Let's get this category going. I want to have some LED lighting in my apartment(mostly because I can - cost-wise I think it'll take a long time before it will win over my CFL's).
I don't think regular E27 bulbs are the future for LED's, so I'll need some new light enclosures. And since most of the cheap Chinese lights use crappy 1W emitters, I'll prefer to make them myself.
So - give up you ideas for lamps with modding potential. I'd like to think of this treat as a sort of brainstorming, so no limitations as to the kind of light(wall light, build-in, loft, bulb etc). Just throw all you have in here.
I really like the solid look on this, and even though it's specced to be able to heatsink a 1W LED, I think it might be able to take ~2-3 watts if you use an LED with decent efficiency. From the looks of it, it has a TIR lens that might give a nice floody beam pattern.
Okay, this isn't just an enclosure. You also get 3 LED's and a AC driver. I have no idea how well it is with heatsinking, but by replacing the LED's with some warm or neutral XM-L or XP-G's, it might make a great reading lamp
Okay, not an enclosure, but that's quite cheap for a DC regulator if you don't want to use Chinese power supply's for your projects. By using an old 12V DC power converter you will have the power you need. Also available on DX for 3, 4 and 6W.
Personally, I live in rental, so the buildin enclosures aren't an option for my apartment, but could be awesome for my parents - they hate CFL's, so they still use incandescent almost everywhere). What have you guys used to LED up your homes? I sort of like the manafont one, but would prefer a light with room for a single 3W LED.
What i want is a real replacement for a 200W incandescent bulb - say 3000 lumens. So we'd be looking at 4-5 XM-Ls and an appropriate PSU. Probably simplest to run them in series so a 13-17V DC 3A PSU. With 4 LEDs, a 13.8V PSU ought to be adequate - but it has to pump out around 40 watts - so we can forget a 5kg linear device. And we'll want a huge chunk of heatsink mass.
I can't see that lot fitting in a conventional light fitting though.
I suspect that light fixtures will have to be radically redesigned to suit LED lighting.
i just find i know less n less about electricity lol
applying 13v in series at 3A - how does this not burn out the first one. doesnt it get all the voltage ?
i would think the positive split to the four leds positives and back ...
don or anyone that can help me understand why its easier or even safer for the LED
also i am making a light not necessarily a bulb once i find the proper ac adapter. i have yet to find one running less than 3.3v running at 1.5A , once i go to a 3 XML ( failed to mention xmls) i need a 9-10v running at 1.5A.??
also i agree , the bulb format makes it difficult to apply new tech - driver - heat dissipation etc , wonder what 4-5 xml driven at 1.5a puts out heat wise compared to a regular 100w
I can only agree. People who want to change existing light with LED's will mostly be disappointed. I can imagine lighting moving towards more build-in lights in new houses, however.
Voltage drop across a series of resistors will be equal, if the resistors are of the same size. With LED's, the LED's decide what the voltage drop is. If your power supply isn't current limited, you can use a resistor to decide the current going to the LED's (used mostly with "regular" 5mm LED's). With power LED's, that usually burns of a lot of energy in a stupid resistor (= more heat), so we use current limiting circuits instead.
A diode(and LED) can only pass current, if the voltage drop exceeds the forward-voltage of the diode. You can read up on it on wikipedia if you want to learn more.
You suggestion would amount to wiring them in parallel, and that would work equally well. However, it's easier to find a driver that supplies the current we need for a single LED, but a much higher voltage. You rarely find CC drivers(constant current), that supply ~3-6A for 3-4V(which would be needed for running 3 LED's, between 1-2A each). There seem to be a lot of ~670mA drivers, 12V however. This is most likely because constant current regulators are more expensive than voltage regulators.
I saw it on DX a couple of weeks ago, and considered buying it, but I must admit that I'm not too keen on replacing regular light bulbs with LED's. I only have three lamps that use regular E27 sockets, and one needs a ~100W incandescent or a 20+W CFL(that's physically small - I have only found one brand where a 20W fits). The other is a desk lamp where I have a DX 3*1W light bulb I like quite a bit. Light output isn't particularly great, but the tint is nice. The last is a hallway lamp, that uses a 14W CFL at the moment, and I'm considering switching that to a 20W CFL. The light you are linking to would be nice with a warm-white XM-L however(I would just use a single LED driven at 5W, instead of 5*1W as is suggested). I doubt it can keep it cool enough at 5W though.
What I would love is a lot of small lamps that would provide great indirect lighting in my apartment.
I accually saw a shop today that had a box of CPU coolers for ~6$ each. They should be able to run a 5-6W XM-L without active cooling. Then I'd just had to make an enclosure for them(or hide them somewhere :P)
Any more links to enclosures like that for leds? Unable to find more on other pages including flea bay. Perhaps a hint on the real name for that thing so i search myself. Led shell enclosure did not help much.
Ill give them a try. Thank you kindly. Afterall i have 15 osram warm white 3w emitters on the way (LCK-LED at 1usd or so each) i feel the need to use them somewhere.