Not just another cute cut down D cell flashlight. This one has some hardware:



A tube sticking out of the side? what's that for?



Maybe this pisture will make a little more sense.

It's an outdoor OStar LED light for shop 2.

We've got a high pressure sodium light on the barn:



It's super bright, but it's on the North side of the barn and shines in your face when on the back deck of the house. The light basically blinds you to anything beyond the north side of the barn.

Since the horse corral and everything else is beyond that point, it really is counter productive for security. While it lights up the back yard, it washes out any view beyond.

So, as part of the "re-lighting" of the farm, we're going more with distributed lighting than a central super bright light.

This little OStar light will replace the P4 powered solar light next to the door of shop 2. The P4 solar light works great, is brighit, but is located on the East facing wall and the barn shades the early morning sun from it.



That solar light will be relocated to the south facing door of shop 1 so it can get even more sunlight. Not a big job, it's self contained so just two srews to deal with; the solar cells are in the top of the light, so no wires to mess with.

The new OStar light will be mounted above the door on shop 2.



This OStar light will provide extra illumination for the entrance to shop 2 and will be eventually run direct off the 12V solar power without the need for an inverter.

Pending weather, installed pic soon....

That's too cool!

Can't wait to see the finished install, and some beamshots.

Very ingenious!

Rain last night, rain this morning. But the sun came out by noon and we got the light installed.



Hard to even notice it over the door:



The tube mount worked great and makes the light appear to float above the door as you approach.



So, how does it work?

Had a hard time getting the camera to see much brightness difference even when set to manual mode.

Here's at 1 Amp:



Here's at 250mA:



Although the camera doesn't detect much difference, at one amp the light output is amazing. However, the wife and I decided 150mA was the best level; not too bright, yet enough spill light to see quite well.

Time for bed....

That has a very nice beam, I can imagine it perfect for accent lighting shining up on a house.

What's this heatsink for? A new laser weapon?



No, it's for my next OStar outdoor light. It sports 35 cooling fins radiating from a central solid aluminum bar for more than 70 square inches of cooling surface.



I canabalized a track light for the metal exterior shell. The heatsink is mounted to the housing with a 1/2 inch bolt threaded into the rear of the heatrsink. The OStar and electrical connections are covered with a mixture of Devcon and Artic Alumina epoxy right to the edge of the OStar lens. No other optic or cover glass will be used, the OStar lens will provide a very wide beam to illuminate a large area.

This will be driven at 700-800mA, but untill the light fixture is mounted, final drive current subject to change based on observed performance. I originally thought the over the door light would need about 500mA, but found 150mA more than enough brightness when it was mounted in place. So, we shall see after mounting this one just how bright it needs to be.

Lambda, show us more. This is very interesting.

ARC mania

Very nice indeed Kevin, how about a run for CLF (and FNF) members
a mag with a FNF or CLF logo mounted above my front door would surely be sufficient to spare me from the wrath of the gods!