Electronics What to do with a 1W LED?

I have a 1W led here, I just bought it because I was curious as to how bright it was, what should I do with it?

 

make a led torch with it.

 

GO burn somepeope with bender386's torch idea. Or you could make yousrelf a bike light I just bought a $105 light. How bright is it? You could make a mobo plate light or use it to light up something you like. Or make it you power LED. It'll remind you to turn the thing off when you don't need it.

 

i think you will need a heatsink with the 1 watts. it a luxon or one of those jaycar copys?

 

If it's a Luxeon, or equivalent copy, they are really designed for flood lighting due to their wide viewing angle. they would make a fairly poor torch over distances of more than a couple of meters without any secondary lenses.

As mentioned above, these rely on adequate heatsinks too if you are planning to run them at their full 1 watt rating. Clamping it to a case side panel should do the trick though.

What colour is it for starters?

 

give it to me if you ain't gonna use it.

 

are they actually any good at all. considering you have 50w halogen spot lights as downlights?

 

A lot of that become heat, a LED will give out light at very efficient rates (especially luxeons). It's probably equivelant to a 10W halogen, which is still plenty bright for something so small.

 

hmm,, could you use them as downlights then?

 

I have a 3w luxeon bulb in my 3 D cell mag light, I dont know at what voltage or current the LED is being run at, but I know the output is a tad brighter then the original bulb, and a has a lot higher color temp (more 'white' then the original)
just so you have an idea of how bright a 3w would be.

 

I have a 10 watt halogen in my bike light running at 6 volts. I don't look at it.
@conkbot of doom
If it doesn't have a circuit board then its at 4.5 volts peak and prolly around .7 amps. If it does then it is proll yaround 2.2 or 5. My guess.

 

Oh ok, it's blue and has a little heat sink on the back of it

I really can't think of anything constructive to do with it...

 

It isn't a screw in type is it? Like a normal bulb? They made those using manufactured smd leds. In an array houselights hehe. no incandescent there. But leds can get quite warm. Not thousands of degres but hot. Imho flourescent takes the lead. Go 64 watts of dual 48" tubes in my room. 6500K hehe uber blue.

Send us a pic err post one I wanna c it.

 

Will take one next time I go down stairs....

 

Use it to light up your case..

Anyone see the newest Luxeon? The K2, 6 watts..

I just bought one for my Maglight, boy that sucker is bright..

 

ohh thats sounds bright. what are you using to power it?

 

I have one of these and I used it to make a torch. Well, actually more a coca cola can with batteries inside and the luxeon on top. It gives enough light to walk in the woods etc but it's not bright enough to search stuff in the dark or so. You need an extra lens for that.

 

You do realize that UK "torch" = US "flashlight", right?

I'd personally use it as case lighting or something, but it should make quite a nice torch/flashlight. Though I'm pretty sure you would need a heatsink for something that size, which could make portable applications a bit tricky.

 

so any pics, never seen a 1W LED

 

a friend of mine made a vid. of the effect of a 3Watt RGB luxeon

http://video.google.nl/videoplay?docid=-6131679637062535291