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Thread: High power LED's

  1. #1
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    Default High power LED's

    Loadsa fun. Just got 4 from Hong Kong for $13 including post.

    Got 3 - Red Green Blue at 3 Watts each and 1 RGB at 3 Watts total.

    Sure Electronics on ebay.

    Just got to find some way to hook them up to the pc to get a Maxwell triangle thingy and dial up any colour I want.
    A lovely childhood. Just me my mother and the voices.

  2. #2
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    Just like lasers you will soon find that all of them at full will give you a very greenish white color, it's quite foul looking. The production company that I work for owns like 400 feet of color kinetics Color Blaze and Blast lights... you should see what kind of stuff they're capable of! They work fairly well as strobe lights.

    Here is a picture of a recent show I worked on. The Color Blaze units are inside the truss pointing down at the dance floor. Its being ran with the Hog 3 software on an IPC console. There is a slow color chase effect going on in that photo (gotta love that Barco 10k!). Oh yeah just a completely off topic side note... this is a High School Dance!
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 4 091alt.JPG  


  3. #3
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    Do you have some sort of driver circuit rigged up for these? I have a feeling that these devices need some sort of constant-current supply and may fail if they're just connected to a non-regulated PSU or Battery. I also think they need heat sinks. Hope someone more knowledgable than me will give a definitive response to this but I'd advise caution at this stage!

  4. #4
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    Default

    They certainly need heat sinking and also a constant current which I am giving them via a current limited power supply and just leaving the PSU at 5V which it will never reach due to the current limiting (650mA for 3W and 350mA each for the 3X 1 Watts).

    The specs' seem strange to me as the 3W RGB LED is simply three single diodes in one package so how three seperate 1W LED's = 1050 mA total while the 3W LED = 650mA total I don't know.

    I was going to use Robin Bowens drivers but seems a bit over the top to me as a 7805 with a series resistor will do the job fine for now. LED's are nowhere near as fussy as laser diodes and they also have a lovely linear curve for modulation.

    Yes the ouput does have a slight green tinge on the RGB white. I'm not sure if that could be 'tweaked out' by reducing the green level slightly.
    A lovely childhood. Just me my mother and the voices.

  5. #5
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    The diodes uses in the RGB unit could be far more efficient than the individual LEDs?? Thats just what I can think of.

  6. #6
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    Cool

    High School dance? Damn... That looked good for a friggin nightclub! (My high school dances never looked that cool.)

    Adam

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Buffo View Post
    High School dance? Damn... That looked good for a friggin nightclub! (My high school dances never looked that cool.)

    Adam
    Adam, thats only about a third of the lights and truss. The centerpiece was a 4 foot mirror ball!

    Haha... and yeah, I was the guy in control of the Axom Media Server... I like the creepy Tribal Eye! (haha, look that that girl scratching her head in confusion!) I get my kicks doing stuff like that!

    BTW... sorry for Hijacking!
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 4 160alt.JPG  

    4 157alt.JPG  


  8. #8
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    Cool

    Damn fine work there buddy!

    Wish my dances were like that. I once went to one that Daryl Mand put on. (This is back in the late 70's mind you...) He had a hell of a nice setup, but it was more than the school had ever seen and I think it sort of freaked them out. He wasn't invited back. Too bad, really, because he had some awesome stuff. (No lasers though.)

    4 ft mirrored ball! Must weigh a ton. I've got to admit though, the mirrored ball is one thing that never goes out of style. (Not that I'd do it at a gig, but if you've got one in your home, display a colorful abstract on a mirrored ball sometime... You get a room full of colorful beams! Watch the power though - not the safest thing in the world to do - but damn cool to watch.)

    Adam

  9. #9
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    Nice pictures. Very good lighting. The projections are amazing. What camera did you use? It seems unusually able to cope well with the lights, and get very strong images.

  10. #10
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    Thanks for the good words guys!!

    the 4 footer weighs in at about 150-200lbs, two people can lift it, one person probably could... its just REALLY awkward! Its just a fiberglass shell with mirrors.

    Doc, the camera I used is Canon's new Rebel XTI, with the standard lens. I wish I had the Macro lens with me, I love the depth of field you can achieve!

    -Max

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