Why don't they make multiple color/single LED lights?

[Aaron1100us]

I just got to thinking about this. Surefire has the Kroma with a combination of several LEDs of different colors. Why not make a single LED light with some type of color selector and different power levels? People seem to be attracted to this idea of having multiple colors. I bet most of you think that isn't possible. Well, I have something with an LED in it and that single LED can produce 256 colors, thats right, 256 colors. Its on my Yaesu VX-7R hand held ham radio. The LED is on the front panel of the radio and you can select what color you want for transmit/recieve, busy channel, main, sub plus several other options and you can even select it to stay on. It isn't very bright, not sure what type of LED it is but if you have it on white, it does work as a dim light to see in total darkness. Why not take that technology and put it into 3mm, 5mm, Luxeon, Cree and whatever other LEDs there are? If you want to check out the radio that has this LED on it, go to the Yaesu site and click on products, VHF/UFh handhelds, scroll to the right to get to the VX-7R, click files, and then the first PDF and comes up. Look on the left side where it says full color strobe LED. Maybe it isn't possible (for a flashlight) or costs too much but Yaesu did it. Imagine a U2 with a 5 watt 256 color LED. Any thoughts on this?

 

[LightBright]

There are some in the works - search http://flashlightnews.org/

Controllers for these lights are going to be a bit tricky, and so is the interface for the user.

 

[gandbag]

I bought some 3 watt RGB stars off ebay this time last year. Although I didn't make any flashlights with them, it is fun to hook one to 3 potentiometers and have a mini light-show!

search around the forum, haven't seen much on RGB LEDs, but it must be here.
Also, I believe the LED Museum has a writeup on such chips.

 

[tenfour]

I think that would be neat, but only as a novelty.

On a practical note, most people want colors because they target a specific problem or scenario. Red for night vision preservation. IR for optical night vision. UV for hunting.

Having a "Night vision Red" button is much easier than: R:___ G:___ B:___ where you have to dial them in manually and hope you got it right.

 

[TMorita]

This isn't a new idea. Search for "RGB UFO" on this page:

http://www.quickar.com/kufo.php?session=0eGeGAOZ

Superbrightleds also has a 5mm RGB LED:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/TriColor LED.htm

I have a bunch of RGB 5mm LEDs, and the basic problem is that the red, green, and blue beams don't focus in one place due to the dies being off-center.

Toshi

 

[Perfectionist]

One day a torch will be made that has every colour of the rainbow, from IR to UV ..... probably when the Lumen power has maxed out and manufacturers need another novelty to sell their products .....

 

[chris_m]

The LEDs are out there:

http://seoulsemicon.co.kr/_homepage/home_kor/product/product_P5fullcolor.asp?topCODE=2&midCODE=4

 

[Aaron1100us]

Thought this would be a neat new idea, didn't know there were some out there allready. I can see some problems with them but it would be really neat to have a light capable of multiple colors on a single LED. I'm sure someday, with the right technology, they'll be able to come up with a way of making them good enough to be used in high power LED flashlights. Maybe some of LEDs that people have mentioned here could even work for flashlights. I wasn't really thinking of a light that would be capable of all 256 colors, just red, blue, green and maybe UV for example and then only have 4-5 color choices on a selector dial. Maybe even computer programable via USB.

 

[EricB]

RGB LED's have been out for awhile now. Products I have include the new belt buckle I just got, the DingDotz light string I use for Christmas, Carpenterdecorating's Intellishines and Target color changing C7 night light, the Rav'n partylight, and the Triklits string (which remains pulled due to some defect). You can find some large signs that use them, but they are limited for closr range vision by a wide pitch (I still don't know why they do that).

One thing I have been waiting for is an RGB flashlight, with individual color controls. (I was not able to find what was being referred to in the flashlightnews.com link). People had earlier pointed me to the Recon Coast LED lenser Tac Torch, which is an sRGB (separate LED's) light, but I could never find that anywhere.

 

[AndyTiedye]

The "Raven" does NOT use RGB LEDs. It has one red, one green, one blue, and one yellow.

This light has 4 RGB LEDs in the center. I bought it from fifthunit for $3.50 + shipping,
Dealextreme has cut the price to $2.80.

On this light, they flash in a predefined pattern. It is built into the LEDs themselves. The flashlight alternates between these and the ring
of white LEDs on the outside, via the side clickie: OFF-WHITE-OFF-COLORS.

The other curious thing about this 3xAAA light is that an 18500 will work in
there just fine even if it doesn't have a button on the + end.

Oddly, it costs more to buy 4 of those color-changing RGB LEDs than it does
to buy that flashlight.

 

[EricB]

The Rav'n I had had one single 5mm rgb, which flickered the colors to make a "white" that would separate into distinct r, g and b images when you moved it. (I remember when I first put the battery in, and it was misalighed or something, and it came out a sort of flesh pink from the blue and green not being fully lit).

The flashlights we are asking for have controllable colors. And I would not need white LED's in it, as white would be made by shining the r, g, and b at full power.

 

[gandbag]

Here is a shot of my latest mod using an RGB 3W LED. Only the blue component is powered, but the other dice can be seen as well.

 

[2xTrinity]

I do think it would be interesting to have a multi-color LED using a single die. Separate toggle switches could be used for red, green, and blue (I think a continuously variable scheme would add too much complication for not a lot of practical gain). IR and UV might also be options (perhaps those would make sense as separate emitters) for night vision, or checking for fluorescent objects.

Either way, the times where it's nice to have monochromatic object is if you're trying to find something of a certain color that's hard to distinguish -- for example, a yellow line on a white background could be seen by looking at it with a blue light -- the yellow line would look black against a blue background. That might be interesting for viewing color-coded maps -- show every color except the one you want, and the one you want will appear "black".

 

[Markcm]

I know there is a light like this in prototype production now for a contract submittal; consumer production quantity will depend on the outcome of the contract bid, this light is military spec with multi color LED as you described. Sorry I don't have more info now but I just learned of it the other day and it's in a short production run now. Sounds unique and interesting though.