5mm LEDs - Any love left?

[StandardBattery]

I have a warm white Pixel and really like this light! The form factor and finish alone are great. I have the first set of batteries still working in mine -- and do use it with some frequency. This high CRI LED would be great too... and since lampeDépêche was kind enough to send me some I think I will probably get a second one and try this out

How long have you been using that first set?

 

[phosphor22]

I have been using it on and off for a few months. I frequently wear the light on a chain (to me it has a nice rather neutral appearance), and use the light mostly for short bursts -- say, trying to find a light switch in the dark for 5 or 10 seconds. I also purchased the extra battery sets.

 

[MKLight]

Thanks, Lampé! I received your LEDs earlier this week. I was going to put the first LED into an old Photon II. I hadn't tested and cut the wrong prong. I ended up cutting both prongs down and putting into a Freedom. It's brighter than the GS that was originally in it was MUCH dimmer than this LED. Plus yours has MUCH nicer tint...and it works just like stock. Thank you so much for sharing your LEDs!!

Best regards,
MK

 

[lampeDépêche]

Thanks, Lampé! ....Best regards, MK

Glad to hear that the LEDs got to you, and that you have a new, Hi CRI Photon Freedom!

 

[MKLight]

Thanks again!

 

[iamlucky13]

Hey lampeDépêche, mine arrived, all apparently undamaged in the envelop. Many thanks!

My Inova Microlight took all of 5 minutes to mod, 3 minutes of which were spent looking for the nearest screwdriver to pop the rear cover off so I could swap the LED's, and 1.5 minutes deliberating which leg was supposed to go in which terminal (fortunately, the wrong way did not seem to harm the LED).

The tint is exactly as expected - warm and cozy. The beam is fairly wide, which is perfect for up-close use. This was a very worthwhile mod. I'm hoping to figure out similar projects for the remaining emitters. The ugly blue-hued nightlight in the hallway may fall prey some tinkering...

Some related info to add to the thread: I had previously noticed the Microlight's stock emitter had gotten extremely dim on the pair of CR2016's that are in it - barely better than the 0.1 lumen firefly mode on my Armytek headlamp, even though the pair of batteries measured the correct 6.0V. I tried a single CR2032, and the stock emitter got significantly brighter. I repeated the experiment with the new Yuji emitter - same results. It appears after aging for too long, the CR2016 batteries just can't provide enough current to produce meaningful light. Since these Yuji's have a reasonably low forward voltage, however, they seem to work ok with a single CR2032.

I didn't have a convenient way to measure brightness, but I did have a multimeter handy and took some current measurements that can be roughly correlated to brightness.

2 x CR2016 that sat in a drawer for 5+ years with intermittent use (6.07V)
Stock emitter: 0.53 mA
Yuji BC 5mm: 0.57 mA

1 x CR2032 - Moderately used (2.92V)
Stock emitter: 5.1 mA
Yuji BC 5mm: 6.5 mA

1 x CR2032 - New (3.11V)
Stock emitter: 13 mA falling to 10 mA over roughly 30s
Yuji BC: 17 mA falling to 13 mA over roughly 30s

Based on the spec sheet, it looks like the Yuji + Microlight combo was achieving ~6 lumens at turn-on with a new CR2032, stabilizing at ~4 lumens, and around 2 lumens (Maglite Solitaire level) on a used battery.

 

[parametrek]

+1 for the Gerber Infinity Ultra! I really like this light. It is the "AA E01" that people have been asking for, and it can run on AAA too. It just gets everything right. I do want to try modding it with a Yuji 5mm high CRI LED though.

 

[lampeDépêche]

Hey lampeDépêche, mine arrived, all apparently undamaged in the envelop. Many thanks!

My Inova Microlight took all of 5 minutes to mod....

The tint is exactly as expected - warm and cozy. The beam is fairly wide, which is perfect for up-close use. This was a very worthwhile mod. I'm hoping to figure out similar projects for the remaining emitters....

That's great to hear, lucky! I'm glad that the emitters got to you, and that you had an easy time swapping them into your old light.

One of you--K2-bk-bl-rd--sent me five Yuji 5600k LEDs in return, so that I can play around with the cooler temp in the same Hi CRI.

And I want to, but: no time!!

Thanks, K2-bk-bl-rd, I hope to play with those when I get a chance.

 

[LeanBurn]

Do you think one of these LEDs would work in a Dorcy penlight with 2 AAA batteries? I would like to give it a try.

pm sent to lampeDépêche

 

[iamlucky13]

Do you think one of these LEDs would work in a Dorcy penlight with 2 AAA batteries? I would like to give it a try.

I just searched for "Dorcy penlight" and found a $6 model on Home Depot. It says it's a 15 lumen light, which is about twice as bright as the Yuji LED's are nominally rated. I suspect if you did a straight swap, it would slightly overdrive the LED, but it might be able to handle it, especially if you're not using the light for long periods of time. Could be worth risking one to try. I'd be interested to hear how it works out if you do this.

For myself, I'm keeping an eye out for a 1 x AAA regulated light to try to swap one of these into. From what I could find on the Fenix E01, the driver is fully potted, and quite time consuming to mod as a result.

I'm also thinking of matching a Yuji and an appropriate resistor to a USB-plug so I can use a USB power bank as a rechargeable "candle" when the power is out.

 

[iamlucky13]

The hideous blue nightlight I mentioned above has now gone under the soldering iron. I disconnected one leg and measured 13 mA before the mod, so the power level looks appropriate for the Yuji.

The bad tint had long bothered me, but I hadn't presumed just how bad it was until I used my camera to try to figure out the color temperature and found it so blue dominant that I couldn't get a consistent measurement. The Yuji is also brighter.

Two pictures are worth two thousand words:

 

[lampeDépêche]

Two pictures are worth two thousand words:

Oh, man!!

Those two pictures really do tell the whole story, don't they?

Lucky13, you are finding all sorts of good ways to use these Yuji LEDs. Makes me glad that I sent you a handful.

LeanBurn, I got your pm; waiting on your SASE.

 

[lampeDépêche]

+1 for the Gerber Infinity Ultra! I really like this light. It is the "AA E01" that people have been asking for, and it can run on AAA too. It just gets everything right. I do want to try modding it with a Yuji 5mm high CRI LED though.

Hey parametrek,

When you do that, write up the mod, will you? I'm kind of tempted to try it, but I'm not very handy with a soldering iron.

 

[StorminMatt]

Kind of odd they would make a night light like this, especially since it is well known that blue light is bad for sleep.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Kind of odd they would make a night light like this, especially since it is well known that blue light is bad for sleep.

Not surprising as most of the cheap LED night lights used to use 5mm LEDs which most of the time were a bluish tint. I have a few cheap LED nightlight bulbs with screw base that replace a 7 watt bulb that are bluish in tint using 5mm LEDs (3 of them) It hasn't been but the last 5 years or so that I've seen warmer colored LED night lights partially because they are adapting SMD LEDs instead of 5mm ones. The main issue I have with the SMD LEDs is too often there is a very warm or very cold color to them (nothing near neutral). Personally the blue night lights are brighter but unless they are in your face not bright enough to keep most folks awake.

 

[iamlucky13]

Oh, man!!

Those two pictures really do tell the whole story, don't they?

Lucky13, you are finding all sorts of good ways to use these Yuji LEDs. Makes me glad that I sent you a handful.

Even exaggerates it slightly, as the absolute nature of the camera often does. Seen in isolation, the modified version actually looks a very slightly golden white, just like a halogen lamp.

I've only done two small projects so far. It was nice to have a couple small tinkering projects to distract me from work. I will also be interested to see how it works out if parametrek is able to swap one into a AA light.

 

[iamlucky13]

Not surprising as most of the cheap LED night lights used to use 5mm LEDs which most of the time were a bluish tint. I have a few cheap LED nightlight bulbs with screw base that replace a 7 watt bulb that are bluish in tint using 5mm LEDs (3 of them) It hasn't been but the last 5 years or so that I've seen warmer colored LED night lights partially because they are adapting SMD LEDs instead of 5mm ones. The main issue I have with the SMD LEDs is too often there is a very warm or very cold color to them (nothing near neutral). Personally the blue night lights are brighter but unless they are in your face not bright enough to keep most folks awake.

Yep. I bought the night light probably right around 5 years ago when we last moved, and was so shocked at how bad it was I didn't even want to give LED night lights a second chance. I stuck that light where it was seldom needed and kept an incandescent night light in the bedroom. Around this site, when we think cool, we think 6000K or so, but this was effectively off the charts.

After A19 LED bulbs got cheaper and proved quality LED's could be reasonably priced, I finally looked again and saw some labeled "soft white" that are much better. They're probably in the 3000-3500K range.

Since the light above has a motion sensor that is nice for keeping the bedroom dark except when people are actually moving around, I decided to try swapping the emitter for one I knew was high quality, instead of buying a replacement night light and merely hoping. The nice thing about 5mm LED's is they're relatively easy to work with.

 

[Lynx_Arc]

Yep. I bought the night light probably right around 5 years ago when we last moved, and was so shocked at how bad it was I didn't even want to give LED night lights a second chance. I stuck that light where it was seldom needed and kept an incandescent night light in the bedroom. Around this site, when we think cool, we think 6000K or so, but this was effectively off the charts.

After A19 LED bulbs got cheaper and proved quality LED's could be reasonably priced, I finally looked again and saw some labeled "soft white" that are much better. They're probably in the 3000-3500K range.

Since the light above has a motion sensor that is nice for keeping the bedroom dark except when people are actually moving around, I decided to try swapping the emitter for one I knew was high quality, instead of buying a replacement night light and merely hoping. The nice thing about 5mm LED's is they're relatively easy to work with.

I agree that 5mm LEDs are often user serviceable I've upgraded/replaced a dozen or more of them over the years. The trend now is all but doing away with 5mm white LEDs for SMD board mounted LEDs in almost everything except the cheapest lights and the disadvantage is that SMD LEDs are hard to replace for most folks requiring special tools. I prefer the quality/color/output of SMD LEDs over 5mm mainly due to not having the blotchy tinted quality of output. I have a couple of dozen 5mm LEDs still including a few Nichias and Crees. I bought several 5mm LED based nightlight bulbs when Walgreens had them for $4 a pair now you can't find them for but twice that in stores.
If you have some extra USB AC adapters you could buy some USB LED boards and use them for nightlights, including using warm white ones and dimmable ones and there is even a board that has a light sensor on it that you can adjust the sensitivity.

With a few more adapters you can buy a dimming control and use it with USB lights. It doesn't go super dim but does go low enough to conserve power.

 

[LeanBurn]

I just searched for "Dorcy penlight" and found a $6 model on Home Depot. It says it's a 15 lumen light, which is about twice as bright as the Yuji LED's are nominally rated. I suspect if you did a straight swap, it would slightly overdrive the LED, but it might be able to handle it, especially if you're not using the light for long periods of time. Could be worth risking one to try. I'd be interested to hear how it works out if you do this...

I am not worried at all. The Nichia 5mm (Low CRI) that is currently in there has a rating of 15 Lumen @ 3V. Once I get the Yuji CRI 95 LED in there it will be 7 or 8 Lumens @ 3V. The LED has a forward voltage of up to 3.1V so it will be good.
From what I have seen, the higher the CRI on the LED, the less efficient it is in overall output. That is the trade-off for the higher CRI I suppose. Just like the comparison between identical models neutral white vs cool white, the NW output always seems to be down ~10% in comparison, but those that prefer it find it worth it.

I'll report back on this mod once it is performed...if its favorable, I may be scouring around looking for old school 5mm to swap just because..

 

[NutSAK]

My SS McKinley w/snow white Nichias still gets the occasional love: