LED hotwires?

First, what kind of life are we getting from a Q5 at 1.2A in the dereelight modules? I don't expect it's '100,000 hours lifetime bulb' because the current is so high, but a few thousand hours wouldn't be unexpected.

What if we drove our LED's like we drive some of our incans. Expecting 50-100 hours of life (or less if you're really insane..) but driving a Q5 to 2-3A or more. It ought to produce some fairly serious light. I know that efficiency drops with increased drive current and instaflashes are possible but I'm curious anyway. I'm thinking P60 modules because of the replaceability factor. I'd love to have a 'freaking insane' module, and a spare 'standard' dereelight module for my CL1H.

Fird

The problem with LED's isn't the current, it's the heat. Above 2 amps or so, the heat builds up so fast you need active cooling rather than a massive heatsink. If this heat could be dissipated quickly enough, then you can run them as hard as you like. But you're talking very short battery times, water cooling and a very large heatsink. Freakin awesome, but practically useless.

What if you use a small bottle of liquid CO2 that slowly drip on the LED?

Now that i'd pay to see!!!!! :lolsign:

jzmtl said:

What if you use a small bottle of liquid CO2 that slowly drip on the LED?

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::snicker snicker:: liquid co2, haha that's funny. Alright, just wanted to check why it's not done.

Thanks!

Fird

Liquid CO2? I'd pay to see that too, since carbon dioxide at room temperature has to be under 58 atmospheres of pressure to remain a liquid.

Yes, I am a chemistry and physics nerd.

I'd love to see something built up with active cooling...lol

IIRC, bond wires at about 4A.

MorePower said:

Liquid CO2? I'd pay to see that too, since carbon dioxide at room temperature has to be under 58 atmospheres of pressure to remain a liquid.

Yes, I am a chemistry and physics nerd.

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Alternatively, it could be very cold, thus supplying cooling to the LED. However, I would also pay to see liquid CO2 considering if you just pack solid CO2 around a heatsink it'll sublime to gas, not melt

Now, liquid nitrogen:candle:

@patriot: there are many custom lights with active cooling. My personal fave is this beast

Liquid nitrogen cannot exist at room temperature while CO2 can, which is why I picked it. Alternatively use compressed gas that's used for clean computers etc. Just invert the can and pull trigger, that's -25°C right out of the can!

This reminds me of the racetrack tactic of packing ice or dry ice onto the intercooler prior to a run on the course. Imagine a light you need to drop a few chunks of dry ice into before turning it on? 300 lumens and a showy dry ice fog emanating from the vents and fins.

Now that would be cool.

WIlkey

"I double triple dare you to stick your tongue on this flashlight!"

TigerhawkT3 said:

IIRC, bond wires at about 4A.

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which LED have you fried using this manner? and does this have anything to do with your "don't short SLAs" in the "things learned the hard way" thread?

Illum_the_nation said:

which LED have you fried using this manner? and does this have anything to do with your "don't short SLAs" in the "things learned the hard way" thread?

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No, I didn't learn this the hard way. I just remember reading about it... somewhere...

I'm sure the SLAs were putting out a whole heck of a lot more than 4A.

jzmtl said:

Liquid nitrogen cannot exist at room temperature while CO2 can, which is why I picked it. Alternatively use compressed gas that's used for clean computers etc. Just invert the can and pull trigger, that's -25°C right out of the can!

Click to expand...

I think you are confused. Liquid nitrogen can exist at room temperature, of course it is usually boiling the whole time. Dry Ice (frozen CO2) goes directly from a solid to a gas (called sublimation) skipping the liquid phase all together.

I have dipped a LED into a cup of liquid nitrogen and the brightness increased by about 200-300% (not measured just what it looked like).

Well, when you drive a massive, thor modded with 5 or so Led's running at 5 amps and a few cooling fans, please post pics!

kgull85 said:

I have dipped a LED into a cup of liquid nitrogen and the brightness increased by about 200-300% (not measured just what it looked like).

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talk about homemade superconductors:thumbsup:

there was a thread in shoudian about someone epoxying a 1 watt luxeon to a metal plate, froze the plate in a bucket of water and ran it on approx 11W before it went