ARC AAA tint.

[yaesumofo]

Hey guys. What color tint does your ARC AAA have?
Mine are all Blueish purple.

I have a bunch of them and have always been frustrated with the tint.

Recently I bought a flashlight which has a ring of nichia emitters and the light they emit is WHITE.

Is there some reason the ARC AAA can't use these same emitters?

Look The thing I like about the ARC AAA is it's durability. I have had an original ARC AAA P on my key chain for YEARS. the anodizing is wearing off but the light still works...except for the crappy tint it is a fantastic light.
Can this be fixed?
Maybe there is something going on with the driver or something I don't know (or care much) about. Lets face it it is not the brightest light..and doesn't need to be.
Please fellas your thoughts are welcome Maybe this has been fixed and I just need to buy a new version of the light..Is that possible?
Yaesumofo

 

[Tempest UK]

The DS model has a considerably less blue-ish tint to it.

Regards,
Tempest

 

[parnass]

The Arc-AAA w/Snow LED is a lot whiter than my other Arc lights, though dimmer than the Arc-P DS version.

 

[chimo]

Hey guys. What color tint does your ARC AAA have?
Mine are all Blueish purple.

I have a bunch of them and have always been frustrated with the tint.

Recently I bought a flashlight which has a ring of nichia emitters and the light they emit is WHITE.

Is there some reason the ARC AAA can't use these same emitters?

Look The thing I like about the ARC AAA is it's durability. I have had an original ARC AAA P on my key chain for YEARS. the anodizing is wearing off but the light still works...except for the crappy tint it is a fantastic light.
Can this be fixed?
Maybe there is something going on with the driver or something I don't know (or care much) about. Lets face it it is not the brightest light..and doesn't need to be.
Please fellas your thoughts are welcome Maybe this has been fixed and I just need to buy a new version of the light..Is that possible?
Yaesumofo

The ArcAAA driver is not very well regulated with respect to emitter current. When a LED is overdriven the tint shifts to the blue side. Check my post here comparing the ArcAAA and ArcMania MicroConverter drivers. Look at the comparison graph for LED drive levels. This thread may be of interest as well.

Most of my Nichias all have a blueish or yellowish tint. Perhaps when they are grouped the overlapping beams help mask the blueness.

 

[Edjusted]

I picked up an ARC AAA GS last week. When holding it from something 6" or less the tint seems nice and white. However, the farther you get from something it has a very noticeable blue/purple tint.

So it doesn't seem like new versions have improved the tint any.

 

[CPEng]

Recently I bought a flashlight which has a ring of nichia emitters and the light they emit is WHITE.

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you are talking about the LunaSol 27. I believe I read that the emitters are driven at 18ma where the Arc AAA is driven around 40 ma with a fresh battery from what I can remember which would support Chimos statement that when the Led is over driven it shifts tint to the blue purple range.

~CPEng

 

[IsaacHayes]

Also doesn't the lunisol use 3mm nichias? The beam probably is more blended and less focused at the center of the die where it's probably the most blue-ist.

 

[Lumenz]

+1 on the Arc Snow. I have two of them and although they are dimmer than the Arc AAA DS, they give out enough light for my needs.

 

[Gransee]

Ditto on what other posters have said. Multiple emitters tend to blend and the snow is offered for those for whom tint it tops.

peter

 

[yaesumofo]

The 6 3mm emitters have no hint of blue or purple at all. The beam is made up of 6 sources and is very smooth. these emitters seem very well matched When I look at them individually again there is no hint of purple or blue.

So Let me get this straight.
The ARC AAA overdrives the emitter and this results in a purple beam. Too bad.

I have seen way too many little flashlights which are brighter and whiter and are not Blue or purple.
There has to be a better emitter for the ARC AAA one which will operate with acceptable color and tint.

I saw a beam shot of the DS and thought it looked no better then what I had...or at least not better enough to justify ate additional expense.

Come on guys The focus of this post is the ARC AAA not the lunasol. I mentioned the Lunasol in order to serve as an example of a flashlight which uses nichia emitters and were not emitting either a blue or purple beam. I could site other examples but I don't want this thread to fall into a discussion of those either.
Lets talk about the ARC AAA and the low quality tint of the emitter.
IF over driving the emitter turns the emitted light into purpleness why do it? The ARC AAA isn't that bright anyway. There really can't be a good reason to overdrive the emitter.
Why not just feed the emitter the proper voltage and current needed to produce a nice white light.
OR find an emitter which produces a white light.
IS it about run time? I would be happy to give up runtime in exchange for white light.
Yaesumofo

 

[Blue72]

yaesumofo

I am not sure what you want to discuss.

Arc already offers a solution for those who do not like the tint of the Nichia.

Just get the Arc Snow

 

[tnuckels]

I think Nichia gets chosen because it is generally regarded as best at lumen maintenance (maintaining its original brightness over the lifetime of the emitter) and thus less likely to be sent back for replacement because the light has lost some % of its original brightness a few years later, given ARC's lifetime warrantee.

I think the LED is overdriven (mfr. spec calls for 20mA) at about 45mA because this was necessary back in the Nichia BS days to get it up to the 3-4 lumen level of light it was producing, with the tint shift to blue/purple being a nuisance side effect of achieving this level of light. Perhaps with the newer, more efficient emitters this is not so necessary, but most buyers seem to be of the mind that more light is better light, even those that don't want to go beyond the ≈ 10 lumen level a for keychain light.

I think backing the drive level on the Nichia down to between 20-30mA would increase the runtime and improve the tint, but this is currently not being offered by ARC.

YAESUMOFO, I think you are sometimes right with your blunt confrontation of problems you perceive, and I can appreciate your straight forward, no mincing words approach. However, it seems that you've been dwelling on the ARC AAA's tint for quite some time now; to the point where I think it is not healthy. The others are right, get the SNOW version and be happy for a change …

I thinks what I thinks, and though it may reinforce my existence in some realms, this doesn't necessarily improve my chances of being right :sigh: .

 

[Jarl]

So Let me get this straight.
The ARC AAA overdrives the emitter and this results in a purple beam. Too bad.

The arc circuit starts off overdriving the emitter, but the current drops with battery voltage, so if it is an overdriving issue, the problem should disappear as the battery gets weaker.

 

[WadeF]

My ARC GS is on the blueish/purple side. I figure it is because they are over driving the LED. I'm sending mine back for another one, hopefully with a straight emitter. I'll see how the tint is with that, probably the same though.

 

[datiLED]

My Arc AAA-P CS has a bluish tint. It is not purple at all. After Peter mentioned that Lithium primary batteries were OK to use in the Arc AAA, I gave it a shot. The beam is much brighter, and less blue.

When I need light, my Arc AAA-P is there. The bluish tint does not bother me at all.