PDA

View Full Version : Yet another led question. When should one think about bin ra



Ryma Mara
12-14-2006, 05:39 AM
I read a couple times about highest bin ratings on the leds and i was wandering how much of a difference it is from one bin to another.

xwingband
12-14-2006, 05:46 AM
I'll get some pics... On some colors it doesn't really matter, but the blues in particular it's a big concern.

Any cyan other than bin 1 or 2 is going have a green tinge to it. If you get a bin 6 you'll swear it is a green.

For blues... man it's insane the change of bins. Bin 6 is the best cyan substitute. Mid bins like 3 and 4 are really nice. Low bin is getting to the point where you'd think it's a royal blue.

So unless you are getting a cyan or blue I'd just go for the luck of the draw. You may have to worry if you want Red-Orange too, but otherwise you're not going to be worried with it looking like another color.

Ryma Mara
12-14-2006, 06:00 AM
I'll get some pics... On some colors it doesn't really matter, but the blues in particular it's a big concern.

Any cyan other than bin 1 or 2 is going have a green tinge to it. If you get a bin 6 you'll swear it is a green.

For blues... man it's insane the change of bins. Bin 6 is the best cyan substitute. Mid bins like 3 and 4 are really nice. Low bin is getting to the point where you'd think it's a royal blue.

So unless you are getting a cyan or blue I'd just go for the luck of the draw. You may have to worry if you want Red-Orange too, but otherwise you're not going to be worried with it looking like another color.


Awsome X,

Just so I understand you correctly

low bin cyan is almost a whiteishblue with a touch of green?
Mid bin cyan is a more of a blue/green?
High bin is gonna be green(ish)?

A low bin blue is a royal blue(ish)
A mid bin blue is a blue?
A high bin blue is a cyan(ish).

Do I undestand that correctly?

Thanks X you have been very helpfull with helping me understand the nature of ledsabers.

xwingband
12-14-2006, 06:09 AM
Yup, that's pretty much it. If you're going to specific colors then you should e-mail Tim ahead and comment in the order which bin you'd prefer.

Again, I'll get pics and a video later today. I want to get a vid of my Initiate (bin 6 Blue) so I'll make one to compare with a bin 4 blue. You'll really get the idea then.

Ryma Mara
12-14-2006, 06:12 AM
Edit: With green it dosent really matter with the bin rating correct?
and with red orange it dosent matter eather cause its not gonna change the color much?

Thanks X Much thanks.

xwingband
12-14-2006, 06:34 AM
It's not so much that the color won't change as it doesn't look like it's another color. Ex. the high bin blues look like cyan. Tim has gotten emails from people thinking they got the wrong color LED because of that.

The shade will change on a green, but it's not like you will think you got the wrong LED. It'd be a darker vs. a lighter green.

Red-Orange it MAY matter. If you want a more fire orange color you need to get a bin that's not close to Red.

Ryma Mara
12-14-2006, 06:38 AM
So with red-orange the lower bins will be a orange red, mid will be redish/orangish and a higher bin will be a more red/less orange?

acerocket
12-14-2006, 07:09 AM
A question very similar to this onewas asked on theforve.net a few days ago. My answer was:

Well if anyone wants it, here is the link to the Luxeon bin decoding pdf:

You can get quite a headache trying to figure that thing out. It's really hard to get the bin you want when you order. Most places will only sell what they get and not special order. I remember when Psab wanted the bin 1 cyan and he had to order at least 100 pieces to get them. Usually you just get the luck of the draw. Be thankful, I use a lot of emitters and they don't come with any bin numbers (not even when I order them from Luxeon directly). You can get bins for emitters but you have to buy a whole roll to get them (unless you are lucky enough to buy them from someone who had a full, documented roll).

In terms of the best color, you want a bin number in the matches the wavelength of the color you want. If you look at the section in the pdf labeled 'color bins' you will see charts of bin numbers and corresponding wavelengths. Remember back to science class, the visible color spectrum is ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet) bookended by infa-red and ultra-violet in the non-visible spectrums. Looking at the charts, you can see wavelengths from 440 - 645 nanometers (taking you from royal blue up to red). You can also see how the end of one color's bin is, in some cases, the beginning of the nexxt color's bins. This is why a bin 6 cyan is very close to a bin 1 or 2 green. What I see in terms of what the best true colors would be is: bin 5 for red, bin 2 for red/orange, bin 4 amber, bin 3 green, bin 1 cyan, bin 2 blue, bin 4 royal blue. This is based on what the peak wavelength is for each color (which takes some work to find since everyone seems to have different published wavelengths for various colors). Obviously, your personal observations must be taken into account also, I may think a bin 4 blue is a much more true blue and you may think it's a bin 3. So who's right? Happy hunting on those bin codes.

Somehow, I forgot to add the link to the actual pdf, so here it is: http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/AB21.pdf

Hope this helps a little.

xwingband
12-14-2006, 07:59 AM
Yeah take a look at the pdf ace posted. You should be able to see how close the bins of one are to the other.

With Red-Oranges... I'll tell you there isn't a good orange. The whole line is rather red tinged. As you can see they even combine their bin chart there.

Ryma Mara
12-14-2006, 08:06 AM
I see quite intresting. thanks

Eruialsul
12-14-2006, 02:20 PM
A low bin blue is a royal blue(ish)


the low bin blues look like cyan.

Wait, which one is it?

EDIT: checked the chart, acording to it the low bin blues are the same as high bin royal blues.

xwingband
12-14-2006, 02:40 PM
Yeah, opsie daisy... I fixed that mistake. Hard to keep track.

Ryma Mara
01-04-2007, 06:32 AM
Ok I just thought of this. Do bin numbers matter for royal blue?

Eruialsul
01-04-2007, 10:23 AM
According to the chart high bin royal blue is the same as low bin blue.

xwingband
01-04-2007, 10:51 AM
According to the chart high bin royal blue is the same as low bin blue.

Yup, but that's not exactly what he was looking for.

What he wants to know is if the bins are going look different enough to warrant wanting a specific one. For Royal Blue I'd say no. All the bins are going to be a dark blue and it's not a critical area in the spectrum where bins matter a lot (like blue).

Ryma Mara
01-04-2007, 04:03 PM
Ok so the royal blues are in the same catagory as the greens are? ITs not gonna change to a different color.

jjshumpert
01-04-2007, 04:04 PM
the color does change, but not like with blues, they just get darker or lighter

Ryma Mara
01-04-2007, 04:07 PM
Thats what I thought.

The red-orange dosent change much to be a different color correct?