Is It Possible To Create An Ambient Light With LEDs?

I've been looking for a wide-angle flashlight that can create an "ambient" light source. It would have to produce light at a 45 degree angle (more if possible). Once of the drawbacks of LEDs is that they create "spots" of light instead of a radiant light source like that of an incandescent light-bulb for example. Specifically I'm referring to the fact that an LED by it's nature is light magnified into a small area (at least that's my understanding). Is there already a solution for these issues.

No reflector?

Zebralight H30-Q5 Review (Picture Heavy) - CandlePowerForums

Lots of flood here.

I'm a bit new to the terminology and components. I'm assuming you're referring to something that akin to a mirror or some such mechanism that reflects light and thereby amplifies it's power. What do you mean by "no reflector"?

Might start here.

This will help at least with some of the terminology .

The Welcome Mat

WadeF » Those pictures of the H-30 are quite impressive if I do say so myself! What a difference between that and the H-50! How long is the battery life on both of them. I didn't bother to look at the text much.

I was going to say " take a look in the Welcome Mat here:"

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/172991

Has all the terminology and concepts about the subject of this Forum.


And: :welcome:

Forgot my manners

:welcome:

I will definitely take a look at the Welcome mat. Thanks for the welcome as well. I did not realize there was so much to know about Flashlights. It's incredible the amount of information to digest.

And: :thanks:

I've been looking for a wide-angle flashlight that can create an "ambient" light source. It would have to produce light at a 45 degree angle (more if possible). Once of the drawbacks of LEDs is that they create "spots" of light instead of a radiant light source like that of an incandescent light-bulb for example. Specifically I'm referring to the fact that an LED by it's nature is light magnified into a small area (at least that's my understanding). Is there already a solution for these issues.

Click to expand...

Looks like you're mostly familair with 5mm LEDs, which are discrete components that are encased in an epoxy lens, and focused to a narrow angle.

One quick recommendation I'd give you would be to get a high-power LED such as a Cree XR-E. You can either use this with no reflector (similar to a clear incandescent lamp -- a very sharp point source), or you can use a reflector and place a diffuser in front of it -- similar to a diffused soft white incandescent.

2xTrinity » "Looks like you're mostly familiar with 5mm LEDs ..." Yes, very true. Those are actually the only kind I knew existed until I read your post. What other types are there? The goal of my quest is to locate a flash-light (preferably LED) that can produce a high-powered beam and can hold a charge of up to approximately 12 hours. Hopefully I could find one that can be re-charged and has these "ambient" properties I'm looking for. Would you still recommend the "Cree XR-E" having read these requirements? Thank you for your response in advance.

also, if you plan on being in a room with a light colored ceiling, you can bounce the beam from below creating a nice ambient effect (at least my wife and I think so)...that's why people make such a big deal about "tail-standing"...

as someone else who recently got bitten by the LED bug, welcome to the New World...you will be amazed by the current technology, the hard part is deciding on which light you want....my evolution thus far: Surefire 6P (a true classic), upgraded to P61 incan. bulb, purchased P1D (had mind blown), bought R2 LED drop-in from web for 6P (hurt face smiling so hard), saved up and procured Novatac 120P (carry it around like a baby does a blanket)...

Welcome to CPF!

check out some realworld beamshots in the review section to see how good leds are...like this or this

TheGeekInTroy said:

2xTrinity »...The goal of my quest is to locate a flash-light (preferably LED) that can produce a high-powered beam and can hold a charge of up to approximately 12 hours...

Click to expand...

Sorry to deflate your ballon, but ain't no such thing. The physics is: the more intensity of light you require, the shorter the runtime. Period. No if, ands, or buts. There are many products that will give you 12+hours of light, but the intensity will be LESS than that of a 2-cell,cheapie plastic flashlight you can get at the local drugstore. OTOH, there are many high intensity LED flashlights that will blind you, but runtime will be more or less half-an-hour. Take your pick.

theres a few ideas on the use of leds/sans reflector as an ambient light source over on the instructables page.

jerry i h said:

Sorry to deflate your ballon, but ain't no such thing. The physics is: the more intensity of light you require, the shorter the runtime. Period. No if, ands, or buts. There are many products that will give you 12+hours of light, but the intensity will be LESS than that of a 2-cell,cheapie plastic flashlight you can get at the local drugstore. OTOH, there are many high intensity LED flashlights that will blind you, but runtime will be more or less half-an-hour. Take your pick.

Click to expand...

Depends, a MagLED 2D with alkaline, and SSC P4 can easily run over 20 hours at over 50 lumen out front, and many hours of diminishing light after that.

All » Thusfar, I've received some excellent information. However, it's still not quite what I'm looking for. Maybe the best way to approach this is just to setup the situation and maybe we can get some more definite answers. Here's what I'm trying to accomplish.

I'd like to mount 1 or 2 LED flashlights on my bike that have a radiant beam. That is to say -- they create a beam that is both bright (not to bright) yet and is ambient. The reason I keep pointing out this part of about it being ambient is because it's hard to work your way in the darkness when you have a 5 degree view of the obstacles in front of you. Therefore, the goal is 1 (or 2) flashlights that can be re-charged. They do not have to last 12 hours necessarily, but maybe a few hours would be ideal. They should be able to take at least 8 hours in darkness and still have some battery left to spare. Now maybe we can have some more targeted ideas since I've given you my plan.

Khemist » "as someone else who recently got bitten by the LED bug, welcome to the New World ... " Many thanks. There is so much information to digest that I would have never guessed would be here. To tell you the truth, I thought it was sort of insane to have a whole forum about flashlights, but now I'm beginning to think this is not the case. In any event, there is quite a bit here. Thanks for the welcome. This group is good with manners -- that's much appreciated I can assure you.

qip » Wow, those pictures by Stereodude are really something. That must have taken a lot of time to put together. Also, I'm seriously shocked at how high-powered they can get. In that last shot the camera was flushed out. That's insane! As I get to know the terminology better and the craft I'll read more, and look at pictures ... less? lol. Thanks again!

jerry i h » As I've noted above, it doesn't have to be 12 hours, but I thought they had something out like that. My ignorance. I don't think I need quite the power you're thinking of in terms of brightness for my application. However, on the other side, I DO want something that really lights up my path. See my notes above fore more (if you haven't already).

RyanA » "theres a few ideas on the use of leds/sans reflector as an ambient light source over on the instructables page." Could you provide me with a link to that page? I'd appreciate that very much just so you know. Thanks!

jzmtl » "Depends, a MagLED 2D with alkaline, and SSC P4 can easily run over 20 hours at over 50 lumen out front, and many hours of diminishing light after that." Maybe someday I can understand what in the world you're talking about here, lol. Any day now, .

I'll see what I can do, I never kept track of the link.

RyanA » :thanks:

http://dmcleish.com/

This is a pretty cool link, Theres a lot of neat stuff. The home lighting led conversion should interest you.

in fact sandwich shoppe sells a lot of those parts like the 350ma home lighting drivers and cree bars.

Led conversions are actually becoming more and more common in housing and surprisingly it is VERY common in boating, where led light's power savings can make the difference between just having a solar array or having to run an engine or generator at added cost and complexity and maintenance. An issue or two of Cruising World is sure to have some good information on this.

Here is a start for the instructables page

http://www.instructables.com/tag/?q...on&type:group=on&type:forumTopic=on&sort=none


there's a lot of stuff on there about this, it's kinda like wikipedia though, it's very easy to caught up in, which can be fun though.:candle: