Does anyone use a bare Luxeon?

Are there any lights that use a bare Luxeon? With no reflector or optics? I was using my longbow micra during a power outage with the head removed and kind of liked the very flood effect. Its got me thinking about a bare Luxeon in my Arc AA. But wondered if any one has a production light in this config.

The only one I know of is the Super 6 made by InReTech. It uses 6 Luxeons and is a drop in replacement for a Maglite.

Super 6

Of course, you could always mod your own Mag and use it without reflectors. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

A luxeon sans optic makes a beautiful area light. I use bare luxeons on my room and cabinet lights. The only thing that might be seen as a negative is that objects will produce very sharp shadows, since the emitting area is so small, it is essentially a point-source of light.

Thanks former mag, I had never seen those before, I'll bet that thing smokes, but whew its over $100!!!
I've wanted to get some home lighting luxeons, but again, the price! What kind of setups do you use evan?

I'm thinking I'm going to do the AA in a bare luxeon. Would the bin matter more for good color if its not being collected? Anyone ever seen a bare luxeon arc AA? I'm curious what the reflector makes the beam look like...

have bare luxes all over the place, for "area" type of lighting. only problem is Looking in them.
my headlight uses a semi bare, because i wanted full vision, instead of a spot.

Desklamps both use "bare" luxeons
the Car uses bares with plastic caps on them that i sanded to make square soft bulbs from the lux.
the kitchen uses bares, but it behind clear pyramid type diffusion.

i agree with the shadows stuff, that and if you LOOK into them, or they are in where you will look at the emitter.

put a bare in some kind of ring tube that HAD a reflector, and it makes (about) a 60* out of 120*s.
a bare does still have its "dome" and high domes are more spotty than the low dome things.

best way to tell what your degrees will be in any tube, would be to , assume there is a emitter down there, then lean it till you cant see the emitter. basically most of the light will go where you can see the emitter.
anywhere you could not view the emitter, very little of the light will be headed there.
put reflection AROUND the tube , and you will send out the rest of the light instead of wasting it, but the brunt of it will still be from the emitter out.

I've seen bare luxeons used in mods like this (Arc AAA/AA, Infinity, etc) and haven't seen too much of a problem. More or less the same thing you had before, but brighter. Only downside would be damage possibility. .

A bare Luxeon HD produces an amazingly even lighting effect. I did a Lux meter test with one, and the Lux reading was almost perfectly even.

As pointed out, that point source is annoyingly bright to look at. A good comparison / analogy is to try lighting up an area with a CLEAR light bulb. After a few minutes, you will wish that you had bounced the light off of the ceiling. Even a small reflector will help a lot.

Interestingly, this is where a Cree Xlamp might be more useful. I did some bench testing with the the two, and while overall brightness was about the same, the Cree "appears" to emit its light more like a FROSTED light bulb, so more of a SOFTER lighting effect. Also, the Cree LED has a greater percentage of its light directed forward compared to a Lux III, so while more challenging for reflectors, it might be better for ceiling bounce use.

Bare luxeons do have an excellent flood beam, but IMO, the cost of the luxeons, drivers, and runtime, isnt worth the flood you get. Sure the flood is even and lacks artifacts, but 5mm LEDs are better in the flood department than LEDs. You can use certain reflectors to achieve this goal anyway, like the mcflood.

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Mags said:
Bare luxeons do have an excellent flood beam, but IMO, the cost of the luxeons, drivers, and runtime, isnt worth the flood you get. Sure the flood is even and lacks artifacts, but 5mm LEDs are better in the flood department than LEDs. You can use certain reflectors to achieve this goal anyway, like the mcflood.

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I guess it depends on what you are after. I made a little light for my daughter (Little A in the custom and modified) A Luxeon ($ 6 / eeach from Future) driven at 100ma with 2 x Li cells and a 5 cent resistor. Each of the components of that light (body, batteries, and reflector) were more expensive than the LED.

I understand why people put $ 20 electronics into a high end light for perfect regulation, but for an occasional use candle mode light, a resistor is amazingly cost effective.

Large die LEDs (like Luxeons) are VERY efficent when run at low current levels.

Indeed. Just like Harry's example, I combined a $4 candle votive lanter, 15c of aluminium bar stock, a HD luxeon star I got for $4, a 4AA battery box with switch ($2), and a 4 ohm resistor to make a nice lantern - cost was just about $10. It'd take $10 in 5mm LEDs just to equal the output of the single luxeon, and wiring it up would be a big PITA.

I honestly don't think I'll ever touch 5mm LEDs again for lighting purposes.

I refitted a $3 Eveready incandescent lantern with a tiny computer heatsink and a 1W bare Luxeon. Technically this is not really "bare" since the frosted dome over it acts as a diffuser. Good thing too, that low dome is driving me nuts.

The desk lamp I built has a bare TY0L. Very nice smooth flood for illuminating a workspace. No optics at all, this one is truly bare, you can see the LED if you look.

There are caving lights using a bare Luxeon for a nice flood light.