LED LAMPS

[Craig Weis]

Highlite the below address~and in edit~copy and paste~into Goggle.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/index.cgi?action=DispPage&Page2Disp=%2Fcarbulb-notes.htm

and 

Don Klipstein's LED Main Page
Most recent update or addition in anything below of mine 2/14/2010, with the latest noted update on links offsite from here 2/21/2009.

MY LED WEB FILES
Efficient and bright LEDs! Efficiency of some good ones and some runner-ups in lumens per watt, millicandela and beam angle ratings for some of these, where to get most of these. Also links. (updated slightly 2/14/2010)
The above file as of 5/11/2008 before removal of most notes on items noted in 2002 or before then.

Many high efficiency LEDs (among ones currently in production) remain only moderately more efficient than better incandescent lamps with exception of some recent stellar ones, but here is the explanation why they can be so much more efficient than incandescent in some applications such as traffic lights. (updated slightly 10/12/2009)

Low Current LEDs - Use just a few milliamps or easily even .22-2 mA for LED indicator lamps! Reduce battery requirements or power cost, and equipment heating! Updated 7/29/2009.

My LED FAQ! This covers many of the questions people ask me. Please read this before e-mailing me. New file 7/4/2001, updated 11/28/2009.

Overview of the different LED types - the different colors, brightnesses, and a bit of the basic chemistry and electrical and other properties of each of these. (Updated 6/26/2002)

"LEDs 101" or "LEDs For Dummies" - how to make them work, why to use a dropping resistor instead of a 2.4 or whatever volt regulator. (Don't laugh until you see what I have seen in sci.electronics.basics!) (Opened to the public 7/16/99, but still under construction with an update on 5/1/2003.)

The truth of pulsing LEDs to make them appear brighter. The nonlinearity that sometimes makes this work is in LEDs and not in human vision. This usually does not work when feeding 20 mA or more of average current through an ultrabright LED. (new document 12/1/99, updated slightly 6/19/2001)

(My "odd LED" page has been removed 2/9/2009.)

UV from the right kind of blue LED! Other blue LEDs and blue light sources will get some blacklight effects since many non-blue fluorescent substances fluoresce from some visible light as well as UV. But 450 nM broadband blue GaN LEDs can be made to produce some UV! UPDATED 10/1/2006 - links to spectral results of a hack on a historic obsolete kind of blue LED, the first commercially successful type of high brightness blue LED!

My Yellow SiC LED Page - I managed to get my hands on one of those rare LEDs! (NEW FILE 12/13/2000, updated 6/22/2008)

My page on adjusting / modifying / mixing LED colors for special colors, such as high brightness / high efficiency "lime green".

How much you need of red, green and blue LEDs to make white of various color temperatures. Only certain LED types are covered here. You need more red and especially notably much less blue than many would think! (New file 7/4/2001, updated 1/2/2008)

My Blue LED Shootout - to show advantages and disadvantages of popular and less-popular wavelengths of blue LEDs. (updated slightly 9/24/2000)

My page on Organic LEDs, Polymer LEDs and the like. New and still under construction with slow progress, some on 7/16/2003 - I am mainly following the usual semiconductor kind of LEDs more than stuff sometimes known as "DC electroluminescence".

My Nightlight File. Link from here to there added 1/16/2004 due to recently adding there its first LED nightlight. Updated 4/21/2009.


OTHER LED WEB FILES
Links tested 2/21/2010 after recent changes
Craig Johnson's LED page, lots of actual test results and some useful torture test results! This growing site is very impressive and highly recommended!
Direct entry to this worldwide-significant site has changed in early 2002 - http://www.ledmuseum.org/ledleft.htm

NOTABLE - Craig Johnson has a "news" page at http://www.ledmuseum.org/whatsnew.htm

That one consists of his news largely from within the past 30 days from now, including updates of all sizes from really notable to very minor.

Non-redirected entry that works with older web browsers such as Netscape 4.7 for Windows 98:

http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/led/
http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/led/ledleft.htm
http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/led/whatsnew.htm

And note that Craig does lots of updating and more updating and more frequently than I do. He has more time to test LEDs and to type web material than I do so you should check this site out. There will always be something you can find there and not in my site, probably even nowhere else in the entire World Wide Web!

The LEDMuseum site has incurred a slowdown in growth in late 2008. However, updates continue mostly at least weekly to almost daily with no sign of stopping. Most recent noted significant update 1/29/2010 for an LED, 12/10/2009 for what I noticed as a significant update on an LED flashlight, 2/21/2010 for an LED product other than a flashlight, 11/11/2009 for a laser product, 2/14/2010 for a non-LED flashlight, 8/28/2009 for a non-LED lighting product other than a flashlight, and 10/1/2009 for updating links from his site to other sites.

