What's on the Horizon?

I'm wondering if anyone can comment on what kind of cool stuff is coming around the corner in the world of LED technology. Mostly interested in flashlight type LED's but whatever you can expound on is fine with me. Is this the type of technology that only improves incrementally over time or is it a leaps and bounds kind thing?
Is it like the computer processor where folks like Intel dribble out upgrades over time so they can keep the upgrade cycle going and going?
Hope that's not an overly broad question but I'd be very interested to hear from people much more knowleagable than myself. Thanks for answering if you have the time.

Do a simple search for the Surefire Optimus and Invictus. Not necessarily "around the corner" but, hopefully around the block :candle:

However, I think even more exciting than new LED tech are the new BATTERY CHEMISTRIES that will arise :devil:

You're probably going to see a whole fleet of Cree MC-E lights come out in the next few months, essentially the P7 revolution all over again and then some. There'll be more focus on tint variations and high-color rendering LEDs. And as Bullfrog noted, the new LiMn chemistry batteries are going to shake things up a bit - expect a new wave of 600+ lumen hotwire lights in the 6-inches-and-under/EDC category.

So Incans make a come back? I notice that the LED light section has a much larger number of viewers than the Incan light section. In the order of 10 to 1 usually.

Nochrome said:

So Incans make a come back?

Click to expand...

More specifically, very high-output and very inexpensive incan bulbs/drop-ins. Now that we have the battery technology to put pretty much any bulb in any flashlight, expect to see quite a few 500+ lumen Surefire 6Ps and the like..

very high-output and very inexpensive incan bulbs/drop-ins

Click to expand...

Not sure where I read it, but supposedly we're supposed to be seeing power LEDs that are capable of being directly driven by 120VAC right off the die. This would reduce LED fixture complexity and cost to the point of some CFLs.

blasterman said:

Not sure where I read it, but supposedly we're supposed to be seeing power LEDs that are capable of being directly driven by 120VAC right off the die. This would reduce LED fixture complexity and cost to the point of some CFLs.

Click to expand...

Those already exist but I would think flicker would be a problem unless they put driver circuitry on the same MPCB the LED is mounted to.

blasterman said:

Not sure where I read it, but supposedly we're supposed to be seeing power LEDs that are capable of being directly driven by 120VAC right off the die. This would reduce LED fixture complexity and cost to the point of some CFLs.

Click to expand...

Yeah SSC acriche
http://www.seoulsemicon.com/en/product/prd/acriche.asp

StarHalo said:

And as Bullfrog noted, the new LiMn chemistry batteries are going to shake things up a bit -

Click to expand...

Which reminds me.....when are we going to start seeing true, capacitor driven hand helds? I want to be able to charge my flashlight in 10 seconds.....

I do prefer the color and quality of light from a bulb but I figured I might as well give up and persue the LED route cause of the short run times with bulbs and the requirement for tons of voltage ie lots of batteries. I'm glad to hear about a resurgence of the filament bulb.

blasterman said:

Which reminds me.....when are we going to start seeing true, capacitor driven hand helds? I want to be able to charge my flashlight in 10 seconds.....

Click to expand...

It'll be a while for that yet; pretty much all flashlight tech is about what the consumer can afford, and there's no way to make a capacitor light that's as inexpensive as a standard battery flashlight for now. There are clearly a few people still working on the idea though..

Nochrome said:

I do prefer the color and quality of light from a bulb but I figured I might as well give up and persue the LED route cause of the short run times with bulbs and the requirement for tons of voltage ie lots of batteries. I'm glad to hear about a resurgence of the filament bulb.

Click to expand...

Then the news isn't good for you - the LiMn wave is all about runtime-be-damned ludicrous-extreme output. LiMn cells don't last nearly as long as their Li-Ion or primary counterparts, but they do provide a huge amount of current (8C/4+ amps), which means the dragstrip-hotwire bulbs that formerly needed big batteries and a suitably big host can now fit in anything. It's all about output and nothing to do with runtime or bulb life.

The upshot is that LiMn cells can power the super-high-output LEDs just as well. How about a P7 in a Fenix P1? oo:

StarHalo said:

How about a P7 in a Fenix P1? oo:

Click to expand...

Wow! the sun in the palm of your hand. Thanks for the replies.

blasterman said:

Which reminds me.....when are we going to start seeing true, capacitor driven hand helds? I want to be able to charge my flashlight in 10 seconds.....

Click to expand...

The future is here: http://www.511lightforlife.com/

It'll be a while for that yet; pretty much all flashlight tech is about what the consumer can afford,

Click to expand...

The 'afford' part of the equation is due, to a significant degree, to the fact that the Chinese can make cheap, high out-put chemical batteries very cheaply because of labor cost and especially lax environmental regulations. If chemical batteries were priced accordingly (aka, far more expensive) and not treated as a throw-away cheap source of immediate power we'd see FAR more technological advances with capacitor storage.

From http://optics.org/cws/home
Cree embeds phosphors at LED die level
The chip maker says that blue-emitting GaN die can be converted to broad wavelength white emitters by material deposited in etched trenches.

is there a list anywhere of the least bright to most bright LED?

Im pretty noob but Ive seen Cree P4, Cree Q4, Cree Q5, Q5 WC, etc...

I cant tell what is new technology and what is older, whats the newest?

gt5oh said:

is there a list anywhere of the least bright to most bright LED?

Click to expand...

Maybe look here?

znomit said:

Maybe look here?

Click to expand...

not even sure what Im looking at there..

I was just looking for a list from most efficient and least efficient

gt5oh said:

is there a list anywhere of the least bright to most bright LED?

Im pretty noob but Ive seen Cree P4, Cree Q4, Cree Q5, Q5 WC, etc...

I cant tell what is new technology and what is older, whats the newest?

Click to expand...

All is answered here: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/172991

What are LiMn chemistry batteries? I've yet to hear anything about those.