I need you experience

[artax]

Hi everybody,

Here's an odd question. I have no experience in high power LED's, but I'm looking to build a contraption where I light up a cylinder filled with a colored liquid... in broad daylight.

The liquid should be really lit up if possible. The cylindrical container is 180mm x 75mm. Roughly one liter of liquid. The LED will be placed below the container.

- Do I need 5 super bright 80.000 mcd LED's ?
- Or do I need a 1W Luxeon, CREE? (I'm currently exploring this)
- Or do I need a 3W ?
- Something else ?

Does anybody have some experience in lighting something in broad daylight ?

 

[smokelaw1]

What kind of power source will you have available? Wall outlet? Batteries?

How bright are we talking? Does this thing need to shine like a beacon of super-light in the daylight, or just be "glowing?"

How much room underneat will there be? If it can sit on a box, there would be room for heat sinking and batteries, you could build something withat least a thousand lumens. This cylinder is approx 7 X 3 inches (is the 75mm the diameter?), and the LED would be on the bottom?

You could put any one of a number of LED's under there, and push it moderately hard. I'm thinking taking a light with a P7, remove the head and reflector, pushing at about 2.8 amps, you'd have 800 ish lumens in a "flood" that, if up against the bottom of the cylinder, would light it up oretty nicely, albseit with some light lost. You could make a simple blcok out of paper or cardboard to stop the spill. Of course, you could also place the cylinder an top of an appropriately sized relector to focus all available light up and in.

If you do not want it sitting on a light, there are drop-in modules that could be attached to the bottom of the cylinder (I'm thinking the old malkoffs with the giant heat sink) and have wires running to a battery source.

 

[artax]

It will be powered by several 18650 3.7v batteries.

I'm going for glowing, but if it lies with the possibilities to make it shine like a beacon, that would be awesome

I will build a round cap that slides over the bottom where i can place the LED. The driver and batteries are housed somewhere else, so thats no problem.

I do have to make the round cap in such a way that the heat can flow through a hole with air of somekind.

A LED below the cylinder or a submerged waterproof LED , if it works, its fine by me.

 

[Marduke]

What color liquid? (yes, it can matter)

Also, would it be benificial to use a clear liquid, and use a coolored LED to light it up? What about changing the color of the liquid using the LED?

 

[uplite]

Need more info. What is it? Where will you use it? What for? What is the liquid? Cylinder properties? Ability to modify the liquid or cylinder with UV-reactive materials? Etc...

If you really mean "broad daylight"...i.e. outdoors in the clear on a sunny day...you will need a very strong power source.

-Jeff

 

[artax]

@Marduke
I thought that a colored liquid would be best, if the LED wasn't powerful enough, the liquid would still have a color in daylight.

A changing LED with clear liquid, would also be cool. But more risky . Plus i would have to find auto color changing circuit out there

@uplite
Its going to be a steampunk contraption. And yes it will be used in broad daylight - outside in the sun.

Cylindric properties are: 180mm height , 75mm diameter. There is a chance -if i can get my hands on it- that the cylinder will be 220mm , 90mm.

I was going for plain distilled water with added color. What are you thinking with UV-reactive material ? Sounds cool though

 

[artax]

What color liquid? (yes, it can matter)

I was planning on deep blue or bright green

 

[Marduke]

Something like a corn syrup filled cylinder with a RGB (red green blue) LED at the bottom (and/or top) would be interesting. Also, you could just use a blue and green LED separately, probably for a bit less money and easier wiring.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.4530

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11015
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1775

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11016
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1777 (really 3.2-3.4 Vf)

 

[artax]

I'm curious as to why you want to use corn syrup. isn't a bit yellow? a bit like honey? but the syrup will be to thick as im also using a pump to blow bubbles in the liquid.

i can't seem to find much specs for the leds on DE except for the RGB one. it uses 350mah per color. Do you think that a 350mah led is sufficient? would be nice, because i have to power more stuff of the batteried

 

[Marduke]

If you want to blow bubbles water will do fine by giving you plenty of refraction surface.

You can always use several of the monochromatic LEDs and set the power level to match your desired runtime.

 

[artax]

You can always use several of the monochromatic LEDs and set the power level to match your desired runtime.

But by your experience do you think that a 350mAh LED (i think about 100lm would be doable) is sufficient to light a container of that size in broad daylight?

I have no experience in high power LED's and honestly don't know if an 1W or several 3W LED's are necessary to make it visible in daylight.

 

[Marduke]

So use three of each color.

 

[Jonster]

Ohh ... you could fill the volume with shower gel ... you've got an endless pick of colours and could dilute it down to get whatever shade you wanted.
If you could get bubbles going it's become a little like a lava-lamp!

Don't forget to put pic's up ... I'm intrigued!!!oo:

Also regarding lighting it up ... I'm a newbie too and am doing a light where I've chosen a Taskled driver and a Cree MC-E (alternative to the SSC P7).
The reason for Taskled is that they look lot more reliable (albeit a bit more pricey) than some other sources.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

HIDs? if you have room for a spare computer power supply and an aftermarket HID kit, perhaps that would be worth looking into.


LEDs would be cool to utilize a 50% duty cycle low frequency PWM with bubbles, but I don't know if that goes with the steampunk philosophy

 

[artax]

Re: I need your experience

@Jonster, Shower Gel or water with gelatin, just thick enough for bubbles to form and slowly rise to the surface... nice touch! Okay, I shall post some pics will take some time though since DE can take up to 2-3 weeks to deliver.

@bshanahan14rulz, No unfortunately I won't have room for a power supply and a HID kit.

...a 50% duty cycle low frequency PWM with bubbles...

Do you mean by low frequency that the light be dimmed to 50% or that the LED goes visibly on and off all the time ?