Instead of over kill,just a nudge, I illuminated a p-p ball in a 48 in plastic tube with a 2 W white LED. Would have liked a viewing angle of 30 deg. or less but only had 120 deg LED. Tried colminating with 34 mm FL lens- works but only intercepts small part of total light. The tube makes a reasonable light pipe projecting circle of light on celing 2 ft beyond end of pipe.

 

Instead of over kill,just a nudge, I illuminated a p-p ball in a 48 in plastic tube with a 2 W white LED. Would have liked a viewing angle of 30 deg. or less but only had 120 deg LED. Tried colminating with 34 mm FL lens- works but only intercepts small part of total light. The tube makes a reasonable light pipe projecting circle of light on celing 2 ft beyond end of pipe.

Maybe you could make an aluminum parabolic mirror to focus the light?

 

Done, but just two truncated joined cones. Ball much brighter & without ball in tube spot on celing is also much brighter. Feel that a much longer tube would still work. Sure wish I had a Cree 4 color RGBW 1 A each LED to try.

 

Done, but just two truncated joined cones. Ball much brighter & without ball in tube spot on celing is also much brighter. Feel that a much longer tube would still work. Sure wish I had a Cree 4 color RGBW 1 A each LED to try.

Hola Bernard,

Two cones; I cannot imagine how is that. Could show a simple drawing?

 

Semi parabolic reflector. Parabola (A) Y=4X^2 selected to give reasonable sized reflecting surfaces when cut off at 30 mm diameter (D). A tangent (H) is drawn & moved inward to intersect A @ E. A cone is drawn , apex CH ( not labled) with radius CH- DH. The diameter @ DA, 1.14 in. X Pi= 3.56 in. which is then marked off along outer circumfrence of the circle. Width of first conic section is EH to DH. The part ial circumfrence E is now outer cirum. of next semi cone E , height JC- HE. The two conic sections were cut from thin cardboard & covered with bright Al tape, edges joined to form cones. Overlap tabs were left on sections for joining. Cones then stacked & joined with Al tape. LED placed at focus.

 

Another suggestion would be to buy some sort of a spotlight with a plastic reflector, and dismantle it and see if you could use it for your design.

 

Another option: From Edmund Optics, Compound Parabolic Concentrator #65-442 @ only US $ 120. each for first 5.

 

The Cree LED that I was thinking of is: MCE4CT-A2-0000-00A5-AAAA1, RGBW, Digi-Key $ 18.20.
Also have reflector: CA10716, $3.69.
Will that fit my budget?

 

Hola Bernard,

As usual, now that you explained it, it seems evident Thanks for your explanation.

BTW, Edmund offers incredible things but nothing is cheap there...

 

BTW, Edmund offers incredible things but nothing is cheap there...

I concur... only their catalog is free...