Luxeon V White+Lee filters?

[bullvinne]

Ok so I was wondering since the Luxeon V is the brightest when it comes to color LED's, how would thier White version with the Lee filters look? I am hoping for about the brightness of the Luxeon III's with the filters if possible. The reason I want the White + Lee filters is because I like many of the different blade color choices and would like the option of easily changing them out, I just dont want to give up too much brightness to have this ability.

Does anyone have any experience with this?

[vargose]

The Seoul P4 white is what I would go with if you are wanting to do color filters.

[bullvinne]

The Seoul P4 is better then the Luxeon V? I thought the Luxeon V was the best of the best right now.

Why do you recomend the P4 over the Luxeon V? And how bright would I expect to get if I go with the P4 compared to say the typical Luxeon III??

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

The 240 lumen P4 U-bin white is much brighter than the Lux V white and does that on the same power requirements as a Lux III [because its a more efficient emitter] meaning a wider range of lower voltage battery options are useable in the same amount of hilt space than a Lux V which can allow for longer run times...also the P4 is easily compatible with MR/HFX soundboards which Lux V is not because its voltage needs exceed MR/HFX soundboard tolerances requiring additional complexities to make doable whereas a P4 can just be wired up normally...overall P4 white is a technologically superior solution for using white LEDs with filters in sabers than Lux III OR Lux V whites.

edit: P4 white is 240 lumens; THREE TIMES the 80 lumens of a Lux III white...I forget how much a Lux V white is but its nowhere near the P4.

[bullvinne]

The 240 lumen P4 U-bin white is much brighter than the Lux V white and does that on the same power requirements as a Lux III [because its a more efficient emitter] meaning a wider range of battery options are useable in the same amount of hilt space which can allow for longer run times...also the P4 is easily compatible with MR/HFX soundboards ...it's a technologically superior solution for using white LEDs with filters than Lux V whites.

edit: P4 white is 240 lumens...THREE TIMES the 80 lumens of a Lux III white.

Wow, thank you for a great explination. will a filtered P4 give adequate illumination at a convention or in a normally lit room? I understand that most LED will dim alot outdoors.

Edit: I just looked at a pic on the forums with the P4 and a purple Lee filter with the lights on and it was pretty bright. Thanks for the help guys!!!

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

It all depends how bright the room is lit but under any given conditions the P4 will give you the best result you CAN get with any of the conventional white LEDs we use with filters.

One thing I'd point out FYI though about using filters is they perform BEST with the colours that ARENT normally available in coloured LEDs like true yellows and oranges, pinks, and purple or unusual 'shades'...because filters use a SUBTRACTIVE method of filtering other-coloured light OUT from white light they will normally be dimmer and less colour-saturated than a true-coloured LED...so NOT the best choice for greens, blues and especially BAD for red.

btw I checked and white Lux V is 120 lumens so P4 white is TWICE as bright as Lux V!

[bullvinne]

It all depends how bright the room is lit but under any given conditions the P4 will give you the best result you CAN get with any of the conventional white LEDs we use with filters.

One thing I'd point out FYI though about using filters is they perform BEST with the colours that ARENT normally available in coloured LEDs like true yellows and oranges, pinks, and purple or unusual 'shades'...because filters use a SUBTRACTIVE method of filtering other-coloured light OUT from white light they will normally be dimmer and less colour-saturated than a true-coloured LED...so NOT the best choice for greens, blues and especially BAD for red.

btw I checked and white Lux V is 120 lumens so P4 white is TWICE as bright as Lux V!

Thats perfect for me because I am more into the non-traditional colors like yellow, orange and purple. So the P4 and filters are perfect for me.

Edit: thank you again for all your help!!!

[Thaxos]

Just a heads up, do NOT stare even briefly at your P4... It's blindingly bright. And yes, I am speaking from experience.

[DJMoonbass]

me to... i still have a big white blur in my vision from 30 minutes ago... lol.

[Obi-Dar Ke-Gnomie]

I can speak from experience. White P4 and a yellow filter makes a nice combination. I posted a bunch of pictures of a P4 with different Lee filters in the LED Colors/Blades topic under the White LED section.

[bullvinne]

I will definately take a look Obi-Dar

[Thaxos]

I can speak from experience. White P4 and a yellow filter makes a nice combination. I posted a bunch of pictures of a P4 with different Lee filters in the LED Colors/Blades topic under the White LED section.

I concur, I normally don't like yellow but even so, it looked phenomenal!

[bullvinne]

See I plan on eventually having two sabers and one would be a deep yellow/orange color and the other a nice purple. So I will use P4 Whites for both

[Novastar]

Keep in mind... the "lighter" or more pastel the filtered color is--the better... in terms of maintaining as much brightness/lumens as possible.

Look for filters that have a HIGH transference rate. Good ones that yield nice color (yet do not sacrifice throngs of brightness) would transfer 75% or more light.

Light yellows and sky blues would do well with filtering.

In general, purple (especially a deep one)... is tough to maintain via filtering because the transference is relatively poor. And if you go too "light" or pale on the filter, it ends up appearing rather pink. Most purples will have a very low transference--much much lower than 75% or even 50%.

In MY humble opinion... purple is best gained by an "RGB" solution or something akin to that--where you "dial in" your red & blue combination. This isn't to say that a filtered white LED to purple is ALWAYS going to be bad... I'm just saying it's a better way to maintain brightness.

[bullvinne]

Those RGB LEDs sound cool, but at the moment they seem a bit to advanced for me. I have a feeling I would be going with Yellow/orange blade color anyway on my first one. Thanks for the advice Novastar, btw I think your videos on Youtube are great! My favorite one has to be Prince LED song!

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

Always listen to Novastar...he is Wise in the ways of the saber...and is very right that RGB [or custom colour tri-rebels] can give better brighter results for purple but as you realize those are more advanced...yellow is much easier for beginning with sabers and you can get really good results with yellow using either the store discs or Lee filters [of which I recommend Oklahoma Yellow as a very very nice filter colour imo].

[Novastar]

Always listen to Novastar...Uhhhhh, doing this would yield some BBBBBIIIIIIGGGG problems if we did this. The world would come to an end like the conspiracists say, lol...

I'm gonna amend that and say "It's ok to quasi-somewhat sort of have one ear open when Novastar blabs. Then make sure to check with at least 3 to 28 real experts. Also, if possible, record what he says and catch him in any mistakes or contradictions like the lying sack o' monkey splat he is. Post said mistakes to your blog (and on youtube), spread his mis-information like crazy, and take that egotistical baaahh-sturd down."

:mrgreen:

All joking aside, yeah... it's hard to know how complicated to make it when going for something like purple. But that's how sabers work. if you have ONE advantage with (let's say) your battery setup... it might complicate something with FITTING the battery cells. And when you go for "flash on clash" (or a special color)... your wiring gets more complex.

On the bright side (pardon the pun)... you could always start with a filtered white --> purple... keep it... then later on when you have more experience, try a direct drive-ish RGB (using only red & blue) to create purple and see how the separate sabers compare.