4000+ Lumen Test & BridgeLux LED Review

[bshanahan14rulz]

if you had a half elliptical reflector with the emitter at one focal point, would you put the lens at the other focal point or would you match the lens' focal point to the reflector's other focal point?

[Benson]

if you had a half elliptical reflector with the emitter at one focal point, would you put the lens at the other focal point or would you match the lens' focal point to the reflector's other focal point?

If I'm thinking straight, you'd colocate the focal points to focus at infinity (i.e., maximum throw). But you'd probably offset the lens a little axially to defocus it for a broader beam, and most importantly to eliminate any dark gridding from the separate dies.

[clint357]

Who knows where you can buy some generic lenses? I want to get some convex, concave, .ect and I was wondering if hobby lobby or radio shack carries stuff like that.

[SQ40]

Would it be possible to Modify an existing LCD Data Projector Bulb Housing to use one of these bad boys?

[Illum]

Would it be possible to Modify an existing LCD Data Projector Bulb Housing to use one of these bad boys?

don't see why not...but the collimation's gonna be...

[bozola]

A wallflower chimes in:

On a whim based on Nessus's review, I decided to get a couple of the BXRA-C0800 to play around with.

Couldn't be as annoying as my HIDs. Naaah. Bright but not much worse than that...after all I am an experienced HID guy - nothing can surprise me.

So they came today. I rip open the box and drag everything down the the lab. Grease one to a huge chunk of cold iron I've got laying about and power it up.

Fiat lux, baby.

The thing's bright.

The thing's stupidly bright.

The bloody thing's so stupidly bright birds flying by outside burst into flames and pilots overhead report a nuclear detonation. Maybe I exaggerate, but the damn thing's bright.

HIDs just lost their appeal. Another LED evangelist is born.

Thanks, Nessus!

[SQ40]

don't see why not...but the collimation's gonna be...

Hmm.. Wonder how I can make this work.. What If I use the built in Reflector of the existing bulb?

I realize that we are focusing the bulb through the aperture on the LCD.. so a tight beam is ideal, right? Or am i going to get one big hot-spot?

[blasterman]

I'm a bit dissapointed at how quickly interest seems to have died regarding these emitters.

I recently ordered a couple of the smaller 400 lumen Bridgelux; a warm-white and neutral-white for testing with some fixed lighting projects. Shipping with standard (cheap) US Postal took 2 1/2 days to the midwest.

Neutral-White emitter was perfectly neutral with zero tint, and matches my neutral-white Crees at the same 4000k color temp.

Warm-White was a gorgeous color, and again matched my best warm-white Crees. Reason I say 'best' is I have a variety of warm-white Crees and they all tend to vary in terms of minor tints, with the worst having too much green/yellow in them. Obviously unless you can get a specific bin-tint for Cree this is what happens. The warm-white bridgelux however was perfection.

So, for $18 I get a quickly shipped (U.S.A) 400 lumen emitter on an industrial grade star without having to screw around with guessing bin-tints or if it was the 'B' shift on the Asian soldering line. Me like.... lots.

I'm not a flashlight guy, but I played around with a couple large reflectors scavanged from dead incan flashlights and the lot, and with some finagling they produced a decent 20degree or so beam.

[Rexlion]

Who knows where you can buy some generic lenses? I want to get some convex, concave, .ect and I was wondering if hobby lobby or radio shack carries stuff like that.

surplusShed.com has a great variety of lenses at budget prices. Maybe something suitable there.

[aljsk8]

id like to see the photos on the first post but i cant see them on IE7 or FIREFOX

can anyone help?

[clint357]

What is the maximum current you can give the 25 die unit and still expect to get your 50,000 hrs out of it? I think I'm about to put a couple of these in my offroad light enclosures and drive them with CCHIPOs.

[Illum]

errm...
we've lose every picture on the op thread hotlinked from www.swieringa.com

anyone remember how they looked like?

[Cheapskate]

id like to see the photos on the first post but i cant see them on IE7 or FIREFOX

can anyone help?

From the tone of the Op's later posts, it would not be unreasonable to assume he took his ball (the pics) home with him in a huff.

[BeachBoy]

so, anyone found an optic that could get a tight beam out of these?

[jtr1962]

From the tone of the Op's later posts, it would not be unreasonable to assume he took his ball (the pics) home with him in a huff.

The pics show up for me. I suspect there may have been a temporary glitch with the picture hosting site.

[dharmaone]

What's the CRI on these puppies? could they be used as photography or video lights?

[KevinL]

I am impressed at the sheer light output, but cooling these adequately is going to be a challenge.

I was thinking about what it would take to mount a 1200lu assembly as a fixed lighting system. 16 volts from their datasheet, plus 1.4 amps, is going to generate 22+ watts of heat. That's gonna require a pretty big slab of metal for passive cooling.

As a video light, you could do that, but you'd need a fairly big heatsink on the back of your light, and you might not want to run continuously at max power. PWM dimming would help.

[dharmaone]

cool. Heatsink shouldnt be a problem. PWM dimming is something i only learned about recently - are there some ready modules for this?

Also for video I think having small high power point lights isn't ideal - I've been looking into ways of distributing the light.

Some innovative stuff I've come across for this are 3M Light Pipes and light distribution film

https://www.inventables.com/technolo...tribution-film



basically i want to turn the bright point lights into a large area light - which will create more even light and soft shadows. I think a box with the leds in it, reflecting mylar on the other side (inside) and transmissive light distribution film on the other side would be ideal. Even light fibre that emits light to the sides like this could work.

http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...ts/LightFiber/

I don't know what these products are called and where to get them though.. Any ideas?

[snarfer]

You can order 3M stuff through Digikey.

Just google "side emitting light fiber" for lots of other vendors. Here are a couple that looked interesting:

http://www.fiberoptix.com/products/largecore.html
http://www.meshtel.com/glow.htm

from the Bridgelux press release:

The arrays are rated at 400, 800 and 1200 lumens for warm white (3000K and CRI = 82), neutral white (4100K and CRI = 80) and cool white (5600K, CRI = 65). There is also a 2000-lumen part in cool white.

Pretty low CRI overall. Not good enough for professional film/video/photography.

[NeSSuS-GTE]

From the tone of the Op's later posts, it would not be unreasonable to assume he took his ball (the pics) home with him in a huff.

Such a waste of time and energy that would be.

Optic-wise, I did discover that the 3-up Endor Star optic fits quite precisely on the 6-die emitter. That was a nice surprise. But that optic is still VERY wide and only helps control flood. It does much improve its usability, though.

I am anxious to find some other optic candidates. My eyes are peeled.

[bozola]

I've been playing now with the 400 lumen stars. It's taken a while to figure out all the little details of power control, heat, and enclosures. The learning curve ain't so bad and I can honestly say that this has been a seriously fun project.

What I'm after is a stupidly bright set of off road lamps for my Russian Ural sidecar motorcycle. I've already got a spot light. I've already got fog lights. They aren't enough.

I'm about road test some enclosures based on the BRIDGELUX BXRA-C0400-00000, a 700mA BuckPuck, a 10w passive heatsink, and a really cheap aluminum Chinese enclosure.

Thank you Nessus for starting this thread. It's changed my life.

[moovinfast]

Did this thread die? Has anyone found a found a lens that would work to make a tight beam? I wanted to try it in a projector that I have already gotten to stay on without a bulb. I was looking into using a p7 with a lens but then I found this.

[NeSSuS-GTE]

I'm glad that you asked about optics. It inspired me to take another look.
I don't know how I missed this before!

HERE is the a link to:
Application Note AN16
Optical Considerations for Bridgelux LED Arrays

Here is the important part of that document!!

[moovinfast]

Thank you. Nice find. I emailed LEDil about pricing for the 24 degree for the C2000.

[zeramant86]

Itchin to see some creations with these.

[blasterman]

I emailed LEDil about pricing for the 24 degree for the C2000.

Yeah! I could do some interesting things with that.

One helluva disco-ball light at the least

Curious about pricing.

[purduephotog]

Yeah! I could do some interesting things with that.

One helluva disco-ball light at the least

Curious about pricing.

I've asked Anderson and they couldn't get a response from Ledlil- this was almost 6 months ago. I've mailed Ledil a couple times too and never heard back from them.

They might be selling the Bridgelux optics, but I'll be damned if I know where to get them.

[blasterman]

Also note that Bridgelux is now selling a 5000 lumen array.

[andromeda.73]

too strong!

[eyeeatingfish]

Maybe this will be the first LED light to boil water.

On a serious not I think that one of the big applications will be house lighting. Obviously brighter than those multiple 5mm led models and still better than the 3xQ5 style models
If someone were buying these LEDs wholesale im sure you could get a 1,000-2,000 lumen bulb for less than 60 bucks. I would buy that.
A lot of house lighting bulbs for medium rooms output in the 1000-2000 lumen range so this would definately be competition.
With the flood, maybe some thin lamp shade to spread out the light!

Anyone here know how to turn the 25 die LED into a basic household lamp? If the price were right I would even buy one from someone here who started making those!