Ever since I got my TurtleLight last summer, I knew it needed more kick than the single shaped Nichia LED.
After unsucessfully attempting to mate a low dome LS to its reflector, I finally got ahold of side-emitting luxeons.
I had an elaborate plan to use an aluminum post and TO-3 finned heat sink, but I got impatient tonight. A brief thought put everything in place - the 3/8" aluminum rod I had was the EXACT size to press fit into the plastic PR base holder. I figured it has the same surface area of the Al PCB that emitters normally come on, so driving near rated current shouldn't be a problem.
So here it is!
The Aluminum rod is about 3/4" long. That's a 10 ohm resistor. I simply had to bend the copper contacts outside the bulb base, and solder wires to them. The fit is extremely tight for the rod in the plastic base - a little twisting and pushing with pliers, and a few tests, and I had the optimum focus for the reflector.
Required beamshots:
Same lights, shot 2 stops dimmer:
The TurtleLux SE is on the right, the left is a Q3M with NX05 optics, driven at over 500mA.
Now, if you hadn't done the math yet, the luxeon is being driven only at about 250mA from 4AAs!
250mA+SE+Reflector out throws 500mA+LD+NX05 by quite a bit. This is what LEDCorp should update their TurtleLight to do.
-Darin
After unsucessfully attempting to mate a low dome LS to its reflector, I finally got ahold of side-emitting luxeons.
I had an elaborate plan to use an aluminum post and TO-3 finned heat sink, but I got impatient tonight. A brief thought put everything in place - the 3/8" aluminum rod I had was the EXACT size to press fit into the plastic PR base holder. I figured it has the same surface area of the Al PCB that emitters normally come on, so driving near rated current shouldn't be a problem.
So here it is!
The Aluminum rod is about 3/4" long. That's a 10 ohm resistor. I simply had to bend the copper contacts outside the bulb base, and solder wires to them. The fit is extremely tight for the rod in the plastic base - a little twisting and pushing with pliers, and a few tests, and I had the optimum focus for the reflector.
Required beamshots:
Same lights, shot 2 stops dimmer:
The TurtleLux SE is on the right, the left is a Q3M with NX05 optics, driven at over 500mA.
Now, if you hadn't done the math yet, the luxeon is being driven only at about 250mA from 4AAs!
250mA+SE+Reflector out throws 500mA+LD+NX05 by quite a bit. This is what LEDCorp should update their TurtleLight to do.
-Darin
