 CAD.



A custom cooling block for the LED will need to be machined by CNC. The piece will be made outof solid copper for the best heat transmission. The CNC job costs $133 CAD.



The body of the searchlight will be made out of a 6061 aluminum extruded tube. A 12” outer diameter witha .25” wall will be very rigid to protect the reflector, and will allow 1/4” of space around the reflector for protection. This space will also be used for tubing and wires to pass from behind to the front of the reflector where the LED is. The tube will be custom cut to 4” long and will cost $192 CAD.



1/4” thick 6061 aluminum sheets will be used for both the bottom of the searchlight as well as the ‘arms’ that will hold the LED and cooling block. The 1ft x 2ft aluminum plate will cost $72 CAD.



A blue LED voltage display will be used to monitor the battery’s voltage, even though the LED driver also has low-voltage protection. It is always useful to know how much battery there is left, and if it is getting close to finished. The voltmeter costs $10 CAD.



A blue LED temperature display will match the voltage display and also give information about the LED’s temperature. The temperature meter costs $17 CAD.



A compact black handle will be attached to the outside of the searchlight for easy portability. This rubber handle folds flat to take up less space when being transported, such as in a backpack. The handle costs $4 CAD.



The sheets of metal will be cut using a waterjet due to the complex 2d shapes and accuracy needed. The waterjet time costs $18 CAD.



For the highest durability, Type 3 hard anodizing will be used on the flashlight body. This is the most durable and scratch resistant coating, and will give the flashlight a nice dark grey appearance. The anodizing costs $150 CAD.

Part Brand Supplier Price (CAD)
LED Osram Mouser.ca $4
LED driver Mountain Electronics Mountain Electronics $26
Reflector Phoenix Electroforms Phoenix Electroforms $448
Copper tubing Connect Amazon.ca $42
Water pump Uxcell Amazon.ca $16
Tubing Evolution Horizon Hobby $31
Tubing barbs Uxcell Amazon.ca $6
Thermal compound Thermal Grizzly Amazon.ca $22
Lens Flashlightlens.com Flashlightlens.com $54
Batteries Shockli Mountain Electronics $60
Battery holders ? FastTech $9
Copper CNCd block Metal Supermarkets Metal Supermarkets $133
Aluminum pipe MetalsDepot MetalsDepot $192
Aluminum plate Metal Supermarkets Metal Supermarkets $72
Voltage display ? Amazon.ca $10
Temperature display ? Amazon.ca $17
Handle Reliable Hardware Company Amazon.ca $4
Waterjetting N/A N/A $18
Anodizing Altech Anodizing Altech Anodizing $150
Total $1315


Some small objects such as wire, solder, connectors, and switches have been omitted. Cost of shipping and taxes were not included into the budget. USD prices were converted to CAD on the date of writing. Current prices may differ. Certain products such as the copper block machining had a discounted rate for me as a member of the university. A rough estimate of the total cost including all small components, taxes, and shipping is $2000 CAD.

Bit lost for words. :beer:

Wow, I found it. :partying_face: It was elsewhere … :person_facepalming: White Laser 20km Searchlight-WL-200W

No, this is actually not the case. Optimizing the XY-focus of my Project Excalibur light increased the luminous intensity. I think it depends on how small the LED is compared to the reflector.

Very interesting

:smiley:

Cool, I haven’t seen any of those laser lights yet in videos or IRL.
Nice to see companies exploring technologies other than LED :slight_smile:

Maybe for a forward-facing reflector is is not, since the distance of the reflecting surface from the LED varies between very close and very far.
If you measure the lux in the spot created by an aspheric flashlight (the projected square) the lux is the same at all points, it is not higher in the middle.
So this suggests that light does not need to be coming directly from the center of the focal point.
A recoil reflector is somewhere in between a lens and a forward-facing reflector, in terms of distance form the LED and die projection sharpness.
Maybe you are correct in that case.


Renders coming tonight! :slight_smile:

PROTOTYPE REVISIONS


Revision 1 was designed using a 12” diameter 4” tall cake pan as the chassis. The low cost of the cake pan would have made this project a lot more affordable. However, this design was ultimately scrapped due to the lack of rigidity of the steel used in the pan, which would not protect the expensive mirror very well.



Revision 2 was changed to use 1/4” thick aluminum for both the body tube and the bottom, and was an intermediate stage in the design. In this design the reflector was held in by aluminum rings. To make the rings, two large 12”x12” aluminum sheets would have to be used, which was not very cost effective and would give difficulty in mounting the reflector rigidly while not damaging it.