UPDATE 4/14/2006 - Now added: Spectra of many LEDs, LED flashlights and other LED products, and other light sources especially neon glow lamps. In March 2006 Craig Johnson got hold of a spectrometer (he has had another working for a while in the past), and has published many spectral power distribution curves of LEDs, LED flashlights and a few other LED products as well as several non-LED lamps/products. To get these, look among the first dozen or so of the bazillions of links to other pages in that site, in the left frame of http://ledmuseum.home.att.net/ledleft.htm!

http://www.lightemittingdiodes.org, a site with lots of theoretical info on light emitting diodes, much of it quite technical.

Paul Mathew's LED FAQ - new location.

New location for updated or proposed-update location:
http://www2.whidbey.net/opto/LEDFAQ/The%20LED%20FAQ%20Pages.html

The High Brightness LED Page at Compound Semiconductor.

A list of manufacturers of LED and LED products at the Lighting Research Center at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The home page of Renssalaer's Lighting research Center - includes links to LED stuff.

An article in EE Times on the history and progress and the efficiency of white LEDs and high power LEDs.

The "OddOne's" LED and white LED / oddball-LED-applications forum!


WEB SITES OF LED MANUFACTURERS THAT MANUFACTURE LED DICE ("CHIPS")
Nichia is the first company to produce commercially successful high brightness blue LEDs and white ones derived from these.
Their Main Website in Japan.
The website of their main USA office.

NOTE - current upgraded grade LEDs are best-obtained from Nichia sales offices. They do handle small orders. The ones from surplus outfits are often previous grade (dimmer but still very impressive) even if you confirm the same part numbers. (Nichia is known to improve their LEDs without changing their part numbers.) Or, they may vary strangely in beam width.

They now have UV LEDs, and violet and blue laser diodes.

Toyoda Gosei is another maker of ultrabright blue, blue-green, and green gallium nitride LEDs. This way to a top-level page for their LEDs.

Straight to the web site of Cree, another maker of bright gallium nitride LEDs.

The LED top page of Avago, spun off by Agilent, spun off by Hewlett Packard.

Lumileds, formerly a joint venture of Agilent and Philips Lighting, now it's Philips Lumileds.

Toshiba.

Oriol, a new player in the GaN LED game.


LED LAMP MANUFACTURERS THAT GET DICE FROM THE ABOVE MANUFACTURERS
Kingbright
Infineon
Lumex.
Marktech.
Vishay (Telefunken).
Dialight.
Ledtronics, a maker of LED products such as indicator lamps and LED screw-in light bulbs.
ETG Technology, a source of LED lamps and cluster lamps including CREE LED lamps and LED lamps with Cree dice.

Hebei I.T. Shanghai Co.

SuperBrightLEDs.com

Straight to the web site of Opto Technology, a maker of miniaturized LED cluster lamps in heat-sinkable TO-66 packages and the like. They also do custom jobs.

Lighting Science Group.


Other Interesting LED Suppliers, etc.
Roithner Laser.Includes oddball LEDs such as infrared ones of oddball wavelengths such as 740 nm and some higher power ones.
Craig Johnson's list of suppliers, manufacturers, etc. Includes LED products such as brake lights, marine cabin lights and flashlights as well as just LEDs.



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Written by Don Klipstein.

Please read my Copyright and authorship info.
Please read my Disclaimer.

[Salty19]

Hopefully at a point not in the too distance future,  LED's or reflectors will be designed for more broad light spreading capabilities.  Today they are too directional in nature. 

Have a "superbrightled.com" assembly on the motorcycle (for an alternate running and brake light).  Works fine.  And reliable/waterproof.   But they are directional.  If you're off center you can barely see them.

[rwdsr]

I'm thinking about getting one of those real super nice stainless steel LED solar walk lights and putting it on top of my mast for an anchor light.

[curtisv]

There are replacement festoon bulbs on the market that are supposed to have the same output as the incandescents that they replace.

The Aqua Signals and Hellas of the world seem to be slowly catching on that they can't charge $200 or more for a $30 nav light with LEDs when tossing out the bulb and adding a LED replacement adds only about $15 to the price.

The advantage of integrated LED nav light over buying a replacement bulb might be that it is completely sealed and submersable.  Its still not work tripling the price, but prices are headed in the right direction.

Next season I have to at least replace the bicolor bow light because the lens is smashed which then let salt water into it.  If the integrated LED nav light price is still too high this spring I'll just buy a cheap replacement for what I have and maybe put in a LED festoon bulb.

Curtis

[Steve Ullrich]

I experimented with one of those last summer.  Charged it up all day and put it in the basement when the sun went down.  Didn't make it through the night and I'm not sure when it failed to the point where you couldn't see it for three miles.  I wouldn't trust one to keep me safe from traffic all night... Going to bite the bullet and buy a real anchor light this spring.  I may replace the OEM festoon with LED's, I'll have to study that a bit more.

I'm thinking about getting one of those real super nice stainless steel LED solar walk lights and putting it on top of my mast for an anchor light.

[curtisv]

That reminds me that I should check the anchor light for a replacement festoon.  Running that thing all night for a few nights adds up.  10W is a little under an AMP and maybe 10AH all night but 1W or 2W would be better.  While I'm at it I might as well check the stern light and convert them all to LED.  LED also stay bright down to 9V or below (down to dead flat battery).

Curtis

[Craig Weis]

"I'm thinking about getting one of those real super nice stainless steel LED solar walk lights and putting it on top of my mast for an anchor light."


Not legal as far as the Coast Guard is concerned. But you may find a fine awaiting you. Unless your on a tiny, no shipping lake'.

skip.

[rwdsr]

I didn't know that!  Thanks for the info.  Scratch that idea.

[mrb]

Why not stay under 7 meters, stow the motor and carry a big flashlight or lantern ?

Melvin

[nick23]

I have a "Beka" LED anchor/cockpit light from Bebi electronics:
http://www.bebi-electronics.com/beka.html

I would highly recommend it!  Super bright anchor light and  it also has nice warm lights that point down for use in the cockpit.  I usually hang mine off the backstay and just plug it into the 12v plug in the cockpit.  It even has a photosensor to automatically turn on in darkness.  Seems very well made and durable.

I'm not sure if it is Coast Guard legal, but it is so bright that I would be pretty disappointed if the Coast Guard singled me out in an anchorage and gave a fine.

[tmorgan]

I have the bebi-electronics light as well.  They  are very bright. 

[curtisv]

What I've heard from other sailors is the best bet is a legal 1 mile visibility light on the mast head and one or two small lights at roughly eye level to keep a boat at close range that is not looking up at your mast from hitting you.  If a boat is so close that they don't see your masthead it doesn't need 1 mile visibility.  The small lights can be one in the cockpit and one on the foredeck.  Even a fairly dim light in the pitch dark should be noticable from real close as long as there are no ambient white lights from land.

I've had a tough time figuring out where I was entering Nantucket Harbor in the pitch dark and trying to use the flashlight to avoid hitting anyone but not shining it into cabins and annoying people.  At that time the only available places to drop the hook are way in the back of the anchorage.  Most of the boats in a harbor like that don't have any light at all.

For me the anchor light is most often needed when anchored somewhere outside of a harbor, like in the lighthouse red zone (out of the channel) waiting slack current and then a current in your favor.  No high speed ferry will run you over in the red zone but its best to let anyone wandering by know that you are there.  Another spot is the channel off the Chatham Break which is impassable at low tide for anyone with more than 1 foot draft.  Anchorage is available outside the channel but best to have an anchor light there if waiting it out at night.  There is a designated anchorage in the Atlantic just outside Polluck Rip in about 70 feet of water for anyone that wants to enter Nantucket Sound from that direction and needs to wait out the tide cycle.  I haven't planned things badly enough to end up waiting it out there, ... so far.  But I do have 380' of rode (80 of it chain) should I need to.  Not 7:1 but should hold.

Another nice place to anchor near where I sail is Katoma Bay just past the Edgartown Harbor mooring area in Martha's Vineyard.  There too no one seems to have a light on board.  The anchorage is shallow so you won't find many boats anchored there, if any at all.  If there are any boats they will be small.

I'm curious as to where others use their anchor lights since most places that I've been to that are both mooring fields and anchorages don't require lights and most boats there don't have them lit.  If you arrive there at night you are supposed to expect boats to be there and avoid hitting them.

Curtis

ps - Katoma Bay is where I saw these beauties.  No lights on them either.  I'm glad I didn't bump the varnished wood hull on the way in the night before.

[Craig Weis]

It's not the light source. I am told the 'secret' to tossing that light beam out, albeit from incandescence or LED, weak or strong in candle power, is the Fresnel lens that achieves a 'Coast Guard approved' several mile in radius. And I'm of the mind to say that the drive way sun charged LED's are not fitted with the Fresnel lens.

It's about the same thing as having a product UL approved. With so much testing, and paperwork, and time, and reporting, and filing with this agency and that agency, and usually these two or more agency are stepping on each other toes that the actual approval is delayed for years and cost mucho dollars. So much so that a UL approved anything becomes meaningless.

curtisv; What a beautiful picture of that bright-work sailing sloop. The schooner is a fine one as well. Here in Sturgeon Bay behind a house is a similar all bright-work sloop on the hard and sitting in a cradle for several years. I saw it sail into town but now her seams have opening up and I'm looking at daylight.

skip.