Single reflector friendly triple emitter setup

LumenHound · 2018-07-22T12:46:44.000Z

Mount the 3 emitters to the end of a 3 sided copper stem (or even a length of heavy copper wire) and see what kind of beam you get with modestly driven leds.

Tricky to do but side emitters may give you a tight flood beam.

eas · 2018-07-22T22:29:52.000Z

I have one of the 2x2 MCPCBs linked earlier in the thread. With a smooth reflector, it has a black hole in the center of the beam.

After DIYing an OP reflector by misting the stock reflector with enough clear gloss spraypaint to cover 75% of the reflector surface with a rough texture, the beam is even floodier and it still has a spot in the center. The spot isn’t anywhere near as dim as with the smooth reflector, but it’s still noticeable, maybe 3 stops dimmer.

I have some cheap optics for 7070 emitters on the way from China to try. And when I place my next Mouser order, I’m going to buy a couple variants of the Ledil Eva. The beamshots from the datasheet show that they do a great job of blending gappy quad-die emitters.

Lightbringer · 2018-07-22T22:35:23.000Z

Short of making it a mule, a nice aspheric should give a nice wide blanket of light.

LumenHound · 2018-07-25T03:55:21.000Z

Off on a tangent here,
If I recall, it was Mcgizmo back around 2005 when we were all on CPF who did the triple side emitter experimental ground work.
He posted beam shots as a work in progress and the results were impressive.

Barkuti · 2018-07-25T16:40:07.000Z

There's been a bit more chitchat here than expected. Interesting…

Problem here is fusing beams from emitter dies with are inevitably apart. I believe this can be sort of done to some extent, but the reflector must somehow be located off-focus (a little bit higher maybe) and the emitters should be placed making a sort of perfect geometric shape from the focus center. Like all 3 emitters at 60° from each other (isosceles triangle) and 60° rotated from each other (there would be an isosceles triangle hole right at the center).

Cheers

Barkuti · 2018-07-25T16:41:52.000Z

LumenHound:

… it was Mcgizmo back around 2005 when we were all on CPF who did the triple side emitter experimental ground work.

He posted beam shots as a work in progress and the results were impressive.

Any sort of information available?

Cheers :-)

LumenHound · 2018-07-25T21:28:54.000Z

Pretty sure all that info and beam shots were lost in one of the many fatal server crashes CPF suffered through way back then.
Think a reflector designed for an incan bulb with the focal point further away from the base of the parabola than typical led optomised reflectors was used.

LumenHound · 2018-07-25T21:39:57.000Z

Found it!
Don posted it on his site.
Double and triple side emitters

That website is a real walk down memory lane.

MRsDNF · 2018-07-25T21:51:46.000Z

LumenHound:

Found it!
Don posted it on his site.
Double and triple side emitters

That website is a real walk down memory lane.

I haven’t seen anything like that before… It was very interesting and shows the skills of the guy.

The_Driver1 · 2018-07-25T21:52:15.000Z

Barkuti:

LumenHound:

… it was Mcgizmo back around 2005 when we were all on CPF who did the triple side emitter experimental ground work.
He posted beam shots as a work in progress and the results were impressive.

Any sort of information available?

Cheers

http://dmcleish.com/CPF/

Specifically here, scroll down a bit.

DavidEF · 2018-07-25T22:01:03.000Z

That dual/triple side-mount LED trick is exactly what most LED Automotive Headlight makers do now. I had never seen that mod, but the man was ahead of his time.

EasyB · 2018-07-26T00:58:12.000Z

That side facing LED build is very cool. It looks like you have to shift each reflector section outward so the focus lies more on the LED. So this probably wouldn’t work (as well) with a single uncut reflector. Which is unfortunate because cutting and placing the reflectors looks difficult.

Redlyne22 · 2018-07-26T07:01:51.000Z

As DavidEF mentioned……

I’ve been eyeing these 12v triple/single spot lights for months now. I cant figure out if it’s a gimmick or the next step in led lighting. One thing that bugs me is heat management might suuuuk.

[3 new items added to shared album] Triple led single reflector spot light

Agro · 2018-07-26T08:22:19.000Z

LumenHound:

Found it!
Don posted it on his site.
Double and triple side emitters

That website is a real walk down memory lane.

Superb, thanks a lot for the link!

The_Driver1 · 2018-07-26T11:56:48.000Z

Don McLeish ist one of the biggest innovators ever in regards to flashlights:

First to put high-cri LEDs in flashlights
First to put high-power UV LEDs into flashlights
One of the first to use buck-boost drivers to allow the use of different battery types
First or at least very early use of titanium for flashlights
Invented the McClicky switch, a robust forward clicky with threads for easy installation
Invented the Piston drive, which is a method of using an electronic switchinstead of a mechanical one in the back of a flashlight without needing to run extra wires to the back
One of the first to combine a throwy led with floody LEDs in a flashlight
First to make all-flood “mule” flashlights
First to use Saphire lenses
Etc.

I think it’s very sad that he doesn’t seem to experiment so much anymore +or share these experiments in the forums).

Redlyne22 · 2018-07-26T18:32:16.000Z

Wow, it seems we owe this fella a lot of credit for making our hobby what it is today. Can anybody get a hold of him? Maybe we can entice him with a new fun project? Possibly funded or partially funded by our community? Idk, just throwing out there.

The_Driver:

Don McLeish ist one of the biggest innovators ever in regards to flashlights:

First to put high-cri LEDs in flashlights

First to put high-power UV LEDs into flashlights

One of the first to use buck-boost drivers to allow the use of different battery types

First or at least very early use of titanium for flashlights

Invented the McClicky switch, a robust forward clicky with threads for easy installation

Invented the Piston drive, which is a method of using an electronic switchinstead of a mechanical one in the back of a flashlight without needing to run extra wires to the back

One of the first to combine a throwy led with floody LEDs in a flashlight

First to make all-flood “mule” flashlights

First to use Saphire lenses
Etc.

I think it’s very sad that he doesn’t seem to experiment so much anymore +or share these experiments in the forums).

Agro · 2018-07-26T19:19:12.000Z

I think asking “how can we help / assist you?” would work better than offering money.

eas · 2018-07-26T20:18:20.000Z

The optics for 7070 emitters I ordered from Ali Express arrived a few days ago.

In quick testing with my 2x2 XP-G2 array, the narrow (8°) version makes a beam with big-ole’ dark spot.

The wider 25° version, on the other hand, does a great job. To my eyes, no dark/dim spot was noticeable when I shone the beam on a blank wall on the other side of the room.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the opening is a little small for the array. The optic swallows most of the domes, but it rests on the sides of the domes near their bases, which might result in uncontrolled dedomig at some point.

I may try boring & polishing out the whole opening a bit, as others have done, or I might just flare the base slightly to allow the optic to seat well.

The_Driver1 · 2018-07-26T20:29:57.000Z

Redlyne22:

Wow, it seems we owe this fella a lot of credit for making our hobby what it is today. Can anybody get a hold of him? Maybe we can entice him with a new fun project? Possibly funded or partially funded by our community? Idk, just throwing out there.

He has been offering his titanium flashlights all this time here. You can talk to him there. He just doesn’t seem to experimant much anymore.

eas · 2018-07-29T05:00:03.000Z

I tried boring out the narrow optic in order to test/practice my technique. I tried using a tapered wood dowel chucked into a battery powered hand drill, with damp, loose silicone carbide grip.

It opened up the bore a bit, but I ended up grinding down the optic, shortening its length at about 2x the rate I was opening the bore, so that’s a fail. I may order a few more to learn on. I think I’m going to try gluing some fine sandpaper to a tapered dowel next.