LED lighting 80lm/W!

[DamonHD]

Firstly, a thank you to Thurmond in TX for the LEDs he sent me that arrived this morning.  I immediately swapped out the incandescent in my daughter's torch, with batteries charged in the summer from our solar.

WARNING: do not look directly into bean with remaining eye!

More serious playing with the rest of them when I feel a slack moment coming on (and when I've sorted myself out some constant current bench supply).

Secondly, just to show you how sad I am, I'm all excited over testing two new LED lamps that should beat CFL efficiency (ie more light out per unit of power in at ~80lm/W compared to CFL's typical 60lm/W).

I put in a technical query with LightPlanet here in the UK (who I noticed in an ad on my own page!) and a sensible person phoned me back about 10 minutes later which is amazing.

So I've bought one and I am borrowing another to write up on my page.

They remain more expensive than CFLs for now but should last even longer, now use even less power for a given amount of light, contain no mercury, and have no warm-up time...

LightPlanet is also crowing that the light quality (eg colour rendering) is very good from their warm white, and that is something that I'll be checking.

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Sorry, speling haz gone to pot since onset of blindnez!

WARNING: do not look directly into beam with remaining eye

Rgds

Damon

[Bruce S]

They can be bright!! still have the little dots floating around your eyes even when closed?

Rich sent me some he's working on for the next trip to Philippines.

3 3-watt LEDs... man are they bight!! even at 1/3rd total current brightness.

For current control you might look at Amanda's LED class or Rich's post of his circuit.

It's a very nice one!!

Cheers

Bruce S

[Gary D]

 I'm curious if these led's are from Cree or if the whole led industry is catching up?

 Looking at outside spots, the cost is still prohibitive. This is for "mains electric" tho...

 Hopefully soon the big box retailers will start ordering them in bulk, driving down costs as cfl's did...

 Hope the dots go away Damon! :-)

     Gary D.

[bob golding]

just ordered one of there  liquid filled 4 watt warm white bulbs to try. will report back with a totally subjective non scientific opinion when it arrives. thanks for the link.

bob

[DamonHD]

Ah, thanks for reminding me about those designs... Yes, may well do!

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

Yes, would be very interested to know...

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

There seem to be at least 2 or 3 serious players, eg Asian.

See, for example: http://members.misty.com/don/led.html

Rgds

Damon

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

When checking these out, be sure to run 'em for a long time (like day or more) and check the output again.  I understand some LEDs drop illumination with age pretty drastically.

[Bruce S]

ULR;

  Good point, I have the 3 LED unit from Rich. I just really started doing tests with it.

I have a very crude light meter mostly for plants. I'll take meter reading from it, let it burn for a week and see how it holds up.

The bloom'n think is so bright when powered by a 12V batt-pack I have to wear sunglasses to work with it.

Specs so far are 12Vdc running at 372ma !!

 In my files is a pic of it when I first fired it up for a batt-pack test, it's titled Test_setup.

Can't seem to load it from work could be a setting at work here, tho' Firefox is usually good at uploading pics.

Cheers;

Bruce S

[David HK]

Interesting post.

It seems LED's are also making progress as plant grow lights.

The following URL leads into an article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_light

David HK

[richhagen]

Those LED's on the lights I sent Bruce are 107 lumen per watt or better at 350 mA  They are being driven a tad over that, but they are rated to handle up to an Amp if properly heat sunk, which they are.  They are rated for at least 50000 hours at 700 Ma and a junction temperature of 130 degrees Celsius, and it the lights Bruce has, they are way under at about half on both counts.  Credit where credit is due, the driver circuit IS Commanda's Circuit 4, with a bit of assistance with the values from Commanda.  Even with the inherent inefficiencies of the variable resistance driver, the whole package should give an efficiency of over 80 Lumens per Watt from a typical 12 Volt battery.  Rich

A re-post of a couple of pictures of the original prototypes for reference.  These from last year had LED's with only 86.7 Lumen per Watt or better, as the new ones for this year are 107 Lumen per Watt LED's:

[richhagen]

Hi David, I set up a some of the Cree LED's for starting seedlings last year, as the year before, I had built a test circuit and found that it worked well for keeping my Geraniums (actually Pelargoniums) alive through the cold dark winter.  They worked well, and I got a bumper crop of tomatoes due to the head start for my plants.  I still have about 10 jars of spaghetti sauce left.  The cool light LED's seem to radiate a lot of light in the blue and red areas of the spectrum, which is what plants seem to need.  I am meaning to send you one of these lights when I get the batch done for next year, as I think the fluorescent drivers you sent me exceeded the value of the hall effect sensors I sent you by a considerable margin.  Rich

[zap]

Looks like a nice bright light Bruce!  Going to stick one on a bike???

