Brightest Readily Available 5 mm White LED?

Ken_McE

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I'm prowling eBay looking to pick up a good sized batch of 5mm white LEDs. The advertised brightness varies wildly from seller to seller, all the way from 5,000 mcd to 35,000 mcd, to ones that are advertised as "8 lumens".

On paper this one sounds good: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7569370589&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1 they say that it has two dies and will produce 35,000 mcd. There are others that claim outputs in the 20,000+ mcd range. Anyone have any opinions on what to look for, avoid? I know dealers can get, ahm, "creative" with their product claims... 8-(

I'm after 5mm as being a good point to get highest output (lumens per watt) in smallest size, without needing to bring in heat sinks. I'm going to have a long line of them and don't really care about color temperature, beam size or artifacts.

I do care about reliability and don't want to burn them out in a month because some vendor says "Yeh, you run it at 250 mA, it's real bright!, yeh man you're supposed to" :huh:
 
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cratz2

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Is this going to be replacing an existing LED with regulation or circuit of some kind or just a straight drop in on cells?

For running straight on 2 alkaline cells, the MJLED is the brightest 5mm I've dealt with. And for replacing existing LEDs in lights with a boost circuit, I think the Nichia CSs are pretty hard to beat.

I haven't used any of their white LEDs, but LSDiodes.com but their blue and green 100ma LEDs are VERY bright. They are easily brighter than a 1W Luxeon... The white ones might be worth checking out.
 

Ken_McE

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>Is this going to be replacing an existing LED with regulation or circuit
>of some kind or just a straight drop in on cells?

Built from scratch, direct drive, 3 volts each. It's OK if this is somewhat of an underdrive. I'm assuming that there is a direct relationship between full brightness and partial brightness in the LEDs.

> the MJLED is the brightest 5mm I've dealt with.

I had thought that all of those bin codes referred to one watt and greater LEDs. Who sells binned 5 mms??

>And for replacing existing LEDs in lights with a boost circuit,
> I think the Nichia CSs are pretty hard to beat.

No circuits, just four LEDs splitting the output of a big old isolated 12 V battery. (no car involved, no voltage spikes)

>I haven't used any of their white LEDs, but LSDiodes.com but their
>blue and green 100ma LEDs are VERY bright. They are easily brighter
>than a 1W Luxeon... The white ones might be worth checking out.


I'll check. Thanks!
 

cratz2

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Hrmm... even with that type of battery, using a simple regulator such as the DownBoy might make things more predictable. I have a light from Lowes that has 6 LEDs that another member modded with a DB400 and six Nichia CSs and let me tell you, the thing is BRIGHT!

The LSDiodes LEDs I was talking about are the 100ma THCs. I'm not sure how similar those are to the MJLEDs, but both run at 100ma and as luck would have it, if you put four or five of those on the DB400, it would be perfect!

I think...
thinking.gif
 

Ken_McE

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KEN TYE said:
Hmm. They say:

"THC3 (The High Current, High Candela, High Capability) Light Emitting Diodes are the brightest 5mm LEDs currently available on the market. You will not find such high mcd ratings in such a large viewing angle anywhere else. An LSDiodes exclusive!"


They state 22,000 mcd, $2.50 each, about a dollar apiece more than their competitors. Are they being weasly about that highest mcd plus width bit? Is this the brightest 5 mm around, or the brightest *wide angle* 5 mm around?
 
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LEDninja

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Chimo did a big test on LEDs a while back His summary is on post #2 and #3 of this thread:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=89759&highlight=Head2Head

In my experience:
Dim - most 5mm including Nicreas
Bright - MJLED
Brighter - 10mm
Brightest - 8mm

The 8 and 10 mm are based on torches I have, not loose LEDs, so varying resistors/boost circuits may affect results. The narrower viewing angle of the 8mm throws more of its light forward.
Ditto the MJLED. The reflector of my minimag throws more light forward from the cut version. Sans reflector the uncut version wins.
 
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Pinter

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Ken_McE said:
Hmm. They say:

"THC3 (The High Current, High Candela, High Capability) Light Emitting Diodes are the brightest 5mm LEDs currently available on the market. You will not find such high mcd ratings in such a large viewing angle anywhere else. An LSDiodes exclusive!"

They state 22,000 mcd, $2.50 each, about a dollar apiece more than their competitors. Are they being weasly about that highest mcd plus width bit? Is this the brightest 5 mm around, or the brightest *wide angle* 5 mm around?
30 degrees 22-24cd. Sounds good if they produce it at 20mA. But they don't, info page states 80-100 mA.
 

cratz2

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All I can say on the THC3 LEDs is I bought two each of the red, green and blue LEDs. They have a Vf of 3.6 or 3.8 and only running them at 2.4V on 2 NiMH cells, (but direct with no regulator) they are brighter than high dome Lux 1 Luxeons.

The first picture is a cyan Lux 1 direct driven on 3 alkaline cells, the next pic is the blue THC3 driven on 2 alkaline cells.

Again, I've not ordered the white ones yet as I am perfectly happy with the MJLEDs. I'm not claiming these are the brightest, whitest LEDs around, but these pictures speak for themselves, I think.

IMG_1791%203xAAA%201W%20Cyana.jpg


IMG_1892a%20THC3%20Blue.jpg
 

paulr

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Ken_McE said:
>Built from scratch, direct drive, 3 volts each. It's OK if this is somewhat of an underdrive. I'm assuming that there is a direct relationship between full brightness and partial brightness in the LEDs.
There really is not, in the sense of brightness at undervoltage. LED brightness (and current draw) are very nonlinear in voltage. The MJ led has a very low Vf and is a cheesy way to get some light from 2 cells direct drive, but you're best off using a boost converter. If you can't use a boost converter, then use lithium cells (around 1.7v each).
 

Ken_McE

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I've been measuring the wrong thing :ohgeez: Millicandles is the light intensity at a single point dead ahead of the LED. What I want is Lumens, the total output of the unit, and mostly lumens are not stated for 5 mm units. Rats!
 
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