most visible "purple" led, prefer low power

Need visible purple led for project. Prefer low power led, "superflux" or "piranha" package would be best.
Trying to use "UV" listed leds. I bought 50 pieces of "5 chip UV led" for what I thought was a pretty high price, but I was convinced they would be what I wanted. They are listed at 410NM. Don't know whether or not to trust that spec but there isn't nearly as much visible light as I hoped.
ebay item #390226574408 if you care to view them.

So now I am thinking I want led anywhere from 435 to 465NM.
I am looking at ebay #170795584278 but not convinced I will get the brightness I want.

Also I am considering "420nm Actinic Violet / Super Actinic 3W LED"
Which is listed at aquastyle, I believe it is a bridgelux led. The higher power output may help compensate, but I feel it is still too short a wavelength. Also considering 455nm bridgelux led but is described as royal blue so this concerns me. (and again I prefer not to work with power leds for this project.

The last option I have considered is mixing my own red/blue led for purple output, but still more work that I would like.

Just for a little background, this isn't a grow light, coral light, fish light or any other such thing. The spectrum of the leds has nothing to do with the health of another living thing, it is purely for aesthetics that I need a purple light.

You can buy a Violet power LED and run it at 100mA without any heatsinking/ mix R and B superflux LEDs on a perfboard/ run any RGB power LED at low power.

I've tested one of these LEDs at 700mA (3.5-3.6V drop) in my (almost empty) living room. Lumens are nowhere near my LXML-PR02-A900 run at 700mA, but a nice violet glow from the white walls/ceiling instantly satisfy me (Bonus: weak fluorescence from white window blinds!). However, if I move the LED very close(8-10cm) to one of the walls to get more lux, the color shifts from violet to deep blue (still deeper than royal blue).

Check out LEDGroupbuy too, they store 2/3 different kinds of 3W violet LEDs, including a 430nm one.

Yes, the true violet listed at ledgroupbuy, http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/true-violet-led-420nm/
and the violet led listed at aquastyle, http://www.aquastyleonline.com/products/420nm-Actinic-Violet-LED.html
And the one you link from Steves leds i am betting are all the same bridgelux led. Nice to get some feedback on the output though.

I am hoping not to use high power led as I want to drive a string of them directly from the output of 555 timer. If I use that led I would have to choose a drive current, too low could effect the output wavelength, and use a transistor to amplify the output of the 555.

As I did mention, I could mix my own, but first I am looking for feedback on single color through hole leds.
Luminous output is a poor scale to judge these leds by, radiant flux is the proper scale.

I saw you had a link to some pink Nichia you removed. Though not related to my project I would look at the datasheet. Were they through hole?

VegasF6 said:

Yes, the true violet listed at ledgroupbuy, http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/true-violet-led-420nm/
If I use that led I would have to choose a drive current, too low could effect the output wavelength, and use a transistor to amplify the output of the 555.

Click to expand...

There's a workaround for that too, using PWM and a MCU instead of 555. At this point, you may lose patience and get mad at me! I really like high power LEDs, can't help it.

StevesLED says the chip manufacturer is SemiLED (I don't trust their specs anyways, maybe Epistar/Bridgelux/unkonwn Chinese company).

VegasF6 said:

I saw you had a link to some pink Nichia you removed. Though not related to my project I would look at the datasheet. Were they through hole?

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Yeah, they are superflux NSPBR70AS-N9.

I see some of the led seen here are still available, most notably the radio shack 5mm.
http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/ledvio.htm

Be careful with these LEDs. From royal blue and down in nm I can get the " sandy eyed" feeling of short wavelength exposure. That includes purple and UV.

There's a fundamental difference between purple and violet. They're not just different names for the same color. Violet light is, as you notice from the LED selections shown, a shorter wavelength than blue. Our eyes are pretty insensitive to it, and as AnApple mentions, it can damage your eyes if too bright, or too short a wavelength. Violet light is about as far from red as you can get, and has no red in it.

Purple, OTOH, is a mix of red and blue. As a color of light, I think it's properly known as magenta. Totally different 'look' than violet.

So which do you want?

I am aiming for longer wavelength visible light, 420NM and above. And it will be low intensity and indirect viewing, so I am not too terribly concerned there will be harmful effects with this build.
Thanks for the warnings though.

There is a difference between purple and violet. If you just want a high visibility purple colored LED, they do make blue LED emitters covered with some red phosphor. They are often sold as cheap "black light" LED:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gemmy-64866...523?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5b06867ed3

These look very similar to violet LEDs, though just a tiny degree more whitish, and much brighter. And they are, of course, not a real black light, but rather black light color effect. Being a blue wavelength, they can only make fluorescent orange pigments fluoresce, but not green fluorescent pigments, unlike a real black light.

(the reason the color purple often gets confused with violet is because the blue receptors in the eye are also sensitive to red wavelengths to a lesser extent)

AnAppleSnail said:

Be careful with these LEDs. From royal blue and down in nm I can get the " sandy eyed" feeling of short wavelength exposure. That includes purple and UV.

Click to expand...

I would agree. Violet wavelengths make my eyes feel sore, like snow-blindness. Disclaimer: I happen to have a skin/eye sensitivity to some types of artificial lighting or too much sun, but I cannot imagine this exposure is good for everyone else either. I would not recommend using real violet LEDs for continual illumination in a room. Short wavelengths of light can be somewhat damaging to the retina.