Robo Light

[RJ]

Ok I keep getting asked about the Robo Light. I have no cheaper option for it with a light bright enough. The 3w leds are bright but not enough for somehing like this. I would put it out with a 3 watt rgb led but everyone would be disappointed in it once they got it outside.

RJ

[Aussiephil]

I'd have to think about it purely as i cannot think of a use at this time. If i was still doing disco's i'd want 20 of them yesterday!

Phil

[kylec]

I am with Phil.  This would be a cool project, but I can't think of where I would use it.  I'd say 80% chance I would build one, especially after those tax refund checks show up in May .  BTW I think we should have a big "tax refund coop" the begining of June ;

[grages]

I said YES!, it would be painfull but I can think of several uses for it.

I have spent several hours looking for an alternative lamp/light engine for this and I have yet to find anything better than RJ's current choice.

[NOLAlights]

My thing -and I suspect that of many others- is not the $180 proper but the bang for the buck. By the time you add the servos et al you're looking ~$220.  For that much money I could add another ~50 channels of controllers which would make a bigger bang...

My thoughts.

[grages]

My thing -and I suspect that of many others- is not the $180 proper but the bang for the buck. By the time you add the servos et al you're looking ~$220.  For that much money I could add another ~50 channels of controllers which would make a bigger bang...

My thoughts.

I assume, which could be a mistake, that $180 is inclusive of the servo's.  The light engine is $80 so that leaves $100 for everything else. 

[RJ]

I was makeing a rough estimate but $180 was with everything includeing the servos which are like $11 a piece.

RJ

[Docjon]

Hi RJ,

I was just wondering if the design does go ahead, would it be possible to add something like a lens on the unit so that the beam could be focused?

Thanks
Brenton

[grages]

I know at one point that RJ talked about a lens but I don't know if he was able to get an optimal one.  Additionally I would think a reflector would be a good idea, but the one time I saw robo I was distracted to much to look at those details.

Shawn

[RJ]

the Light Engine has reflectors built into the seperate parts. I use a tube to get a smaller spread. I looked at lens etc. but never came up with anything good.
There is much room for improvment on that kind of stuff on it. But I am not much of a person with optics and such.

RJ

[NOLAlights]

ok my bad... when I followed the link on another thread, I thought the 180 was just the engine...  Either way my point is sorta the same, I think for many the $180 would find a lot of competition....

As far as the lens goes, I've seen many projects on the web that buy this flashlight (or similar) and steal the lens.
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They can often be found for $2.50 shipped. I don't know if it will fit but I know a lot of people by it just for the lens. Something to think about.

[tommy]

Actually, I like RJ's idea of just using a tube to control the light.  The longer the tube, the more controlled the light would be.  The tube idea would transfer the maximum amount of light to the subject because anytime you add a piece of glass to a beam of light (IE: a lens) there will be some loss induced to that beam.

Just a thought from a photographer.

Tommy

[NOLAlights]

Well yes and no... the reason flashlights have lenses is to focus the beam.  The gain from focusing the beam far out weighs the loss from the element.

[RJ]

I worked with a number of focusers out of flashlights and lens, Etc. I could never get a beam I was happy with. The Tube always out did them for finished output. This is do to my limited knowledge and availibity of then to use. you can see in one of the most posted picture of the Robo a flash light reflector being fitted to it.

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RJ

[grages]

Actually the reflector does most of the focusing in a flashlight.  And the LE (light Engine) does have one designed for it.




This chart is from the data sheet and shows the light output for the bare light engine.


This chart has the augmented light output using the reflector. As you can see the output is nearly 4 times the unmodified engine.


Shows how they are measuring the the light


A drawing of the reflector, only problem is the size, 4.5 inches in diameter