Brighter LEDs available

My fellow LED obsessed forumites

While grubbing in the components bin at **** Smith's I found a white LED rated at the following values:
8000mcd
4V
30mA

The Cat No. is Z-3982 if that will help any. It cost AU$9.95, a whole dollar more than the 5600mcd models. I realise that many of you are heaps more informed than I, but I couldn't find any reference to the 8000mcd LED, so I thought I'd bring this to light.

Testing it in the two circuits I've been trying (the SatCure and the TL496 circuits), the 8000mcd LED is definitely brighter in either circuit than the LED I've been using (no specification but is most likely 5600mcd).

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Steelwolf:
My fellow LED obsessed forumites

While grubbing in the components bin at **** Smith's I found a white LED rated at the following values:
8000mcd
4V
30mA
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

That rating would probably be true of any higher ranking Nichia 5600's when run with the parameters you stated. It's likely a marketing gimmick.

The only other way to get 8000+mcd out of a 5mm LED besides narrowing the beam is if the supplier had gotten their hands on Nichia's Rank-S LEDs (and also those from certain color sorts), which can range from 7600mcd to 9500mcd. Somewhere I have some exact specs on these, which I'll post as soon as I dig them out.

Hi Telephony, before I continue... "YOUR SITE ROCKS!!!" love it. So much good info, no hype.

I've scanned the spec sheet. here and here. Maybe you can make heads or tail of it.

I guess I should have bought one of their 5600mcd LEDs for comparision. Anyway, the following data was obtain during runs on the TL496 circuit.
V across LED= 3.9V
A through LED= 51mA

So I guess it was burning nearer 9500mcd, if the spec sheet can be believed. The LED I compared it with had 3.7V across it and 52mA through it and, as I said, is probably the 5600mcd LED. Both have a 20degree viewing angle. The 8000mcd LED was definitely brighter.

It sure didn't look like no marketing gimmick.

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Steelwolf:
Hi Telephony, before I continue... "YOUR SITE ROCKS!!!"

love it. So much good info, no hype.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the fan mail. That's the best kind.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>

I've scanned the spec sheet. Maybe you can make heads or tail of it.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I honestly don't know what you got.
The specs aren't laid out like Nichia's latest offerings, and the "typical" mcd value is not a Nichia value.

One way to positively identify a Nichia product is to look at the internal portion of the metal leadframe - the parts inside the LED comprising of the anvil and the anode rod.



This admittedly old webcam picture shows the primary identifying characteristic of Nichia LEDs - note the "pinched" or "almost praying hands" appearance of the internal leadframe. Does your 8000+mcd version look like this from the side?

OK... I'm partially blind now. And that's all due to your post, Telephony.

I checked, and the internals of the 8000mcd LED are as you described it, pinched. The leads are also flat. I checked the LEDs in my TREK 7 and my broken CMG Infinity and found that they are also built the same way. A quick test of the CMG LED proved that it was, as far as I could tell, throwing the same amount of light. (That's how I got blinded )

The other LED that I'm using has the traditional, trapezoidal anvil and has rounded leads. Maybe it is one of the dimmer LEDs. I'll probably get a LED of the lower rating from **** Smith's when I go there again, just to check.

Looks like it was just hype and marketing afterall, Telephony.

This has proven to be an absolute disappointment. I went and bought the 5600mcd LED from **** Smith's. Plugging it in to the 2 circuits I've been playing around with, and just running it straight with 3x1.5V cells, I found that it ran pretty much as the 8000mcd LED. So it's probably exactly the same. Maybe it's like the Pentium chips where they were basically the same chips, except that because of the vagaries of production, some can run faster and some can't and they were marketed as different chips.

Well, don`t feel bad Steelwolf. I thought I had found something new at Sharper Image and Craig sunk my boat too. Turned out to be a regular Blue Nachia.