Looking for warm-white LEDs. . .

[star-art]

Has anyone been able to locate these? I need something affordable that I can buy in quantity, either regular or surface mount. I prefer something in the daylight spectrum, or, if that's not available, something that mimics either halogen or incandescent light.

I prefer to buy discrete components.

Also, has anyone seen a ready-made mini circuit board to which you can solder a single LED and its accompanying resistor?

Thanks!!!

 

[JPolacchi]

Not sure about the LEDs other than what I've seen at Radio Shack.Have you tried a google search?I think maybe DLM has circut boards,but you might wanna try looking through the online store in starship modeler too.Maybe someone else will have more/better info than me?

 

[Johnny Fever]

Here are a few places that may have what you are looking for. First, Allelectronics has regular white LEDs of various voltages that may come in handy somewhere.
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/category/340/LEDs/1.html

These other two links have warm white LEDs.
http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts-kws/warm-white-led

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16659

I don’t know if any of these can be used for your intended purpose or not. What voltage/wattage are you looking for?

-John

 

[robn1]

superbrightleds.com

 

[star-art]

Thanks! At this point, I am interested in LEDs that can replace incandescent bulbs for lighting models, and to illuminate fiber optic strands. I'm also interested in making my own lights for accent lighting, cabinet lighting, and even landscape lighting around the house, as some of the LED lighting products coming to market are really expensive. (I'm guessing a lot of the expense has to do with making these products work on 110V AC.)

For the most part, I'm not crazy about the light emitted by typical "cool white" LEDs that are more bluish in tint (though they might work great for spaceship engines). So, I'm trying to find good sources for warm white and natural light products.

BTW, I just stumbled onto SuperBrightLED.com. Great place!

Now, what would be really cool is if I can find a small ready-made PCB that I can just solder the LED of my choice to, along with a resistor, and have it ready to install in a model (or whatever). This is basically what MR did with their Falcon. I'm hoping someone out there sells just the printed circuit boards.

In terms of color temperature, it appears a "natural white" LED should be about 5000K (sunlight is 5000K-6000K). Higher numbers look cooler/more blue, so a regular bluish-white LED might be 7000K.

"Warm white" LEDs are around 3000K which pretty well matches most incandescent bulbs.

I found some additional info on a photography forum that helped me get back up to speed on color temperature so I could compare apples to apples:

Undimmed halogen lamps have a color temperature of 3200K, which, as it turns out is the color temperature that professional "tungsten" films are balanced for. Standard household lightbulbs actually have a color temperature of about 2700-2800K.

...daylight or light that mimics characteristics at the sun at midday is a nominal color temperature of around 5500K.

...Do not ignore the fact that as household bulbs age the color temperature gets continuously lower (more red/yellow) while that is not the case with Halogen lights. If you dim/reduce the voltage on either type of light the color temperature shifts downward (becomes more red/yellow).

In terms of voltage/wattage, I don't really know yet. I'm used to working with traditional 3mm and 5mm LEDs in T1 packaging. These are units rated in milliwatts. I generally run a 12V supply, and step that down to 5V or 3.3V as needed.

Thanks!

 

[Robiwon]

You may also want to consider Luxeon LEDs. They put out much more light than a typical 5mm LED, most run at or around the same voltage, suitable for industrial applications and come in a wide variety of colors including warm whites.

http://www.luxeonstar.com/

http://www.philipslumileds.com/

The drawback is that they put out heat and require a heatsink. Some of the Luxeons, like the Rebel, can be used as the heat generated is very very low. You can also underpower them to extent to keep heat down as well. As long as it's getting the minimum voltage to operate. And because they put out so much light (lumens) this could be applicable in some types of models. I'm working on a lighting set up for a PL Jupiter 2 that uses a Rebel to illuminate the upper and lower decks.

 

[sycor]

http://besthongkong.com

 

[swgeek]

Might find something here. http://www.environmentallights.com/

 

[exoray]

They put out much more light than a typical 5mm LED, most run at or around the same voltage

LEDs are current driven not voltage people really need to understand this, current is a combination of volts and watts not one or the other... The Luxeons run from 350-1400mA, the average 5mm LED runs at 15-20mA so Luxeons require anywhere from about 18 to 93 times the amount of electricity vs standard 5mm LEDs... Yes they can run off the same voltage but they require drastically different amounts of current...

 

[star-art]

Thanks for the tips! I guess the next step is to order some samples and see for myself what they are like to work with.

There's certainly no shortage of potential applications for a tiny solid-state device that lights up like a traditional incandescent lamp (or a halogen light) while consuming a fraction of the electricity and emitting almost no heat.

The hot-running ones could be useful I'm sure, but I prefer to have only cool-running lights inside my models if at all possible.

 

[exoray]

Now, what would be really cool is if I can find a small ready-made PCB that I can just solder the LED of my choice to, along with a resistor, and have it ready to install in a model (or whatever).

This post has renewed my interest in a generic LED driver board for props and model use...

How about a small 'mother board' that you simply wire your choice of LEDs to and provide power? No resistors or calculations to worry about?

 

[star-art]

No doubt that would fit the bill for some folks.

What I had in mind is very basic. If you need to install a single LED, the neatest and possibly most professional way is to put it on its own little PCB. This is what MR did for their Falcon (and probably many other products as well).

Imagine a small square, maybe 1/2-3/4 inch across, with at least one hole in it for a mounting screw, plus places for power and ground wires, and room to solder a standard T-1 or T-1 3/4 LED along with a single resistor.

I suppose if you added a notch on one edge, and a "key" on the other, you could chain these boards together if you wanted more than one LED.

It would also be great if these PCBs were the green "heavy duty" type.

At least that's what I had in mind. . .

 

[exoray]

No doubt that would fit the bill for some folks.

What I had in mind is very basic. If you need to install a single LED, the neatest and possibly most professional way is to put it on its own little PCB. This is what MR did for their Falcon (and probably many other products as well).

Imagine a small square, maybe 1/2-3/4 inch across, with at least one hole in it for a mounting screw, plus places for power and ground wires, and room to solder a standard T-1 or T-1 3/4 LED along with a single resistor.

I suppose if you added a notch on one edge, and a "key" on the other, you could chain these boards together if you wanted more than one LED.

It would also be great if these PCBs were the green "heavy duty" type.

At least that's what I had in mind. . .

Well making a run of small PC boards like that is painless, but also costly for what it is, I think most people would simply solder the resistor directly to a leg of the LED, it leaves for a very clean job... I certainly understand what you are going for though...

 

[sycor]

The site I linked to sell LEDs for like $.50 each and also sells PCBs and resisters at decent prices.