what are the brightest 5mm LEDs currently?

I am a bit more of an amature about this then most of you, so forgive my ignorance a bit. I have a Zipka and several older bike lights that are clearly out classed by newer lights, even new 5mm LED based lights. I am hoping to upgrade these lamps with some "state of the art" high efficiency LEDs to imrpove the light output.

Can anyone tell me what brand/model of 5mm LED's I should be looking for and where a good place to buy them is?

Thanks,

I think the Nichia GS is the most efficient 5mm at around 10L on 20mA. That compares to most 5mms like the Nichia CS at around 5L on 20mA. I've heard that the GS has some tint issues, so you might want to look for the Nichia DS, which has efficiency between CS and GS but supposedly has a nicer tint.

No idea where to buy them. Sorry.

TigerhawkT3 said:

I think the Nichia GS is the most efficient 5mm at around 10L on 20mA. That compares to most 5mms like the Nichia CS at around 5L on 20mA. I've heard that the GS has some tint issues, so you might want to look for the Nichia DS, which has efficiency between CS and GS but supposedly has a nicer tint.

No idea where to buy them. Sorry.

Click to expand...

Arc is driving their GS's at 80mA's to the LED and getting about 10 lumens out the front. What about Cree's 5mm's at 20mA's?

bill

OK, i'm pretty basic about this stuff. I'm just going to remove the old LED's and put in the new ones. I have no idea how much power is going to them. I just have a very old Zipka and some bike lights.

Since these are pretty old lights any ideas on the range of Lumens they might be putting out now?

Amilite.kr sells them.

Tint isn't the best for me, but for that size i can't find any better performance, you can't have everything. I love my Nichia GS, even though i have so many nice flashlights these tiny keychains are the one that i use most.Ideal for almost every indoor and 1m distance application, not only to find the keyhole.And they do last for a long time with some 3V lithium batteries.

I would guess around 28,000 Mcd at 20ma:thinking:

Illum_the_nation said:

I would guess around 28,000 Mcd at 20ma:thinking:

Click to expand...

Maybe more. See this post and all the thread if you want. It is very interesting, jtr1962 is doing great job.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2433007&postcount=163

80mA, and they're only getting 10L? That doesn't sound right at all. Not gonna last long, either.

ergotelis said:

Maybe more. See this post and all the thread if you want. It is very interesting, jtr1962 is doing great job.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2433007&postcount=163

Click to expand...

hmmm, wow...I'm glad my estimates was at least being conservative... 44000 mcd, good god

TigerhawkT3 said:

80mA, and they're only getting 10L? That doesn't sound right at all. Not gonna last long, either.

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Might be 12L. Actually all of Arc's AAA flashlights have been lasting a long time. The time to 50% output is about 5 hours, so there is a slope there where mA's drop off. I have a five year old Arc AAA that is still running strong.

Bill

Well, I think I screwed up my facts here re mA's to LED. I check back to Arc FAQ's and see the figure 45mA's, which is way lower than 80mA's. Don't know how I came up with 80, but I will do some more research and get back here.

bill

By "not last long," I meant degradation of the LED, not runtime. 45mA is still pretty overdriven.

Bullzeyebill said:

What about Cree's 5mm's at 20mA's?

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The Cree LED's are not as bright as the Nichia's but they have a much nicer tint and some excellent runtimes when driven at 20mA's.

Where is a good place to buy some of those 5mm Cree's?

I want to play with some and send some to Milky!

Sgt. LED said:

Where is a good place to buy some of those 5mm Cree's?

I want to play with some and send some to Milky!

Click to expand...

Here: http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=LC503FWH1-15Q-A0-ND

Cree 5mm 24,000 mcd at 20mA to LED

Bill

OK, yeah, to be clear my question should have been: What are some nice, efficient 5mm LED's that are readily available for me to purchase (in the US), in a relatively small number (~20) that I could use to upgrade my old lights?

Thanks.

ArisaemaDracontium said:

OK, yeah, to be clear my question should have been: What are some nice, efficient 5mm LED's that are readily available for me to purchase (in the US), in a relatively small number (~20) that I could use to upgrade my old lights?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Try digikey.com

Bill

Bullzeyebill said:

Here: http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=LC503FWH1-15Q-A0-ND

Cree 5mm 24,000 mcd at 20mA to LED

Bill

Click to expand...

Look up C503B-WAN-CCACB231-ND on digikey - Cree 5mm 28200mcd 20 ma. I have a batch of these and while I cant do a direct comparison (I dont have any loose nichia's) I find they blow away the Nichia in every aspect. I can only compare them to lights I have that use the fabled, out of this world Nichia. I assume the lights I have are driving the nichia at much more than 20 ma. Driving the Cree at 50 - 100 ma it maintains a white, bright clean round beam. I'll never understand what is so great about the nichia with is purple cigar shaped beam.

Bullzeyebill said:

Might be 12L. Actually all of Arc's AAA flashlights have been lasting a long time. The time to 50% output is about 5 hours, so there is a slope there where mA's drop off. I have a five year old Arc AAA that is still running strong.

Bill

Well, I think I screwed up my facts here re mA's to LED. I check back to Arc FAQ's and see the figure 45mA's, which is way lower than 80mA's. Don't know how I came up with 80, but I will do some more research and get back here.

bill

Click to expand...

Link The ArcAAA is a boost circuit. The Iout depends on Vin. Check the blue line of the last graph in the first post.

Starting LED current is approximately for a fresh battery (note that the actual current will also depend on the particular Vf of the LED):

NiMH: 50mA
Alkaline: 65mA
Lithium (E92): 80mA

Holepuncher said:

Look up C503B-WAN-CCACB231-ND on digikey - Cree 5mm 28200mcd 20 ma. I have a batch of these and while I cant do a direct comparison (I dont have any loose nichia's) I find they blow away the Nichia in every aspect. I can only compare them to lights I have that use the fabled, out of this world Nichia. I assume the lights I have are driving the nichia at much more than 20 ma. Driving the Cree at 50 - 100 ma it maintains a white, bright clean round beam. I'll never understand what is so great about the nichia with is purple cigar shaped beam.

Click to expand...

The price seems pretty reasonable too compared to Nichias if you order large quantity. Nichia CS is something like $80 for 100 at the Nichia store while these are only $47 for 100. In 5000s they're only $0.26 each, about on par with the better eBay LEDs.

Anyone else besides Digikey sell these? To make a long story short I stopped dealing with Digikey 2 years ago but would like to try some.

Same LED but with wide (110°) viewing angle

A few weeks ago, in this LED forum, I did some fade tests you might want to see. Unfortunately, no Nichias tested, but I tested some ebay (and other's) LEDs:

Avoid the 10-12 cent per LED ones (usually sold in 100 or 50 packs). While these are brighter than the LEDs from earlier this decade, they are not as bright as many decent ones now. Some of them showed significant lumen depreciation after my 192 hour test when driven at 30ma.

The best 5mm LEDs I've tried so far were from Light of Victory (ebay). These are 55kcmd 5mm 50 pack for around $17. While I question the intensity number, they are brighter than the cheaper ones and they held up in my overdrive test better.