# Project Excalibur - Next Generation LED Thrower (many pics)



## The_Driver (Jul 13, 2017)

You should probably get some coffee, this story is long...

This is an English repost of my thread in the German TLF forum.

*Introduction:*

A few years ago I was lucky to be able to cheaply purchase an old, used Maxabeam head. The Maxabeam is the farthest throwing, commercially available, portable spotlight on the market. More Infos concerning this can be found here in sma's nicely detailed thread. Two details are special:


The head contains a relatively large, electroformed, parabolic, precision reflector
The head itsself is quite large and having a modder with a lathe build one would require a lot of time and effort
Next to a *D*-Maglite:







Rear side:






Since then it has been my dream to combine this head with an LED to create, in terms of throw, probably the most extreme, classic LED flashlight (only one LED with reflector).

Why LED? Because in many ways LEDs are much more practical compared to the specialized HID bulbs which normally get used in such specialty spotlights:


cheaper by an order of magnitude (taking the electronics and the batteries into consideration)
dimmable to any preferred brightness
higher efficiency
much lower total power consumption leading to smaller batteries and/or longer runtimes and less wheight
no dangerous UV / IR radiation
can be turned on and off randomly
can be left running for any length of time in any orientartion
no risk of bulb explosion
no high voltage
layman compatible

Michael (tlf member RC-Drehteile, an experienced light builder who owns a lathe) kindly took on the project and really outdid himself! It was much more complicated and lengthy than anticipated, but now after around four months the light is finally finished! He went to a lot of effort to incorporate my numerous wishes and to withstand my growing impatience.

*The Reflector:*

I will go into a bit more detail on it here. Electroformed means that a precisely formed, negatively shaped mandrel, typically made of stainless steel, is coated with Nickel while sitting in a suitable electrolyte. The nickel electroform made this way then has all the shape- and surface features of the mandrel down to the smallest detail. This process enables a comparably cheap production with a repeatable, high precision.

The especially precise (parabolic) shape allows for a large difference between the size of the light source and the size of the reflector. Normal flashlights don't usually require this to be considered because comparably speaking most LEDs are rather large. At some point it does become important though. The Maxabeam has a very small lightsource (the bright spot in the arc of the Xenon shortarc bulb has a diameter of around 0.125mm - 0.005in) and only produces its extreme luminous intensity due to the precise reflector used because only this way the entire surface of the reflector can be lit up by the small point (see this thread for an explanation).

After the Nickel has been electroformed it is coated via electroplating or vacuum disposition. There are different materials for different purposes. The most common is probably Aluminum because it's cheap and reflects 90% of visible light. The Maxabeams reflector is coated with the noble metal Rhodium. Rhodium coatings are considered the most robust because they are corrosion resistant, very hard und are unsuspectable to UV-radiation. Since the Maxabeam is meant for professional use in the military, where maritime use is very likely, the corrosion resistance to salt water was probably the primary reason for this coating. The main disadvantage of Rhodium compared to Aluminum is the lower reflectance of visible light (70-80%, see here).

Dimensions of the Maxabeam reflector:


inside diameter large opening: 118mm
inside diameter small opening: 11mm
minimum focal length (the smallest distance between the focal point and reflectors surface when using an LED): 20mm
for all parabolic reflectors this is horizontal from the focal point to side of the reflector
when using a bulb which also emits light behind itself this value is half of the horizontal distance
this causes the unused area in the middle (when using an LED) to have a diameter of 40mm

maximum focal length: 94mm
*
The LED:*

Part of my motivation to finally start the project this year was that there is finally an LED which is better for throwers than the old (de-domed) Cree XP-G2 from 2012 - the Osram Black Flat Gen2 (LUW HWQP).

Advantages:


higher luminance - approx. 250cd/mm2​ (see Photons Test and and also this thread about luminance )
for comparison: XP-G2 max. 220cd/mm2​, but only with very green tint

no de-doming necessary
cool-white (6500K "ultra white")
basically no bad tint (especially not greenish/yellowish)
Disadvantages:


center solder pad not electrically neutral
Size and positioning of the solder pads does not precisely match those of XP-LEDs
DIE size: 1mm2​ (even smaller than XP-G2, here you can find a size comparison of the hotspots using the same reflector, but please ignore their brightness since they are direct driven)
even smaller hotspot
even more difficult to focus

You never know which BIN you have since Osram doesn't specify this
low lumen output (approx. 790 LED Lumen according to djozz test)

*Calculations:*

*ANSI Lumens:*
((790 / 4) + (790 * 3/4 * 0.75)) * 0.97 * 0.95 = ~592 "theoretical ANSI" lumens
I factored in how much light hits the reflector, the reflectors reflectivity, the UCLp lens and a small loss for heat with very good heatsinking. This is all based on the 790 LED lumens which djozz measured.

