being new I need to ask this question...

[Cascade Range]

Bare with a new guy and probably a question that may have been asked
many times before and please feel free to post a thread link that will
answer my query if possible.
I didn't get into lights all on my own, I have a friend that has been buying
cheap LED's for years and finally the bug worked it's way into my life.
My question is, all of his lights have multiple LED's inside the bezel. My two
flashlights have a single emitter. What are the advantages and disadvantages of both designs? Thanks.

 

[sol-leks]

In general, these led lights you see with multiple emitters are bad. There are definitely a number of them out there that are good but the cheap ones you see usually are poorly made and the circuitry is set up poorly so they tend to be inefficient and burn out fast. The main upshot to them is they can often be nice an floody and they are cheap of course. A popular yet well made multiple led light for example is the inova x5, which is outdated but still fondly remembered.

 

[Cascade Range]

Sol,
thanks for the info. :thumbsup:

 

[angelofwar]

Ditto...the 5mm LED arrays are usually (always?) Junk. The only decent multi-LED light is the A2 Avaitor and SF Kroma :devil:.

Stream Light multi-LED's aren't to bad either....but the rest are basically junk.

:welcome: BTW.

 

[LEDninja]

You should meet your friend on a dark night and compare beams. The big blob of a 5mm array and the spot/spill of your G2L is quite different.
You will pay more for your batteries than your friend.

BTW what is your other light?

 

[saabluster]

The LEDs you see in those cheap multi-emitter lights use epoxy as an encapsulant. Unless the manufacturer used high quality LEDs, such as Nichia, the life of them will be extremely short as the epoxy just over the LED will start to bake and turn black. The high power LEDs you see being put in most of the flashlights people here buy are made of higher quality materials that will last far far longer.

 

[Cascade Range]

Thanks again for the excellent replies fellas, explained well.

Led-Ninja, my other light is a Noma from Canada Tire and it
has a single emitter and a very nice, deep orange peel cone
shape and throws off a stated 140 lumen or so? Anyhow we
have plans to take our lights out one of these nights and
have a bit of a show so will compare and see how his multi's
do against my singles.
Anyhow just want to say how thrilled I am to be part of this
fine forum and as overwhelming as it all is to me now there
are no shortage of threads with good info to keep me busy
in my spare time.

 

[PCC]

If you are comparing your lights to his and he has multi-LED "shower heads" then try to compare them where you can shine your lights at objects a bit further out. Shower heads tend to be very floody and floody beams don't have the reach of most lights people on these forums would buy. A good range to compare would have objects from 10 feet (3 meters) out to 100 feet (30 meters). If your light is particularly throwy then having a target that is even further out would work as well.

(Cascade Range - you don't need to hit "Enter" at the end of the box you are typing into when posting or else your posts look narrow like they do now)

 

[Cascade Range]

Ok will try and remember about filling the space and not hitting enter at the end of my sentences. :thumbsup: Appreciate the advice about far away targets and testing the lights. I think he might be in for a bit of a surprise actually.

 

[pjandyho]

The only decent multi-LED light is the A2 Avaitor and SF Kroma :devil:.

The A2 Aviator is the incandescent version. You missed out the full LED Surefire A2L Aviator and Surefire AZ2 Combatlight. I don't think those are junks.

 

[alpg88]

yea what they said, those 5mm multi led lights are garbage for the most part, some are not so bad, the reasons;
1 quality of the leds,(most cheap 5mm leds are too blue, weak, and as was said don't last long), well i still have few lights with 5mm leds from 7 to 10 years ago that still work.
2 is the way they are wired, usually they are all wired in parallel, bad idea for leds, some burn out faster cuz they "suck" more current than others.
right way is to use high voltage, 12-24v, and wire the in strings(series) with resistor, and parallel strings, this way you control current more effectively

i made an experiment once, bought 2 identical 12 leds cheapo lights, and replaced leds in one light to high quality cree 5mm leds, as the result it became less blue, and a bit brighter, but even with good leds, it was still crappy light, by my standarts anyway.
so it is the concept that sucks mainly. but in some cases it works even today.

7 or so years ago there was no high power leds, and lux1 was crap, (i still have first run lux 1 pr bulb that i bought pbly 6-7 years ago, i paid $30 back than now i wouldn't pay a dollar for it), so i had no other choose but to use many 5mm leds, i build lights with 40-102 leds, 102 led light i still have, still works, but it is flood light, but back then, even now i find it usefull during camping, it lights up entire site in even light, the trick is to tape it high up on a tree.

one thing i like about 5mm leds (not 5 chip 0.5w), if driven at 20ma, they never heat up, no need for heat sink, run an array all night long, in plastic housing, and it wont even heat up.

btw, :welcome:

 

[Cascade Range]

Alpg88, thanks for taking the time to explain your experiments with
LED's. I'm kind of glad I heading in the right direction with good quality
off the hop.

 

[jabe1]

Ditto...the 5mm LED arrays are usually (always?) Junk. The only decent multi-LED light is the A2 Avaitor and SF Kroma :devil:.

Stream Light multi-LED's aren't to bad either....but the rest are basically junk.

:welcome: BTW.

The old Peak lights w/5mm LEDs are very good also.