Hello all and hope your day’s going fine. I have the HL01 but unfortunately there’s too much throw for my up close work. I just need a wall of light within a 10-20 feet radius.
I reached out to Boaz for some film already. Is there a reflector size I can get maybe that has more spill?
I run diffuser film on virtually every headlamp I own . the only headlamp I'd want throw on would be if I were riding a bike fast and wanted throw where I was looking . I'd run a light on the bars and a headlamp as well . But at this point I ride pretty slowly and wear a diffused Boruit D10 headlamp on medium loose around my neck .. it works just fine .Sometimes the paperboy passes me or little girls with streamers ... I struggle to keep up :)
Phouton talking about diffuser film on a headlamp >> https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/35838/350
You might be better of removing the reflector altogether if the mcpcb is screwed down, or you’ll have to replace it with some kind of tube between the MCPCB and lens
I like the diffuser film better than a “mule” because the mule has a (mostly, except for a small hotspot from the emitter) evenly lit cone of light, while the diffuser provides a hemisphere of light. With a reflector it creates a beam profile that is nicely transitioned.
It depends if you want uniform brightness (like a zoomie in wide mode), or if you want really wide spill for seeing where you’re walking/working/etc and might still want a little bit of hotspot/throw.
As Boaz mentioned above regarding my posts on the subject, I like #7 for my SP40 headlamp.
Someone just asked something similar a while back.
I’d rather stick an aspheric lens in there vs leaving it as a mule. A mule lets light go all over the place to the point where it’s so diffuse that lux is down in the toilet. Think of it as more of a 160° lantern than flashlight/headlight.
At least an aspheric lens would still give a nice even blanket of light, but it wouldn’t be spread almost 160° like a mule would.
If you’d still want light to be a bit more concentrated in the center, then heavily-diffused film would be the best option. I’ve got a WW Xeno E03 with DF on it, and it’s a nice warm blanket of light, too, but you can tell there’s a bit more light in the center that nicely and gradually fades as you go off-axis. That’s my go-to light around the house unless I really truly need firefly mode. (And diffusion film comes in various grades, from lightly to heavily diffused.)
That said, if you can pop out the ring and reflector, and it’s 20mm or so and can fit a 20mm TIR lens depthwise, that would let you select any spread you want, from 5° spot to 120° flood, for less’n a buk a lens.
Ahh good now I have more choices… aspheric lens and “Mule” which is a flashlight without reflector :-). Boy looks like this flashlight will be my main Mod project :D.
Hmmm I was thinking a mule will definitely give spill and cover a broad area. Sorta like those 100 w Cob led’s that take 30-32v. I still want a little hotspot though. Then a choice of lenses looks like another route. Lots to keep me busy now!
Another vote for trying dc fix. In the meantime to get an idea of how diffuser film might look try Scotch tape with the matte finish (magic tape). I have not used dc fix yet but the scotch tape works pretty well. The scotch tape might reduce the output more though.
Forgot the #s, but regular (1?) is a coarse pattern, good if you want to blur the hotspot a bit but not completely trash its throw. I use that on a 2×D Luxpro to kill off the evil pissy beam from the G3, yet still let it “reach” a bit.
The other one (4? 7? whatever) is a finer grain, really diffuse, which is what I use on my E03. That should be the one that it sounds like you’d want. Nice and diffuse, but still a bit brighter in the center and fading as you go off-axis.
But still investigate and play with aspherics and TIRs. You might then hit on the Perfect Beam™ even if only at random.