Can anyone help me

[reezeh]

Yesterday morning while it was still dark I shone my little Maglite Solitaire torch ("flashlight" to you folk across The Pond) at the wall and noticed that the dark hole wasn't centred. Can anyone please collimate it for me? I've no experience at collimating torches and can't find the collimating screws!

Here's a picture of the what I was getting...

[dweller25]

That’s funny 😂😂 👍

Edited December 16, 2020 by dweller25

[vlaiv]

12 minutes ago, reezeh said:

Here's a picture of the what I was getting...

I think your collimation is fine - it is tilt that you are seeing in your image

 

[Tiny Clanger]

😀 I'd strongly suggest you upgrade to something with more aperture and power , maybe a maglite 3D ?

Only £50, so if you are serious about torches it's a wise investment ... 😀

 

[Debo]

The torch should always be allowed to reach ambient temperature before testing, if not it may cause internal air currents. and that would probably degrade the light beam. 😂

Edited December 16, 2020 by Debo

[wulfrun]

Solitaire uses a bulb, that's ancient technology. You need an upgrade. I'd suggest something like this:

https://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/Shop/Fenix-Torches/LD-Series/13756-Fenix-LD02-V2.0.html

Never needs collimation. It's about the same size, runs off the same battery (which lasts a lot longer) and is at least 5 times brighter. I have its predecessor, somewhat worn but still works perfectly. Top tip: don't use on astro trips unless to find your way back, it'll ruin your night vision in an instant.

[reezeh]

1 hour ago, Tiny Clanger said:

😀 I'd strongly suggest you upgrade to something with more aperture and power , maybe a maglite 3D ?

Only £50, so if you are serious about torches it's a wise investment ... 😀

 

Is there a set of Bob's Knobs for it? 😃

[Tiny Clanger]

1 minute ago, reezeh said:

Is there a set of Bob's Knobs for it? 😃

I'm trying to take a photo of my 3D to check its collimation, if it's way out I may have to search the interwebs for some  ... 😀

[reezeh]

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

I think your collimation is fine - it is tilt that you are seeing in your image

 

Maybe the diagonal mirror needs adjusting.

 

Where's the diagonal mirror on my torch? 

[reezeh]

48 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

Solitaire uses a bulb, that's ancient technology. You need an upgrade. I'd suggest something like this:

https://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/Shop/Fenix-Torches/LD-Series/13756-Fenix-LD02-V2.0.html

Never needs collimation. It's about the same size, runs off the same battery (which lasts a lot longer) and is at least 5 times brighter. I have its predecessor, somewhat worn but still works perfectly. Top tip: don't use on astro trips unless to find your way back, it'll ruin your night vision in an instant.

That torch worries me. I'm scared that I'll get sunburn from holding it when it is in UV mode 😀

[Tiny Clanger]

1 minute ago, reezeh said:

Maybe the diagonal mirror needs adjusting.

 

Where's the diagonal mirror on my torch? 

Can't help with that, sorry, my solitaire (bulb, not the newfangled LED) is heavily astro modded. I don't want to disturb the stacked circles of red acetate, or the PVA glue that holds 'em on the lens ...

What worries me more is I've checked all my cylindrical form torches, and every single one only has the one spring in the battery compartment , and no locking screw(s). How on earth can the cells be accurately aligned ?

[reezeh]

2 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Can't help with that, sorry, my solitaire (bulb, not the newfangled LED) is heavily astro modded. I don't want to disturb the stacked circles of red acetate, or the PVA glue that holds 'em on the lens ...

What worries me more is I've checked all my cylindrical form torches, and every single one only has the one spring in the battery compartment , and no locking screw(s). How on earth can the cells be accurately aligned ?

Maybe it's 

 

[wulfrun]

16 minutes ago, reezeh said:

That torch worries me. I'm scared that I'll get sunburn from holding it when it is in UV mode 😀

Don't use UV mode then, plus I'm sure it's safe enough if you don't stare at it. Mine in that size is an L0D, no UV function but appears to be discontinued. Seriously though, Fenix torches are the bizz. You only buy once - well once for each requirement anyway! A bit like scopes, you can't have too many torches eh 🙂

[reezeh]

14 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Can't help with that, sorry, my solitaire (bulb, not the newfangled LED) is heavily astro modded. I don't want to disturb the stacked circles of red acetate, or the PVA glue that holds 'em on the lens ...

What worries me more is I've checked all my cylindrical form torches, and every single one only has the one spring in the battery compartment , and no locking screw(s). How on earth can the cells be accurately aligned ?

