solitare LED spotlight mod?

sharpnails

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
20
is there any way to make a soilitare LED / more of a spot light with the twist like you can with minimags?
 

xxo

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Apr 30, 2015
Messages
3,015
It focuses when you twist it just like the mini mag.
 

Fireclaw18

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
2,408
Unfortunately no.

The problem is this:

Incandescent maglight - the light source is the lightbulb filament. This is raised on a stalk above the reflector and the light is emitted in a sphere with plenty going backwards and sideways into the reflector. Adjusting the zoom moves the light source on and off the focal point of the reflector. Lightbulbs created a lot of heat, but they emit this mostly as infrared light so no heatsink is needed.

LED - the light is emitter in a forward facing cone from the LED. Very little is emitted right to the sides and nothing backwards. Also LEDs create heat which is conducted backwards through the light body. In most LED lights, the LED is mounted on a flat metal board (called the "star"). The reflector then sits on top of the star. Unlike with an incandescent, an LED is usually mounted at the very bottom of the reflector.

Because the star is in the way, the reflector cannot move backwards to take the LED off the focal point. Even if it could, this wouldn't affect flood much because of the way the light is emitted in a cone facing forward.

Basically the "zoom" in mag light LED lights is just an afterthought. It doesn't work as a functional zoom.


Zoomable LED lights
This is why zoomable LED lights tend to use different mechanisms for zooming than the moving reflector in the incan maglights:

(1) aspheric lens - this is the most common and cheapest method of making a functional zoomable LED light. An aspheric lens (like a magnifying glass) is mounted above the LED. At maximum throw, the LED is at the focal point of the lens. In flood mode the lens sits closer to the LED producing a much wider unfocused circle of light. Most aspheric zoomies function by having the lens mounted on a moving bezel. Some having a fixed bezel and a moving pill. The biggest disadvantage of this method is that in spot mode a large portion of the cone of light from the LED may hit the sides of the bezel rather than the back of the lens. This can result in the loss of 50% or more lumen output when cycling from flood to spot.

(2) LED Lenser style TIR optic - a single piece molded plastic optic composed of 2 elements: a small center aspheric lens, and a TIR (total internal reflection) for the sides. There is a large pocket in the back of the optic for the LED. The trick is to mount the LED on a post and insert the post into the back of the optic. Since the optic surrounds the LED in both flood and spot positions there is no loss of lumens like there is with an aspheric. Throw in spot mode isn't any better than an aspheric, but the spotbeam is wider. In LED Lensers both elements of the optic have the same focal length. In Coast's version of this optic the focal lengths are different resulting in a spot beam that isn't as bread, but is surrrounded by spill.

(3) Moving reflector - The Fenix FD30 introduced a new method of making a zoomable LED light. They did this by having the LED surrounded by a small reflector, which is then in turn surrounded by a bigger reflector on a sliding bezel. In flood mode the bigger reflector is retracted behind the small reflector. The overall effect is somewhat similar to a Coast style optic.
 

PiperBob

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Feb 13, 2017
Messages
70
If I put a 10x loupe in front of my LED solitaire it produces a very narrow sharp edge beam. I would suggest experimenting with a lens on a push pull sleeve.
 
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