[Bruce S]

ZAP:Thanks for loading the Light!!

Credit to Rich and Commanda !!!

The entire light is first rate.

Aluminum is extra thick and works very well as a heat sink, whole thing ran 6 hours on a 12Vdc 1300mA trash batt-pack and stayed lit with the batt-pack going down to less than 9volts after 8 hours.

NiCd pack bounced right back on a little 5 watt foldable PV.

ZAP: Thanks for making sure the pic limits were okay too.

These are the units Rich is building up for the next trip to Philippines.

These don't have the conformal coating on them, but with the low current draw, I'll bet they could be on the next "bent :-)

I supposed I should start a new diary for these, I have more pics of the test and need to get it out there.

Cheers;

Bruce S

[HaroldCR]

 Are these lights available for sale

  Down here, EVERYTHING comes from China, and, the quality is very poor. Curly Q CFL lights, only last 8 months or so, on moderate usage. Filament bulbs last 1 year or less. It's just the Wife and I, most of the time.

  IF I could obtain the parts, I could have my SIL build them cheap, and send them up for y'all to try out.

  I make 1-2 trips a year to Florida, for 2-3 weeks at a time, and would love to try to give back to the Forum what I have learned here. Shipping would be ALL done in the states from FL.

  Might even consider setting up a cottage industry with these, IF I don't step on anyones toes.   What do y'all think

[Bruce S]

HaroldCR;

I can't speak for Rich, but from me, the ones I'M posting about are still under "testing".

Plus ones I'M talking about when powered up by someone not used to working with high-power LEDS will blind the hack of someone in a split second.

I mess around with other super-bright LEDs and the ones Rich has come up with are probably 3x brighter than those.

Seriously, I have to wear sunglasses when working with these at normal power.

Currently the ones in production are going to be used during our upcoming trip the Philippines so most if not all the current groups effort are towards getting these and the batt-packs ready.

Rich is pretty buys these days with work, New Year and all, but he'll be the deciding factor on this.

BUT maybe you could help us along with sourcing parts and stuff? I'll leave that up to a deeper discussion:)

Cheers;

Bruce S

[HaroldCR]

 I would truly like to help. Problem is, down here, I get disconnected pretty regular. Either Electric goes out, or phone line goes out. Also, I am charged by how long I stay online. It CAN get expensive.

  I worked for 12 years climbing poles in NJ.  I have self learned electricity.  Electronics, (LED's) included, totally eludes me. I'm not a young man. I'm about to put up a small Wind Gen, and, have most parts gathered up for my Hydro project.

  Down here, $1.50 an hour is GOOD pay. That's for heavy work, such as helping remove lumber from my Sawmill, or cutting brush and very tall grasses, with a Machete or Weed whacker type cutter.

  That's where my SIL would be good. He's clever and does fairly quality work. I'm training him that "Mas O Menos (Good enough), is NOT acceptable.

  That's why I said I go to Fl 2-3 times a year. I would really like to help out, if anyone can see a way.

[Bruce S]

HaroldCR;

 Being a little lazy in not searching, but where might you be located?

Young is relative I for one don't consider being NOT young until I'm up to being retirement age though I have passed the 50 year mark.

Your location could be a boon to helping source parts and stuff, coming into FL can be helpful too, bunch of regular posters are in the SunShine but kinda cold these days state:).

WE can help with some of the electronics, mostly though its all about the math and how to plug in the numbers.

Cheers;

Bruce S

[DamonHD]

Ha!  After one false start where the courier claimed that we'd 'refused' delivery (clearly couldn't be arsed to actually come and find us) the new lights turned up today.

Although the specs on the box are more modest than described on the phone to me, the ~7W spotlight is brighter and gives of less heat than the (slightly aged) 12W "softone" CFLs next to it and is a really nice light, and is very neat and small.

If what's on the box is right then it's 7.5W/450lm (with Cree LEDs inside), which is the same efficiency as a typical CFL.

More observations over the next few days...

Rgds

Damon

[HaroldCR]

  Bruce, the CR after my name, is for Costa Rica. I live about 5.5 hours from San Jose, by bus. Not young, means, 66+ years old. Hands not shaking yet, but, eyes are going bad, can't seem to hang onto things, anymore. Thought process drifts more than I like. Just not much good, anymore.

  Right after I posted the last post, Computer shut down, then re-booted, then light went off 3 times. It's hell on Electronics and refrigerators. I DO have a UPS on the Computer, though. That's why I am so interested in the new type lights. I have 2 UPS's waiting for me, in Fl, to power up most things in the house, except the Refrigerator. Time to start experimenting.