A good way to hold the acetate on is a metal disc soldered around the edges to secure it. It'll also help prevent ruining your dark-adaptation. Comes in handy as a dark light too for cancelling out any unwanted light

[wulfrun]

10 minutes ago, reezeh said:

Comes in handy as a dark light too for cancelling out any unwanted light

Can't resist this one, in the spirit of the thread. Years ago, I worked in surface coatings, which included colour matching. We had a spectrophotometer in the lab (fancy colour-measuring gadget) which had two calibration standards - a white tile and a light-trap. The white tile is barium sulphate and not very interesting. A light-trap is a tube, closed at one end, matt black inside and containing a matt black cone which tapers to a very sharp and equally invisible point. Visitors would casually pick it up and ask what it was. "It's a light-trap". "Oh", first thing look into it, second thing insert finger to see what's in it. We kept the pasters nearby 🙂

Edited December 16, 2020 by wulfrun

[reezeh]

7 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

Can't resist this one, in the spirit of the thread. Years ago, I worked in surface coatings, which included colour matching. We had a spectrophotometer in the lab (fancy colour-measuring gadget) which had two calibration standards - a white tile and a light-trap. The white tile is barium sulphate and not very interesting. A light-trap is a tube, closed at one end, matt black inside and containing a matt black cone which tapers to a very sharp and equally invisible point. Visitors would casually pick it up and ask what it was. "It's a light-trap". "Oh", first thing look into it, second thing insert finger to see what's in it. We kept the pasters nearby 🙂

That is like my favourite little trick especially for those that love to kick snowmen. I build a little snowman around a brick! 😈

[Gfamily]

1 minute ago, reezeh said:

That is like my favourite little trick especially for those that love to kick snowmen. I build a little snowman around a brick! 😈

And soot on the telescope eye-cup?

[wulfrun]

1 minute ago, Gfamily said:

And soot on the telescope eye-cup?

Or the binoculars, for a matching pair? 😉

[reezeh]

7 minutes ago, Gfamily said:

And soot on the telescope eye-cup?

I prefer dark coloured ink on the mouthpiece 😉

Looks much funnier

[Tiago Ferreira]

collimating...

 

[Mr Jones]

Studying the image you posted, its clear you have dropped your torch. Good grief, man; you're as bad as my bloomin' kids.  You don't deserve a torch.

[Rusted]

All of this could have been avoided if you'd bought the liquid nitrogen cooled, Pro-17a[IV]S3 model.
Only another £2750. Comes with a free holster, shoulder and Velcro adjustable waist strap and fully recoil protected, steady-cam.
The Kevlar shielded case [provided] is guaranteed to be fully resistant against all radiation burns up to several thousand Kelvin.
I was, however disappointed to find that the automatic fire extinguisher came without the promised flotation devices.
A quick email to the vendor soon sorted that out and now I'm as happy as a sandboy in clover and completely over the moon.
I'm still looking forwards to the hands-on personal training sessions once the present "slight difficulties" are over.
No doubt we'll be seeing you again soon in the ICU?  

[Tiny Clanger]

28 minutes ago, Rusted said:

All of this could have been avoided if you'd bought the liquid nitrogen cooled, Pro-17a[IV]S3 model.
Only another £2750. Comes with a free holster, shoulder and Velcro adjustable waist strap and fully recoil protected, steady-cam.
The Kevlar shielded case [provided] is guaranteed to be fully resistant against all radiation burns up to several thousand Kelvin.
I was, however disappointed to find that the automatic fire extinguisher came without the promised flotation devices.
A quick email to the vendor soon sorted that out and now I'm as happy as a sandboy in clover and completely over the moon.
I'm still looking forwards to the hands-on personal training sessions once the present "slight difficulties" are over.
No doubt we'll be seeing you again soon in the ICU?  

Just pointing out I believe you left out the word 'Tactical' in that remarkable instrument's name, It would be priced at least 50% cheaper without it ...

Otherwise a helpful review, thanks. Did you get the torch free from the importer in exchange for an honest review on Amazon ? 😀

[wulfrun]

1 hour ago, astrocanito said:

collimating...

 

Hilarious! I have one of these:

https://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/Shop/Fenix-Torches/PD-Series/13690-Fenix-PD35-V2.0.html

It has various modes - I always leave it on the lowest brightness, which is very low power. Friends have looked at it, asked "how much?" and then "how bright?" so I invite them to look for themselves. They always look into it and say "not very bright, is it?" and I invite them to hold the button on the side. This sends it into strobe mode, which is full power in a strobe/fast flash intermittent pattern. Day or night, I promise your vision will be impaired for a good ten minutes and you'll likely feel sick. I can't put the typical comment here or it'll be removed 😉

[Tiny Clanger]

So, my heavily astro modded solitaire (red finish, original bulb model) seems collimated , but reckon the lumpy PVA glue that holds the layers of red acetate to each other and the front glass may be affecting the smoothness of the light pool somewhat. Anyone know the refractive index of dried PVA glue ?

By the way, for any tactical flashlight fans out there, yes, that thumb loop is glow in the dark paracord .