Hello everyone! Here is another newbie that is curious about this somewhat strange flashlight hobby. I’m more here for the LED´s though
As a hobby photographer, i have been looking for a cheaper DIY version of a handhelt LED striplight for my projects and i got blown away by the vast sortiment of LED´s that is available.
Therefore, i thought that i maybe could get to learn from some people that know their stuff, althought i don’t really know where to post my stupid questions. Is there anyone who want to be my guiding light? (Pun somewhat intended). Cheers!
Alright! you got me I found this place while searching for high CRI LED’s rather than flashlights, but who knows what happens.
Where do i find good information about how you solder led’s on heatsinks/pcb’s etc? I know how to solder wires and such, but i don’t know what to do with a led on a baseplate or so.
Thanks! What are the stars used for btw? Is it for easier connecting and soldering because the star has bigger soldering points or is it for cooling or other reasons?
Right, physical support and mounting, cooling and bringing out the electrical contacts to an access point. Imagine trying to solder wires to a SMD device, and allow for desoldering/ re-soldering.
Also a hobby photographer using flashlights. Striplights are not what I use though, so I probably can’t help much. I use cheap “zoom” lights for light “painting”. When it comes to modding I’ve just replaced drivers and LEDs (already mounted on stars). As a photographer you might be interested in the LEDs tint? Maybe you know, but if not you might be interested in FastTech, they specify color temperature of the LEDs they sell.
If you’re into photography just like I am, high CRI LED’s are recommended, especially the Nichia 219’s. They have 92+ CRI and the subjects look lively, compared to the cool white 65 CRI LED’s that make people look zombified.
Mike: I guess that you mean the colour temperature when you talk about the tint. I am trying to get as close to the neutral 5500k as possible, and the closest i have found have been around 5000k.
ryansoh3: They seem really great, but i don’t know where to get such LED’s for a reasonable price. I am a studen’t, so my budget isn’t really sky high.
My plan with the project is to make a more reasonably prized mimic of the so-called Ice light which translates to a bunch of bright, high CRI LED’s in a plumbers pipe. Do someone have a vague idea how many i might need? I am planning to go after the same size as the icelight, and therefore the light emitting part of the pipe will be about 32 cm long. Will one or two rows of LED’s be enough to bring decent light? I will set up some kind of diffusor panel over them, so a geometrical arrangement should make the light spread evenly enough.
I’m not completely sure, but the lumens from multiple leds should add up (or am i wrong?) and then i would need about 10 or 12 nichia 219’s to get the same light output as the ice light theoretical max output. With my 12v 6800mAh battery pack and the LED’s in rows of 4 per row, it should work out pretty easily, or do i need a driver for this?
What do you think? do you think it will be a great build or am i going unneccessarily far?
Thanks for the links! After some research, i have found out that there is Nichia 219A’s and 219B’s where the B-variants can take more mA’s and are brighter. The A variants are about 100lm and the B variants are about 250lm. There is also several sub-variants where i have settled for this one for the moment. It is a colder temperature than the B variant you linked (around 5000k vs 4500k), is one dollar cheaper and is a bit brighter too! Here is the chart for the exact specs where the NVSW219B is the cold one and the NVSL219B is the warm. Now the question is if i should settle for 4 or 8 leds (in series of 4, they will draw 12 volts from the battery). With 2300 lm from 8 LED’s, i will need some kind of regulation. I am settling for PWM regulation, but that will lead to flickering if i would want it as a video light (a small problem with little matter) but i can always hook it up on 2 buttons so i can run it on 4 or 8 LED’s.
Welcome to BLF Railon. While reading your posts I think that the Nichia 219B that kaidomain.com is selling might just be the right led. They claim that it is a 92CRI one, of which after having tested it I am still not certain, but it surely does give off a very good illumination, and is a bit cooler tint than the high CRI 219A led. They sell 5 for 13 dollars now.
Thanks for the info, djozz! As RaceR86 mentioned in #34 in your thread, photographers can always do post-production, and i know that i will do that even if the CRI would be 100. A higher CRI rating makes it possible to double it as a video light, but that isn’t too important for me. After beginning to settle for the chosen LED, i stumbled over this strange thingy called a “Chip On Board”-LED. It is specified to be between 475-575lm and 790-925 lm depending on the amount of watts. For the lowest, it will give you about 134lm/dollar for the 9w variant compared to the nichia 219B’s 68lm/dollar. They also claim to be 90+ CRI for the one who cares, and the “violet chip” LED claims to be 95+ CRI as a sacrifice for only 44lm/dollar.
There doesn’t really seem to exist any reviews on them , but they have a pretty active google+ and twitter, and i don’t think that an asian scammer would use their time to make such a high quality infographic as this one. The setback is that they go on 20v, which leads to my next question:
For LED’s that don’t run or 12v or a multiple of 12, how should i make it run on a 12v battery? My reason for a 12v battery is that i already have one with a large capacity, and saving money is my biggest hobby besides from spending it
