That light is a beauty too - if it’s the case that it is almost as powerful and much smaller, why does ours need to be so big? Just a question, not a criticism. I am guessing mainly down to our $100 budget, that combined with loads of work (2 years it took him to finalise).
It uses aspherical lens,plus a collimator lens,and not a aluminum reflector.
600 kcd is doable by lots of lights and lots of modders. It's 1 mcd or nothing for me. Come on - I get 700 kcd+ from a BOSS1 with a dedomed XPL, so bout $75 invested. Also a decent TN31 with a dedomed XM-L2 U2 did close to or right about 600 kcd 3 years ago. It's a big step goin from 600/700 kcd to 1 mcd+.
Clearly the quality of a vinz custom is unsurpassed, and worth the money, but it's not a thrower king.
The Vinz with that big aspheric lens vs. a BLF/GT with a big reflector: All else being equal - power, LED used, head size, etc., I would think the winner in throw is the one with the aspheric lens.
The advantage of a big reflector is that it still has some useful ‘spill’ rather than the aspheric len’s narrow ‘laser’ beam with no spill - which is not very useful for most applications.
Even if the BLF/GT has a really really big head/reflector, I still kinda doubt it can beat the aspheric lens of the Vinz when it comes to throw, IMHO of course.
That said, I would still rather have the big reflector - I have no need for a laser beam.
Put me down for 1 please
I'm going by the somewhat fragmented, incomplete specs Vinz has published on that specific light in the CPF thread referenced. Clearly a TN42 would beat it in throw if it only does the 600 kcd minimum mentioned, there's no dimensions given so no idea how wide the head is. The goal of the GT is to beat the TN42 in throw, not by a little, by a lot, and the TN42 has been tested to be in the high 600's or low 700's, even though it's spec'd to be 600 kcd. He does say it has a pre-collimator lens, so I'm sure that helps but he emphasizes it helps in the width of the hot spot, doesn't mention any effect on the intensity of the hot spot. He also mentions he's been working on it for two years.
Aspheric lens lights are not trivial to get made, both for focusing and quality consistency issues. Good large aspheric lenses will cost a lot of money, and certainly at 120 mm diameter, an aspheric would weigh a lot even in plastic, and not be a viable solution - the balance would be awful - MEM mentions that here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/33545/113. I don't see it as a viable option for a project like this. Reflector based lights will be cheaper and somewhat better in quality and consistency, and ease in manufacturing. The UF 1504 is a good light to use for reference for large aspherics - lot of #'s published here on it.
It looks like Vinz could sell a lot more of those lights at that price, but he chooses not to. I'm sure there are good reasons why he chooses not to make more.
There is a lot of speculation here…
The GT will easily beat the Vinz light in throw if it has a XHP-35 HI @ high current. There is no reason to doubt this. It’s all simple physics.
The Mjölnir from Vinz is not about maximum throw, it’s about maximum efficiency and a relatively large spot. All of the light from the LED goes into the spot. It uses very high quality lenses. It has the best possible heatsinking. etc.
In the end it doesn’t matter. These lights are completely different and it doesn’t make much sense to compare them.
I love it when you talk like that!!! 
That is what I hope to see…… :+1: To close in on the magical 1M cd. 
Of its an aspherical lens i thing personal I would not be interested in don’t like a laser pencil beam with no spill .
The GT is going to be reflector for sure, no aspheric.
Im doing much testing of large 78mm aspheric and dual aspherics design in the 80mm head courui d07 modded with xml2 U4 driven at 12.6vx2.1a =~6amp to led. Because of the large aspheric ,focus needs to be 50mm away which causes alot of side light loss, this i rectify with a secondary 30mm asperic over the led which improves beam intensity greatly. The intensity of the xml2u4~24w dual 78/30mm aspherics close up is tat higher than xhp35Hi55w , However due to the aspheric lenses focus point difference, i was only able to get a elongated narrow pyramid square beam. I still have 4 other assorted aspherics to try out but after comparing reflectors beam to large aspherics, the beam quality(straight round) of reflector based design is still way more gorgeous, throws straight and much useful ,period.
Given the size of the reflector i would suggest a more powerful led like the new xhp50.2 possibly in Hi version to maximize beam aura intensity to 5000lumens. Beyond a certain size ,a overly larger reflector can cause some beam intensity to fade from a larger hotspot.
Whoa, XHP50.2HI? Where is this you speak of, got a link?
Never heard of the xhp 50 in hi version
Xhp50.2 hi, its coming just like the xhp35 hi. lol .Its Pure speculation on my part but given 10-16k production lights pooping up all over, the GT needs to be 5k-10k lumens up to be min. extreme enough for my taste. Im already planning to squeeze fit in 4 xhp35 hi die in the 90mm 80wh boss1 at direct drive but due to the possibility of the Gt being superior, i decided to pop in a xhp35hi instead to reserve future room for fantasies . I have the keys parts necessary to complete the boss1 mod .Peeks.10-30mm raw stock heatsinks
Think BIG guys, doo not just settle for measly 1/2/3k lumens , we’ve seen that before. True flasholics should be looking at 5/10/20K lumens led superiority throwers aka Hid slayers. You are making history now.
I have some suggestion like A)2-4x 26650 extension body to simplify construction and production cost over 2x4x18650 carriers option. b)Direct drive simplicity ,no energy losses and ultra low cost .If its going to be 18650, make it 4x4 18650 extensions for 4x4 battery in series/4- 16 cells optionality for the massive power and current limits needed to drive a beast or balance runtime. The boss 1 in its compact form is already 8x 18650 equivalent btw. Whats the point of making something close to what a mass production light can already achieve with simple mods?
I dont think so.
on pct.cree.com is XP-L2 listed as HD but XHP50.2 not.
I think only XP-L2 and XHP35.2 will be listed as HI.
If you don’t mind my saying - I think you’ve gone about this the wrong way. To hit the kcd you are looking for, I would have found a reflector first that can achieve this, then built the light around that. Otherwise a reflector may need to be produced which will push up costs and there is no guarantee the reflector will perform until it’s tested.
Just my 2c
Interesting observation ‘pp3310’… makes a lot of sense come to think about it.
Makes sense. Maybe we need to answer the following questions:
1) How much power can the LED be driven at.
2) Is there a driver that can accomplish #1.
3) How big and what shape does the reflector need to be to get to the desired cd.
4) Is there a reflector already available at that size and shape.
And so on…
To get 1 Million Candela @ turn-on with a maximally driven XHP-35 HI E2 with uncoated acryllic lens and aluminium reflector the reflector needs to be at least slightly over 110mm diameter. I calculated this based on the luminance values of this LED which can be found here. A 120mm reflector should do it if the light is built correctly, but it’s going to be close (unless we use ar-coated lenses and/or higher binned emitters).
Can you calculate this once more, but now with a xhp50.2 led and diameter of reflector at 120mm?
Just to compare…
But I belive the depth is a factor to put in this calculation.
And Enderman made different graphs by given depth/front area (quoted at post #1983)