*Luminous Intensity (throw):*
Now to the likely most interesting value, which is actually rather easy to calculate (see here).

Luminous_intensity[cd] = luminance_LED[cd/mm2​] * area_of _reflector_as_seen_from_hotspot[mm2​] * reflectivity_of_reflector[%] * transmission_of_lens[%]



Luminance of LED: 250cd/mm2​ (of course there is some uncertainty here)
Area of reflector (lit up area of circle as seen from the hotspot) = 10936mm2​ - 1256mm2​ = 9680mm2​
Reflectivity of reflector with Rhodium coating: 75%
Transmission UCLp lens: 97%

Maximum possible luminous intensity when turning on the flashlight: 1,760,550cd (2,654m ANSI throw).
To make it more realistic one could now subtract an additional 5-10% for the heating up of the LED.

*Minimum distance for accurate measurement of luminous intensity:*
Many of you know that one cannot measure the true luminous intensity (throw) of a thrower in 1m distance it the value is supposed to be accurate. The reason for this is that in this distance in some lights the reflector is not completely lit up by the LED as seen from the sensor of the lux meter. One has to go further away and adjust the value for the longer distance. TLF member sma once studied this in more detail here. We both have the theory that it depends on the difference in size between the reflector and the LED. I have tried to calculate this for my light based on his results with an Olight SR-95 UT.

Olight SR-95 S-UT:
LED-diameter (SBT-70): 3mm
Reflector diameter: 75mm
Scale: 25
Minimum measuring distance: 2.5m (approx 1/10 of the proportion)

Project Excalibur:
LED-diameter (if it were a circle without the corners) = 1mm
Reflector diameter: 118mm
Scale: 118
Minimum measuring distance: 11.8m

BTW here also for the Maxabeam:
Light point diameter: 0.125mm
Reflector diameter: 118mm
Scale: 944
Minimum measuring distance: 94.4m

I can't say how accurate these values really are. I don't know in what way the corners of the LED need to be taken into account. Theoretically they reduce the distance a bit (think about the hotspot size of lights with bulbs, the filament is basically just a slim glowing bar).

*Hotspot size:*
To be able to have an understanding of the focus of this light beforehand I tried to calculate the spot size. For this one needs the following relation, which sma explained to me. It can be found in this wikipedia article on lenses, unfortunately there is no English version. One also needs the diameter of the light source and the maximum focal length of the reflector.

A = B / G = b / g



A = projection scale
G = Diameter of projected ("real") image (the hotspot)
B = Diameter of light source ("object") = 1mm = 0.1cm (here I also ignore the corners of the LED DIE)
g = Distance between reflector opening and hotspot
b = maximum distance between the light-source and the reflector opening = max. focal length = 94mm = 9.4cm

So if we want to calculate G for a specific distance g the equation looks like this:

G = (B * g) / b

Of course, for distances smaller than 11.8m this calculation is invalid.
Example values (distance - spot diameter):


12m - 12.8cm
30m - 31.9cm
100m - 1.1m
300m - 3.2m
1000m - 10.6m
2000m - 21.3m

So the spot is very, very small for an LED light with reflector. These values need to be understood though! I did not account for the corners of the LED DIE and there is also a large corona around the hotspot because the reflector is so deep. I have only calculated the size of the part of the spot with maximum luminous intensity.

*Electronics & Batteries:*

I wanted the light to use a buck driver which is able to fully exploit the capabilities of the LED regardless of the battery voltage and which can deliver much higher LED currents to enable the light to be upgraded in the future with more powerful LEDs. Additionally I wanted an over discharge protection since the light would have multiple cell sin series.

Two things led us to use the Ampere! driver from the German company pcb components:


I have always wanted to use this driver in a light even though there are so many disadvantages (expensive, large, can only be dimmed via external dimming module, only pwm dimming, multiple defects reported in the German forum [but all were replaced, very good customer service] etc.)
It is the only buck driver known to me that has actually been tested to >=10A (theoretically there is another one available now, but it has never been actually tested)

Because the Ampere! driver itself can't really do anything except driver the LED we combined it with theStripe v4 Dimmer from the same company. It has the features I wanted, i.e. overdischarge protection, dimming with 1-2 electronic switches, connections for 1-2 status LEDs and multiple configuration options. There is even a new beta-firmware (v2.5), which offers the possibility of ramping (step-less dimming) with only one electronic switch. I wanted this. After a few starting difficulties we managed to flash it onto the dimmer.

Part of the dimmers features can be conveniently configured via small DIP-switches, which we have set to the following configuration: 00011000 (1 = switch up). The "Akkuwächter" (overdischarge protection) was also activated, the light does not dim prematurely, the remaining charge level of the batteries is indicated by two status LEDs and the PWM frequency was upped from 200Hz to 2kHz. The new single-switch-ramping was also activated and works nicely with a dimming time of 3s (form 0 to 100%).

During testing we noticed that unfortunately the driver produces a high-pitched whine whenever it is not at 100% or 1%. This makes the whole ramping thing a bit less fun, but just today I found out that there might be a fix. It also seems to ramp with linear current, since the brightness does not change linearly (making adjustment of low brightnesses more difficult). The voltage values of the "Akkuwächter" are also a bit outdated, they seem to be for older Li-Co cells which have high voltages when empty. The status LEDs say that the battery is empty when there is still 40% left in it. Luckily custom values can be set with help of the PC Software and and the separately available USB programmer. So yes, the driver and the dimmer do have some downsides, but they still have a ton of configurable features!

The light was to be run with three 18650s in series for a good compromise between available neergy and weight. The average of 11V would ensure a high compatibility with many different buck drivers in case a different one was ever needed. The battery runtime with 4,5A and a Vf of 3,7V with 90% driver efficiency and protected NCR18650GA cells should be around 2h without any form of dimming/step-down!

*Planning phase:
*
I have had this idea for years. Lets start with my first (ugly) concept drawing, which I made a few years ago (in paint :duh2:):






The following things were important to me:


Everything should feel like a production quality light. There were to be no small annoying things which I would always have to keep in mind when using the light.
many pronounced cooling fins directly where the rod with the LED on it sits (and oversized in case a more powerful LED is later put into the light)
electronic switches for operating it where ones fingers are when holding the light
Status LED(s), which show the remaining battery charge

After the start of the project we really focused on it. Most of the light was planned in CAD. It was decided that the body would be made of multiple parts because otherwise it would be very difficult to connect the body to the head and mount the electronics inside. It was also decided that the batteries would need to be inside a specialized battery cage, which has both contacts on the same side since we couldn't have the current flow through the body. The reason for this is that the center solder pad of the Osram Black Flat is not electrically neutral and we wanted optimal heat transfer via a copper PCB which electrically connects both.







The setup from left to right:

Head -> connection part of body with LED on copper rod -> part of body with the electronics inside a "sled" and the electronic switches on the outside -> battery tube with battery carrier -> tailcap

The electronics were to be put into an insert or "sled" which gets put inside the middle part of the body. This insert would have screw-holes for fastening it to the body and holes for the wires on the front side and connection plates for the springs of the battery carrier on the backside.

A first concept:






As luck would have it I had the spare battery tube and battery carrier of my Magicfire Scorpion laying around. The battery carrier even has a mechanical switch in the back which is nice Our alternative was the battery carrier of the Aceabeam K40, which would have been very expensive as a spare part from China.






After the general planning we started with the finer details like the outside design.






Rear side:






*Building the light:*

After finishing most of the planning, Michael started making the body. 

He began with the copper rod for the LED. It has threads on the outside for heat transfer and focusing. It is wider at the top so that we could use a normal 16mm-pcb and screw it down properly. The 11mm narrow reflector opening was not widened because of the danger of warping the reflector. This meant that the LED rod could only be inserted from the front, a delicate operation.






The LED was then mounted. The leads go through two openings under the rim and then down through the hollow rod to the driver.






Next up was probably the most important part - the connection piece between the head and the remaining body.











Four sides were leveled to have a transition to the design of the head.






Three M6 socket head screws were to connect it to the remaining body.












The four screw holes for the connection to the head were then added. They go through the cooling fins.












Thus this part of the body was finished and Michael continued with the electronics section.
It was supposed to have knurling everywhere except for where the switch and status LEDs are. This didn't quite work out because this piece of the body was a bit too long for Michael's tool. 






Three flat sections were integrated to accommodate the electronic switches and status LEDs.






The last large, outside part to be made was the endcap. It was supposed to be especially massy to make the light less top heavy. An opening with rubber boot for the mechanical switch of the battery carrier was also needed. The switch needed to be electrically isolated from the body.
























Now it was time to anodize the large metal parts since they were finished. The body was to be anodized black to match the head. For this the parts were first vibrationally finished to improve the surface and chamfer the edges. Luckily Michael has built (and has experience with) an elaborate facility for this in his workshop.
Before (cleaned):






After:



















Subsequently the switch inserts were constructed. Michael made them in his own style, having done this previously. The two status LEDs got their own insert. To give the light some color the inserts were anodized in a light blue.






Seems to fit:






Wiring:






The last part to be made was the insert for the electronics. First an aluminium disc was constructed which can be screwed into the front of the light, has openings for the LEDs leads and onto which the driver would be glued.






A partly open plastic cylinder makes up the rest of the outer shape. The (way too large) dimmer was mounted into it.













Massive copper contact plates for the springs of the battery carrier were put on the rear side. 











For higher corrosion resistance the contact plates were gold plated. Michael also does this himself!












"Fun" fact on the side: 33 torx screws were used to build this light. This does not include the already present screws of the batterier carrier.
This marked the end of the building phase.

*Focussing:*

Now it was time for Michael's probably most annoying but at the same time most important work during this project - the optimal positioning of the LED in the focal point of the reflector in all three spacial dimensions. The calculation of the luminous intensity above already shows why this is so essential if one wants to fully make use of this reflector. Only when the LED is positioned optimally the entire surface of the reflector will be lit up by the LED which leads to the maximum possible candela value (throw).

Our goal was to focus the light only by turning the copper rod (so only adjusting the height of the LED). During this the LED was to always be in perfect X- and Y-axis alignment. For three reasons this was more difficult with this light compared to most others:


The enormous size difference between the LED and the reflector
The general way of constructing LED flashlights compared to specialized HID spotlights - we don't have fine pitched screws for precise focusing
The existence of at least five different sources of error, each of which could cause the LED to not be in optimal X- and Y-alignment at different heights:
The position of the reflector relative to the screw holes of the head (it's possible that the manufacturer didn't center it perfectly)
The position of the screw holes in the body relative to the head
The position of the threads for the copper bar in the body relative to the screw holes in the body
The position of the LEDs pcb on the copper rod relative to its rotational axis
The position of the soldered LED relative to the pcb (unfortunately the solder profile of the Osram Black Flat does not perfectly match that of XP-LEDs, meaning that it might not center itself perfectly during soldering)


Of course some of these sources of error were of theoretical nature since Michael fabricates metal pieces to a high degree of precision. At his first focusing attempts (at night after 11 PM since it gets dark rather late in the summer here and it needed to be done outside) he quickly started to grasp what degree of precision was actually needed. He positioned the lux meter in a distance of 12m and started turning the copper rod. He had already noticed during earlier tests that only in a very small range of the focus a usable spot was possible. 0.3mm of rotation caused a change in luminous intensity from 914kcd to 1,371kcd! At this point he wasn't able to reach an even higher value causing some disillusionment.

As it turned out though, the body was not perfectly centered in relation to the reflector. Luckily Michael had thought of this beforehand and implemented some ply in the screw holes to be able to adjust this a bit. In addition to this the LED pcb was not centered perfectly on the copper rod. Both problems were solved.

During the final focusing session a luminous intensity of *1.543kcd* was measured. This value made us happy, also because we improved on standing performance "records" of similar, optimized lights from wiestom89 and gaston01 by 50%. The copper rod was then fixated with a bit of thread-locker.

Of course it is easy to somehow "beat" these values with a much larger reflector, but building an LED light that reaches the highest possible values for it's size in this type of light is time-consuming and difficult.

A note on the luminous intensity values:
As many of you know, optical measurements generally have relatively large tolerances since many different factors can influence them. Using a non-modded light measured according to ANSI-standards and made by a well known manufacturer, an Olight SR-52 UT, which has an XP-L HI LED with similar tint to the Osram Black Flat, Michael tried to reduce this uncertainty a bit. In addition to the similar tint this light has a perfectly regulated mid mode, in which the LED heats up much less compared to the highest mode. As it turns out, Michael's lux meter measured only 7/8 of the "real" value. The above values have been adjusted by +14.3% accordingly. Assuming that Olight only uses LEDs of a single Bin in this light a tolerance of +/- 6% would remain in addition to that of the lux meter itself.

*Problems:*

Numerous problems arose during the planning and building of this light. Here I want to go into a bit more detail on them and our "solutions".


Maxabeam-head doesn't have threads, but instead screw holes & a rectangular shape und the light was still supposed to have a fitting design
Screws going through the cooling fins

Body was supposed to have ample cooling fins even though it was to be screwed to the head
Split up the body into multiple parts

10mm LED PCBs, which would fit through the tight (bulb) hole of the reflector, are difficult to screw down because there is not enough room on them next to the LED and the solder connections
Copper rod with wide top and LED mounted onto 16mm pcb

Small opening of Maxabeam reflector only has 11mm diameter and the rod with LED and leads must fit through it
Drilled openings into the rod and routed the leads through it

Osram Black Flat has a large variance of maximal brightness
Here our solution was to test six LEDs and use the best of them. It should be noted that we only tested until what current each LED got brighter and how bright it got relative to the others. We forgot to write down values for each at the same current. All were mounted on the same type of pcb and on the same heatsink.






Copper rod too long in the beginning for correct positioning of LED in reflector (the Maxabeam reflector has a rather short minimum focal length)
Shortened it a bit

Screws if the LEDs pcb and the solder joints blocked part of the high angle light of the LED
Replaced the screws with flatter ones and replaced the LEDs leads with strips of copper sheet which was encased in heat-shrink tube






Light probably rather top heavy
Added mass to the tailcap

Light was supposed to be upgradeable with other LEDs in case better ones come to the market and should be able to drive LEDs with different Vfs and currents without having to replace the driver (especially because the new Osram Q8WP might actually be the new "king of throw")
Used a driver which has a large range of possible currents (has been tested up to 11A) and where the sense resistor can be easily replaced
More than two cells in series

2-3 electronics pcbs needed to be integrated into the body in a practical way and wired beforehand
Put electronics into an insert (or "sled") which is screwed into the light after all the wires are soldered

Two electronic switches needed to be placed in ergonomic positions
Multiple flat sections near the front of the body

Battery carrier needed which has both contacts on the same side and is electrically isolated from the body (because of Osram Black Flat)
Used accessory of Magicfire Scorpion Transformers light

A fitting, cheap battery tube into which the battery carrier fits need to be found (to save Michael a lot of time and effort)
Used accessory of Magicfire Scorpion Transformers light

Problem with knurling of long (electronics) part of body
Opted for shallow fins instead which match the spacing of the cooling fins in the front

Reflector not perfecty clean (“hazy” look)
The reflector needed to be cleaned under extreme caution. Luckily for us member sma anticipated this when cleaning his own Maxabeams and showed a seemingly safe method using soap foam which he even demonstrated in this Video. After sourcing the somewhat rare soap foam Michael was successful in cleaning the reflector without damaging it.
Picture taken right after cleaning (without the lens), the cleaning marks are from the original owner:







Hole for the screw which fixates the electronics insert in the body was forgotten during planning
There was still some room left next to the driver

UCLp lens cracked with just slight (accidental) pressure from the bezel / head
We haven't found a solution yet which would prevent this in the future

Best LED died spontaneously during first test
The second best one was just a tiny bit less good

LED not perfectly centered on copper rod when turning it even though everything was done with a high degree of precision
The centering of the body in relation to the head was not optimal
UCLp lens has numerous small cracks on the edges and does not sit firmly anymore between the bezel and the head
Here we also don't have a solution yet (when we do, I will order another lens)

Tint of the LED turns very blue at 100% setting of driver which is a well known sign that it is getting too much current. When reducing the current just slightly the tint changes dramatically to a more normal cool white.
Since this LED only gets brighter until 4.7A according to the above Test, we will reduce the current to 4.5A by switching out the sense resistor (the above candela values were measured at the maximum 4.7A with a lab power supply). Unfortunately the needed sense resistor (smd, 0805, 0,011Ohm, 0,5W) is currently hard to get here in Europe without paying horrendous shipping fees.


*Impressions:*

Since the light is now finished it is time to show it off. 






The classic size comparison incl. Mag 2D:






David and Goliath (especially amusing since the Zebralight actually produces more lumens):






I can't get enough of this reflector:


















The body:

Cooling fins!






























*In practise:*

The light is very impressive outside. The beam has such a tight focus, extreme throw and an almost perfect white tint. As a flashlight it is completely useless though, the spot is way too small to find anything. But then again that was never our intention. The only remaining application: cloud bounce! :devil:

I have already managed to do it.






