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The LIGHTCANON - [flashlight]

Enderman

It would be cool to have a spot and area light in one.

Its possible to do that by just moving the lens closer, but the way I have it set up in the tube would make it very difficult to unfocus it more than a few cm

if I need a flood light I just use my Led Lenser P5r.2 :)

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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Calling down Aliens, one 'ON' switch at a time....

maglite-torches-alien-small-98435.jpg

 

 

/Following, keep up the great work, will be showing this to some people who think they know all about 'lighting', lumens and flashlights.

Loved the build/pics, kudo's.

 

/One of your first pics, the tube + fan installed, I thought of a HORROR-Fleshlight device...

Maximums - Asus Z97-K /w i5 4690 Bclk @106.9Mhz * x39 = 4.17Ghz, 8GB of 2600Mhz DDR3,.. Gigabyte GTX970 G1-Gaming @ 1550Mhz

 

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HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR LED

 

 

 

To build a long-throw flashlight what matters is not the lumens of the LED, but the intensity.

 

Intensity is calculated in lux, or cd/m^2, or lumen/m^2.

Higher intensity = longer range.

Usually LEDs don't have a lux specification, since it will depend on the optical system you use to focus the light, but we can compare the intensity of one LED to another. Here's how:

 

LED A is a Luminus CBT-90

-2400 lumen

-3mm x 3mm = 9mm^2 die area

 

LED B is Cree XP-G2

-~600 lumen (depending on bin, +-50)

-1.5mm x 1.5mm = 2.25mm^2 die area

 

LED A:

lumens / die area = 2400 / 9 = 266.66

 

LED B:

lumens / die area = 600 / 2.25 = 266.66 also!

 

 

 

This tells us that the XP-G2 will have the same intensity as the SBT-90 (because it has 1/4 the surface area and 1/4 the brightness)

The projected image (spot size) will be 1/4 the size of the CBT-90

 

BUT look at this graph:

post-4438-0-99755900-1443633325.jpg

With proper cooling, we can increase the brightness of the XP-G2 by nearly DOUBLE by increasing current.

LED OVERCLOCKING!

 

 

 

I'm driving my XP-G2 at 5 amps, so looking at the graph we can estimate it to be outputting about 1000 lumens

So, lumens / area = 1000 / 2.25 = 444.44

Clearly higher intensity than the CBT-90 LED

 

That is why I have chosen to use the XP-G2 for this project.

Some people have also used the XP-E2 which is even smaller with less lumens, but it doesn't "overclock" as well

 

The number you get by dividing lumens / area is not really a significant unit ( you would need to use m^2 instead of mm^2 to get lux) but you can use this to compare LEDs and find which one will work best for your flashlight.

 

TL;DR: you want highest possible lumens per mm^2 LED area

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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I have definetly never seen a computer like this before, its really unique and seems like a cool computer for lans

brighter than any other gaming PC in the world!

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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I found this awesome program for light ray tracing!

http://arachnoid.com/OpticalRayTracer/

 

 

Very easy to put in the values of your lens/reflector and you can see and calculate the focal distance, size, efficiency, etc...

All you need is the specifications of the lens you want, which most quality manufacturers provide.

 

Here are some pics of the program using specs from a new lens I ordered yesterday:

post-4438-0-55970000-1443666574_thumb.pn

 

post-4438-0-96789300-1443666576_thumb.pn

 

Very accurate calculations. Matched the specs on the manufacturer website almost identically :)

All light rays converging on 1.25mm^2 LED die at 183mm away from lens

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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does it produce so much heat ? ( psst watercool it )

No, not at all :)

I think the cooling is already overkill, it doesnt feel very hot to the touch

 

I have a temperature monitor on order from NCIX so I will be able to know exactly how hot it gets soon

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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so you're trying to concentrate the Light ?

collimate,not concentrate ;)

 

collimating light is making all photons move in the same direction, like a perfectly straight beam

this isnt exactly possible, but I'm working on getting as close as I can with this flashlight

 

the images I posted are basically backwards of what is happening, the arrows are pointing in the wrong direction thats all

 

I ordered 4 more different lenses to see if I can get a better beam

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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UPDATE!

 

 

 

So here are some comparison pictures of different lenses and stuff. I'm currently waiting for 4 new lenses to ship, because the one I am using ain't good enough!

 

Before and after pics

post-4438-0-49085600-1443852340_thumb.jp

 

This is why you need to be careful when choosing your lens (will be doing a guide on this soon)

Some focus a lot better than others depending on the curvature, radius, thickness, etc...

post-4438-0-06494100-1443852343_thumb.jp

 

And this is why you need to correctly focus the Wavien collar. Half a mm (strip of tape) can increase the intensity by several %!

post-4438-0-92433000-1443852344_thumb.jp

 

Here it is with the Wavien collar focused (but still with the mediocre lens)

 

post-4438-0-77759000-1443852347_thumb.jp

 

post-4438-0-40822300-1443852350_thumb.jp

btw that black thing the light is pointing at is the light absording felt I used inside the flashlight. It soaks up tons of light, but you can still see how bright the spot is!

 

This morning there was a ton of fog outside so I went out and took pictures at 7:00am

Looks crazy awesome, I will compress and upload them in about 12 hours :D

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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Uh, is cool, but why?

n0ah1897, on 05 Mar 2014 - 2:08 PM, said:  "Computers are like girls. It's whats in the inside that matters.  I don't know about you, but I like my girls like I like my cases. Just as beautiful on the inside as the outside."

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Uh, is cool, but why?

same reason people are interested in building PCs

 

I do more than just PCs :)

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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magnifying glass with paper please

it can burn stuff yes, if I focus it to a point

but im not really into burning stuff, it gets boring after a while...

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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UPDATE!

 

 

 

So it was extremely foggy this morning, so I went out and took a few pics at 6am :)

Also, my temperature display arrived!

 

 

This is after I focused the Wavien collar, but the lens is still unsatisfactory...

post-4438-0-40046400-1443937416.png

 

I love fog.

post-4438-0-05170500-1443937418.png

 

And more fog.

post-4438-0-90007500-1443937419.png

 

And even MORE fog.

post-4438-0-33130400-1443937421.png

 

The beam is far brighter in the fog than it actually is normally in the dark sky.

post-4438-0-55057200-1443937422.png

 

And here is the XSPC temperature monitor:

post-4438-0-62086300-1443937424.png

 

It is rated at 5v but it is working fine with my 3.7V LiPO battery (voltage around 4v)

post-4438-0-07385900-1443937426.png

 

Cut another hole in the flaslight

post-4438-0-55284300-1443937427.png

 

And it works! temperature probe is on the back side of the heatsink (where the heatpipe comes out)

So I might decide to move it closer to the LED in the future (it will be quite a bit of trouble because the entire heatsink and LED assembly needs to be removed as well as the Wavien collar)

post-4438-0-54083600-1443937429.png

 

Now I can make sure the LED stays cool under full load. This would be much more needed if I was using a max-brightness LED for high lumens, then it would heat up much morepost-4438-0-51537200-1443937431.png

 

 

Sorry about the blurry night pictures, my camera will not focus well in the dark. Luckily my friend is gonna help me out with his DSLR in a few weeks to take high quality photos+videos at night :D

More updates coming soon!

 

Coming up:

-more lenses

-new LED driver (maybe I will switch)

-voltage monitor

 

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

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Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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Holy shit...

That's pretty cool. It's a small handheld spotlight.

~~ Intel Xeon E5-2696 v4, Asus X99-A II, Adata 2x8 GB, EVGA GTX 980Ti FTW, InWin 303, Dell U3415W~~

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Planning on painting the tube?

n0ah1897, on 05 Mar 2014 - 2:08 PM, said:  "Computers are like girls. It's whats in the inside that matters.  I don't know about you, but I like my girls like I like my cases. Just as beautiful on the inside as the outside."

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Planning on painting the tube?

not sure, I kinda like the "white sewer pipe" look :P

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

Spoiler

Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

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