Having received a reel of rather well-binned (SWAK) Luxeon IIIs, I set about determining if they are indeed brighter than the 1Ws, as advertised, when overdriven. There have been controlled tests by CM and McGizmo that spoke to that theory somewhat, but now it is time to have a real-world test, in a real-world mod.
Since bare emitters come with no reference to bin quality once separated from the reel, here's proof via the actual Bin Code sticker on the cardboard reel I recently received. This way you'll know what you are getting -- just in case I start to, you know, offer mods for sale or something:
I chose the Mag 3D for this mod because it would/should provide the maximum current from commonly available batteries such as the big D cells (in fact the shunted DMM said 1.492A!), plus a neighbor had requested I make him one a those "big LED Mag flashlights" for his job, which involves pitch-black nightly inspections throughout the parking yard of our municipal bus transit authority.
So here's the big galoomph with some of his family, a modified Mag 2D (see story on this mod here) modified to take 3Cs direct driving a 1W Q3J HD, and a 5W VXOW-binned Space Needle II:
Here are their beams, in the same order, up on the ceiling from 20 feet below:
The beams are actually all quite round but I had to hold one of the longer lights (guess which one?) as it kept rolling off the support, and thus the picture was taken from kind of an extreme angle.
The Space Needle II still produces the obviously greatest amount of overall light (hey, them's FOUR dies versus just the one in the LuxIII), but just as in the other test of the 2D/1W HD Mag against another Space Needle II, the throw of these single-die Luxeons walks all over the 5W beam patterns. And yet this 3D/LuxIII combo positively stomps on the 2D/1W Mag!
And here is the final validation we've all been waiting for:
YeeHaw! 11,530 lux, which easily beats out the 1W Q3J HD in a similar platform that made "only" 7,730 lux. Bear in mind that this is with the stock polycarbonate lens, and if the typical lux increase with the UCL lens holds true (I averaged 10%-12% in all my trials), this baby should break 12,000 lux easily.
So -- I guess the Luxeon IIIs really do provide more light when driven, or make that over-driven, to 1A levels and beyond. But as I've contended all along, with proper heatsinking (in this case the HotLips -- Thanks again Howie -- coupled with the ample aluminum mass of the big Mag 3D body), there is nowhere for LED brightness to go but up!
Thanks for looking...
Since bare emitters come with no reference to bin quality once separated from the reel, here's proof via the actual Bin Code sticker on the cardboard reel I recently received. This way you'll know what you are getting -- just in case I start to, you know, offer mods for sale or something:
I chose the Mag 3D for this mod because it would/should provide the maximum current from commonly available batteries such as the big D cells (in fact the shunted DMM said 1.492A!), plus a neighbor had requested I make him one a those "big LED Mag flashlights" for his job, which involves pitch-black nightly inspections throughout the parking yard of our municipal bus transit authority.
So here's the big galoomph with some of his family, a modified Mag 2D (see story on this mod here) modified to take 3Cs direct driving a 1W Q3J HD, and a 5W VXOW-binned Space Needle II:
Here are their beams, in the same order, up on the ceiling from 20 feet below:
The beams are actually all quite round but I had to hold one of the longer lights (guess which one?) as it kept rolling off the support, and thus the picture was taken from kind of an extreme angle.
The Space Needle II still produces the obviously greatest amount of overall light (hey, them's FOUR dies versus just the one in the LuxIII), but just as in the other test of the 2D/1W HD Mag against another Space Needle II, the throw of these single-die Luxeons walks all over the 5W beam patterns. And yet this 3D/LuxIII combo positively stomps on the 2D/1W Mag!
And here is the final validation we've all been waiting for:
YeeHaw! 11,530 lux, which easily beats out the 1W Q3J HD in a similar platform that made "only" 7,730 lux. Bear in mind that this is with the stock polycarbonate lens, and if the typical lux increase with the UCL lens holds true (I averaged 10%-12% in all my trials), this baby should break 12,000 lux easily.
So -- I guess the Luxeon IIIs really do provide more light when driven, or make that over-driven, to 1A levels and beyond. But as I've contended all along, with proper heatsinking (in this case the HotLips -- Thanks again Howie -- coupled with the ample aluminum mass of the big Mag 3D body), there is nowhere for LED brightness to go but up!
Thanks for looking...
