The SYNIOSBEAM - CFT90 recoil thrower

Better add me here as well though he does know anyway. :slight_smile:

Hey thanks guys :slight_smile:

:smiley:




Here are a few overexposed beamshots which look really cool :slight_smile:





And here are some which aren’t overexposed. The sky wasn’t super dark because it’s summer and it was early morning (like 2am).









Still waiting for my custom CFT90 driver to arrive, can’t wait to see what 5x more lumens will do to the beam!
I have to admit, focusing this thing is a pain even with the three-screw system, part of the reason being the small LED and huge angle off-axis (like 85 degrees) that most of the reflector collects light at.
Haven’t been able to get more than 7.5mcd yet which is a bit disappointing.
I will be attempting to focus it better and measure again in one or two weeks, I’ll let you guys know if I get an improvement.


This optic system is great for getting extremely high luminous efficiency, collecting close to 90% of all the lumens into the beam and spot (more than any other type of optic!) so the CFT90 or other high output LED (dedomed XHP70.2? :wink: ) is probably a better fit for this type of flashlight.
I don’t recommend this type of retro-reflector for anyone making a superthrower, unless you use a long focal length mirror similar to a telescope, in which case it will behave more like a lens and lose the high efficiency.


Still glad that this set a new record for LED searchlights/flashlights :slight_smile: as far as I know there isn’t any other LED light that can throw further, not even LED lighthouses.

I think your friend you’re building one for is ready to come pick it up

:smiley:

Looking forward to seeing the CFT-90 in action!

Same, I think this upgrade will make the whole project worth it, despite lower than expected candela.
It should also make it easier to focus thanks to the larger die, so who knows, it might get higher than 7.5M :smiley: no promises though…

Nice pics!

Have you tried varriing the height of the LED?

Genial :+1:

What is a reasonable price for the CFT-90 LED? I heard some rumours about 70-100 Euros/Dollars, so probably something you’d better handle with velvet gloves on. :smiley:

For a second, I thought I was in the wrong tab of my browser… which is LPF :wink:
Nice, really nice pencil beam Enderman !

Thanks :slight_smile: There is no need, since I can simply vary the height of the reflector by adjusting all three screws equal amounts.
The problem with focusing isn’t the z-position of the LED or reflector, it’s getting all areas of the reflector to be reflecting the LED image perfectly forward, so tilting in different directions.

Thanks!

Yeah I paid over $150 CAD for it, so about 100 eur… it’s not cheap.

Haha thank you :smiley:

A couple of you have seen my creations and now I’d like to try one of this type.
Would this reflector be too cheap and nasty for this application?

Someone on TLF is making a huge project with 3 of the 24” ones, but haven’t seen any updates in a while.
I have no idea how accurate their surface is, or what the reflectivity of the polished aluminum is.
It seems like just a stamped piece of metal, which would be far less precise than electroformed optics.
You get what you pay for, right?

If you’re not trying to get amazingly high lux, just collect all the flux from the LED into a beam, then I’m sure it will work fine for you.

It will! There are now beamshots from vin which show the difference nicely:

Thrunite Tn42 with Osram Black Flat

Thrunite Tn42 with Luminus CFT-90 (only 24A I think...)

One thing I notice on your beamshots is that the beam looks a bit "fuzzy" for such a large reflector. Maybe this is caused by the spcial orentation of the LED? It doesn't look optimal to me.

The outer diameters of the reflector not only reflect fewer lumens, but there is a larger area too, which causes the intensity of the beam to decrease towards the outsides of the beam.
I think that’s what you mean by the fuzzy look.

A forward facing reflector kinda does the opposite, as you go to the outer edges of the reflector you approach ~45 degree angle which is where the most lumens are emitted by the LED.
Same for a lens, much sharper looking beam.

Even though the beam isn’t as bright towards the edges of my reflector it should still contribute as much to the lux as all other areas, assuming it is focused perfectly, which currently it is not :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks for the comparison Driver!

PERFORMANCE RESULTS

12am, I just got home from doing some focusing and testing with my friend, and here are the results:

98 x10 lux @ 100.6m distance
Lux measured with Dr. Meter LX1330B luxmeter.
Distance measured using UNI-T UT393B laser meter.


That’s 980 lux at ~100m, so 980 * 100^2 = 9 800 000 candela
:open_mouth:
6.26km ANSI




Took close to an hour of just turning screws and measuring different parts of the spot since the focus is so finicky, and 9.8Mcd is the best we were able to get.
Luckily I have friends that are willing to stand outside for hours reading out numbers to me over the phone :smiley:

It’s not close to the 13Mcd from the theoretical calculations, but I’m very pleased with this result, much better than 7.5Mcd.

I think that 9.8 Mcd is pretty close to 13 Mcd considering that with such a small light source you are probably testing the positioning and reflector quality to its limits. The LX1330B (which does not have a great optical filter and is likely calibrated with a 2700K tungsten source) does over-read cool white leds so the actual number may be a bit lower.

The 1330B tests by the person over on TLF were very close to their high end luxmeter.
So either the 1330B you tested is a cheap clone, or there are discrepancies between high end luxmeters too.
Unfortunately with TLF down I can’t check what model the other person’s professional luxmeter was.

PS- Do you know any place to find professional luxmeters at a reasonable price (under $500?)
I know I’m not using the most professional accurate measuring equipment but the LX1330B was by far the best budget luxmeter for the price back when I got it.
Assuming worst case scenario, a 10-20% overestimate like in your tests, that’s still about 8Mcd :slight_smile: