The SYNIOSBEAM - CFT90 recoil thrower

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:

That TLF test of the LX1330B was only done with low CRI cool and neutral flashlights (and an incan source), my test with a wider variety of light sources showed the deviations better. A 3000K 90CRI XM-L2 source was measured 3% low by the LX1330B, A 6000K(?) XM-L2 (from SWM D40A) was measured 9% high by the LX1330B. The comparison was a Mobilux (DIN-) class A luxmeter which is the same luxmeter as the Gossen meter in the TLF test but with a higher-classed (A instead of B) sensor unit.

I have no real experience-based recommendation for a quality luxmeter. Because my financial sources for the hobby are limited, I do not have an extensive collection of high end luxmeters to test. I was lucky to purchase my Mobilux meter second-hand for 425 euro (hardly used), and I own a 160 dollar (taiwanese) Tasi meter that is also in the test in the link above, that one is not too bad. But I would love to do some comparitive testing with a calibrated Extech meter (because many people have one and it is high regarded in the US), especially to see how the optical filter is behaving (I suspect it is ok but not great), and also a good Konica-Minolta luxmeter.
Searching the internet for luxmeter tests is useles, they are not there: what I do with my hobby equipment at home is already way more extensive than anything found on the internet.

Oh I see, that makes sense.
I’ll see if I can find something used, would rather pay $500 for a class A luxmeter than $200 for a tasi which I might want to replace later on.
I wonder why the high CRI 6500k led was so much worse than the 70 cri 6500k on the 1330…

I find it pretty complicated to relate the reading error of luxmeters to the combination of the led output spectrum and the deviation of the sensitivity curve (it is interpreting 3 curves at the same time, of which the led spectrum has multiple peaks :confounded: ). In this case I think the extra reading error of the high CRI 6500K led is caused by the high red content, the LX13130B not just over-reads the blues, it also reads everything above 620nm pretty high.

I have the LX1330B as well, I find it reads low, by alot. Comparing various flashlights and known Lux values, my particular meter reads at least 15% low.

Interesting.
Even worst case scenario, 20% overestimate, still the brightest LED searchlight in the world :slight_smile:

I can’t find any high end luxmeters with A class sensors for a good price, I might just buy a TASI since it’s on sale: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/TASI-632A-Digital-Light-Meter-USB-DC-Power-Luxmeter-Meters-Digital-LCD-Backlight-illuminometer-Storage-128/2797144_32791440073.html

You have to remember that you didn’t “bin” your LED. It might simply not have the luminance of the best performing Black Flat’s.

Unless you buy multiple reels of 2000 LEDs each, you can’t bin them.
All the LEDs in a reel are the same bin, and the whole reel is a random bin anywhere from 8M to 7N.
I haven’t found any place that has narrower range of bins in stock, such as 5N7N, except for this place with an MOQ of 2000: http://www.chip1stop.com/web/CAN/en/dispDetail.do?partId=OSRA-0024887&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=aggregator&utm_source=octopart&utm_term=OSRA-0024887&cid=octopart_OSRA-0024887
N6 to 7N, so could be any of the top 3 bins.

That’s pretty much the only way to increase your chances of getting a better bin.

The only other way is possibly buying from different mouser locations or different distributors which will have a different open reel each.

I’d like to mention, if anyone is building a similar flashlight maybe consider using this reflector I found on ebay:


It’s made of glass and will not flex like the electroformed reflectors do, as well as a 4” focal length instead of 3”, which will make focusing easier.
No info on the surface precision or reflectivity %, but for $170 it’s a great price for this type of optic.
Only difficult part will be making a mount for it which centers properly while protecting it from damage.

.

There are datasheets and there is experience. The LED in my light is the best of 9. The worst one was 30% dimmer at Max. They were all soldered in the same way, but reflowing by hand is never a perfect process. It might simply be that small differences in the solder process create such a large variance.

Unless you measure the luminance of your specific sample, you will never know! It’s the most logical reason for your performance “problems” (in addition to the focussing aspect).

Cool. You could make a case for the mirror and embed it in a stiff foam, i.e PUR foam. Then either hang the complete case in an adjustment system, or fix the case and do all adjustments at the led.

Huh, and they were all bought at the same time? Do you know if you possibly crossed a stock multiple of 2000 when buying them?
I need to buy some more flat blacks to bin them, maybe some more mcpcbs too.

Yeah, moving the LED instead of the reflector would probably be best in that case.
I’m really tempted to buy one for $170, even though I don’t have any light to use it for…

Great find! Looks/is pretty much identical to the glass reflectors in marine searchlights, but orginal reflectors cost atleast twice as much.
Btw, congrats on the new lux reading :+1:

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.

The material is not good,
Thats why we call it “Salatschüssel”_—-salad bowl.
No Update cause of doesnt work well with Led recoil.
It is what you say- stamped piece of metal,

We will try 280 mm glas reflector from cinema with CFT 90 @ 30A. :innocent:
It need just some time…

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Yes, the first six were bought at the same time and thete was almost 30% variance. When the light was repaired three new ones were tested and one of the old ones was tested together with the new ones. One of the three was better than all of the ones before that.