Nice!
Yeah the collar will change the LED tint, so cool white turns into more yellow.
You should still be able to get closer to 300kdc or more with the collar, I would recommend reading this to see how I focus my collars: The OptoFire Searchlight | BEAMSHOTS on page 3 | record-breaking aspheric LED thrower
Scroll down about half way to where the collar pics are.
LEDs without silicone on the die (aka dedomed XP-G2, black flat, cft90, etc) are much easier to focus and don’t create the big yellow outline/corona you see in your second last pic.
Also, I use hot glue to secure my collars in place.
If your flashlight head heats up a lot then you should use UV curing glue, which is what marinebeam recommends.
Too many little hobby projects for me lately, the collar and lens are waiting for the right moment to start the mod.
I’m glad to hear that the Jaxman Z1 appears a good host for it, thanks yasenf for the report and the pictures! Now save some money for one, Z1’s are nice but not really budget.
Same I have my two collars waiting for future projects.
Too many things going on at the moment!
And my large collar is still operational so I’m saving the small ones for when I really need them (like in a compact build like this Just did this for fun)
You see two of them - the last picture is also a beamshot - it is funny how you see the reflection of the MCPCB on the wall, I have to cover it with something once final emitter is chosen.
Collar is not really budget either - I bought it hoping to be able to crank as much candela as possible from a compact host. I first tried even more compact - Countryman B1, but the collar did not fit for few mm. Jaxman is sold in Fasttech also, from time to time they offer a sitewide code, so it comes ~$55 in XML2.
You see two of them - the last picture is also a beamshot - it is funny how you see the reflection of the MCPCB on the wall, I have to cover it with something once final emitter is chosen.
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I mean beamshots, like a night where you can see the beam outdoors, not wall shots.
Larger beam does not make sense? Maybe it cold even correct tint issues? With wavien we have fixed focus position without possibility of flood mode so larger beam would be plus. And maybe some thin mirror around emitter for some spill effect?
So Jaxman is suitable host… That is good to know. Maybe I’ll try mentioned diy sorcery one day
You can’t make the beam larger. You only have a fixed amount of light. Either you direct it onto the collar so that it makes the beam more intense or you make the beam wider, but not more intense.
It can’t make the beam wider with the pre-collimator. The pre-collimator limits the exit angle of the light already. Adding a pre-collimator won’t change this. It will just reduce efficiency because some of the recycled light has to go through it three times (LED -> pre-collimator -> collar -> pre-collimator -> recycling in LED -> pre-collimator)!
I don’t want to add precoolimator to top of wavien collar. For example I just want emitter mounted precoolimator. Like that redneck light with precoolimator So just imagine your redneck light fitted with waviean RA collar above? Is it worth a try?
Hi, I don't think it's worth a try. You can't use light that itsn't there in the first place. When using just the collar, all of the light of the LED is used in some way. You can't make the beam wider and keep the intensity the same. You would need more light for that (=> more power).
This equation should help you understand:
Lux = ( Lumen / m2)
Example:
You have 700 otf lumens (2100 led lumens) and your flashlight does 300kcd (300000 lux in 1m distance). It has just the typical aspheric lens.
So in 80m distance you get 300000 lux / (80m x 80m) = 46.9lux.
The size of the hotspot in that distance: 700lm / 46.9lux = 14.9m2
All of the light coming out of the flashlight is going into this hotspot.
You have two options:
Add Pre-Collimator (increase beam angle by using more of the led lumens, lux/cd stay the same) (for example 1400 otf lumens, 300kcd, hotspot: 29.95m2 in 80m distance)
Add Wavien Collar (increase lux/cd by using more of the led lumens, beam angle is reduced) (for example 1155 otf lumens, 660kcd, hotspot: 11.2m^2 in 80m distance)
Both use the light that never reaches the aspheric lens because it goes to the side. Using both at the same time makes no sense because one of them would be using the light that the other also uses. You can't magically create more light than is being generated.
The pre-collimator has the possibilty of being optimized further by using a perfectly matched main lens with short focal length together with the pre-collimtor. You can get almost 99% efficiency using this system.
I just finished up my Z1 host that I will eventually try my collar in (for better or worse). It’s a shaved 50.2 with a 2S 8Amp lexel buck driver. The black centering ring that came with the host started melting after my first evening of testing so now I have a reflection of the mcpcb+emitter like the earlier photo since I had to remove that and clean the LED off as best I could.
Djozz, you didn’t hear this from me but I emailed Jaxman and got them to put a single Z1 host back up on their store for me a few months ago. It was not without hesitation and they mentioned they do not like selling it this way because of the complexity of assembly and they prefer to only sell finished flashlights.
Some fresh news - my Z1 is with dedomed XP-G2 and BLF direct driver from Banggood. Lux: 356K - this is the best I could squeeze while changing the focus of the collar like 5-6 times. It is now sitting ~ 1mm above the pill. Below are some beamshots, some are intentionally over exposed to show the beam, but the first one is quite realistic. The white ballance of the camera is set to 5000K, so the tint is really greenish
So what was your before lux and what distance did you measure at?
I just measured my Z1 (XHP50.2 shave dome, 5000K 80CRI J2 bin) before collar at 144kcd and after collar at 192kcd. This is with the collar simply sitting on the pill.
Unless you or someone else got a large % increase I may just do a “white flat” in this light instead.
The Wavien collar needs to be positioned about 1mm above the LED to retroreflect the light back to the phosphor. Better yet, align it in the XY and Z axes by projecting the image on a wall or ceiling and use a light meter. If you aren’t getting about a 2x gain, then it isn’t aligned properly. When approaching the correct alignment you will notice a distinct color shift as the dominant blue wavelength gets converted into warmer white light.
