Best single emiter/board/reflector combo

Howdy,

I am new to the forum and am looking to build myself a ultra bright thrower run time is a non issue and i plan to fabricate the body around my chosen hardware. the thing is truth fully i don't know much about the current state of LED's I am an EE/CE Student so have a pretty good background for electronic components.

What emitter running at what amperes would be best if i am looking for extreme brightens with a runtime not really being a concern? I will work the batteries around the requirements of the emitter/board so that will not be an issue and since i am building the housing from scratch...

Thanks!
Matt:twothumbs

:welcome: Matt,

I'd go a Cree Q4/Q5 binned LED, a McR-27L reflector (the Cree XR version), and a SOB 1000mA board - all available from the Sandwich Shoppe. (Only Q4 binned Cree's, but your eye wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the two).

There are other throwy reflectors out there, especially some that FiveMega has made to fit his Maglite creations - I'm not sure on their availability. I think the McR-27L is an amazing reflector!

Also available for boards would be Georges80's MaxFlex board, which I think can do 1200mA (available from George's website) Driving harder than that might not be good for a single LED? :thinking:

If this is meant to be a "check out the throw on a LED flashlight out" kinda light, you might want to look into an aspheric Maglite mod - a few people have done these, including RCatR, cmacclel, and cryhavok.. amongst others. Of course, that doesn't have a reflector, which violates one of your requests in the subject. But of all my lights, that one has the most "wow" factor for most people... they like the throw! My personal preference differs greatly, but they're fun!

Hope this helps - there's a lot of people who are much smarter than me on this forum, and maybe they can chime in with more/better options!

john

You could probably just buy a Dereelight DBS. It should throw 150+ meters(This cheap light should throw 100+ meters).

You could also take the above cheaper light, remove the driver and direct drive the LED. Lots of output but the LED would be severely punished(Probably over 2 amps to the LED, max recommended is 1 amp).

The best combo would be to use a Aspheric Lens and create something similar to this.

About the state of LEDs today. A normal 2D Incandescent light can put out about 15-20 lumens. the Top of the line single die LED today, the Cree XR-E R2(all sold out, the next highest is the Q5 bin) can put out 230+ at the max recommended current(about 3.7v and 1 amp). There are a few thread about the LEDs performance. White LED Testing(Page 4 and 5) and Cree XR-E Q4 evaluation.

The newer LEDs are the Cree XR-E (P4-R2 bin), Seoul P4 U bin, and Luxeon Rebel 100 bin. The higher bins should all hit 300 Lumens if over driven.

Also look at this.

:welcome:

lol now thats a thrower... For wow effect i am thinking of going for one of the Aspheric lens and building up a mag. now i was wondering could i use the ROP hi setup with an aspheric lense or would you call it a waste of time?

The more i read the more i want to build so i am thinking of seeing how cheap i can build a small 2xaa size light for max umph. I have seen a few cheap boards on DX that might drive a cree or Seoul well. or maybe i can use one of those 3xaaa batery holders that came in some of those cheap 9led lights gut the light and use the body and rig something up from there are there any lithiums in the aaa size man to much to digest.

mrk442 said:

lol now thats a thrower... For wow effect i am thinking of going for one of the Aspheric lens and building up a mag. now i was wondering could i use the ROP hi setup with an aspheric lense or would you call it a waste of time?

Click to expand...

Yes. That would be a waste of time because of the emission pattern of the filament relative to that of the LED.

Search around for a 4 or 5 LED setup in a M@g. There should be plenty of wow with that!!

Bob E.