Advice needed on bright LED choice...

LukeK

Enlightened
Joined
May 30, 2003
Messages
529
Location
TX
Hello everyone,

I wasn't sure which forum I should post this in, but I ultimately picked this one since this does deal directly with LED choice. I am new to this so, please, bear with me. I have completed projects with LED's in the past, but this will be my first project involving high powered LED's.

I am going to modify a Mag-Lite flashlight to use a bright white LED. I want a flashlight that is very bright, with good throw and decent alkaline battery life. Originally I was planning on purchasing a cluster of lower power LED's but eventually I settled on one high powered LED. I am very interested in the Luxeon V Star (portable) line of LED's and after extensive research I have one question:

Is this an appropriate choice of LED for this project or would it be considered overkill at all -- is there a better choice? Also, what add-on optics should I look into to tighten the beam?
Thank you for your time, I appreciate it.

Luke K
 

jtice

Flashaholic
Joined
May 21, 2003
Messages
6,331
Location
West Virginia
Well, first off. What size Mag?

Mini Mag? -->>> Madmax or Badboy Q3L. = Very bright, good runtime for the brightness, comes with new optics.

Larger Mag? -->>> the only mods I have seen are very expensive.

Unless,,, you are talking about building your own stuff, instead of just dropping in a mod.
In that case, I have heard that the Madmax and Badboy converter boards are great.

http://www.anlighten.com/shop/default.php?manufacturers_id=10
 

LukeK

Enlightened
Joined
May 30, 2003
Messages
529
Location
TX
Sorry -- forgot to mention the size. I'm planning on using a Mag-Lite with D Cell Batteries. But here is where I get to a dilemma. I'm wondering if I should go for the large 5-D Maglite or just use AA battery compartments with a shorter 2-D Mag....choices, choices.

Luke
 

Rothrandir

Flashaholic
Joined
Aug 17, 2002
Messages
7,795
Location
US
welcome to the board! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

personally, i would choose the 2d option. i made a 5w royal blue 5d mag mod (man...that's a lot to say!) a while ago, and recently ripped out the emitter (subsiquently destroying it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif ), because i unsatisfied with it's size.

also, using a 2d will give you the option of 3-123's, or 6aas. both of which are overdriven. also, if you use a 6aa holder, or two 3aa holders, you can substute a battery with a dummy, to run the ls closer to specs.

the thing to keep in mine with luxeon's is heatsinking. it is an absolute must, especially with 5watters. browing the homemade and modified forum will give you a good idea on how people are modding.
 

freewheelin'

Enlightened
Joined
Oct 29, 2002
Messages
252
Location
RedOak, Tx
As for optics it depends on who's post you read, MrBulk uses the standard Mag reflector with great results for throw. Electrolumens sells a 30mm thats supposed to be great too, he's also got a six AA adapter to fit a 2 D Mag body.
I haven't seen any of the mods yet but I've got a NexNeedle & a SpaceNeedle II on the way.
There are many people doing good things with Mag bodies and it seems there are a lot of personal choices to be made. I made my choices based on size not batts. or runtime.
My advice, go to the mod section and read.
 

LukeK

Enlightened
Joined
May 30, 2003
Messages
529
Location
TX
Exactly how bright is the 5w Luxeon White? Let's just assume I'm comparing it to a cluster of LED's or the regular Incandescent that came with the Mag-Lite? Thanks for the advice guys,

Luke
 

shipinretech

Enlightened
Joined
Aug 11, 2002
Messages
206
Location
Portland, OR
LukeK,

We have a demonstration for shows where we take our 3xD-Cell Mag-lite running 20 standard 5mm white LEDs and shine it on a piece of white marble in a fully lit room. Next, we shine our TRILIGHT, with three 1W Luxeons, on top of the same patch of marble and turn off the 5mm light. You can't see the lesser light go away. Occasionally we repeat the process using the HELIOS, with three 5W Luxeons. Three 1W Luxeons at full power overwhelm twenty 5mm LEDs.

Three 5W Luxeons overwhelm three 1W Luxeons. There is a price/performance issue in that the 5W parts draw five times the power of the 1W parts. If you are working with non-rechargable batteries, you will go through a lot of money quickly. What is worse, it won't be going towards our company!

Our TRILIGHT product with 3 1W Luxeons is currently putting out about 1500 candlepower and has a usable life of about 16 hours. Our HELIOS product with 5W parts is punching out 5000 candlepower and has a usable life of about 2 hours with twice the batteries as the TRILIGHT.

I am in fact a lousy salesman because I try to steer people towards the TRILIGHT instead of the higher dollar HELIOS. On the other hand, people who've bought the TRILIGHT love the light and so do people who've bought the HELIOS.
 

LukeK

Enlightened
Joined
May 30, 2003
Messages
529
Location
TX
Shipinretech -- You do bring up a good point about battery life -- however I do not want to spend 90+ USD on just light modules so I am not in the market for a three 5w module light, such as your Helioses. 3 1w modules at, say, 12 dollars a piece brings me a bill of 36 dollars. A 5w module would be just that much more powerful and be just a few dollars more depending on where I bought it. I guess I have decided that one 5w Luxeon is going to be what I will purchase, as I think it is most suited to my project. Thanks for all the advice guys,

Luke K
 
Top