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Test Your Flash Duration With An Arduino And a 50c Diode

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By now you already know that Flashes don’t just pop for a fraction of a second. This fraction has a value and its value determines how well it will stop motion (say a splash of liquid). This time is called T.5 (and T.1) and they are explained here.

So every flash manufacturer shares their T.5, and as with many devices there is some variance. Matt Kane of vela.io recently built a device for testing the actual flash duration using an Arduino board and a cheapo diode. The reason for this was to test how the output from strobes (and the vela LED airgap) behave.

Interestingly LED strobes behave differently than Xenon strobes and their fall off patterns is different. They are also much faster (see title image).

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Vela Lab’s Uber High Speed Flash Aims To Freeze Bullets In Mid Air

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Vela Labs developed an LED flash with speeds of up to 1 /2,000,000 of a second – the Vela One. This means that the Vela One is fast enough to stop a bullet in flight.

Vela Labs CEO, Matt Kane, told us that such a fast speed is obtained by using ultra-high flux COB LEDs, and overdriving them. My first question was how exactly can you push an LED so brutally and not damage it. Matt explained that the massive currents are delivered in very short pulses and do not damage or shorten the life of the unit. [Read More…]

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