Interestingly a friend just bought me a crystal ball and long story short, I discovered that it will focus light from my Acebeam W10 and W30 LEP’s down to a point and burn stuff. Now of course I’m thinking of buying some kind of light (thrower most likely) with an aspherical lens.
Why not swap the little Osram for the bigger 2mm² version (call it W2 or with the bigger 4040 footprint as Boost HX).
Double the lumens make it more usable in not fully focused mode but still throwing well.
Needs a lot more power, ~8A to use full potential.
Seeknite Z1/ Nitesun HT12?
Edit, misread your post.
XHP50 will give quite some output, dunno if you get the die projection since its a quad.
Otherwise SST40 or so
What I hear is a larger hotspot while preserving the throw. The only way is a large led with the luminance of the W1, the only led comes close to that is the SBT90.2 . Very expensive but it will perform well in the 1405.
FWIW… when I was scoping out my 1504 build 3~4 years ago. I was kind of in the same boat. But I didn’t really need a de-dome XPG2 pencil-beam. My eye-sight kind of tops out at ~275m, thats really as far as I need to illuminate. So I went with a factory de-dome XPL-HI in the 1504. It will easily do ~250 meters and thats good enough for me. Sure the aspheric design wastes a lot of lumens even at its flood setting, but its still plenty bright as a trail flood light. I have used this light car camping, night hiking countless times over the years and have no complaints.
I am thinking about building a new one with a more up to date emitter. So this thread interests me… hopefully we can share info. ;^). I am not up to speed on the latest emitter developments, and even less informed when it comes to die surface brightness.
Question for the DIY crowd… is the XPL-HI a good aspheric choice here in 2021? Looking for roughly the same die size, but better surface brightness per watt draw.
thanks!!
Thanks for the thoughts.
I’m happy to trade ultimate throw for a useable beam. Don’t get me wrong it is kind of cool as is. But sadly utterly useless. The beam isn’t really big enough to light a person up.
I have a de-domed XM-L in a Zeusray that actually works quite well. Way less throw. But a much smaller lens. However the beam is quite useful still.
So I was thinking maybe a de-domed XM-L2 or XP-L HI. But in 2021 these feel kind of “old”. So I was wondering if there was anything more modern that might give acceptable throw in a host such as this.
Currently have a 5amp driver in it. But could swap it out if need be.
I think changing LED sizes will make a small difference
the more influential factor is the distance from the lens to the LED, it needs to be MUCH closer to get a wider beam
rather than try to change the nature of your thrower, I suggest seeking out a different host, that lets you zoom…
Here is my aspheric lens,
my version of the McGizmo Sundrop beam:
the aspheric replaced the lens on a mule:
Hey any recommendations on an a thrower to buy that has an aspherical lens? I’m not a do it your selfer, just looking forward a new toy
maybe darksucks aka prometheus aka foursevens will assemble a High CRI Quark for you, with their aspheric thrower kit
> I’m not a do it your selfer
With the High CRI Quark with added aspheric kit,
you could learn to swap the reflector and aspheric lens, when desired
watch how its done… if interested:
consider it a convertible,
2 lights in one
I suggest you make it a one stop shop and buy 2 batteries and the charger they offer also …
Its a premium light, and a class act
let us know how you like it 
Sounds amazing thanks!
Osram CULPM1.TG is the larger version of the ‘normal’ 1mm^2 white flat.
It has double the area, 2mm^2 and close to double the lumens, obviously with more heat and power consumption.
SBT-90.2 is a 3mm x 3mm LED so 9x more area than the white flat, but can achieve very high intensity for throw too (except at even more power consumption)
Think I’m going to order up an XHP50.2 in 5000k and try that with the driver that is in the host now. I’ve tried holding the lens over my C8 with the reflector removed and the beam looks much more useful.
I know it will loose a ton of throw, but it just isn’t of any use currently, apart from as a pointer. I’ll do some beamshots/vid showing this later in the week.
For the record I’ve just been using the ceilingbounce app on my Android phone to try and get a lux reading. It seems quite hit and miss and huge variance. So take the numbers for what they are.
Calibration light was a Maglite ML25LT which mag rates at 28,473cd I was getting bang on 30,000cd
My Noctigon KR1 was getting 98,000cd with the W2 LED (100,000cd is claimed on the Int’l Outdoor site)
The 1504 was getting 522,000cd
Which I think is a cracking number from this setup. Glad I’ve built it, but I think the Osram LED will be finding a home in a different light now.
Hey guys, based on your comments I decided to order an Emisar Noctigon K1 thrower with a SBT90.2 5700K, 4500lm, 420KCD
The Osram had a little higher intensity but only 900 lumens. This should kick out some serious light!
Slice and dice it. Otherwise the beam will be quite bad…
Can you de-dome the XHP50.2? I’ve never sliced the LEDs before, I’ve just soaked them in petrol to take the dome off. Works really well on XM-L/XM-L2/XP-G2 etc. But haven’t done it in ages.
This is the technique:
Convoy z1 is a nice new toy;)
Argo… what do you mean by “quite bad” ?… by that you mean a de-focused die image correct?
Chicken-D… cool do post back your results, good or bad. I was messing with my 1504 the other day. Took apart and remembered a couple things about it.
- The pill is reverse threaded into the body.
- I never correctly painted the pill matte black. Apparently I was in a hurry and just used a black marker pen. It resulted in all kinds of spotty beam artifacts. I just now spray painted it correctly… waiting for it to dry as I type.
No problem with focusing but tint shift will be bad.
BTW, no hard feelings but I’m Agro.
Argo is my parents dog. Coincidence, they didn’t know about my nick when they named the dog.
oops sorry Agro… just a typo.