HD Luxeon First Testing - Updated With Beam Shots - LD beats new HD Luxeon!

Thanks to Wayne (ElektroLumens) for being so kind as to send me a HD white Luxeon to play with, er, test!

As you can see from these pictures, the LED is no longer stuck under a glob of phosphor, but is now coated with an even layer. This makes the color of the HD much better than the current white Luxeons. Gone is the pea green corona. Also, there are no bonding wires to make shadows in the beam like the current Luxeons.



These new Luxeons appear at first glance to produce more of a pure white light.

Have to get this bonded to a heatsink so I can power it up and take some beam comparison photos.

Too bad the word is still September/October before white HDs will be available in quantity. These are excellent in color, and very bright!

Thanks again Wayne!

Lambda

Wow! I like!! I just may have to hold out for some of these since more of my mods would work best using bare emitters..

I wonder if the production units will come with the extra length electrical pickups like the one in the photo?

Yes I noticed the longer contacts too. Easier to work with.

Here is the link to my review of the HD White Luxeon I got to evaluate.

HD Lamberian Luxeon Review

This specimin was rated by LumiLeds at over 20 Lumens.

Lambda,
Nice review.
In 'candle mode' (no optics) and run at spec 3.3v, 350 ma (or even slightly under driven) which emitter is better for reading? With LD no optics I can see one slight color ring or cornea. Can you see any patterns with HD no optics from one to two feet away from target?
Thanks,
Tim

Lambda,

Thanks for the illuminating review. I did not notice additional brightness with the HD, and this was in an overdriven 3AA Legend. In fact since the usable light was inside a smaller squarish spot, I felt it was not as usable for my purposes so I sold the thing...

Slick also has an HD and feels it is one of the the dimmer Luxeon based lights he has seen. Again overdriven in a "Pill"-type application in the Legend 3AA.

On the other hand Sonic, who came over to my place a couple of weeks ago, has an ElektroLumens Blaster Mag 3C with HD that was as bright as any single Luxeon mod I have ever seen.

So I dunno, but for now I feel there is not much difference in the usable (key word) light output of the average LD's vs. HD's I have personally seen.

JMH (but experienced in-person) O!

Yeah Like MrBulk sez, I got pretty much the same results as you.. My HD clocked 309 lux with the new optic, but I HATED having such a small hotspot. With the old optic (which I prefer) I got 180 lux. All but of the batwings I have are 400+ lux (419 - 485) - and this is with a much larger hotspot.

I place my vote for the batwing hands down. I have been showing both of these Luxeons (both mouthed direct-drive in Brink 3AA's) to all of my friends and so far the vote is unanimous in favor of the most pee green batwing that I own (at 419 lux)...

One thing I should point out is that when I only have the High-dome in my posession, people are still awed by it..

I have recently heard that Lumileds will continue to offer the old style batwing. If so, that will keep me happy - for now.

The burning question now must be asked: Is the apparently dismal performance by the HDs due to their optics (both secondary and primary), or our lack of familiarity with these beasts?

McGizmo and others have noted a large amount of sidespill. This = wasted light.

We all know the new EOS process is supposed to liberate more light and improve color consistency, but the smaller hotspot should be expected as well (now that there is less phosphor to excite). It could be that the resulting beam now is so narrow, it can't be efficiently caught with the present NX0x optics.

I guess the only way we'll really know is if someone took bare emitters of both types and ran them thru those integrating-sphere thingies to determine their total luminous flux (as opposed to simply trusting Lumileds datasheets).

I agree with what Mr.Bulk and Slick said about the high dome luxeons.I also found the beam to be too narrow.But the first thing I tried was to replace the newer type optics with the older type found on star/o luxeons and that really widened the beam and diffused it nicely.I'm really pleased with it since changing the optics.

I am allowed to say "I told you so?"
See earlier thread below
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=002617#000000