What did you mod today?

ToyKeeper · 2019-04-02T00:03:24.000Z

DB Custom:

Purdy ain’t it? And it’s output color is an amazing blue!

I’m tempted to put it into a lightsaber. There are blades called “photon” blades, which are a hollow tube with the entire inside coated in a green phosphor. It’s like the remote phosphor tech used in some LED bulbs, except in this case the entire blade is the “bulb”. To make it work, it needs a particular shade of blue light… which happens to be exactly what this naked XHP50.2 produces. So it would make a very very bright green blade.

Normally they just stick XP-E2 or XQ-E emitters inside, in a royal blue tint… because apparently nobody in the saber industry has realized that they can get a lot more blue light if they just take the top off a white emitter. So if I did this, it would probably be the brightest lightsaber on the planet. Nobody makes them like this.

CRX · 2019-04-02T00:42:53.000Z

I’ve used these filters from an old laptop as diffusion film in lights.

DB_Custom · 2019-04-02T01:38:58.000Z

Do it Tk! That would be awesome! pics of course…

CRX, yeah, well, I’m a little slow on the uptake in some cases (like most times when I’m awake) I ended up with carefully placed discs, 6 of them, and my lightbox reads actual lumens with no math needed. That will be a treat, been using a multiplier for years.
The BLF 348 light measured spot on at 56 lumens, the larger Convoy S2+ that Maukka calibrated at 290.8 shows 288.3 on my meter. No math. I’m not gonna know how to handle it…

Nicolaas · 2019-04-02T10:50:27.000Z

Scallywag:

Nicolaas:

That was quite interesting but now………………….back to modding! Actually I’m hijacking this from Djozz as he did most of the work. I’m good at working out ideas and doing the rough calculation; Djozz has the skills and equipment to make it actually happen. What did we do? Well, I had a Thrunite TN31 that was already converted to an aespheric, doing 649Kcd with a dedomed XP G2. I quite liked it but the led deteriorated after a while and at 549Kcd I decided it was time for further development. The light moved to my storage and, as soon as a very limited number of wavien collars came available (early 2018 I believe) I bought two of them. The size I bought nicely fits on the shelf of the TN31, with a millimeter or so clearance on all sides. This is quite important because a wavien collar not only needs to be in perfect focus to achieve optimal results, it needs to be perfectly centered above the led as well. I got a friend to drill the old led & ledboard out on a laithe and Djozz glued an old style XP G2 on a copper dtp board to the shelf. After that Djozz made a copper ring to fit around the dtp board. It’s function is to get the wavien collar on the correct height to provide maximum foton recylement. So to speak. It then was fixed in place with three generous dots of heat glue. The light color is not great - as expected - a dedomed XP G2 with a wavien produces a nice green/yellow tint but the throw numbers are excellent: we measured 1,308.000 CD @ Djozz. Translation: 1,3Mcd in a handheld size light; I call this a success! It’s a pencil beam of course, but that’s ok. It’s a fun light, not meant to have any practical use. And fun I do have with it! In the pictures you can see the various states of development, a comparison with other aespheric lights and a few beamshots. The closest high voltage pylon is at 134 meters (146 yards) and the one farther away is at 713 meters (780 yards). Below a small light, above to the right BTU Shocker (greenish due to dedomed XM L2’s), above that to the left Djozz’ BLF GT, on top TN31. The beamshot pictures are quite accurate; but they do not show that we had a slight fog just above the ground, causing the light to spread out a bit. Enjoy! Edit: sorry but I can’t somehow get the pics uploaded. Will ask Djozz for help.

Sounds like a fun time! I wish I lived near djozz, he keeps liking the same LEDs as me.

Any reason you didn’t opt for a White Flat (or other newer LED besides the legendary “old good” XP-G2)?

The reason is very simple: Djozz still had an old style XP G2 lying around and these can take 5,5A with no problem.
The white flats work on a much lower forward voltage which can cause problems with the driver.
As the TN31 is one the precious few light with magnetic switches I didn;t want to risk the driver.

Also, if you want to make full use of a wavien collar (200% light output) you need to use a dedomed led.
If you use a led with a flat dome (white flat, black flat, XP-L HI, XHP35 HI) the max afficacy you can get out of the led is maybe around 185%.

And yes, having Djozz at just 11Km away is nice, very nice. And he’s a nice guy as well, we get along great.

Cheers,
Nico

CRX · 2019-04-02T10:48:59.000Z

Cool DB, it was a laptop that died a couple of years ago so me being me had to take it apart to see if there was any interesting bits I could re-use, tons of wee resistors, screws etc and a big sheet of white film & slightly diffuse transparent polarizing film from the screen.
I actually used a piece of that in the SL.

djozz · 2019-04-02T11:30:42.000Z

Here are some pictures going with Nicolaas’ aspheric converted TN42 mod.

I used a precisely sanded to thickness spacer, made of soldered brass rings, clearing the led wires, for the collar to sit on. The spacer was glued to the shelf around the ledboard with Arctic Alumina Adhesive, the collar was precisely centered with the led on lowest setting (and sunglasses on), then glued on the spacer with Norland 64 UV-setting glue. The already glued collar was further secured with large blobs of high temperature hot glue.