A real beamshot comparison can be found here.
A few "fun pics" were also taken:






280m (919ft):






400m (1312ft):


















*Conclusion:*

It really was an extremely extensive project! Even though we had to solve so many problems along the way, we still got an amazing, nicely working light as the end result. Because of the precision reflector and the extreme focus I think that in some ways it is a new category of LED thrower. I owe the whole thing to Michael who took on the project and saw it through the whole way!


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## archimedes (Jul 13, 2017)

Wonderful build thread ... thanks for posting this


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## KITROBASKIN (Jul 13, 2017)

Impressive flashlight, impressive presentation! Really love the detailed description.


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## BVH (Jul 13, 2017)

What a fantastic build and a "keep forever" light! Very well done!


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## The_Driver (Jul 14, 2017)

Thanks guys!


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## The_Driver (Jul 15, 2017)

It's rather quiet here...
What would you guys have done differently?


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## Keitho (Jul 15, 2017)

Great light, great pictures. The key on a project like that is having a good plan, and the ability to execute it, and you had both. I'm curious if you were able to hit your runtime predictions, and how the heat transfer is working out. Will you be adding thermal paste to aid in transfer between all the components as the build becomes more "final?"

Totally personal preference, but I would have anodized the bigger custom parts with a color other than black (that light blue looks cool). I can't think of anything else that I would have done differently! Thanks for the detailed post.


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## Aircraft800 (Jul 15, 2017)

You've taken long throw to a new level! Very impressive build!


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## The_Driver (Jul 15, 2017)

Heat transfer is very good, because we used a copper DTP PCB screwed down on copper and then there are the threads touching the outside body. And the light itself has a lot of mass and surface area. It never gets hot with only 16-20W of power, just warm when left sitting on the table. 
It was designed to use more powerful LEDs, if needed, in the future.

I haven't tested the runtime yet, but it shouldn't be a problem. There are not that many variables since the current flowing through the batteries is rather low (around 1.5-2A.).


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## Enderman (Jul 15, 2017)

The_Driver said:


> It's rather quiet here...
> What would you guys have done differently?


I would have used a solid copper LED mount instead of hollow, and drilled some holes in the reflector to run the wires out (since the bottom of the reflector is unused)
Also, putting thermal compound on the copper threads before screwing it in would help with heat transfer.
The cooler you can keep the LED, the more output you get, and the more amps you can feed it before it begins to drop.




I measured it myself using a fan cooled CPU heatsink and MX-4 thermal paste.
DJozz found his to start dropping at 4.5A in his test, but better cooling makes a big difference as you can see here.
I have mine currently running with a 6A driver for max output


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## The_Driver (Jul 15, 2017)

I would never drill into it! There is always a chance that it is deformed which might negate any benefit of it's precise shape. Thermal paste on the threads was also a thought of ours, but it's to dangerous. The cylinder can only be inserted from the front. There is always the possibility of getting paste on the reflector. I see you point regarding 6A, but there doesn't seem to be much benefit in terms of brightness. I think it makes more sense in your designs with active cooling.


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## Enderman (Jul 15, 2017)

Are you planing to use the reflector for any other projects in the future?

btw the electroformed reflectors are very stiff, if you machine it using a burr instead of a drill bit it doesn't get deformed, just needs to be done slowly


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## The_Driver (Jul 16, 2017)

No, it was meant for this light. This is the light I have wanted to have for years!


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## Enderman (Jul 16, 2017)

Cool.
I keep having to strip my wavien collar out of old lights every time I want to build a new light because they don't make them anymore


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## The_Driver (Jul 16, 2017)

Enderman said:


> Cool.
> I keep having to strip my wavien collar out of old lights every time I want to build a new light because they don't make them anymore



That really sucks!
Maybe you could buy the flashlight of the company which bought Waviens patents? They are selling it now.


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## Enderman (Jul 16, 2017)

Link please?

I was also thinking maybe getting some custom made by an optics company, then I would be able to get larger diameters and with different sized holes.
It would probably be a few thousand dollars but it might be possible if I ask for funding from my university.
The ones used in flashlights are probably M or S sized collars, which I don't really like


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## The_Driver (Jul 17, 2017)

Enderman said:


> Link please?



Search for: Marinebeam Ultra Long Range Illuminator RLT


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## DrafterDan (Jul 18, 2017)

that torch is a great achievement!


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## The_Driver (Oct 6, 2017)

Beamshots are always a nice thing. I had a few more.































This is what it looks like when you are holding the light and walking around in the woods, although the pic is a bit overexposed:


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## The_Driver (Oct 12, 2017)

I found some pictures which I though I had accidentaly deleted.
This one demonstrates nicely what effect the (soon to be gone!) plug in the middle of the lens has:










StarWars? 






With a shortend exposure only the beam stays visible:


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## moozooh (Oct 12, 2017)

Laser light!

What would you estimate the max throw at if using a lens with this LED instead of the reflector? (Not that it'd be practical... then again, _this isn't, either_.)


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## The_Driver (Oct 12, 2017)

moozooh said:


> Laser light!
> 
> What would you estimate the max throw at if using a lens with this LED instead of the reflector? (Not that it'd be practical... then again, _this isn't, either_.)



That's easy. You would gain some throw because the Rhodium coating of this reflector doesn't reflect as much light as other coatings (only 75%). A standard glass aspheric lens (assuming perfect precision, a DX lens wont cut it!) transmits 92% of visible light. With a lens with the same diameter as the reflector you would thus gain 17% Candela. If you use an ar-coated aspheric you will get an additonal 4-8%, so 25% gain would be possible. 

To be even more precise you also need to account for the unused part of the reflector in the middle. Aspheric lenses don't have this, their entire surface is used. In this case it's a circle with a diameter of 40mm, so 1257mm^2, which is an additional 13%. 

So in total 41% more Candela would be possible under perfect conditions. This would increase the actual throw distance by 19%.


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## Enderman (Oct 12, 2017)

Then with a lens you can use a wavien collar, and get another 120% increase


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## PolarLi (Oct 19, 2017)

Really beautiful work done on this light! Thanks for posting :thumbsup:


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## The_Driver (Jan 15, 2018)

After being broken for the last half year, the light has now been fixed. The insulation of the cables running through the copper cylinder to the LED had been damaged by sharp edges which led to a short circuit. This killed the LED. 

Michael (RC-Lights) used a steel rope coated in chalk and tooth paste to smoothen the edges of the holes after re-drilling them at an angle by pulling it through them a few hundred times. The new cables were also put into shrink tube to make the insulation more robust. This should be enough to never have this problem again. 








I sent him three more Black Flat LEDs which he tested and compared with one of the older ones. One of them was better than all of the other LEDs (so it's the best of nine!). He also switched out the sense resistor to reduce the current from 5A to 4.5A. This mostly keeps the LED from going blue. 

After refocusing the light now does *1.7Mcd* measured at 14m! 

In addition to this Michael did the following things:


Replaced the second electronic switch with a different type. Now both of them are used for the ramping, one for ramping up and one for ramping down
Following the recommendation of the manufacturer, a 4.7uF capacitor was connected in parallel to the leads going from the battery to the driver to prevent voltage spikes
Additional cables were soldered to the Stripe dimmer module to make connecting it to the USB programmer easier
A new firmware was flashed onto the dimmer which raises the PWM frequency from 2kHz to 14kHz to prevent the high-pitched buzz coming from it when the light was dimmed
Repaired the cracked, plastic bezel with epoxy
Replaced the UCLp lens with a new one which no longer has a hole in the middle and doesn't have any cracks
The dimmer connected to the USB programmer:






After this the light was finally finished. It was time to use it. 

Here are some beamshots comparing the light to Michael's Superthrower, which has an Olight SR-90 reflector (88mm) and a Cree XP-L HI. It does around 650kcd. The performance of Michael's light is very similar to the Thrunite TN42 (best stock LED reflector thrower). 







First a shorter distance, maybe around 100m:







Next, the main target was an unlit cell phone mast at a distance of 1.2km (0.75mi).

Wide:


















Tele:



















At last a pic with 30s exposure just for fun:






Surely more pictures will follow.


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## MRsDNF (Jan 20, 2018)

Love the build and love the light. The night shots look absolutely amazing. I'm sitting here with a stupid grin on my face.


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## The_Driver (Jan 21, 2018)

Thanks, I know that feeling! I post so many beamshots because I enjoy looking at them myself. For beamshots it's actually a big advantage that the spill is rather dark. You can do long exposures without the foreground becoming too bright.


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## The_Driver (Jan 24, 2018)

I finally have the light back in my hands. Before sending it back Michael also took some "artsy" beamshots. The light is great for long exposure times because of the rather dark spill.
 





 





 





 





 
Nobody up there has answered yet...:candle:


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## The_Driver (Jan 28, 2018)

It's time for more pictures. The plug in the lens is finally gone!
 





 





 





 
closer:





even closer...





 





 
Here you can see two fine details - the Osram Black Flat is a very thin LED, the Die is lower than that of Cree LEDs. Because of this Michael used especially flat screws and copper sheet metal (insulated with shrink tube) instead of round wires to block the smallest amount of light possible.
 
What follows is something that I really wanted to do with this light even though it's quite difficult: a picture where the yellow reflection of the LED die fills up the entire reflector (from this point on the real lumunious intensity can be measured because the beam has assumed its final form). 
 
The camera was over 10m (32ft) away.





With 150mm tele





The money shot:





Here the light was dimmed to 1% and the Camera was at its absolute darkest settings (during the day!):





This is what it looks like to be lit up from this distance during the day at max brightness (not very nice):


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## Keitho (Jan 28, 2018)

The_Driver said:


> What follows is something that I really wanted to do with this light even though it's quite difficult: a picture where the yellow reflection of the LED die fills up the entire reflector (from this point on the real lumunious intensity can be measured because the beam has assumed its final form).
> 
> The camera was over 10m (32ft) away.
> 
> ...



You've got some great pictures in this thread, but these are the best. Excellent light design/building skills on display due to great planning and photographic skills. Bravo, The_Driver, we are truly not worthy.


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## The_Driver (Jan 29, 2018)

Thanks Keitho! 


Still missing were the dimensions and the wheight:



Length: 32.4cm (12.8in)
Diameter of head: 14.5cm (5.7in)
Diameter of tailcap: 4.9cm (1.8in)
Wheight with batteries: 1.445kg (3.2lbs)

Wheight of some of the parts:



Head: ~600g (1.3lbs)
Body: ~541g (1.2lbs)
Tailcap: 103g (3.6oz)
Battery holder: 56.7g (2oz)
Batteries: 144.1g (5.1oz)

The BLF GT is around 60% heavier, mainly because of its five additional batteries and the material around them.


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## PolarLi (Jan 31, 2018)

The_Driver said:


> Here the light was dimmed to 1% and the Camera was at its absolute darkest settings (during the day!):



Nice shot! I wonder if am able to make the same shot with one of my SA lights using a telescope at 50-100 meters, using the solar filter and DSLR adapter.


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## The_Driver (Jan 31, 2018)

Thanks.
I think it's possible. Ra managed to do it with his Maxablaster. I think he used a welding filter.


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## The_Driver (Feb 4, 2018)

Time for more beamshots. I'm getting gloser to my goal of 2.6km (1.62mi) beamshots. 
To make these shots seem more realistic they need be viewed in fullscreen mode on a large monitor in a dark room. This way much more detail can be seen.

544m(1785ft):






Tele:






498m(1634ft):












Cell-phone beamshot very close to the light (makes the beam look wide):






1700-1800m (1.06-1.12mi):























Tele (overexposed by a lot):












A darker target next to the building (1500m - 0.93mi) (with my own eyes I couldn't see this being lit up):













*2100m (1.31mi)* (the mast, the lit up castle is around 4.8km away)


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## The_Driver (Feb 12, 2018)

Here are some new 50m (164ft) beamshots, comparing the light with the my modded Brinyte (330kcd). Unfortunately there are overexposed by too much. The hotspot of the Excalibur is blown out.


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## The_Driver (Feb 14, 2018)

It continues.





During a very clear night.























The camera was around 10-15m away from the light. I used the longest possible exposure.


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## The_Driver (Feb 23, 2018)

Since many of you probbaly don't know the the driver that was used here, I have some more pictures.

From left to right: classic 105C, Ampere! driver, Stripe v4 dimmer module, USB programmer for the dimmer module












The inductor is rather large:


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## The_Driver (Apr 16, 2018)

Finally it's done!
*Beamshots in 3.4km (2.1mi) distance!*
The conditions were very good which allowed me to make the beamshots I have been wanting for quite a while (ANSI distance of the light or further). They were taken with an Olympus E-520 using the following settings:


Aperture F/8
Shutterspeed: 30s
ISO 1600
I purposefully overexposed them to allow for viewing under daylight conditions (in reality the sky was dark). The target is the water tower to the left and behind the building (which itself was 1.4km away) in a distance of 3.4km.

14mm:












42mm:












cropped:











Gif:






Some more fuzzy smartphone pics:


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## Ajohn (Apr 21, 2018)

Hello,

Did anyone have the specs of this led Osram Black Flat Gen2 LUW HWQP ?

Regards 
John


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## Agpp (Apr 22, 2018)

Hmmm...
https://dammedia.osram.info/media/resource/hires/osram-dam-2493315/LUW HWQP.pdf
?


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## Ajohn (Apr 30, 2018)

Thank you Agpp.


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