Light testing

I Finally got a hole made in the bottom of my stainless steel cup that will make the body of my light. So I have gerry rigged it for some beam testing. The lens wedges in at about 30mm down the cup, so I wanted to test the beam I got from the lens wedged in and the lens mounted right at the mouth of the cup. A narrower bright spot would mean better range. Here are the results:

• No lens: Bright spot only 30 cm wide with extreme light diffusions and bleed out to about a 1.5 m circle


• Lens wedged in 30 mm from mouth of cup: Bright spot about 90 cm in diameter with a less bright ring about 1.5 m


• Lens at mouth of cup: Bright spot about 68 cm.

So it appears that mounting it at the mouth of the cup will be best. I have decided not to attempt to manufacture an end cap for the light. Instead I will drill some small holes and screw 3 or 4 short, self-tapping screws through these holes for the lens to rest on. Then I will seal the lens to the cup with a bead of silicone. This way I can cut this away to replace a damaged lens or install a better one without too much trouble.

Here is a photo of the temporary setup: