New white LED inverter bulb

[The_LED_Museum]

Here is a new 3 volt lamp I just received that uses an LED that wasn't ground out by a third party, but was custom-molded by Nichia Japan specifically for this application.


This is a standard flange-style PR lamp with the inverter tucked inside the lamp base.
Marked "2.85V 0.1A"
The actual current measured for *this* sample was 120.1mA (0.12A) on a pair of nearly-new alkaline "D" cells (less than 5 minutes previous usage).


This is the new bulb installed in a cheap ($2) plastic Eveready D-cell light (the blue flashlight pictured below), compared to LEDCorp's "Our Best Aluminum Flashlight" with its focus just slightly loosened so the beam size is comparable.



The new bulb is the spot on the left; the LEDCorp is the one on the right.
The spot quality may improve when used in a light with a quality reflector - like a Mag or other medium to high end light.

Both of the test flashlights were set upright on a table and shone at the ceiling to obtain this photo.

The bulb is available from Abitax for $14.
I have a link to them on my Abitax Tag Light page, which will do until I make a seperate page for this bulb.

Note: The bulb is meant to be used in 2-cell (C or D) Mag Lites. Since I don't have a 2-cell Mag, I cannot test it in one.

A test hookup using the lampholder & reflector from my Turtlelight produced the expected narrow Turtlelite-like beam.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Let me get this straight: is there an actual step-up inside the bulb, or the LED is underdriven?

ADDED: silly me, should have read the original post with my eyes open.

[The_LED_Museum]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mad_scientist:
Let me get this straight: is there an actual step-up inside the bulb, or the LED is underdriven?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

There is actually a very tiny DC-DC inverter inside the bulb base, so the LED is driven brightly, possibly to 40-50mA.
It's brighter than a white Nichia driven "to spec" at 20mA on a lab supply. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I wish there was a 1-cell CR123A flashlight with a PR base : (

[The_LED_Museum]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mad_scientist:
I wish there was a 1-cell CR123A flashlight with a PR base : (<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well, this bulb would work in it, or any other 3 volt battery source.
Problem is, as you said, there aren't any PR-based flashlights that use CR123 photo batteries. Maybe somebody will come up with a retrofit for this purpose. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[**DONOTDELETE**]

How does the step-up behave in terms of regulation?

A rough calculation shows that the efficiency of the bulb is about 65%, lower than the plain resistor setup with 3-cell source.