I should have listened, LED just wont cut it

Dalork

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Jun 2, 2008
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Hi folks,
Should have listened to you all :oops:, got the R2 drop-in from DX and it's just not going to do the job with a red-filter. In fact for some reason it's not as good as Q5 one of the guys has. Anyway you live and learn, I guess I'll head over and ask the Incan guys whats the best bet to drop-in. Was having a look myself and seems hard to find what I'm after in a 6P size, may have to look at 9P sizing.

On the good side of things looks like I'm going to have the excuse to buy more flashlights lol.
 

Dalork

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The tint is fine, as it's just red once I've got the filter in-place. It's just not enough out-put/light for the intended use. It's ok at 10-25meters, can just make do @30m but thats pushing it. Really needed something that worked at 30+meters. A good incan will do the job but I would like to use all the rechargeable 123A 3.7v batteries I already have.
 

Crenshaw

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you should note that red kills alot of output anyway. You might be better off getting a light with a red emittor. i think DX does have a drop in with a red cree inside.

Crenshaw
 

LukeA

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you should note that red kills alot of output anyway. You might be better off getting a light with a red emittor. i think DX does have a drop in with a red cree inside.

Crenshaw

+1

I know DX carries red Cree emitters as well.
 

TONY M

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Yes the LED emitters don't give out much red light, so a red filter will block most of the light.
If you can find a decent red drop in it will be much more efficient than a filter.
 

SemiMan

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Another vote for RED leds. I was on an organized night hike. People were pulling out there Mags, etc. and having red filter plastic put on top. I said, I was good, I had a red flashlight (Lux-III at about 1A).

People were pointing at things with there lights and I was leaving my flashlight off... and then decided to turn it on..... with the resultant sounds and comments from the crowd. Needless to say, short of having a 500+ lumens INCAN (and even then), you were not going to get this much red light.

If you want to stay white LED, go with a warm white LED. Even though lower total lumens, the red content is much higher. You may need to adjust your "red" to something a bit shorter wavelength.

Semiman
 

StarHalo

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I'd wager you just need a brighter LED source - I have a Mag with a TerraLUX TLE-300 drop-in (~550lumens throw-optic LEDs), and I know when I put a colored filter in front of it indoors, it's enough to fill the room and ruin night vision. I'll take it out tonight with the filters and post results here.
 

Lighthouse one

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I have a light that was modded with a red cree...and it is darn powerful! Another vote for a red led....replace the R2 in the drop in .
 

enLIGHTenment

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Hi folks,
Should have listened to you all :oops:, got the R2 drop-in from DX and it's just not going to do the job with a red-filter.

If you look at the spectral power distribution of a typical cool white LED[1], you'll see that a typical cool white LED has very little output in the 650nm red region. Since a filter can't create light where none exists, putting a red filter over a white LED will result in a very dim light.

Going to a brighter LED won't help much because white LEDs simply don't have much output in the red region to begin with. All you'll get from a brighter white LED is higher current draw (more heat, less runtime) for a very small increase in red light.

For red light, you really need a red LED. You can put a red filter over an incandescent, but a red LED will be cooler, much more efficient, much brighter, and have a much longer run time.

There's nothing wrong with using LEDs to produce red light. You just have to use a red LED to begin with rather than filter a white LED.

[1] See page 5 of the Cree XLAMP XR-E datasheet.
 
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Marduke

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Flamethrowers are incans too... Just kidding, I was only making a reference about throw, not color. The OP was complaining about the poor throw of his LED drop-in.

After blocking out most of the total output with a filter.

Red LED is head and shoulders more efficient than filtered white LED's or incan.
 

Triple A

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+ 172 for Red emitter! I purchased a red filter, (f05?) for my cree l1 thinking that I could night hike with it and keep my night vision somewhat intact. The night vision stays intact- but even on full power the light is just barely bright enough to read my star-charts! I had no idea how little overall output there would be. I wish I had been able to read this thread before my purchase!

On the other hand, my friend bought me a cool little coast light with a white led cluster and a single red led in the middle- and the red led lights up my entire yard at night! It has nowhere near the overall brightness to my eyes as a white led, but it provides plenty of illumination for moving about at night, while not damaging my night vision much at all.

Good Luck!

P.S. Just checked- Coast Dual Color Tac Flashlight is the light I mentioned above. Also, I believe there is an Inova x5 in red- and I think it only requires 1 battery (123 primary) and is probably MUCH more rugged than the Coast model. Hope this helps!
 
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Dalork

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Well I can't make up my mind which way to go now. Incan with filter or just a red LED. See I was hoping for the runtime a LED would give me but be able to flick the fliter aside when I needed white/normal light. So I guess it's down to a high out-put Incan with the filter or a red LED. I guess I could carry two flashlights, I don't know.

Can you get a 6P type red LED drop-in that throws a bit or would I need to make something up ? Would be awesome if I could buy/make something that was a tight red spot with good out-put upto 50meters. The 6P type drop-ins all seem to still flood a little, is that kinda normal for them ?
 

StarHalo

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Results from red-filtered TLE-300 Mag:

Okay, using an old, scratched-up red filter from an MX-991/U that doesn't quite fit, I successfully lit up a wall at a distance of almost exactly 40 meters. The light was fairly dim but clearly visible, somewhat brighter than you'd expect from the same distance from daytime running lights on a car, with the beam spanning a space approx. 16ft wide. At closer distances the light was remarkably bright and cherry red in appearance, much more vibrant than a typical red-filtered light. The other posters are correct that red isn't the LEDs forte, and I tested this by also using a blue filter - the 40m wall was the *same brightness if not brighter* compared to the red.

But I'm not bothering with beamshots as this method is pricey ($80+ just for the drop-in) and inefficient. I'd wager you could get the same results or better from a proper red LED drop-in, which TerraLUX just happens to make (http://www.batteryjunction.com/tle-6exr.html), and an aspheric lens, the whole package (cost of the Mag included) coming to ~$60 for 150 tightly focused pure red lumens, no modding necessary..
 

lctorana

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+173 for Red LED!

I agree that a white LED through a red filter won't cut it, but a red LED just emits red light. Give it a go.

(after all, Red LED traffic lights have plenty of reach, don't they?)
 
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