I keep over 50 L2âs on noctigonâs on hand for local customer flashlight builds (U2-1A, U2-1C, T6-3C) and also follow your philosophy for flashlight applications. But Im also well aware of the huge disparity between what impresses the light meter versus what impresses the human eyes. Then thereâs the reality of practicality & usefulness for something that will remain on for extended periods of time and must be reliable and useable to those that use them for more than 10 minutes continuously.
Im planning a large light bar for a pickup and a landing light array for an aircraft. I dont need copper since the sinks will be massive for the truck and active for the aircraft. Im more concerned with the correct bin/tint to achieve the anticipated performance. They will be driven at 3A by a custom built driver designed to handle the spikes generated by an alternator. In a few years, the emitters will be ripped out and replaced with something better while the old ones are relegated to garage down-lighting arrays. If I could get 50 copper L2 1A-U2âs @$2.50-3.50 ea, Id go that route, but it would be overkill for this. If Im in the ballpark, please let me know.
Its going to take a while to gather parts, complete some field studies and have some machine work completed, but should make for some interesting build threads to help others try for themselves. I have yet to find a build thread that shows how to put together a reliable true 20 & 40K lumen light bar, so this might be the one. Converting Chinese light bars are a complete no-go, considering the amount of heat sinking required and their overall poor design and horrible thermal path. To bad, because that would have taken nearly all the pain (fun) out of the build.