Since this information may benefit others, I am starting this new thread to discuss the Luxeon Rebel LED.
I recently picked up a couple of green Luxeon Rebel LEDs pre-mounted to a pcb. These are the 95 lumen at 700 mA Rebel (LXML-PM01-0050). The pcb itself is a gold plated FR4 board that is barely .4" x .4" square with the LED set so the optical center of the die is at the center of the pcb. Cost was about 6.55 each plus shipping from Germany.
The store I purchased these from only sells the highest lumen LEDs available and they will eventually sell the 145 lumen greens when they become available. Currently, they only stock the pcb mounted Rebel in white, red, green, and royal blue (they have white, amber, red/orange, red, green, and royal blue Rebels unmounted - no cyan or blue). You can request the other colors, but would have to place an order for a couple hundred units. If they get enough requests for a color they do not stock yet, they will consider making a batch and offering them for sale also. You can also just order the pcb and reflow solder your own Rebel on, but you have to order a minimum of 100 pcbs (they cost about 1.25 each for the pcb).
In terms of their use in a saber, they look quite promising. The only problem would be using a non pcb mounted Rebel. The design of the Rebel has the solder pads for the wires on the bottom of the LED. This will make attaching wires and then mounting the Rebel to a good heatsink very difficult. It's not impossible, just very complicated. This is why the pcb mounted Rebel is a good choice. Optics are also a concern. I don't know what Luxeon has in the way of optics for the Rebel, but the company I get the Tri-Lux optic from has a holder that allows the small optic to sit on top of the pcb with a square cutout for the Rebel. Unfortunately, I can't get these holders yet unless I order them directly from th UK manufacturer. Hopefully soon, my US distributor will stock these.
Now for some pics:
5 mounted Rebels and an Honest Abe:
The bottom of the pcb:
On a heatsink for experimenting:
Minimum power (2V 0A):
2.3V .01A:
3.2V .69A:
And just for fun, 3.3V .99A:
I am truly impressed by the amount of light this little LED can put out. You can clearly see that run at 1 amp it is much brighter than 700 mA. But when driven at optimum (700 mA 3.2V) you are only generating 2.24 watts for 95 lumens. That means you will need a lot less heatsinking.
I encourage others to share their impressions of this LED and whether or not you think it will become accepted as a good choice for use in sabers.
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