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Strydur
05-13-2006, 11:04 AM
Lately I have had a few customers think they got the wrong color LED from me. So I did some research into how this all works. Luxeon has a code on the back of every LED that displays among other things the Bin color. On most LED's the bin color is listed by the 2nd digit from the top left. The color is determined by what wavelength it falls into as shown in this chart.

http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/sabers/scripts/colorchart.jpg

As you can see a Cyan LED with a bin code of 5 would be damn near Green while a Cyan with a bin code of 2 would be almost Blue. As far as I know the only way you can order a specific bin from Luxeon is to buy around 1000 LED's at a time. As such I cannot guarantee which bin you will get when you purchase a LED from me. You can request in the notes section of your order that you get the lowest or highest bin I have available. As in while ordering a Cyan you want one as blue as I have you would ask for the lowest bin I have. I hope this clears up a few misconceptions.

Tim
The Custom Saber Shop

Nightwing
08-17-2006, 01:19 PM
Would it be possible for you to keep us updated with what color bins you have available?

What would be awesome is if you had a bin option on the item page in the store, complete with comparison pics, but that sounds like a lot of work...

Strydur
08-17-2006, 11:12 PM
A lot of work indeed. This option see you shall not.

Tim
The Custom Saber Shop

Corbin_Das
08-24-2006, 04:57 PM
Hi guys
I don't offer options for various bins either, except for bin 1 cyan. You never know what bin LEDs you're going to get till you open the package. That's just how it is.
I've used some bin 6 cyans before and they looked almost pastel green. It was a nice color I thought.

Corbin Das

Corbin@CorbinsComponents.com

Novastar
04-25-2007, 01:52 PM
Bump. This is a good sticky for some people to re-visit, including Ryma--who is looking for an ORANGE blade.

This would require an LED that is somewhere in the 600nm or 605nm range. Even then, no guarantees what it would produce.

But certainly if people are looking for specific shades of color--they will want to get educated on the "binning" process!

SO:

"Warned you we tried. Listen you did not. Now screwed we all will be!!"

:D

Luke-SkyMarcher
04-29-2007, 04:15 PM
Soooo.... I'm sure somone somwhere somtime has experimented and found this out.... which bin for green is most movie accurate? I am helping my brother make a luke ROTJ saber, and he wants the most accurate 5w possible...

Novastar
04-30-2007, 04:38 AM
Hi Luke... you might want to check the "blade color movie accurate" thread thing... can't remember where it is...

The short of it is that the sabers change colors more often than many change their shorts... :) The blue sabers are all over the map, and even Mace's saber gets down, gets down, jungle-boogey style.

Not to mention Luke's ROTJ blade was changed from blue to green as a decision so that his blade wasn't going to be "washed" out when contrasted to the sky color out on the Jabba barge / sarlacc thingy scene.

So, when it comes to "movie" accuracy...

...looks like you'll want an LED with some kind of bloody IDENTITY CRISIS. :)

pockets
04-30-2007, 05:35 AM
Hi Luke... you might want to check the "blade color movie accurate" thread thing... can't remember where it is...

The short of it is that the sabers change colors more often than many change their shorts... :) The blue sabers are all over the map, and even Mace's saber gets down, gets down, jungle-boogey style.

Not to mention Luke's ROTJ blade was changed from blue to green as a decision so that his blade wasn't going to be "washed" out when contrasted to the sky color out on the Jabba barge / sarlacc thingy scene.

So, when it comes to "movie" accuracy...

...looks like you'll want an LED with some kind of bloody IDENTITY CRISIS. :)


an RGB driven by a board that constantly switches its color between shades of blue and green

Ryma Mara
04-30-2007, 06:12 AM
That blade movie color topic has only been done with blue as far as I have seen.

The person said they were gonna do green but I dont he ever got around to it.

Luke-SkyMarcher
04-30-2007, 01:53 PM
ok, let me rephrase that....
Which is least blue and most like EL lime? (maybie not quite that yellow...)

I seem to recall Corbin saying that he had done a bin test for green...

Jedi-Loreen
04-30-2007, 11:59 PM
That blade movie color topic has only been done with blue as far as I have seen.

The person said they were gonna do green but I dont he ever got around to it.

Geez, give the man more than a day. He only posted that on the 29th! :P

Novastar
05-03-2007, 12:41 PM
LukeSky

you are probably looking for bin 1 or 2, which is basically the "peak" relative spectral power distribution... or a fancy way to say it's at peak "brightness" for what that is worth.

http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/DS46.pdf

Page 8 will show you the waveform peaks & troughs for each color.

You'll see that green "peaks" in "brightness" at around 525/530nm.

I put these in quote because... everyone's eyes are different, and everyone's preferences are different.

I can't think if "lime" is closer to the amber spectrum... or the cyan one. Do you know??? :)

Novastar
03-10-2008, 12:34 AM
Ok, not so much a color confusion but a CURRENT confusion I had...

Several months ago, I could have SWORN the Luxeon K2s for red, red-orange and amber... were listed as having a max. continuous current of 700ma...

...but NOW, when I look at the luxeonstar site... it seems to be 1500ma??!? Hanh?!

Did I completely read wrong for many months? Am I on drugs??? I mean seriously... I am 95% certain I read those currents as 700ma a long time ago when I first bought some emitters... did things CHANGE (which might be normal, but... I missed it?!?!?)??

Any help would be appreciated...

xwingband
03-10-2008, 06:23 AM
No, your not crazy... I did a double take too because I had to check too.

I guess that puts the K2 and III on level playing field for Red, etc... The difference seems to be voltage which to me is worth it if for nothing else.

Novastar
03-10-2008, 11:15 PM
HA! Leave it to X-wing to help me confirm that I'm not crazy! YES! Sure, a short-lived victory, but... dude right on, thanks. :)

I *THOUGHT* that was awfully weird. But now it arises the new questions:

* Do the "older" K2s, bought under the "fake" (?) specs do anything of import at 1500ma?? Or will they just sizzle like bacon in the pan.

* Does buying a "newer" (yet NON-"tffc" one) K2 yield some new benefit that the "older" ones didn't.

* Will it even matter if (for example) the lumens go from like "X" to "X+20" or whatever.

Hmm. More tests. Oh joy.

Hasid Lafre
03-11-2008, 02:04 AM
Ok so what would there lumen output be when driven at 1500?

They dont mention that.

Novastar
03-11-2008, 10:35 PM
You could make some kind of assumption... a bit of "sloping down" thinking instead of TOTALLY linear comparison (which would be off) and using a ratio based on the data from other currents:

Luxeon K2 Red (emitter data)
45 lm @ 350mA
75 lm @ 700mA
????? @ 1000ma
????? @ 1500ma

Well, I'd think:

100 lm @ 1000ma
125 lm @ 1500ma

...it is obviously a guess, but a relatively fair one. Besides, better to shoot low and end up with BETTER brightness, rather than to say "160 lumens" and end up waaaaaay under.

But ultimately, if the K2 Red does indeed continue to gain lumens up toward 1500ma... well, the Lux III Red is 140lm at 1540ma... so the K2 is at least in the same ballpark.

Still (as X-wing states), the general fwd voltages have differences:

Lux III Red = 2.95vf, 1540ma = 140 lm
Lux K2 Red = 3.40vf, 1500ma = 125??? lm

So... even if the Lux K2 *WAS* 140lm @ 1500... it would STILL require more voltage to run it. Seems better to stick with the more efficient one. Duh.

Hasid Lafre
03-12-2008, 02:40 AM
But either way your not gonna use a 3V battery pack to drive the led. so I don't think the voltage is gonna matter much since almost all leds(3/k2) will be run with 4.8v or so battery packs.

IAm gonna be optimistic as say its gonna get about 150-160 lumens at 1.5A.

I dont know maybe iam missing something but how will a lower voltage but much higher current more efficient? wouldn't efficient mean that its in the middle ground of voltage to current requirments. So even if the red k2 was to make 140 lumens at 1.5a its more efficient, and besides the k2s don't have that grounding out on the heatsink problem that the lux3s have.

To me that's efficient, I don't know maybe Iam also missing something entirely

xwingband
03-12-2008, 05:42 AM
Efficiency is lumen per watt.

In real life you're right that with a full battery pack the voltage difference won't make a difference. The difference will come when your battery is low or you're driving in a less ideal way. With less volts you can run it longer, simply put.

Also take an MR board... when I have a choice I test my LEDs and put the lowest voltage one in the MR. Why? Because with the least amount of volts it needs to light fully the closer the MR will be to driving it properly.

LeMoel
04-16-2008, 10:45 PM
I donno when it comes to bins but all the k2's and rebels ive bought been lime green to me.

the 3 watt lux is a different type of green through my eyes, i think the 5 watt is too, same with the p4(all still nice tho).

When it comes to blue, i feel that the rebel and k2's are good blues. The 5 watt isn't too bad of a blue, and i think the 3 watt is just medioker. the lux 3 m akes a good sith red and is basically the only one.

you have to remember that in the movies what ever color is in the background of the lightsaber can change slightly change the look of the color.

or the hilt can too , i think through my eyes that quigon's hilt makes his green look a little different then the others in the movie.

SpectreT65
04-26-2008, 07:05 PM
If I were going for a Qui-Gon, I'd aim for a bin 4 or 5 Cyan. I'm pretty sure I've got a bin 3 in my MR Luke ANH (2007) conversion, and it's a teal-kelly green sort of thing.

Onli-Won Kanomi
05-29-2008, 01:49 PM
If I were going for a Qui-Gon, I'd aim for a bin 4 or 5 Cyan. I'm pretty sure I've got a bin 3 in my MR Luke ANH (2007) conversion, and it's a teal-kelly green sort of thing.

Thanks for that Spectre...I have teal eyes and my maternal maternal ancestors are Kellys and my True Love's name is Kelly...so I guess I'll HAVE to find myself a bin 3 cyan LED now! LOLOL

Vardarac
07-18-2008, 11:16 AM
Thanks for that Spectre...I have teal eyes and my maternal maternal ancestors are Kellys and my True Love's name is Kelly...so I guess I'll HAVE to find myself a bin 3 cyan LED now! LOLOL

E-mail is a wonderful thing!


For the LB5C we have 6 pieces of Bin 5 and about a dozen Bin 3 but no Bin 6

You'll have to pay a bit more, I'm afraid, but you'll find what you're looking for as long as you specify your bin request :)

Loremaster
05-01-2009, 07:33 PM
I know there is no guarantee, but I am looking for a blue-green blade which would look roughly sea-colored, aqua. I think Bin 3 would be too green, and perhaps Bin 2 would be too blue. What bin number would be closest for this? Or should I just order cyan Luxeon III and install what I get? I like the deep blue-green color if I can get it. I will put that under "Notes" when I order but I don't know what bin I should request...

I want to build a Luxeon III saber and really want the pure color as opposed to white with a filter.

Still an "Ultra-NOOB"

Loremaster

xl97
05-01-2009, 09:33 PM
cyan bin 1 is the light BLUE color.. the higher the cyan bin # the more grean it looks.

so a 2 would be more green then the pure CYAN everyone covets for.. # would be more..etc.. You should email Tim before.. I think if it states cyan it is CYAN (bin1)..

psab keel
05-02-2009, 12:37 AM
Back when Corbin and I first began contacting one another we both ran into this same problem. I ended up having to purchase about 120 Lux III Cyans (Bin 1 -True Cyan) to get the exact color that I wanted. At that time I was supplying them to Corbin who was in turn selling them when he still had his Corbin's Components website. So anyone who got their hands on this color back in 2005- 2006 or so (for saber building at least) likely got it from Corbin or me.

The color you want for an aqua, sky blue, or turquoise color is BIN 1. With Cyan, the higher the BIN number, the more green, the lower, the more blue.

Just to give you an idea, this is how the color binning chart works for Luxeon III LED's:
Imagine an LED color fading between these colors basically going through the spectrum

White
1
2
3 fades into
5
5
6
Royal Blue
1
2
3 fades into
4
5
6
Blue
1
2
3 fades into
4
5
6
Cyan
1
2
3 fades into
4
5
6
Green
1
2
3 fades into
4
5
6
Amber
1
2
3 fades into
4
5
6
Red Orange
1
2
3 fades into
4
5
6
Red
1
2
3
4
5
6

Hopefully this should help end some of the confusion. Trust me, I had to learn all about this and spend well over a thousand dollars to get the exact color that I wanted! hahaha


Psab Keel

Loremaster
05-02-2009, 10:26 AM
That puts it all in focus...haha...for me. Thanks for writing that out! I am going to print that and keep it for my files.

Loremaster

psab keel
05-02-2009, 09:42 PM
Glad I could help! The datasheets from the Lumileds sight is helpful but can be overwhelming to read as well, so I hope this can break it down simply enough for anyone looking to find a specific color (at least with Lux III's).

Psab

ghostsaber
08-26-2010, 11:32 PM
ok now im realy confused . are the lux 3 cyans more blue then the lux v s?? i hav a bin 2 lux v cyan and it looks very green to my eyes

xl97
08-27-2010, 06:49 AM
the bin # is what declares the 'shade'.. the higher the bin# the more green it looks..