Nico is holding the TN42, there’s also a 1 Mcd BLF GT, a 470 kcd 3xdedomed XM-L2 modded Shocker, and a hardly visible 160kcd neutral FT02. The pylon is at a bit over 100 meter to the base, also over 100 tall.

The other pylon is at 700 meter, I did not have a zooming camera (just my phone), but you can see that it is illuminated.

Nicolaas · 2019-04-02T13:04:24.000Z

Thanks for the help in modding and posting pics Djozz!

Grtz
Nico

Scallywag · 2019-04-02T13:10:01.000Z

Nicolaas:

The reason is very simple: Djozz still had an old style XP G2 lying around and these can take 5,5A with no problem. The white flats work on a much lower forward voltage which can cause problems with the driver. As the TN31 is one the precious few light with magnetic switches I didn;t want to risk the driver. Also, if you want to make full use of a wavien collar (200% light output) you need to use a dedomed led. If you use a led with a flat dome (white flat, black flat, XP-L HI, XHP35 HI) the max afficacy you can get out of the led is maybe around 185%. And yes, having Djozz at just 11Km away is nice, very nice. And he’s a nice guy as well, we get along great. Cheers, Nico

11km away, huh? You two must keep working on throwers until you can bat-signal each other ;)

Nicolaas · 2019-04-02T13:13:57.000Z

11km away, huh? You two must keep working on throwers until you can bat-signal each other

[/quote]

I like the idea but I see two problems:

1) too many high-rise buildings in the way
2) it would require over 30Mcd throw capacity, that would require an aespheric with a 1 meter diameter main lens…….

So, I probably will have to look for other means to achieve this I guess……

Grtz
Nico

Agro · 2019-04-02T13:22:57.000Z

Nicolaas:

11km away, huh? You two must keep working on throwers until you can bat-signal each other

I like the idea but I see two problems:

1) too many high-rise buildings in the way
2) it would require over 30Mcd throw capacity, that would require an aespheric with a 1 meter diameter main lens…….

So, I probably will have to look for other means to achieve this I guess……

Grtz
Nico

If you want to see the signal (and don’t need to be illuminated) you need much less intensity. But to shine through the buildings…you need much more.

djozz · 2019-04-02T13:31:38.000Z

A gamma-thrower! Where did I put my cobalt-60 and the electromagnetic gamma-lenses?

lumenzilla · 2019-04-02T17:00:46.000Z

Tonight: damaged two optisolis LEDs and a Samsung.

contactcr · 2019-04-02T17:07:10.000Z

lumenzilla:

Tonight: damaged two optisolis LEDs and a Samsung.

This is my kind of WDYMT post. Sheared domes, bad re-flows, shorting wires. Keep up the mediocre work it makes the average modder like myself feel better sometimes after seeing 10 posts in a row of flawless carbon fiber wraps, custom lathe/mill projects, hand carved pills/centering rings.

CRX · 2019-04-02T17:34:13.000Z

We just don’t usually post our f-ups

Yokiamy · 2019-04-02T17:50:13.000Z

@CRX, how true

I admit, we all mess up sometimes.
A couple of weeks ago i messed up a reflector

CRX · 2019-04-02T18:58:41.000Z

Yesterday, like two hours and six or seven attempts to swap an emitter in an AAA sized light that should have taken ten minutes.
Yep this puppy had just about it all that contactr mentioned…
I was almost at the stage where I was thinking the greenish tint wasn’t so bad after all and I should’ve just left it be
Swapped out a Luxeon v2 for a Nichia 219C.

Scallywag · 2019-04-02T20:18:30.000Z

Nicolaas:

like the idea but I see two problems: 1) too many high-rise buildings in the way 2) it would require over 30Mcd throw capacity, that would require an aespheric with a 1 meter diameter main lens… So, I probably will have to look for other means to achieve this I guess… Grtz Nico

Oh gosh, I just mean visible cloud-bounces. Like the bat-signal. At 11km you're starting to get into earth curvature issues for straight line... And probably finding whatever the laser version of BLF is. I don't try to find it because I'd end up with blind for sure

Mike_C · 2019-04-02T20:51:49.000Z

People should post more in the “What did you break today” thread… I like that one

MRsDNF · 2019-04-02T23:30:15.000Z

Mike C:

People should post more in the “What did you break today” thread… I like that one

I’d be here all day if I was to post all my breakages up. :person_facepalming:

djozz · 2019-04-03T08:04:11.000Z

MRsDNF:

Mike C:

People should post more in the “What did you break today” thread… I like that one

I’d be here all day if I was to post all my breakages up. :person_facepalming:

Yep, me too, just yesterday tried to build a lighted tail, there’s 6 0603 leds on it but I spent 11 leds (some projectiled on the floor and never found back) before I found there was a short somewhere in the Oshpark board that I could not fix. So I will start all over again with a new board, and probably another 10+ leds before it is finished. :weary: