I have game cameras set up around the property. Most of them in the woods and a few of them looking over some hay fields and just open ground. The ones in the woods work just fine. The two in the wide open areas could use a little boost of extra IR light. The IR lights built into them are only good for about 25 yards or so. I need light that will reach out 100 to 150 yards. More flood than throw.
So I am looking for suggestions. I don’t know the efficiency of IR emitters but I would like to have long runtimes. I guess I could always wire up some external battery packs. Portability or even the physical size of the light is unimportant. They will just be mounted to a tree and left there.
As I sit here and think about it, I think I will use an external battery pack and a timer so it’s not running all day when it doesn’t need to. That will save me a lot of trips out to replace the packs. I can make up some 4 cell packs in parallel so I’ll have 12000mah of capacity.
So I guess I just need some suggestions/advice on what lights to get.
It depends on your budget, but the convoy S12 has an IR option. You could wire one up to an external battery and relay if you eliminate the tailcap switch.
If you want more output and a narrower beam (and have a much higher budget), the Weltool LH2 could be something to build around. Normally it is intended for weaponlights but the tapeswitch tailcap is perfect for external powerbank and switch use with a battery eliminator, inputting power through the switch plug.
Wow, just watched a video of that LH2. That thing puts out some light. Easily lights up a tree line 400 yards away. I think a bit of DCFix or some of that material I got from salvaged LED TV screens should work out nicely.
That price though. It’s not out of my budget but it’s close to the top of it.
Good luck with the build, I’d love to see photos of how you get it working with an external battery.
Also if you are open to custom assembled lights, you could probably put the LED used in the LH2 into a different host, it is a 3v Osram 940nm LED with a 3030 footprint (SFH 4725 maybe?). Up to 1.5A maximum current iirc but I recommend going lower. Keep in mind the thermal pad is negative, I fried a C8+ that way when I was trying to build around the LED.
I will see what kind of 3030 boards I can find. I have a C8F that I would love to use. It’s a triple though. Don’t know yet how many varieties of 3030 boards they make. I will have to do some searching. I also have a Jetbeam TH20 that I never use. That would make a nice bullet proof host. Got a bunch of S2+ host and a BD06 host as well. Quite a few Maglight’s too.
Looks like I got some work to do. Thank you for all your help.
It is a similar footprint to the W1 but a bit smaller, technically 2828 so finding a triple or quad board might not be the easiest, if it doesn’t fit a 3535 footprint. Worth trying it though.
There were some questions about IR lights some time ago. And it made me rather curious about the capabilities of such lights. So I ordered an Osram SFH 4716AS IR 850nm emitter from Kaidomain and took a Warsun MX800 (C8 size, deeper reflector) to be the lucky host. That was only half of the problem. Getting visible results was another. See link https://budgetlightforum.com/t/infra-red-light-help-needed-to-build-one-or-two/69449/20. Results only became usable when I found an old wildlife camera.
The Osram emitter is not very powerful, and they don’t like to be over-driven, but I was surprised by the results. With 1.5A at the tailcap I let it deplete a fresh charger 18650 without problems. There are other IR-leds of course, and more powerful, but not always with a regular footprint. The light comes with extension tubes for 3 x 18650 max and is in good condition. Except a dinged tail piece. I lent it for testing to my (ex) neighbour, but it seems he came no further than the drop test. If you are interested I send you the light if you pay for the shipping.
That is awfully nice of you, thank you. I ordered that Weltool LH2 this morning. Also going to order a emitter and board and see what I can do with s S2+ host.
Thank you again for your kindness. Only on BLF do you see this.
I actually had the same problem, i needed an IR light to light up an area very similar to what OP pictures showed, tried few lights that were on a market back then, none worked, either too narrow or wide enough but could not cover the distance. I used old sony 0 lux cam. I ended up building my own using 2x5Watts ledengin lz4 850nm leds. still not 100% coverage but very close enough. way better than all those single led xp/xm size ir leds, tried those edison type leds too, same story as xp/xm. But is was long ago, i’m sure there has been developments in IR flashlights, at least i hope there are.
Well the “private message mode” turned out to be a total silence mode.
So after 47+ days sitting in a box waiting for an address sticker, I will put this light in my next GAW.
When you’re looking for IR emitters, most of them have a non-standard footprint. The Osram SFH 4716AS IR 850 nm emitter I bought from Kaidomain comes with a regular ledboard. Swapping was really version 1-0-1: desolder old ledboard with XM-L, solder in new ledboard. I even suspect the led itself has a standard footprint. Luckily I did not have to worry about that at all.
Just get a couple of these zoomies that I reviewed. With my PARD NV008S LRF I could make out a house at over 1000m. In flood focus it could do the job.