Revision 3 was the runner-up to the chosen design, and uses a flat carbon fiber sheet to hold the LED in the center. This sheet would have similar rigidity to 1/4” thick aluminum while having less thickness and weight, since the original goal was to make the device only 4” thick. This design was not made due to the extra cost for the carbon fiber, which would cost approximately twice as much as aluminum. Carbon fiber would also increase the complexity of mounting it to the chassis, since holes cannot be drilled into the side due to delamination.



Revision 4 is the design that was chosen to build, and more renders can be found in the following section. This design also focuses the light by adjusting the position of the reflector, rather than the LED block. Due to it’s use of 1/4” aluminum instead of carbon fiber, the total height had to be increased from 4” to 4.25”.



Revision 5 was design to move the LED block up and down for focusing, rather than the reflector. The down side was that the glass would have to be removed every time the light needed to be focused. Mounting the LED cooling block within the arms and securing it also posed additional complications.



This design was made to fit a Turnigy 3S 65C 6000mAh LiPO battery pack, which I own several of and are used for other projects. Having a universal battery I could use for all my projects was appealing, however for this light, the goal was to keep it at around 4” thick, and using this battery added 1” of thickness. Another down side was that it complicated mounting of other internal components such as the reflector, but it also had the benefit that it allowed for a second cooling coil.



The final 7th revision was designed to fit many extra features, such as a built in LiPO charger, AC/DC converter for continuous operation, variable current power supply, and multi-pole switch. Not only would all these features added several hundred dollars to the design, but the thickness would need to increase to 6” which would no longer fit in a backpack for portability. Potential future prototypes will include features like these, however the first prototype will be much more basic.

RENDERS















What are these rendered in?

Almost all of them are 2d exported images from sketchup (free)
The last one is a real render done in solidworks.
I made a solidworks model after sketchup because I needed a way to make the drawings for the waterjetting and assembling the components more accurately.

No fins inside the water block?

Way too complex to do, also not necessary for such low power LEDs.
Making microfins in there would probably make the blocks cost like $1000 rather than $100.
It might have helped if I decide to put a CFT90 in there later, but the project was already nearly 1.5-2x more expensive than I wanted it to be.
I could have probably gone with aluminum instead of copper to lower cost and still get decent performance, but what’s done is done :slight_smile:

You don’t need microfins. I remember people were cutting them in CPU blocks with a hacksaw. Finer ones would work better here, but it’s not something very complex to make…

Why does the reflector need a hole?

He does not need it, but the manufacturer delivers it.

While microfins or channels do reduce temps by some degrees, they are not needed. especially not if you are cooling just 10-15W.

I know that in the beginning of PC Watercooling we were cooling heavily overclocked CPUs which were also over volted to oblivion with simple aluminum blocks with just a round S-channel.

@Enderman
There is no reservoir visible in you CAD pictures. While bleeding is surely possible without one, it makes this task so much easier.

So awesome!
What about a handle or a tripod?

I like the space optimization, especially the copper pipe wound dissipation surface. Do you plan to secure the batteries in the carriers (i.e. velcro strap) to ensure they do not pop out if they encounter a sudden jolt?

The block is 1” diameter. That channel is only 1/8” wide.
Any fins that fit in there would be called microfins IMO.
The smaller the details, the more expensive the machining cost gets :frowning:


It’s part of the manufacturing process, can’t get rid of it.
It also doesn’t matter since that part of the reflector is blocked by the LED MCPCB and cooling block anyway, so it would be unused even if there was no hole.


Correct :slight_smile:


Yeah I wanted the light to be usable in any orientation so I skipped a res (which could introduce bubbles) and will just fill/bleed it using an external container, then close the loop.
I’m not sure how much of an issue evaporation is going to be, but I guess we’ll find out with this prototype :stuck_out_tongue:


Thanks!
It will have a handle on the side as well as two 1/4” tripod mounts, one on the side and one on the bottom for vertical or horizontal use :slight_smile:


That’s something I will need to consider, it would be bad if one fell out and hit the reflector.
I just checked and the batteries fit extremely tightly inside the carriers, so I don’t think there’s any risk of them falling out, but for any long plane or road trips I think I would recommend removing batteries.
The battery carriers do have a small slot on the side that seems like it would fit a zip tie though, so maybe a small design modification by adding small washers between the carriers and the base plate will allow a zip tie to go around the carrier and make sure the battery is 100% secure :slight_smile: