the Best of LED tech ?

[shade]

Light&Motion will add another nail in the HID coffin with its upcoming Seca

line of high-output LED lamps.

Each Seca system will feature a six-LED array and target output for the top

model is an impressive 720 lumens. According to Light&Motion, the unique beam

pattern will provide plenty of usable peripheral and straight-ahead vision.

More importantly, the company claims the tuned optics will deliver real world

output that finally matches the darkness-piercing 'punch' of top HID lamps that

we've so often found lacking in other high-end LED systems.

 

 

 

Light&Motion has a new LED light in the works

called the Seca but it's still in prototype phase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AndreZA]

 And still you don't see any of the stuff in local stores supplied by Probike.

 

 

[Azonic]

Friend of mine manufacturers bike and head lights, machined, extremely professional. I recall his being rated around 800 lumens if I am not mistaken.

[dirtrider]

It is nice having all these lumens ! I rather have less light and longer batt live . I just wanna see where I go for as long as possible , for rhte rest I cycle during the day .

[Azonic]

I have a Sigma Evo and EvoX. The strong one is 10w, and throws 190 lumens. 800 is sickening, and it doesn't just burn a few short hours. His lights have 3 or 5 settings, and even the weakest setting makes my Sigma look like a penlight.

[AndreZA]

I have a Sigma Evo and EvoX. The strong one is 10w' date=' and throws 190 lumens. 800 is sickening, and it doesn't just burn a few short hours. His lights have 3 or 5 settings, and even the weakest setting makes my Sigma look like a penlight.[/quote']

 

Azonic, I've been talking to him and his stuff is amazing. I'm started saving because I want one. It will take while to save R3800 for something that that people will only see at night.

 

 

[Azonic]

Well that makes two of us, I'm also saving up to get one. If you do the math, you get allot more light than for less money than the "name brand" units out there.

 

Mampara, have you seen the pics?

 

[Azonic]

I have a Sigma Evo and EvoX. The strong one is 10w' date=' and throws 190 lumens. 800 is sickening, and it doesn't just burn a few short hours. His lights have 3 or 5 settings, and even the weakest setting makes my Sigma look like a penlight.[/quote']

 

Azonic, I've been talking to him and his stuff is amazing. I'm started saving because I want one. It will take while to save R3800 for something that that people will only see at night.

 

 

 

Time to make you jealous!! I just bought one of his Brighter Lights! My Sigma 10w dies after about 2 hours (if you are lucky), and 5w after 3-4 hours if you jockey the on off button when you don't need it. 10w = 190 lumens. Now I can look forward to getting 340 lumens for around TWENTY HOURS.... And that's medium setting...

 

We're leaving tomorrow morning to support the runners in the Addo 100 Miler trail run (160km), and will be doing ALLOT of night riding. Well, now I guess you can't really call it night anymore!

 

[Brighter-Lights]

Dankie Johan

Everybody are suddenly manufacturing high output LED lights and I sit back and grin at their marketing crap... interesting how they come up with catchy names and special features for something so simple. I've been building lights with this technology for more than a year. Before I built the first light, I researched the technology as it became available and improved for nearly 2 years. In 2006 top output was 45 lumens at 350mA, in 2008 it's 120 lumens at 350mA.

 

Everybody are using lithium-ion batteries but my bench tests have shown that lithium-polymer gives about 10 to 20% better capacity per weight...

 

With lithium polymer battery chemistry and efficient switching regulators a 400g battery can give you 4 hours at over 800 lumens or 60 hours at 90 lumens... 90 lumens are still brighter than almost all of these LED toys on the shelve.

 

I guess the mass producers will never use the best technology available, because that would put them out of business. I don't care because it's my hobbie, I pay a price to own the best and the deal is, it performs, and lasts.

 

HID's days have been accounted for many months ago already. The latest LED's put out 100 lumens per watt... The best of halogen systems put out 30 lumens per watt where 15 to 20 lumens per watt is more realistic for halogen.

 

Any light using Lumiled's Luxeon LED's are not using the brightest LED's. Luxeon III's are lacking way behind in lumens per watt output. Luxeon Rebels which put out 100 lumens at 350mA were called back... so the Lumileds company are still at 80 lumens at 350mA.  

 

Cree R2 is currently the leader with Seoul Semiconducters P4 U-bin close behind. Seoul has announced that a U2 bin P4 will be released in 2008. They now have the P7 becoming available at 700 to 800 lumens for a single LED (4 dies in parrallel)

 

Lupine and nightlighting use Seoul P4's, I use Cree Q5's or seouls, depending on the application. Seouls have a wider primary beam and a green tint to their pure white bin. Cree's white bin is white to off white... I prefer them.

 

I find anything near 600 lumens sufficient for riding really fast at night, above that, the eye starts compensating for the overly bright surroundings. You notice this when switching from max setting to a lower level... Initially the dim beam looks dim. After a while, it appears brighter because your eyes have adapted to the new light exposure, switching back to high beam appears exessively bright for a while, before the pupils becomes smaller to compensate for the extra light.

 

Even when testing 2x revelation-4's with a combined output of over 1600 lumens, the crazy amount of light appears dimmer after riding some minutes, not exactly dim LOL, but dimmer than the initial appearance. 

 

Llumens are only a measurement of amount of brightness from a light source. A 600 lumen source with a 18 degree secondary reflector will appear much dimmer than a 600 lumen source with a 8 degree secondary reflector...  it's all about what you do with the source and how you direct and focus the light.

 

These new LED's are already widely used in appliances.... your cellphone's flash for example. Commercial lighting, street lighting. The problem is... it's very expensive. With 100 000 life hours, it's worth it... but by the time 10 000 hours are done,  much brighter LED's will be available again. (like computers, your 2 year old pc is OLD... even though it's still working and could probably work for another 10 years... I have a 286 x 12mhz laptop from 1988 still working off it's adapter!!! - battery long gone)

 

After just one year I'm upgrading lights with the latest LED's... those LED's have probably not even worked 50 hours, I utilize them for other projects like helmet lights and home lighting.

 

JG

www.brighter-lights.com

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

[GoLefty!!]

Nightlightning will have the 1000Lumen iBlaast available soon in SA.

Our beam spread is 13degrees with a white to green tint to the beam.

Run time at 1000lumen is 5hrs.

 

and there more to come...

[Hog_]

Wow BL! Very informative first post! If I didn't buy Luxeon III's already I would've canceled my order. Your lights look awesome. I'm building my own as soon as my toys arrive, but I'll buy a nice set one day when I'm rich & famous.

 

 

 

[Brighter-Lights]

1000 lumens in theory - Cut**r Electronics have been marketing the 4 LED R2 head as 1000+ lumens but my light meter shows that after optical losses a 4 x Cree R2 realisticly gives 880 lumens if that much. At this output they're driven at 1000mA which creates all sorts of problems with heat.

 

They take the Lumen rating of the R2 from the datasheet, which btw is 114 to 119 lumens at 350mA or 100 lumens per watt.

 

What nobody does is taking a light meter and actually measure their output.  Thats why we see single LED systems advertised as 280  or 290 lumens on ebay... bullsh*t = lots of word meaning nothing...

 

I've tested outputs of every LED you could find since 2006... I have Cree R2's here, U-bin Seouls... I'm busy constructing a page with real light measurements of different manufacturers. 

 

 

 

This is what my 4-Led head look like... anodized and machined in house.

 

Still testing with Cree R2's one crazy bright baby.

[AndreZA]

I want, I want, I want!!!

[Baaisikilist]

Where can i hook one of those babies up BL...?

[Azonic]

I want' date=' I want, I want!!![/quote']

 

I'm getting mine today! Yeah baby!

 

 

[Willehond]

I'm guessing this all comes at a BIG price?  Getting the bestest, newest technology usually does.  What ballpark are we talking here?  Seems that no one wants to talk money...