TigerhawkT3 Video Lights 1 and 2 (TVL2 fully-variable CC; pics, beamshots, video)

TigerhawkT3

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Stats of TVL1:

-Body is 2"x2"x1" block of Al, ~2mm-deep fins dremeled in, three 1/8" holes drilled in
-Finish is black paint for emissivity
-4xCree Q2, 2S2P
-2 "Kennan" drivers from KD, 2P
-755mA to LED (according to KD)
-~1A draw from 8AA alk or 1x12V SLA
-Connectivity is a 12V cigarette lighter plug, serves as switch
-Diffused by Glad Press'n Seal
-Drilled and tapped for standard tripod mount
-Washer just added under bolt head, not shown in pictures

Front of TVL1:
p1010770aid4.jpg


Rear of TVL1:


Right side of TVL1:


Rear left of TVL1:


Stats of TVL2:
-Body is 4"x4"x1" block of Al, fins machined by my friend (Sasquatch1985 on CPF)
-Finish is Sharpie on rear of block for emissivity
-11xCree Q2, 11S1P
-1Ω, 10W current-limiting resistor
-0.6A draw from 3x12V SLA (same battery as HMM)
-Connectivity is an old AC power cable with female quick-connect terminals for SLA blades
-Switch marked with "O" (off) and "|" (on)
-Diffused by Glad Press'n Seal
-Drilled and tapped for standard tripod mount
-Washer just added under bolt head, not shown in pictures

Rear upper left of TVL2:


Front upper left of TVL2:


Front of TVL2:


Front upper right of TVL2:


Exterior of battery enclosure (same as HMM) of TVL2:


Interior of battery enclosure (same as HMM) of TVL2:


Here are some beamshots.

TVL2 on left, Osram 62138 (12 ROV Hybrids) on right:


TVL2 on left, Osram 62138 (12 ROV Hybrids) on right, desaturated:


TVL2 on left, TVL1 on right:


TVL2 on left, TVL1 on right, desaturated:


Future builds of these will be mounted to pre-fabricated heatsinks, as that was a big part of this process. Also, the resistored TVL2 was much easier to make than the double-driver TVL1, so I'll probably stick with resistored designs. I hope to use these on my video shoots during this quarter.

Since I took the beamshots, I have reapplied the Press'n Seal to give more circular beams instead of the slightly tall, oblong ones shown.

Full development thread here.
 
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TigerhawkT3

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Re: TigerhawkT3 Video Lights 1 and 2

More recent beamshots. Last two were taken on manual iris and shutter. I tried to get the tints accurate, but couldn't get them as white as they should be.

TVL2 on left, TVL1 on right:


TVL1:


TVL2:
 

TigerhawkT3

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Re: TigerhawkT3 Video Lights 1 and 2 (new beamshots)

TVL2 is now fully-variable. With all 11 Q2s in the circuit, I can go from 40-300mA. With two of them bypassed, the range is 40mA-1.2A. Power on 9xQ2 at full current is about 38W. At that drive level, my driver is about 85% efficient. If I want, I can remove the "control box" (which isn't actually in a box yet :) ) and make it just resistored again, for about 98% efficiency.
 

TigerhawkT3

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Re: TigerhawkT3 Video Lights 1 and 2 (new beamshots)

Here's a video of the pretty much finished TVL2. Changes include a working hinge for the battery box and a Press-n'-Sealed control unit.
 

LukeA

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Re: TigerhawkT3 Video Lights 1 and 2 (new beamshots)

I like the Grade 8 bolt used for stress relief. :D

On the TVL1 at least, you can push the optics down further. They totally seat themselves against the package and the star base with kind of a resounding snap when they're lined up right.
 
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TigerhawkT3

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Glad you like it. :laughing: I had a 1/4-20 tap, so I got 1/4-20 bolts.

Yep, the optics were a little loose - I've snugged them down. Thanks. :)
 

TigerhawkT3

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I've changed TVL1. The drivers and tiny wires were falling to pieces, so I scrapped them and wired the emitters all in series to DD off a 12V SLA, using the same heavy-gauge wire as the TVL2. It's about half the output of the previous version (running at full power).

I used these lights for video last week! I had originally made them for that purpose, so when another group in my film class asked to use them, I went with them on their shoot. We went out into some marshy wildlife refuge with a narrow road and some railroad tracks, to get some quality dark for a car scene. Now, the usual lights available for the class are really nice, high-powered incans, ranging from 250W to 1kW. Unfortunately, they have to be plugged into mains AC, get extremely hot (one of them set off a smoke alarm on one of our shoots), and are heavy and difficult to move. In short, they would be pretty much impossible to use on such a shoot, at least without a generator. It was pretty darn cold there, with a biting wind, so my lights didn't even get warm, even powered up the entire time (about four hours). TVL1, with its flaky first build mentioned above, started falling apart pretty much immediately, and the best I could get them was half-power. Still, it was quite adequate. With the improvements mentioned above, it should be rock-solid.

The group who used my lights gave them enthusiastic praise in our following class meeting. I was quite pleased that battery-powered LED lights (cheap, simple ones at that) could compete with professional incan units.
 

TigerhawkT3

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Here's TVL3:

p1010804ahd1.jpg


p1010805azz6.jpg


I actually used it without the optic to shoot this video.

If the emitter were placed more forward, it would do a better job for macro shots.
 

TigerhawkT3

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Yep. Another group in my film class used TVL1 and TVL2 on a pair of several-hour-long shoots, and I used TVL3 to light one of my short videos. I've been racking my brain trying to create other opportunities to use them. :laughing: I think TVL2 may be good for night hikes, so I might start going on night hikes. ;)
 

diff_lock2

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How does filming with a limited spectrum (led) compare with a wider spectrum light (incan)?

I would expect some sort of off color rendition or a less saturated image.
 

TigerhawkT3

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A camera's white balance will take care of that. The group who used my lights actually wanted to match some earlier shots that were lit with incans, so they white balanced with my lights on, then put orange gels in front of them. It was a car scene, so it was supposed to look a bit orange. I think they also did some scenes with a guy running around in a dark street, and from what they showed in class, I think they just used my lights without gels (I didn't ask, so I'm not 100% sure, but I can talk to them later and find out). The color looked fine.
 

Karel B

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Putting gel on always loses some light. Another way to warm up a shot is to white balance with a blue gel over the lens, then take the gel off. Saves on gels too.
 

TigerhawkT3

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I was playing with my new Nitecore SRT9 today when I suddenly realized that I was holding a production flashlight with more (still fully-variable) output than the monstrosity I built nearly ten years ago. Instead of loading equipment into the car and hauling it to a shoot, I'll just have this on my belt every day. Mind-blowing.
 
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