i needed a LCD for a microcontroller project i'm working on so i sent my cursor over to All Electronics Corp - Parts, Supplies and Components and these Luxeon LED clusters caught my eye.
ULTRABRIGHT GREEN LED CLUSTER, 8-LEDS | All Electronics Corp - Parts, Supplies and Components
ULTRABRIGHT RED LED CLUSTER, 8-LEDS | All Electronics Corp - Parts, Supplies and Components
ULTRABRIGHT YELLOW LED CLUSTER, 14 LEDS | All Electronics Corp - Parts, Supplies and Components
at $12 these are a steal since emitters alone are usually $5 each unless the future electronics sales rep calls you back. i've been wanting to get some luxeons besides the ones in my flashlights for a while, although not 1 watts, so i couldnt pass it up since it was so cheap even if it wasnt exactly what i was looking for. so i rigged a quick fix way to power them just to see how bright they are, and they are bright. the green is at half power and it was like bladow when i powered it up. i slapped this heatsink from the junk box on the bottom but it probably requires a bigger one. eventually i plan to pull the emitters off and build dmx512 rgb color washes.

so if you need bright red green or yellow light these are quite a good deal and are brighter than cathodes. just remember you need to get an LED driver for them, a boost converter kind for the red since it needs around 24 volts plus heatsinks unless you underdrive them

here they are underdriven for the camera



its very bright




arty macro shot. the emitters arent all from the same bins so there is color variation among them. they are green green, not bluish like the pic shows.



since we are about computer modding i duck tapped it to the bottom of my psu to show how it lights up a case. its not staying there since i usually just turn off the lights in there anyways

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Very nice, might ditch the cathodes and get me some of them

Love your side panel by the way.

I know the digital camera is probably overemphasizing the light diffusion, mine always does...my question has to do with the following: LEDs typically only shoot a very direct beam with little light diffusion; they're great as spotlights, for example, if you want to highlight a specific region of your case. Cathodes on the other hand, make a much more diffuse glow, for example if you want your entire case interior to glow or make all your UV-reactive stuff glow.

How do those 8-LED arrays work for making a more general light? I would assume they only illuminate a rather small region, and the cam is making it look a lot more diffused and washed out than reality. Those arrays *could* light up a larger area if each of the LEDs was positioned with slightly increasing beam angles outward from the center of the array.

An array like those with 8 UV LEDs would work perfectly for illuminating my 250mm side panel fan, painted with ClearNEON UV-reactive paint, if they made a nice light spread and not just illuminate a 2-inch-square area from 6 inch distance. What do you think?

The luxeon LED's aren't like the regular 3 or 5mm ones - they can have up to a 120 degree spread as opposed to the 15-30 degree on the standard ones.
(am in the process of making a video camera light and have been scouring the net for components)

Also they scatter light in a lambertian pattern (way more equally across their spread as opposed to a "hot spot") which gives better "diffusion" and a more uniform result like cathodes do

I did notice the cathode in the bottom of the case though

these boards use lambertian emitters which are about 90 degrees without optics. the lumileds spec sheet gives a luminance graph for beam pattern.

if your making a video light or something white then you should look into the cree xr-e LEDs since they are better than the luxeons. or those little mini HID lights.
BestHongKong.com Cree XLamp 7090 XR-E LED Star


it's 54" to the celling ontop of my roommate's bed. he stays with his girlfriend so i can leave my crap on his bed. the distortion is from the fisheye lens and between the LED boards it's actually yellow plus the green is being given more power than the red.

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Quote: Originally Posted by carbongraphite if your making a video light or something white then you should look into the cree xr-e LEDs since they are better than the luxeons. or those little mini HID lights. BestHongKong.com Cree XLamp 7090 XR-E LED Star

I'm actually looking at the ones from Lamina ceramics - kinda like the ones that Zylight use (but only single colour)
The problem... cost an arm and a leg to buy

Man, those two shots of the insides with the lights on are probably the most beautiful pictures of case lighting ever! It's probably way too harsh on the eyes in real life though...Wish you could wash it out.....maybe a trick window?

How did you get a picture of the LED Die? Ive been trying to do it, but Ive only come so Close to it.

i used a nikon d70, micro-nikkor-p macro lens and lens extention tube. it's an old lens so manual only and macro usually means tripod. the meter doesnt work with older lenses so you have to use trial and error, the shot review, histogram and experience. plus when it gets to the computer it looks alot different then on the tiny camera LCD, hopefully better.









here is a purple LED




this lens also works well capturing anything upclose. here is theatrical smoke vapor




you can also get pretty good results with a point and shoot and a glass magnifying glass. the magnifying glass can add alittle chromatic and spherical abberation though.
just put the camera on macro, turn off the flash and dont shake the camera. yeah, i broke the CF card door.

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Quote: Originally Posted by carbongraphite i used a nikon d70, micro-nikkor-p macro lens and lens extention tube. it's an old lens so manual only and macro usually means tripod. the meter doesnt work with older lenses so you have to use trial and error, the shot review, histogram and experience. plus when it gets to the computer it looks alot different then on the tiny camera LCD, hopefully better.

You know, that's what's missing from this forum. A section devoted to photography tips 'n' tricks. Think of how many brutal pics get submitted; blurred by motion or incorrect focus, night-pics that are grainy and washed out, overly contrasted pics of lighted areas, etc...

I like these tips carbongraphite!

I didn't have any of the luxeons to photograph but macro stuff is interesting to me. I have a 3 bulb led flashlight. It's a bluish white output. It's amazing though once you get in tight on these things how many imperfections are really in the plastic shell. Both pics where taken with the leds on. Camera (Minolta Dimage Z5) was set at F8.0, 1/1000, ISO 50 at roughly 4cm distance from the leds. I left them full size at 2560x1920.

http://home.comcast.net/~vf1000ride2/PICT2041.JPG
http://home.comcast.net/~vf1000ride2/PICT2044.JPG