Nichia Jupiter

Could someone please explain to me the pros and cons of "Nichia Jupiter" LEDs in general, and provide any comments on this light which uses one and is currently on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16037&item=5199271916&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Thanks very much.

Pro: It's a Nichia
Con: It is a Nichia that has probably not seen full maturity yet.

There are high hopes for these LED's but if you have followed the discussion on the LRI Proton, the Jupiter has not been produced of which the Proton was based upon. While some are waiting for what the Proton can and hopefully will be, it seems that others have built some lights using pre-production or early production LED's. I have experimented with some samples and look forward to their availabliity! I have also worked with some of the new Cree 7090 whites and they. like the Nichia, are more reminicient of early, pre EOS Luxeons. I say that because you seem to get some tint disparity in the beam when you attempt to collimate the light.

It may well be that Nichia and or Cree will top Lumileds in efficacy but there will likely be other considerations; namely uniformity in color output and actual flux. By this, I mean that one LED may be driven at 1 watt and provide 40 lumens while another may be driven at 3 watts and provide 100 lumens. The first is more efficient but the second is "brighter".

No experience with the light shown.

Thanks very much for the background and info. on the Jupiters.

Are samples of this available?

sure would be cooool to get ahold of a few of these Jupiter LED's. are these bi-pin like MJLED's?

lot's of promising mods...

No the Jupiters are not bi-pin, they are surface mount, as well as their Rigel counterparts. We carry the full line of Juipter LEDs, as well as the Rigels here. As McGizmo said both products are sill in early production. The Jupiters only became widely available at the end of last year, early this year. The Rigel in white and warm white were available early this year, while the colors, blue and green, were only available as of late last month. On our site there are some OK pictures of them. Like the Cree LEDs the maximum input current for the Jupiter is 500ma. They produce a pretty good hotspot with some general flood, and sometimes-odd colored rings, but those seem to be less and less as we keep getting newer product in.

The Jupiter has been in the works for a few years now. Initially known as the 2 watt, here is a shot of a "sample" I put in a McLux host (current host, at the time!)



In the crappy photo below, the two LE's on the right are Nichia Jupiter's. The one at top is the flood version and the one at bottom has a lens to provide a 30 degree 1/2 theta viewing angle (as I recall)





The LE's in the middle are Cree 7090 LED's (UV above and white below)

From my rudimentary experimentation, the Cree 7090 and Nichia Jupiter flood will likely work with the same optic allignment and configuration. The image source location is very close to the sink plane and these LED's need to be mounted well forward of where you would mount a Luxeon (for focal allignment). Optic packages for the Luxeon are not suited without significant modification for application with the Cree and Jupiter, in my humble estimation.

Because of the image source location, both the Cree and Jupiter lend themselves to use with reflectors of short focal length, relative to the Luxeons. This means you can use a relatively deep and small diameter reflector and produce a concentrated flood type beam. With reflectors, you have a greater selection of focal lengths to choose from than you do with the Luxeon.

The Proton prototype I saw at SHOT was a good example of an optic package (reflector) that worked well with the Jupiter but it would not have worked with a Luxeon.

I have a new reflector and Aleph 19 in the works that were designed specifically with the Cree UV in mind. They work well with the Jupiter and I am looking forward to getting some Jupiters! This A19 will not be a popular package for most because it is targeted for flood applications and not throw.

What the heck, these images just get worse (new camera /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif ) but below is a poor shot of the A19 next to an Aleph 20 with both reflectors in all their blurred glory. The 19 mm reflector is not only 1 mm smaller in diameter but it is also 5.4 mm deeper! I believe you can se that this 19 mm reflector could be chopped and shortened and you could go pretty small and yet still be re directing much of the light.



I guess if I were to get to the point, I would say that the Jupiter will be lending itself very well to small flood type flashlights as well as larger more concentrated beam packages. Some of us have been waiting a long time for the Jupiter and unfortunately the wait continues. Perhaps the wait will be worth it! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

This seems to be the Jupiter's home page, at least for specs:
http://www.nichia.com/product/led-smd-powerled.html