New Nichia LED 4 Times Brighter

Bearcat

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 13, 2006
Messages
415
Location
Germantown, TN USA
I read something awhile back about a new Nichia 5mm led that has just come out that is twice as bright as their 2x bright LED use to be. That's 4 times brighter than their old led and is nearly as efficient as a Cree.

I can't find where I read this information, was I just dreaming?:shrug:
 
I measured an intensity of 89,500mcd from the single LED in my Arc-AAA-P DS. :eek: It uses a Nichia NSPW500DS LED.
The older Arc-AAA-LE (later called the PE) from early-June 2003 measured 20,800mcd.
So the Nichia DS white LED is definitely very bright.
 
do you know where we can order it? sounds really fun for replacing standar keychain light.
 
I'm not sure what the other guy was asking, but I would like to know where I can purchase some Nichia NSPW500ds or NSPW500GS-K1 LEDS at a reasonable price to upgrade my old Photon Freedoms.:anyone:
 
I don't think they are easily available. Last time I heard, Photon had absorbed all the available stock for the production of the Rex.

I just bought a bunch of Jeleds on eBay. Rated at 55cd, so not nearly efficient as the DS' 89, but impressive nonetheless. I can't wait to see what can be done with them in fauxtons, keychains and 8/12-LED flashlights. :D
 
I don't think they are easily available. Last time I heard, Photon had absorbed all the available stock for the production of the Rex.

I just bought a bunch of Jeleds on eBay. Rated at 55cd, so not nearly efficient as the DS' 89, but impressive nonetheless. I can't wait to see what can be done with them in fauxtons, keychains and 8/12-LED flashlights. :D

Apparently it's not doing them much good, they still can't get the darned things out the door.
 
I just bought a bunch of Jeleds on eBay. Rated at 55cd, so not nearly efficient as the DS' 89, but impressive nonetheless. I can't wait to see what can be done with them in fauxtons, keychains and 8/12-LED flashlights. :D
It's not possible to judge efficiency based on beam intensity (cd) without also knowing the beam angle into which that intensity is projected, and integrating to find lumens.

My arbitrary guess is that the new LED is both somewhat more efficient, and somewhat narrower beam-angle than the Jeled, but that the difference isn't 100% due to efficiency.
 
I measured an intensity of 89,500mcd from the single LED in my Arc-AAA-P DS. :eek: It uses a Nichia NSPW500DS LED.
The older Arc-AAA-LE (later called the PE) from early-June 2003 measured 20,800mcd.
So the Nichia DS white LED is definitely very bright.

Whoa... that's a lot of difference.

When I first noticed the DS on the Nichia order page, I checked the datasheet, and I had the impression they were perhaps only 20-30% brighter at 20mA than the CS. That was about six months ago. Have they improved since then? Or is that 2003 Arc just that much older?

Craig, did you try measuring the current/voltage between the two to see where that difference comes from?

It would be interesting to see how the DS compares with the original Lux I stars in luminous output, driven at spec.

I've got quite a few places I'd like to swap in some of these, including a Christmas doodad which was clearly designed for LED, but they cheaped out and put an incandescent bulb in -- one that was even shaped like an LED on purpose. I should have heeded my misgivings when the package said "white" but I couldn't see any yellow phosphor.
 
Last edited:
2003 Arc would be Nichia BS LED.

I'm a bit confused what the Nichia GS is over the DS. But it does show brighter just not a whole ton.
 
I wonder if the new Nichia DS LED would be better in the Fenix EO than in the Arc-P DS, since the EO has a better run-time and they both would be about the same brightness?:thinking:
 
I wonder if the new Nichia DS LED would be better in the Fenix EO than in the Arc-P DS, since the EO has a better run-time and they both would be about the same brightness?:thinking:

Probably, since the E0 has better regulation than the Arc CS. The Arc starts out brighter, but the E0 is brighter for most of the runtime. I suspect that it won't be longer than a few more months before they upgrade to a DS or better. Personally, my LOD Q4 has already spoiled me and I probably won't buy an upgraded E0.
 
I've been putting off getting LOD-CE, because I HATE those flash and SOS modes. I just recently purchased a EO and I'm very happy with it, but I would be even more happy if it was just a little bit brighter with the same long run-time. I really think that a EO-DS would be better than the Arc DS.
 
Top