Which LED is brightest and produces a full blade?

[JediGuardian18]

Hello everyone. Once I'm done with my first year of college here in a week or two, yes! , I'm going to start my first saber build. I know everything I need and I was just wondering which LED tends to produce a bright, full, color that lights up an entire blade quite nicely? I want a blue and I was looking at the Royal Blue Rebel star. Would this be a good choice? Any opinions? Thanks guys! Cheers!

[Machinimax]

Well part of that all depends on how much current you feed the LED. First off I would like to ask, is this going to be a stunt saber or a saber with sound?

[TuxedoCartman]

There's a lot that's very subjective in what you were asking. Do you want the most lumines, the truest and boldest color blue, or what? There's a lot that can determine the brightness of your LED, though either the Seoul P4 or Rebel Star are good and will light up a saber blade nicely, depending on the construction of your blade (any 3-watt LED looks good in a blade stuffed with one or two wraps of Corbin film and a meter of poly-p). If you want the brightest blue available, you'll want a 10-watt LED Engin with all four die in blue in Full Powah configuration, but those can be difficult to wire up for a beginner.

[madmaxx]

the rebel royal blue looks awesome and lights up very well. it was my first rebel led so I can't compare it to other rebel colors but it seems Fuller than the p4 I have previously used.

[JediGuardian18]

Thanks for the replies everyone. This saber is going to be a stunt saber. I may add sound later if I can figure it out but that is some time away

[JediGuardian18]

Thanks for the information Cartman. I am definitely a beginner lol. So how many watts are the Seoul P4s and Luxeon Rebel Stars that TCSS sells? 3W?

[Jay-gon Jinn]

Wattage and brightness don't necessarily go together. Wattage is a measurement of energy, not lumen output. Watts=Amps x Current. If you want to compare what's brighter, you need to look at lumen ratings, not the wattage.

[TuxedoCartman]

To Jay-gon you should listen. I don't have the data sheets in front of me, but I believe the lumen ratings on both the Rebel Star and Seoul P4 are roughly the same. As to which looks better, I'd wager good money that if we took a poll of all active members on this forum, you'd come up with an even 50/50 split between the two.

I haven't built a solid blue saber yet, but my experience between the Rebel Star green and the P4 green was that they were nearly identical, but there seemed to be a *tiny* bit more color saturation with the P4. Now, I'd had the Rebel Star for longer, and I'd also made some changes to my blade between LED swaps, so I can't tell you how accurate that opinion is. Could have been wishful thinking too. I think only the most serious of sabersmiths could tell the difference between a Rebel and a P4 just by looking, and even then it'd be a matter of personal opinion which is better.

If that's all too subjective of an answer for you, and you want something more direct? Buy a P4. You'll be happy with it, and it's a buck cheaper.

[FenderBender]

For a stunt...its REAL hard to beat a P4 blue, both in color saturation and brightness. Plus, its probably the easiest LED on the planet to solder to. If it weren't for my desire to use features like Flash on Clash™ and such, I would use a P4 quite often. It's just a damn good LED.

[Morgan Lamarra]

Over there you are more led strip to get an answer. The link to DIY forum used to be Flexible LED Strip Lights shown on the "cheap light bulbsand Night riding" home page but some months ago a change in the website partially hid the link. It's still there but is cut in half.