high powered LED's

[TimC]

On 2006-01-06, Marty (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> geoffs wrote:
>> ghostgum Wrote:
>>>It appears you can now get a 7W LED flashlight
>>>http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2328
>>
>> I am impressed with the output of this, 200 lumens vs the 120 lumen
>> output of the 5w Luxeon. Strange that Luxeon dont have it listed on
>> their website.
>> I think I'll stick to the 21W HID Stadium III which uses this 'globe'
>> (http://tinyurl.com/8qfyh) for the 1850 lumen output. LED's seem to be
>> great for being seen but it's good to see where you are going.
>>
>> Geoff
>
> My guess is that it's an overdriven 5 watt one and they've just
> multiplied up the Lumens and then added a bit to say theirs is the
> brightest in the world. I'd be skeptical of the claims unless I saw more
> supporting evidence of their measurements.

And it's not like luxeons have a large MTBF anyway. Overvolting them
is a good way to bring that down further.

--
TimC
Theoretically one might have been wearing pants at work.
-- Anthony de Boer in Scary Devil Monastry

 

[TimC]

On 2006-01-08, geoffs (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> We do have an LED as a backup for when I've forgotten to charge the
> battery. One thing that I have noticed though is that cars are much
> more prone top pulling out in front of when using the LED than the HID.
> With the LED car drivers know that it is a bike approaching whereas with
> the HID they must think its a motorbike and just wait until we are past.
>
> Anyone else with this experience or is it just us?

Yep. I don't think I've ever had a driver pull out in front of me at
night with my halogens -- even the 5Wer. And distances far greater
than I can get away with in the daytime.

That's not what I had with all my LED torches.

>
> The 21w HID globe is only rated at 350hrs MTBF on the Welch Allyn site.
> The 10w has a 1000hr rating.
> So I had better start saving up for the $239USD for a new globe.
> Bugger!

350hrs is not too bad. That's 2 years of commuting for me. It's not
as terrible as my halogen globes, but then again, my halogens are a
tenth the cost. OK, so HIDs do suck

--
TimC
An optimist thinks we are living in the best of all possible worlds. A
pessimist fears this is true. --unknown