grins projector, recoil and test light builds

It is hard for me to explain probably because I dont really know what Im talking about. I only know what i see and I dont know how it works it just does.
Yes it could be looked at as a 3 element lens. L1 is fixed and wont change although I suspect aperture has something to do with the beam characteristics. If L2 and L3 are fixed L1 can be moved to focus the lens. In a follow spot the light is in an elliptical reflector. This reflector focuses to a second spot which is what the lens focuses on. In these spotlights they move L2 to adjust the beam size. Depending on where the elements are changes the beam shape.
To zoom in L2 moves toward the led, L3 moves away from L2.
Zoom out L2 moves away from the led. L3 move toward L2.
When I write it down, that is why they only move L2. But after thinking about this, L3 has to move to zoom in and out.
My idea when building the light is to cut down the amount of light hitting the barrel of the lens reducing stray reflections. So L1 is designed to only let light out that will hit L2, when fully zoomed in the light from L1 only illuminates the centre of L2, zoomed out light from L1 illuminates all of L2. The reason for this is that at all postions of travel L3 is fully illuminated. That is the reason why I build 2 soon to be 3 element lens lights. They are hard to get right, i will eventually.

Edited to clear it up

Took the mirror outside to see how it fitted in a temporary stand I made for it. As i walked into the sun the mirror burnt my ear. It is dangerous in the sun.

Didnt do what I planned over the weekend but I did work on lights. Waiting for 310mm and 250mm glass lens.
11inch search light.













9 1/4 inch on reflector for it yet.

Nice workspace you’ve got going on, that’s gonna be a heavy spotlight :slight_smile:
Looking forward to more progress pics.

They will be heavy but they are not really designed to carry around. These were made from off cuts thats why they are 6mm and 4mm plate. I think next time I will build them in stainless steel.
3-4 weeks ago I ordered another reflector from edmunds optics. When I got home it was at my backdoor. 600mm edmundsoptic parabolic reflector they are not optic grade but reasonably priced and still throw a good beam.

My house is like a shed so I call it a shouse. Haha I have the welder setup in the kitchen. My lathe was too big and heavy to put in the dinning room so it had to go in the shed.

Check:
As far as I understand the lowest steady flight levels are different across the world and go as low as 300m above terrain.
A 10 Mcd light (that huge reflector should exceed that by a huge margin) would give 111 lux at that distance, assuming that 300m is enough to get full focus.

Seems quite bright.

Wow ” grin ” :open_mouth: Great idea on the wheel selection ! :smiley: , I never thought to look for a parabolic reflector. There are several irons in the fire now !!
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Nice welding on the big light. I can see that you enjoy a challenge. :+1:
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Thanks for keeping us up to date with pics :beer:
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No worries, here is a link to them parabolic reflectors after playing with them they are the best of both reflector and lens lights specially the glass optic grade mirrors. Enderman posted a link from ebay for glass ones they are expensive but top quality. I want a 9 1/4” for the smaller light. glass parabolic reflectors

And sunlight is 111000 lux.
The brightness isn’t the problem.
The problem is the speckle and refraction of a laser hitting a piece of glass, which makes it near impossible for a pilot to see through.
Helicopters have flown over the Luxor beam which is a few billion candela and it’s fine because it’s normal white light.

It takes far less than direct sunlight to blind night-adapter eyes.
Luxor is an interesting example though - and they do take precautions not to blind air traffic - they first do a mild strobe and then turn their 39 lights one by one.

Yeah see this is a misconception, a laser doesn’t “blind” pilots by making their eyes hurt like a regular bright light does, it “blinds” them by making it hard to see out of the glass windows.
Have you ever been out during a sunny day and tried to look through a window into a dark shop?

Think I might have a problem spiders :smiley: the first one I made from a vee belt pulley it has no copper block. The others a made from plate water. It will be interesting to see how the passive copper spider works. The glass one has a 6inch focal length. So I plan on having a collar around the led on all off them eventually with the aperture matched to the reflector that will stop any spill hitting the side of the drum.






Impressive grin!

Thanks
I have been working on getting meter readings right so I can do some comparisons with collars. I have the same size round nose router bit as the genuine collar. So I will make one from aluminium and polish it. I will also make one from brass then tin it with pure silver. The tests so far prove I can get it to focus as good as the genuine one. Have a hunch the silver coating will be as good as you will get for home built.

Ohhh yesssss! DIY collar!!

Sssh can be a little controversial. Research suggests silver may be as good as as as … I can make. Cutting it by hand is very accurate if i can find the appropriate diamond cutter I will try glass.

likevvii,
How is the LEP going? I would like to build 900mm LEP recoil.

It is going really really good.
I will soon be making some post about it.

Almost all of the critical components have arrived.

I think i’ve put like 60+ hours on it so far?

Likevvii I cant wait to see it.
I have the platform to build a monster hopefully a LEP recoil. It has been sitting in the paddock for at least 20yrs. I started it about 10yr ago so it should run just need to give it a service, flush the fuel tank and bleed the fuel lines. I have the diff but It will need an alternator mounted on it so maybe an electric motor and the diesel engine will be a battery charger.

Grin, you don’t do things by half do you lol!? :stuck_out_tongue: so interesting.