10K lux from Luxeon III

You might have seen this post where darkzero wished he had a light meter to verify. Well, I went ahead and built a new drop in module for my Mag 2D with Hotlips-D, DB1333, Luxeon III TVOJ and UCL. It is currently running off 6 x 2300mAh NiMHs via a 6AAto2D adaptor, but would also work on 3x123 or 2 Pila 150A/150S.

The current draw from the batteries was 1A and the current through the LED is 1.5A. The image below shows the test setup. The lens of the Mag 2D is 1 metre above the light metre and set to tightest focus.



And the exciting part ...



the meter reads 1033 when set to the x10 scale. 10,330 lux with regulation. I'm impressed. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif For comparison, a DB1000 I built with everything else as per the above setup was getting a little over 8000 lux @ 1 metre, runtime of 2 hours and 0.66A current draw from the batteries.

Runtime with the DB1333 should therefore be around 60 to 70 minutes of regulation I estimate. I'll do a runtime plot tomorrow. Stay tuned. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

Jeff.

Wow... very nice. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif Is the tint on the LED closer to the first or second picture? (I know you mention the bin but I'm slightly bin-deficient /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif).

-Mike

The tint is definitely like the first picture. I think the VO tint is on the greener side of white. However, the carpet has green and white stripes on it so it is hard to tell from the top photo.

OK. I'm sold. What resistor combo do I use to make a DB1333? Is there a calculator that could give this info? I went to the Calculator page from the Shoppe, but it only gives settings for up to 1A.

Thx,
ernest

Well done /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif. The LuxIIIs are known for their excellent throw!

ernest, you need to add a sense resistance of 0.0375 ohms to the Downboy blank. Since the lowest avaible is 0.1 ohm from the shop you will need 3 resistors. There are two combinations of three resistors that combine to give the right resistance.

1) 0.10, 0.10 & 0.15 in parallel, and
2) 0.10, 0.12 & 0.12 in parallel.

As there is only a place for two SMT resistors on the downboy, you will need to solder in two of the three resistors then solder the third resistor on top of one of the other two in a piggy back fashion. Just make sure that you test the current to the LED before you AA epoxy everything in place. I found that with the convertor in open air that the current was initially 1.5A then dropped to 1.4A. This is due to the IC heating up it would seem. When I put a makeshift heatsink on top of the convertor and cooled it with a fan it was quite steady at 1.5A.

My downboy was potted in the ecan which was epoxied to the Hotlips. Make sure that there is a good thermal path from the IC to the ecan and that the ecan is firmly bonded to the underneath of the hotlips. I completely covered the board with a smothering of AA epoxy. I also quickly polished the rim of the ecan that is in contact with the hotlips with my dremel just to be sure the contact area was as clean and smooth as possible. Just remember that your peak lux will vary based on each individual Luxeon III. Also I can't tell much difference using this setup between a DB1333 and a DB1000, except when lighting up distant objects. ie, you will get some more throw out of it.

Good luck!

[ QUOTE ]
hotbeam said:
Well done /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif. The LuxIIIs are known for their excellent throw!

[/ QUOTE ]

but this is nothing compared to your MR-X !!

neg

ahem, in terms of brightness, yes, MR-X excels in its brightness, ezpecially its X binned lux.
However, Throw-wise, lux3 is MUCH better at throw, assuming both is driven at spec.

Another thrasher of the LIII's. Welcome to the 10k+ club. Nice mod. All readilly available parts too, now that's a bonus.

Chris

Burnt Retinas, parts sure are readily available and one of them is even made in Australia /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif. Total cost of parts, excluding the Mag is under $70.00USD.

Neg2LED, there are no Magic Resitor convertors available and not even a whiff of X3Ts around. That's why instead of making an MR-X I had to make do with a DB-T /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks for sharing the info!

ernest

Nice. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Re: 10K lux from Luxeon III - 2hr runtime!

It's a day later than I said I'd have it, but I have the runtime info. I was going to do a chart but I'm short on time. Plus, it's very boring to look at /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif. The flashlight was cooled with a fan and I took measurements every 5 minutes. The fan probably wasn't needed. I used the light the previous night for a full hour continuously and it got only slightly warm around the base of the head but was still cool to the touch elsewhere on the light. To put it simply I got 2 full hours of pure, rock steady, 10K+ regulation /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif. Five minutes later the lux reading had nearly halved and another five minutes later it was nearly a third at which point I stopped the measurements.

That's a great result in my opinion. If it gave only 60-70 mins like I expected that would have caused me to recommend a /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif current , but with 2 hours I highly recommend this setup /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif. What baffles me is that with a DB1000 in the same setup and same bin LED with similar characteristics, I also got just over 2 hours of regulation but at 8K+ lux. The Sanyo AA 2300mAh NiMHs were brand new when I did that runtime plot but I really didn't think that they would be that much better after only 2 or 3 cycles. So, I imagine that there would be in excess of 3 hours runtime on a DB1000.

Gotta get some /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/sleepy.gif.

Re: 10K lux from Luxeon III - 2hr runtime!

Hey, Balrog. Nice mod.
Where did you get the 6AA to 2D adapter? Any resistance problems w/ it, as we experienced w/ ElektroLumens' 3toD?

Re: 10K lux from Luxeon III - 2hr runtime!

I have some sanyo (Energizer) 2100s. After about 10-15 cycles, they gave about 15% longer runtime, with higher voltages throughout the runtime into a constant load current. So cycling them several times does give noticable improvement.

Re: 10K lux from Luxeon III - 2hr runtime!

Humm, using an aspherical lens, I got 32,300 lux at 1m.
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/3w1meter.jpg

Example beamshots:
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/3w2in.jpg
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/beam2.jpg

Re: 10K lux from Luxeon III - 2hr runtime!

Cool balrog! OK, NewBie wins! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif It's about the photos of the meters though guys...... I believe your numbers if you say so! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif It's not that the meters couldn't be fudged, right? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif I mean I *could* take a photo of a meter showing 40k lux and *claim* it was the result of an underdriven Arc AAA with a "special" electro-magnetic colliminator borrowed from Lawrence-Livermore Labs.....

Uh, let me get that..... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twakfl.gif

Re: 10K lux from Luxeon III - 2hr runtime!

[ QUOTE ]
McGizmo said:
Cool balrog! OK, NewBie wins! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif It's about the photos of the meters though guys...... I believe your numbers if you say so! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon3.gif It's not that the meters couldn't be fudged, right? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nana.gif I mean I *could* take a photo of a meter showing 40k lux and *claim* it was the result of an underdriven Arc AAA with a "special" electro-magnetic colliminator borrowed from Lawrence-Livermore Labs.....

Uh, let me get that..... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twakfl.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Please note the beamshot McGizmo, take a look at that house in the last link. It's also about how cool you keep the luxeon die. In the photos he showed, you'll note the significant portion that is outside the sensor. If you were to gather that light, and get it all on the sensor (e.g. focus it), you should be able to hit +30k easy.

Also note, how the main power output of the luxeon is not focused with a reflector. To see this, look at the Lambertian Radiation Pattern for the Luxeon, and the relative power output at each angle. See the middle part, from -40 to +40 degrees? This is the area that a reflector misses (typically, it will vary from reflector to reflector), and is the "flood" part of the light output in a reflector design.

Re: 10K lux from Luxeon III - 2hr runtime!

rdf, the 6AAto2D was purchased from Elektrolumens. It's on the same page as the 3toD. Haven't investigated the resistance at all but a lot of people are using this in 2D mods so I reckon it must be okay.