[Bruce S]

Damon;

Sorry about hijacking your post on the LED lights .

That new light you picked up, how well does it light up a room compared to say the CFL?

AND how does a pic do? I have noticed that when I try to take a pic of the LED lights I have to shield the camera a a little as the brightness plays havoc with the camera auto-shutter settings.

Cheers;

Bruce S

 

[Bruce S]

Yep, figured that out about 2AM .

Nice country, nice people when I get to talk with research company or CRAs as they are known here.

Send me an email so we can stop hijacking Damond's post .

My email info is in my profile.

I'd like to discuss these items a little further.

UPSs are good for doing just what you're doing,but some can be expanded to work even better by taking the internal battery(s) out and even adding more in parallel.

Bruce S

 

[HaroldCR]

 Same here. Sorry. Delete what you don't want.

[DamonHD]

Hey, you two carry right on, it's all interesting stuff, and glad to have set you going!

The new ES bulb seems pretty good for broad illumination and the colour is pleasant, so I think that I'm going to be happy with it.

It may be less useful in (non-spotlight) fittings where you want some light thrown directly backwards, eg in upward-facing arrangements near the ceiling.

I will take some pictures this weekend I hope.

I also just tried out the GU10 (downlighter) which generates a lot fewer lumens per Watt, but is also a nice warm light with a claimed CRI of 70.  But I've spent about 10 minutes with it so far, reading my daughter her bed-time story, so I can't really judge yet.

Again, photos to follow soon I hope.

Rgds

Damon

[Bruce S]

Harold;

 I want to go on record as saying that I would not delete something from a post that I put up right or wrong. I know for sure I've posted in anger and should never have.

Better Net-etiquette to apologize than run the risk of destroying good information.

Damond is pretty laid-back so long as the posts are relevant to the post ( I Hope :})

NOW to pull him back into this;

Damond, just a point of curiosity, what were the costs involved in getting them to your door?

This will be a big deciding factor in whether I purchase or build.

I do like Rich does and generally build grow lights to suit the needs of the plants.

From lots & lots of reading and trying, I've come up with a 8:5 Rule for grow light LEDs ( that is 8 REDs 5 Blue) this and 5mm LEDs with them being no more than 6 on a resistor ( Ghurd beat that into me) this is about as good as it gets for growing tomatoes & Sweet bell peppers in the winter.

I use

I have yet to build the DC powered timer so I can set it for 16h on 8h off, but it's on my todo list.

I'll be very interested in the color factor seen by a camera on these two lights.

Cheers

Bruce S

   

[Bruce S]

Damon;

Thanks for letting us carry-on:).

To me the biggest draw back on LED lighting is the costs. Before they came in vogue, you could get Red, Green, Blue by the dozens CHEAP!! now they are all the rage and not cheap anymore.

I do like the larger range and view angles available.

Another problem that is showing up is interference with radio(s). There's a post here on the forum about this and if someones using a dimmer on them, there may be even more, much like the cheapo microwave ovens.

Rich's system is tight and is fully enclosed by Aluminum so stray freqs will not be a problem with them, but these aren't cheapo(s) or yet mass-produced either.

Child labour maybe, but no sweatshop:).

Cheers;

Bruce S

[DamonHD]

No interference from these new ones yet that we've noticed, but the supplier did say that if I was bothered then I could wait for the next batch which is even lower RF...

Rgds

Damon

[DamonHD]

The costs of shipping the LEDs to me?

Two LED lamps (each ~7W) total value ~£30 shipping ~£4.  (I have only paid for one of the lights as the supplier shipped me the other free to eval, though I expect to ship it back or pony up!)

Or have I misunderstood your question?

Rgds

Damon

[ghurd]

And my LED tomato lighting systems can not be beat on the aesthetics scale...

Not sure it is possible to make something prettier!

Can't but that kind of thing at wally-world.

G-

[Bruce S]

No misunderstooding here .

Figuring Pounds to dollars conversion rates :} that'll be about $60USD.

Not too bad.

I'll hold off until I see pictures and a link for what the bulbs look like.

Can't open most links, we've locked them down pretty tight here, so I'll have a closer look when time permits this weekend.

Thanks

Bruce

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

The absorption bands of chlorophyll are moderately narrow and an ordinary (without phosphor frequency-changer) LED's emission band is even narrower.  Do ordinary "red" and "blue" LEDs match your plants very well?

(You'll know if they do:  Leaves illuminated solely by them will look pretty close to black.)

[DamonHD]

We like these new LED lamps.  I think that we're likely to get a couple of the EQ60s to replace failing/dead CFLs for example.

Nice light, size, weight, etc.

Rgds

Damon