Hi,
I bought a couple of carclo TIR lenses from illuminationsupply (21mm plain TIR)
I then did some test on my flashlight, and I get a very ugly square spot… not to mention the light power was clearly reduced.
Anybody is using carclo TIR lenses ?
It was only $1.50/lens but I still feel I lost my money :~
Consider it part of your education.
I have a tight Carclo in my helmet light on an XM-L and it works fine. Slightly square hotspot, but throws well. I had to cut off the pins of the holder and it was a pain getting it centred (as the optic doesn’t sit directly on the LED, but slightly above it), so one of those things might be causing you trouble. Personally I prefer the LC1 RS and I also have some LED-DNA XM-L optics to try out when I get a spare moment.
TIR lenses are designed to sit on the led and the lens needs to be matched to the right led. XP-G to XP-G, XM-L to XM-L and so on. The lens should fit right over the led and the legs/shoulder should rest on the star. If yours is not that way, then it is not installed properly. I believe that is most likely why you are seeing a square, instead of a spot.
Not sure how true this is, but I recall reading that TIRs are more efficient then reflectors. The light that you see from the sides would usually be absorbed by the reflector. Of course, a really good reflector can achieve 90% or more reflectivity vs 85% of the typical TIR.
You could place white paper around the inside of the light to recover a bit of the lost light. It also seems like some TIRs also act a bit like a lens, hence the square beam pattern.
Caution: All of this post was not from first hand experience and the last paragraph was from looking at pictures/guess-work(IE, I haven’t tested them in a integrating sphere)
sometimes mixing things up well, especially if you can maintain the same optic height above the LED die. LC1 is a case in point - it’s designed for XP-E (I think, the one with the metal ring) and gives a horrible spotty beam on an XM-L with the holder. Put the bare optic on the XM-L and it’s 100 shades of pure awesome. A lot of the XP-G optics which were so so with XP-G are pretty awesome with XM-L. Only way to know though is through empirical testing, which kind of sucks, or reading the internet, which is much easier 
Because tir optics use the index of refraction/reflection to focus light they can generally achieve a similar focus in a shorter distance. The front of the lens can also be shaped to enhance this ability. Anything other than air in contact with the optic (fingerprints, paint, foil, etc.) will cause light to pass through at that point rather than otf and decrease efficiency. Making the surface of the head more reflective inside might increase overall output a bit but will only end up in the spot by coincidence. A square spot is an indication of decent focus. If you can see the lines that’s even more focused. If you don’t like the square beam you should check out a “smooth spot” optic. 6 degrees is I tight spot, 25 degrees is a flood, 40 degrees is a wash. Optics do have a specified distance above the led. Holders and legs are used to create this spacing. To close and more light leaves unfocused. To far and some light is reflected off the bottom of the optic. Different led, different spacing. Look at the data she ets. Even if they are unintelligible H) spellcheck, now, you will begin to notice bits mentioned in other threads. It’s a process called learning that I prefer to do here on BLF rather than in a class under (Boo, Hiss, Hiss) Flourescent lights. As long as its out of curiosity or present need, it’s a much more entertaining way to learn. Plus I love the jokes and funny pics. This place is a riot.
Hmmm. . . I bought 60 degree optics from IOS. I was looking for lots of wide even flood, so I guess that's what I should expect. I wasn't sure what to expect and no one ever answered me when I posted it in my build thread.
-Garry
I feel brave, I strapped a two cell tulip head ultrafire zoomy bought from eBay and used the ultrafire brc3000 cells, then I used it as a bedside light for night feeding duty for my baby son……
It didn’t blow up, my head is still the same ugly shape.
I agree, use good cells, but I think the lithium batteries blow up for fun urban legend is getting to be just that, an urban legend.
To be sure, I use more trusted cells, but since the ultrafires seem to charge ok and last alright (no where near my other cells, but still acceptable) they are still in use.
Just call me gords Norris…. :cowboy_hat_face:
I agree that there is probably too much worrying over Lithium cells. So long as you are using quality products (ie. cells and chargers), verify they function correctly every now and then, and don't do anything really stupid you'll be fine. Problem comes when either people do stupid things (sometimes by accident I'm sure) or trust some really low budget crap to work right.
-Garry
Wrong topic 
I used to be really scared of lions to the point where I would take lifepo4 16340s out of flashlights for storage, but after the incident with my DRY I am no longer as worried about them.
I use Carclo optics in my MicroMags and the hotspot is round. Only the surrounding flood is square but outside its not noticeable.
Usually the hotspot is round and the surrounding corona is square. If you want to get rid of the square corona then I would suggest getting some diffusion film, using a hole punch to punch out a small round piece of it, then sticking this right in the middle of the optic. This will get rid of the square corona without affecting the hotspot much, if at all. I’ve done this more than a few times as I really hate the square corona (yes, I absolutely hate the square beam of aspherics).
You’ve probably seen these already but here are some shots of my first venture into the TIR world, P60 vs 20mm TIR.
Ugly square beam doesn’t seem right maybe just not suited to the led.
beam shapes vary massively between TIR optics. The only ones I’ve seen with a squarish hotspot are the Carclo narrows and Ledil Laura RS, the LXP-RS, CXP-RS and LC1 optics all throw round beams. I have some of those LED-DNA narrow optics in my box that are waiting for a spare moment to install, they get rave reviews from others.
I’ve used Ledil Reginas alot and I’ve slowly been replacing them with TIR optics of different sorts (the last one’s getting swapped out for a LED-DNA optic). The beam isn’t bad and throws well, but I just don’t like the sharp cut off between spot and spill, and spill and the side.
Vehicle lights and flashlights serve different purposes and have different beam patterns as a result. With regards to my beam preferences compared to yours, it’s my personal preference and that’s my problem. I won’t tell you to like (name some food or beverage that you don’t like here) just because I do and I won’t expect you to tell me to do the same with me.
Why on earth did this end up here instead of the thread it was intended for?
:~
Ah well, Gords Norris :bigsmile: