Luxeon color as battery discharges.

[Marsupial]

we all know that the weak battery makes luxeon blades less bright, but another side effect seams to be the dominant coloration of the emitted color.

I have a LuxeonIII Cyan led, used to be direct driven, then hasbro/direct driven, now MRFX driven. I realised that using weakened batteries makes the cyan blade looks more greenish. The weaker the battery (up to when it doesn't light much) the greener the blade.

So, not only the PWM drivers (corbin's, erv's) make the blade light longer and brighter, it also helps keeping the color constant.

Anyone noticed that?

[Hasid Lafre]

So Iam not going nuts.

I got a lux3 cyan MR driven also and it does this all the time and it buggs the crap out of me.

[Marsupial]

Thanks for chiming in... its nice to hear I'm not going crazy or colorblind!!! At first I tough it was the luexon III that was partially toasted. :roll:

On the positive side: you have a visual indication of the battery charge :P


So... does it only happen on the cyan?
maybe its the one we actually see it the most.?

[Novastar]

Well, it sort of makes sense, considering the following:

MR batt setup: 4.5v on fresh batts
MR batt setup: @4.0v on fairly lower batts
Lux III "light side colors": 3.9 fwd v
MR driver: takes about 0.5v to run??? Possibly more, but I'd guess no less.
MR driver: spits out about 0.8A, depending on the board

Also to throw more things into the mix... an LED that is "rated" at 3.9v for fwd v... doesn't always come out that way. As Neophyl has mentioned, the "actual" fwd v of LEDs varies. The rating is pretty much an average, since the world ain't perfect, and LEDs are no exception.

I could see a Cyan Lux III being 4.1 fwd v... or maybe 3.6 fwd v. All depends.

I run a Cyan K2 MR conversion that freaks out too when the batteries get low. Weird. But... not surprising... :D

[Novastar]

Mars, I've only "killed" a few LEDs, and that was simply because they floated away from the heatsink... which is why I hate using emitters without the star base plate now...

Anyhow... the only thing I've seen is that quick fade that they do, and you can see the "burn" inside.

I'm assuming you will NEVER reach the half-life of any LED... well... not before the technology changes so drastically that you'll have upgraded.

If you left a saber on 24/7--even an over-driven one--you MIGHT see its half-life in about 5 to 10 years. Maybe. :)

Even then... it would only be dimmer... not "out". That is another advantage in the LED world vs. incandescent, flourescent, etc. No catastrophic failure.

Unless you're Novastar and allow an emitter to float away from the heatsink! :shock: