10W LedEngin doesn't seem as bright as I expected

[Darth Nater]

Finally got my PC wired up today to the point that I could do testing with the RGBA LedEngin that I got. Pack of 14500's fully charged, TCSS style heavy blade with the diffuser and a few ft. of giftwrap for the power source and blade through a new PC 2.0. I wired the LED R+B parallel and G+A series for FOC (have not tested the FOC yet, thats just how its wired on the star currently). Granted its in pieces on a table rather than being held in the hand, but it didn't seem to be as bright as I would have expected. Didn't seem to be any brighter than a DX RGB running off of 4AAA and an econo board, and less bright than Red or Green P4's off that same econo board setup (thats all I've got to compare it to in person). Made me wonder if I'm overlooking or doing something wrong, or if I just had unreasonable expectations to begin with.

I tried a few different things just messing around, and of course all I had were a bunch of 1W resistors leftover from testing for purple with the DX RGB earlier, so likely not the needed material on hand. Regardless, with the R+B parallel, I initially threw a 1W 1ohm resistor on Blue and maybe a 1W 2.5ohm on red (mainly just to have it resistored out of being frightened at powering up my first PC for the first time). PC was set at 1500ma. After that, tried the same with the PC at 2000ma, next was no resistor on Blue and the 2.5 on Red, then the 1.0 on Red, then no resistor on either in parallel. After that, I switched over to just using the G+A in series off the PC at 1000ma and then 1400ma (for a nasty looking puke/snot color, though I was just testing for brightness at this point). Still not very impressive on the brightness really.

I'm probably going to ditch the TCSS diffuser and just go with the giftwrap in the future, but I know what that setup looks like with the little 3W RGB and today's experiment didn't exactly blow me away. Still, this was just the first day of messing with it, and I'll jack around with it some more later on. If I don't like it in the end, I'll just pick up a P4 or a Rebel. Not too big of a deal. The fun is in putting it all together anyway. The sound is awesome though. Likely will be less loud once its all together with the pommel in place and the battery consuming space (battery will be rearward of the speaker due to space issues from only having a 2" double female and a gear section as the only standard inside diameter size parts to work with, battery pack is in the pommel mainly). But as is with the 2w speaker, it is very nice sounding. Had to stop for the night since everyone was trying to sleep.

Also, definitely color separation on power up/power down in parallel, though not a concern for me.

[Wong Yoon Wei]

Did you use the lens with a lens holder or not? I noticed the ledengin works better without a lens holder. Just let the lens rest directly on top of the dome. Also, try using a standard mid grade blade with about 6 feet of wrap. That should improved it.

[Darth Nater]

I see where you are going, but this is compared to the DX RGB's and P4's which are all running off a 6V power source through an econo board with heavy trans white battle blades. They seem as bright or brighter under what would likely be considered lesser conditions.

[Don Se Wion]

From your mail I guess your current battery setup is dual 14500 for 7.2V.
As far as I remember from the posts coming from knowledgeable members, the recommended setup for PC and RGBW in this case should be Red and Blue in series without any resistor.
The 7.2V should be just right for powering Red and Blue in series.

[Darth Nater]

Red and Blue in series with no resister will give you a nice hot pink. The only way you will obtain a good purple is by resistoring the red, most likely in parallel. I imagine that could be done in series and resistoring below the heatsink somehow, but I would imagine there would be a major mess of wires involved trying to add a resistor in series. According to the pack, its 14500 for 7.4. I dont think that TCSS sells 14500's in a 3.6V, though I've seen them online at other distributors.

And was I wrong? Yes indeed. B+R in series turned out more purple than pink unlike what I expected and the brightness is good enough to move forward with. I put a 1W 1ohm resistor on this series (because I've heard so many times to always use a resistor regardless), and now I can finish putting the thing together. I had intended to try this eventually, but did not expect the color to be right. Worked out well. LedEngin has been a pain in the butt to re-solder. Had to clean up one pad with a razor and score it some to get a previously stuck solder joint to hold. And the thermal tape definitely holds it to the heatsink. That took some prying to get back off as well.

[Kevin Starwaster]

Red and Blue in series with no resister will give you a nice hot pink. The only way you will obtain a good purple is by resistoring the red, most likely in parallel. I imagine that could be done in series and resistoring below the heatsink somehow, but I would imagine there would be a major mess of wires involved trying to add a resistor in series. According to the pack, its 14500 for 7.4. I dont think that TCSS sells 14500's in a 3.6V, though I've seen them online at other distributors.

And was I wrong? Yes indeed. B+R in series turned out more purple than pink unlike what I expected and the brightness is good enough to move forward with. I put a 1W 1ohm resistor on this series (because I've heard so many times to always use a resistor regardless), and now I can finish putting the thing together. I had intended to try this eventually, but did not expect the color to be right. Worked out well. LedEngin has been a pain in the butt to re-solder. Had to clean up one pad with a razor and score it some to get a previously stuck solder joint to hold. And the thermal tape definitely holds it to the heatsink. That took some prying to get back off as well.

Would you mind posting some pics of the purple you got by doing it in series? I've done mine in parallel with various resistors on the red or no resistors at all but haven't ever checked it in series. Was thinking of doing so but am reluctant to desolder it all esp. if I'm just going to redo it in parallel all over again. (esp since I'd prolly also have to de-sink it too)

[Darth Nater]

This camera is beginning to suck after 6 years, but its all I've got to work with right now. Doesn't focus well. The LedEngin is in the Obi style with a TCSS heavy blade w/diffuser and maybe 5-6 ft of giftwrap. Beside it is a DX 3W RGB off a 4AAA through an econo board with a trans white heavy blade and 6ft of giftwrap. They actually look pretty comparable to me, though I've had that TCSS blade in the DX saber and it was not as bright as with the trans white blade, better color though. I'll probably ditch the diffuser and add more giftwrap in the TCSS blade when I get in the mood to cut giftwrap. When I had this wired parallel, it was not as good and brightness suffered worse at the end of the blade. The color gets more pinkish to me the more I stare at it, but if I compare it to a different color saber, it looks pretty good. The DX is wired parallel, and its a more blue purple obviously with new batteries than with less juiced ones. I have no idea of the current state of the batteries right now in that one, but they aren't super low. The LedEngin had probably been ran for about 15 minutes or so on a 14500 pack when I took these. The less bright pictures were taken with the flash on, and the brighter with the flash on. Lights were off in this room, but were on in the adjoining room (which is basically an open area not separated by doors)

[Kevin Starwaster]

Thanks for posting those!

[Ty_Bomber]

Looks good to me!

[Caine Drathul]

Red and Blue in series with no resister will give you a nice hot pink. The only way you will obtain a good purple is by resistoring the red, most likely in parallel.

Interesting. I set the config to 62 and got a nice violet color. I am curious what your settings were.