60 L.E.D. v flouro

WOW,

I better go for a drive up there!!!.....or maybe the Slacks Creek store may match that price???

By the way, what sold you on these lights?

Adrian

Hi TheUndertaker,

I couldn't resist myself and printed this thread, went down to Slacks Creek Campmart, showed them your "2 for $130" deal. They rang Lawnton to check up and every staff member denied knowing anything about it. In the end they said I could have one for $75, so I took it. I feel it is still good value......now..... some way to diffuse maybe 1/2 of it?
Thanks for your imput.

Adrian

Wok,

Thanks, that might be the go!.... Or maybe something flexible. mmmmm
I'll keep watching for more idea's.
Thanks again.

Adrian

Davoe (WA),

Yes Versalite's ARE good, but use 5 times the power as the 60L.E.D. light, this just gives people 1 more option.

Thanx

Adrian

And I love light weight L.E.D. headlamps too.

Adrian

Davoe,
Batteries.......I've forgotten how to change them (not really), and bulbs.... never again!.. Good ah!

Adrian

A bit of interesting theory on LED's for those who are or might be interested.

LED's aren't globes. They are Light Emitting Diodes.

They are a photo electric junction of materials like galium arsenide, gallium phosphate and indium arsenide. They are a PN junction which generate light when current flows in one direction (forward) only and require a minimum voltage to begin generation. They have a low reverse voltage breakdown threshold so if you hook them up incorrectly they are likely to be destroyed, unlike a filament globe.

Because they are solid state and generate very little heat and also as they do not use a degenerating filament or gas to generate light they are long lasting. In fact most light emitting diodes will last for something of the order of 60,000-100,000 hours.

They are very efficient requiring between 2mA and 20mA to operate. That's 0.002 Amps to 0.02 Amps. To increase brightness they can be pulsed for a short duration at higher currents - eg. 10 pulses per second (or more) of very short duration of say 60mA, giving off what looks like constantly bright lights.

They switch on in a millisecond or so unlike a filament which may take 25-40milliseconds, therefore their implications for saving rear end collisions are huge.

If all brake lights were LED's at 60kmh the person travelling behind the braking vehicle may have a reduced braking distance of up to 6 metres!! At 100kmh the reduction is as much as 10-12 metres. City drivers should get an insurance premium reduction for fitting LED brake lights IMHO.

The long and the short of it is that you shouldn't ever have to replace them. If you weren't interested in the rest of it I apologise....but LED's aren't globes and koalas aren't bears, but you can call them what you like, they don't care and I don't either.

Dave

wow aways good to see aome data as well as opinions. With all that phosphate and arsenide I am assuming they make a vey poor food choice in survival situations. I am unsure about the never having to change them as I notice alot of trucks lights have at least some out (probably get 100x more use than most people would)

The brighter they are the more expensive. I mentioned in one of my messages you could drive them harder for a very short time. This is to say pulse them 10 -15 times a second or more at much higher currents.

By doing this you can achieve the brightness of the expensive LED's from cheaper ones that if they were run at one lower current constantly would be much dimmer.

Of course this increases the failure rate. The advantage with theses is that 20 or 30 out of sixty could fail and you would still have a brake light or indicator, where one filament fails in a globe and that's it.

The failure rates were a lot higher in the spoiler brake lights of 10 years ago than now, and you notice that the ten year old ones now are starting to look a bit grim, but you can still see when they are on or not.

I found a great high mount stop/tail lamp from Hella which i cut into the fibreglass canopy of my ute. It's got two brightness levels, a tail light and brake light in one.

Dave

Glenn,

I'm not sure how MCD's compare with candle power etc. I have just noticed when researching that L.E.D.'s carry a MCD rating and it relates to their brightness. Try Google.
One day I might pull out my light meter and take some readings.

Adrian

The optical power of an LED is referred to in milliwatts. mW

The luminous intensity is referred to in millicandela. mcd

milli = thousandth

ie 500mcd = 500 millicandela

The candela is
Definition: [n] the basic unit of luminous intensity adopted under the System International d'Unites; equal to 1/60 of the luminous intensity per square centimeter of a black body radiating at the temperature of 2,046 degrees Kelvin

For a much better description than I can give (I started trying to explain it but I've forgotten too much physics and electronic theory to do it easily - this stuff doesn't matter much to a patient with chest pain :o) try this one. It's the simplest I can find on what is a very complicated topic.

Click here

Dave