PhotonFanatic (Fred) recently sent me one of the new LED's that he is selling here on the forums, and he asked me to do a formal test on my LED Lightbox
Here are some close-ups (SSC on the left) against a "normal" U-bin Luxeon 3W LED:
Note in this shot, how thin the star base is compared to the Luxeon LED:
I compared the new LED to an S-bin 3W and to an U-bin LED, both white, star LED's from Luxeon. Here is the data that I collected so far, at 500mA, 750mA, and 1000mA, using constant current converters from the Shoppe (downboys):
Even though this is just a sample of one LED, some things to point out:
- this SSC LED is very bright, and specially at 500mA and 700mA, this particular sample was brigther than my U-bin 3W.
- this SSC LED was particularly very efficient at low currents, specially 500mA. Who knows how much better it might be at 250-350mA :naughty:
- as expected the vf was higher than even the "L" bin I tested against, specially at the higher drive levels, but at 500mA was not bad at all, being the most efficient LED I tested.
- at 1000mA the intensity peaks quicky and drops 3-5%. I am doing some burn-in tests to get additional information, but it might be that these 2.5W LED's do perform better at the lower current settings 😉
My next test (now that I have a fan-cooled copper HS) was going to do a 12 hour (and then continue for a full 24-hour) burn-in at 1000mA, to see if the vf changes, but unfortunately my downboy 1000mA almost thermally shuts down (LED dims a LOT!) after running for 5 minutes or so. I am now as we speak trying it again with a dedicated fan running on the downboy to see if things work better this way. I will report later what happens 😉
EDIT: The initial drop in output at 1000mA was due to the downboy heating up. Now that I have had the DB with a fan right on top of it, the output remains fairly constant, as I would have expected given the cooled HS I am using.
EDIT #2: At 12 hours, the intensity has gone from 450 to 460, and the vf has gone down from 4.62V to 4.39 volts. I will report tomorrow again at the 24 hour mark 😉
EDIT #3: Now at 22 hours, the vf is down to 4.38Volts, but what is most interesting is that the intensity is up a little to 465 (it started at about 450 or so) !!!
EDIT #4: After 24 hours at 1000mA, I let everything cool and repeated the tests on the SSC LED. The vf at 1000, 750, and 500mA went down, but the intensity went up as well !!!
vf before (1000mA) = 4.65v
vf after (1000mA) = 4.38v
intensity before (1000mA) = 456
intensity after (1000mA) = 473
vf before (750mA) = 4.20v
vf after (750mA) = 3.99v
intensity before (750mA) = 409
intensity after (750mA) = 430
vf before (500mA) = 3.75v
vf after (500mA) = 3.64v
intensity before (500mA) = 305
intensity after (500mA) = 318
So basically, this LED did benefit from the 24-hour burn in period - it got brighter "and" more efficient 😉 . Although things got better at all 3 current drive levels tested, the best efficiency gain came at the 750mA drive leve - 10.7% improvement :naughty:
Thanks Fred for providing the star for testing :rock:
Will
Here are some close-ups (SSC on the left) against a "normal" U-bin Luxeon 3W LED:
Note in this shot, how thin the star base is compared to the Luxeon LED:
I compared the new LED to an S-bin 3W and to an U-bin LED, both white, star LED's from Luxeon. Here is the data that I collected so far, at 500mA, 750mA, and 1000mA, using constant current converters from the Shoppe (downboys):
Even though this is just a sample of one LED, some things to point out:
- this SSC LED is very bright, and specially at 500mA and 700mA, this particular sample was brigther than my U-bin 3W.
- this SSC LED was particularly very efficient at low currents, specially 500mA. Who knows how much better it might be at 250-350mA :naughty:
- as expected the vf was higher than even the "L" bin I tested against, specially at the higher drive levels, but at 500mA was not bad at all, being the most efficient LED I tested.
- at 1000mA the intensity peaks quicky and drops 3-5%. I am doing some burn-in tests to get additional information, but it might be that these 2.5W LED's do perform better at the lower current settings 😉
My next test (now that I have a fan-cooled copper HS) was going to do a 12 hour (and then continue for a full 24-hour) burn-in at 1000mA, to see if the vf changes, but unfortunately my downboy 1000mA almost thermally shuts down (LED dims a LOT!) after running for 5 minutes or so. I am now as we speak trying it again with a dedicated fan running on the downboy to see if things work better this way. I will report later what happens 😉
EDIT: The initial drop in output at 1000mA was due to the downboy heating up. Now that I have had the DB with a fan right on top of it, the output remains fairly constant, as I would have expected given the cooled HS I am using.
EDIT #2: At 12 hours, the intensity has gone from 450 to 460, and the vf has gone down from 4.62V to 4.39 volts. I will report tomorrow again at the 24 hour mark 😉
EDIT #3: Now at 22 hours, the vf is down to 4.38Volts, but what is most interesting is that the intensity is up a little to 465 (it started at about 450 or so) !!!
EDIT #4: After 24 hours at 1000mA, I let everything cool and repeated the tests on the SSC LED. The vf at 1000, 750, and 500mA went down, but the intensity went up as well !!!
vf before (1000mA) = 4.65v
vf after (1000mA) = 4.38v
intensity before (1000mA) = 456
intensity after (1000mA) = 473
vf before (750mA) = 4.20v
vf after (750mA) = 3.99v
intensity before (750mA) = 409
intensity after (750mA) = 430
vf before (500mA) = 3.75v
vf after (500mA) = 3.64v
intensity before (500mA) = 305
intensity after (500mA) = 318
So basically, this LED did benefit from the 24-hour burn in period - it got brighter "and" more efficient 😉 . Although things got better at all 3 current drive levels tested, the best efficiency gain came at the 750mA drive leve - 10.7% improvement :naughty:
Thanks Fred for providing the star for testing :rock:
Will
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