CPF and LED flashlight development

[Gaffle]

I would imagine that none of the LED research and development is funded with flashlights in mind. We're just lucky that our hobby benefits from it.

See, I'm not so sure about that. The only reason I say that is because you can go into any store these days to find LED lights. Not only can you find LEDs anywhere, but the Luxeons are disappearing. Check out headlamps all over the place and you see Cree, Rebel, or Seoul emitters, in "regular" stores. I am sure the sales of these lights help with research and development. I mean the lights that we are purchasing are not the only source of sales for these companies, they are selling their emitters for both flashlight aficionados and regular folk.

That being said, we are still a lucky bunch. These companies are waiting for the mega commercial Walmart (or insert whoever) goldmine. Their research teams are probably always a step ahead to fill this commercial gap. Once the commercial gap is crossed, hello regular consumer. Soon these bright and efficient and durable LEDs are going to be incorporated in normal life. These LEDs could become the primary light source for our civilization. I mean come on, did Nikola Tesla or Edison think that we would be using their inventions in the year 2000 or later? The death of the filament bulb is inevitable, and when that happens it will be profound for these companies. They also have the potential to replace CFL bulbs. They have already been used inside cars for mood lighting, used as break lights, used as traffic lights (which has major potential for saving a city electricity $).

Now look at 4Sevens, Fenix, and Jetbeam. These companies are banking off of Cree research and development. These 3 manufacturers are probably selling more lights to CPFers than anyone else. Yes I believe that we are helping the development of these companies. Not only are we helping, but the companies are prospering from us. The big question is how many notes are companies like Maglite or Streamlight taking from the CPF "Big 3"?

 

[Search]

Umm just go google LED manufacturers or something and look at where LEDs are being used.

We could pretend flashlights never existed and the LED world probably wouldn't blink.

They are everywhere and it's only growing.. very very rapidly.

 

[Ian2381]

I think CPF accounts more than 25% of total money spend on flashlights... Quality lights are not available in most countries and even when they do only a few will buy them. Online purchases is definetely where quality lights are bought and CPF surely does have an impact on it.
Most people are contented in having a working light not caring for quality but more on price.
I myself never thought I will spend more than $20 dollars on a flashlight but now it just seems to be a common thing.:broke:

In LED flashlight development, CPF surely does have a huge impact. This is the best place a manufacturer can get information on what consumers want.

 

[Gaffle]

The real answer lies in where the higher output emitters are being used in the commercial world. The LEDs that are used (as far as I know) in LED TVs, traffic lights, and automobile lighting (excluding headlights) are mostly 5mm emitters.

What commercial applications are Cree, Seoul, and Rebel emitters being used? If 5mm are the ruler of commercial/consumer products then we must be helping flashlight development where greater output is needed.

I have read lately about high output LEDs being used in a home theater projector.

 

[aramid]

What commercial applications are Cree, Seoul, and Rebel emitters being used?

While I'm sure there are exceptions, I think you'll find 5mm LEDs in a lot of the obvious places like outdoor TV and Jumbotron screens (where the LEDs are used directly as pixels, instead of backlights) and a lot of animated billboards, as well as in cars for daytime running lights, turn signals, and brake lights. Of course, some of these might also be using midrange 1/2- to 1-watt emitters, rather than weak 5mm or fancy top-end types.

Some places are definitely using high-power emitters, though - they're showing up in aircraft navigation lights, and in some cases even taxi and landing lights (headlight equivalent for cars). And, of course, they're starting to show up in normal indoor lighting, as well.

Overall, I doubt flashlights make up a huge portion of worldwide high-power LED sales. We probably make a somewhat bigger impact if you only look at white LEDs, of course, but we're still not a big market.

 

[flatline]

The flash on my blackberry is a power LED (has a funny lens over it, so I can't identify it). Even if BB is the only phone maker to use a power LED (which seems unlikely), the number of phones they sell each year must dwarf the number of LED flashlights that CPF buys each year.

--flatline

 

[HeyGuysWatchThis]

I think our contribution and influence here at CPF is more on the development of the flashlights not the emitters themselves. Our contribution is in getting 4sevens, Nitecore, Eagletac, etc to advance the design of flashlights in terms of UI, reflectors, quality manufacturing and so on. These advances will then trickle down via Maglite, Energizer, Rayovac etc to the general flashlight user.

I think that CREE, Seoul, etc only see us as a stepping stone to their eventual goal of becoming the primary source of home lighting. Once they develop a solution that can replace current incandescent and CFL bulbs, flashlights will be a fraction of the already small part of the LED market. We will continue to benefit from this development, but we are not a primary market for them. Evidence of this is the latest wave of emitters that are physically larger and better for flood than making tightly focused beams. Floody emitters are what you want in a light fixture lighting up a whole room. Now many users here are more excited about that, but the throw flashlight crowd hasn't seen much to get excited about if you're not willing to carry a SR90.

 

[mcnair55]

In the UK we have in my estimate, millions upon millions of halogen 12 volt recessed units which are power Hungary!!

If these can be replaced for a like for like LED light source we could seriously make a dent in our power consumption?

What I'm driving at is NO-ONE seems to be looking at LED lighting in the UK as a decent power source?

The technology seems to be there but no one wants to make these ultra long life lamps?

ATB,

Steve.

Steve you very wrong,many companies are working on Led for domestic use,as far as the auto trade is concerned dozens of cars have Led in the system somewhere or other,many rear brake,side and front lights are being fitted with Led,only the headlamps to get done and we will be all Led within short.As an electrician yourself you surely have noticed all the new Led kitchen lights available,the company I work for is rolling out new Led product all the time for the Auto and domestic trades.

Led is everywhere and sales of flashlights probably do not even dent the surface,remember the old Led watches and calculators of the early 70,s swiftly moving on to Lcd.