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Triple Output High Power RGB LED
Do not look into the light. You know you want to, but boy will you be sorry. 1W per channel, RGB High Power LEDs in one aluminum backed package. These LEDs will blow you away. Light them up then put a coffee cup over the LED to keep your eyes from seeing dots in the periphery. With all three LEDs at 350mA per channel (3W total output), you will need additional heat sinking.
Forward Voltage:
- Red: 2.2-2.6V
- Green: 3.2-3.8V
- Blue: 3.2-3.8V
- Viewing angle: 140-150degrees
- Red: (620-630nm) / 30-40LM
- Green: (520-525nm) / 40-50LM
- Blue: (455-465nm) / 10-15LM
- Datasheet
- Lumen to mcd calculator
- Related Hookup Guides:
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Core Skill: Soldering
This skill defines how difficult the soldering is on a particular product. It might be a couple simple solder joints, or require special reflow tools.
Skill Level: Competent - You will encounter surface mount components and basic SMD soldering techniques are required.
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Core Skill: Electrical Prototyping
If it requires power, you need to know how much, what all the pins do, and how to hook it up. You may need to reference datasheets, schematics, and know the ins and outs of electronics.
Skill Level: Rookie - You may be required to know a bit more about the component, such as orientation, or how to hook it up, in addition to power requirements. You will need to understand polarized components.
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Customer Reviews
4.3 out of 5
Based on 4 ratings:
3 of 3 found this helpful:
They are great, but why the pinout change???
I've been buying these for several years now, and the last batch I just got has a new pin layout (on the PCB heat-sink) on them.. no idea that they were going to be changed like that. They actually don't even match the current picture of them.
Now I have to change my PCB's to match. Arrrgh.
Other than that, they are excellent in terms of what they can do. Just a little warning about pin-outs would be helpful.
So sorry for the unexpected changes. That was a surprise to us too. Our supplier changed things up without telling us. The pictures will be updated to reflect the new style. Thanks
1 of 1 found this helpful:
Helpful Pin Out
When positioned like the above picture: Anode is the LEFT pins Cathode is the RIGHT pins
Great product
Very good value range with all three color channels. The only drawback is that it's sort of difficult to solder leads onto the channels but its not impossible. 4.5 stars
Works but..........
Unfortunately when I received the part I thought I could remove the LED from the heatsink but it must have been glued down. So first after unsoldering the LED and gently trying to pry it off the heatsink, it came apart. I bought it to replace a burnt out LED in a DJ lighting system for a friend. It would be nice if you would sell just the LED separate from the heatsink. The device I was replacing it in already had heatsinks for all the LED's. So since I bought two I glued the LED mounted on your heatsink in place and jumpered it to the board traces. Not the easiest thing to do but it worked and now the DJ light works as before. Please consider selling the LED by itself, advanced tech's like myself know how to install parts like this properly. Thanks, ~jimmy
Does anyone know if I can hook this up to my arduino
Since nobody else has mentioned it, I am using SparkFun's PicoBuck to drive this LED. I plug in a 12V 2.5A switching AC inverter to the wall and connect it to the PicoBuck (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11850), which handles this LED just fine. It also has inputs to PWM the three channels with 3.3V/5V logic pins.
As makerman asked, where is the Spec Sheet? With the differences in the image here and the product delivered, it would be nice to know I had the right info. Besides, the big sticker on the mailing envelope said "RTFM". OK, no problem, wher is the "M"??
Urgh! I've had one of these for a couple years and was about to finally put it into an ATtiny project. I was testing an LM317 setup to deliver 350ma constant current but accidentally had the adjustment and output legs of the regulator flipped. So I burned out the blue LED, which is a $15 bummer. (Actually, the blue LED now glows a very feint blue when it has voltage.) For a replacement I think I'll just a cheaper part. (It's a good thing most electronic components are cheap, since I've managed to burn out several microcontrollers and various other chips.)
Just received one of these and I'm not sure how to make the connections. It looks different than what is pictured above. There are the six tiny solder connections--three each on opposite sides of the LED--that look like how the LED connects to the board (1-6 in my pix).
Then there are six larger rectangular pads positioned around the edge (A-F in pix).
Pix here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11354374/HiPower-LED-Pic-ABC.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11354374/HiPower-LED-Pic-123.jpg
My best guess would be connect to the A-F pads where A=R- B=G- C=B- D=R+ E=G+ F=B+
Is this correct?
These star base mounts seem to be pretty common, but it's not clear to me how to work with the package. Solder leads directly to the pads? Is the star shape supposed to help me mount the heatsink to the rest of the project?
Yes - solder leads straight to the board, and yes - run bolts 'through' the recesses (don't forget to apply thermal grease between the board and the heatsink) :) Note that as it's an aluminum core board, you'll want a decent soldering iron as a lot of the heat is going to be carried away by the board itself.
What's this about greasing the board to the heatsink? Sounds like this means I need to design the board with a large pad on the bottom, connected to ground, and that's where I'll make the thermal connection?
Typically you would mount these boards straight to a heatsink, rather than to another board first - a standard board would be quite a thermal barrier. E.g. in the HexBright (a programmable flashlight), the LED board is mounted with bolt screws straight to the flashlight body, with control circuitry separate from it, and two (relatively thick) wires going from the control board to the LED board; example picture. Ideally you would put a bit of thermal grease between the LED board and that heatsink to further increase thermal transfer. Or as per a wikipedia image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LED_package.jpg
Is this LED 350mA per channel or combined total of 350mA (i.e. 166.67mA per channel)? Hard to tell from the data sheet.
It's per-channel. Keep the different Vfs and your power dissipation in mind if you actually drive them at 350mA (for which you should be able to find a multitude of drivers - 350mA is pretty common).
The LED I received doesn't look like the photos or the datasheet. It has 2 R's, a plus, and minus. Any help?
Basically, the printed letter "R" is next to the Green pair, then the Blue pair is in the middle, and the side that has the printed "+" and "-" are the Red pair.
Obviously the + side (anode) goes to +, and the - (cathode) goes to your - side.
So one side:
("R") G B R ("-") these are all the cathode pins for each color Green Blue Red
Other side:
("R") G B R ("+") these are all the anode pins for each color Green Blue Red.
These LED's are awesome, but some of the ones I have got lately have had bad solder joints on the LED itself to the little tiny heat sink / board they come mounted on, so have had to re solder a few.
Hope this was of help!
It looks like there might be a letter beside the + and - but it's hidden by the LED's. I'm also assuming there is a + and - beside the R's but they are also hidden by the LED.
Just wondering if anyone has found this LED sold anywhere else. 15 dollars is a little steep. Im looking at about 100 leds.
Are you looking specifically for this LED? Or any power RGB LED? And do you just need the LED, or pre-mounted on a board (and if so - star board? hex board? round board?).
If you need something similar to this one, then perhaps try this: http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/AAD1-9090BRGC-01%2F3-S/754-1331-5-ND/1887685
It has the same type of power requirements (basically a 350mA current, but the current/voltage relationship is similar) and roughly the same claimed output. It is, however, domed rather than flat. You can de-dome it, but that's a risky undertaking. At 100 quantity, it'll set you back a good $756.
The world's 'auction houses' will also have plenty of (less verifiable) options, of course.
I have looked on several sites and nobody sells this led. I need a flat faced led, not a domed one. The domed ones are easy to find.
Yeah, if de-doming isn't an option, finding something pre-mounted to a star board is proving difficult. There's a few I found, but I wouldn't say they're all that price-competitive (led-tec in germany, flytech in italy, freaklabs - cheap, but on holidays?). You could try contacting young-sun directly, or roll your own using standard hex boards and whatever choice of mating flat high power RGB LED and a lot of soldering.
Any particular reason you need the flat lens (as opposed to other solutions in e.g. the housing)?
The LEDs will be used in a car in replacement for the standard LEDs.
We have tried contacting young-sun, but no luck.
Gotcha - so is the requirement for a flat lens a physical constraint? Otherwise I'm not sure why domed packages wouldn't work / couldn't be made to work.
Unless SFE is planning to order a bunch more ($11.96 at 100+ units), your best bet might be freaklabs - the main page actually says they should have been back from holidays since Aug/31. They have no stock indication, though :)
I have talked to the guy at freak labs and he said he would be back from vacation on the 6th. He didn't seem interested in selling 100 to me. Might just cough up $460 and buy all of the stock here.
No I haven't. That would probably be a good thing to know.
Old comment thread is old, but there's 97 in stock now.. so they certainly did re-stock. If you've found an alternative, that might also be interesting to include here :)
Does this LED have a domed lens on it. The Datasheet does not specify and without a side view picture it is hard to tell if the surface of the chip is flat or has a clear dome.
In case you're still looking for an answer to your questions... the LED is flat on top, with no dome. It emits light uniformly over almost a full hemisphere.
And while I haven't driven this LED with the BlinkM MaxM, the MaxM would have no trouble. The MOSFETs on the MaxM are rated for 1A/channel, and this LED is rated for 350 mA/channel. So you could drive three of these RGB LEDs at nearly full power using one MaxM.
Anybody out there in tinker-land have any experience with driving one of these babies with the master board of a BlinkM MaxM? It seems like it would have more than enough current handling with a proper choice of power supply and current limiting resistors. Any insights?
These are killer RGB LEDs. The three LED cores are very close to one another, so the color mixing is great, with no weird color ghosting around shadows. It is definitely bright enough for indirect lighting projects.<br />
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Also, the breakout board is aluminum and is really effective at dissipating heat. With a little thermal paste and a good mounting location, they don't even get warm.
The brightness of these is AWESOME. Who doesn't love LEDs?<br />
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Any tips on soldering these guys? I want to get some wires going to them but I'm not sure the easiest way to do this. The tutorials on surface mounts doesn't really help because if you were to try to wick away the solder the wires would move.
Seriously guys... I am having a hell of a time trying to get the pads to wet with the solder. I have a 40W iron and it's a no-go
Try using some flux on the pads. They will take time to heat up.
With the price set at $14.95 you really can't help but be a little skeptical... but if you are looking for a high power RGB LED this product does the job right.
I used this LED as a replacement for the incandescent light bulb in a office light. One of the cone style lights with the inside coated white. I am using and arduino for control, the built in 5v works great with these.
No issues to speak of, doesn't even run hot thanks to the metal fixture.
I made a simple driver to use this with the Arduino and a +5V source (in my case from the PSU):
http://flameofknowledge.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/luz-de-la-cima-de-la-piramide/
Also you will find some SVG files I made for this tiny thing.
Cheers
Pads are not as image indeed, really small and close together a b*tch to solder.
really bright tho and good white mixing
Driver circuit
http://picprojects.org.uk/projects/hbld/index.htm
I'm looking for a link to information on driver circuits for these triple output models. Any ideas?
How hot do these get?
And the link's broken...
Where is the datasheet for this?
In case you haven't been able to find the datasheet for two years, you can find the datasheet here.
hahahahahah
Yikes! I really was not expecting the immense brightness of this thing! Get enough of these, and you could make a solid state lamp.
Hey! I just got one of these in the mail - and the solder pads on the heat sink are completely different... They are microscopic now! SparkFun should update the photo; or go back to using this style heat sink.
This little guy is bright! I should have paid more attention to the warnings. I have major spots in front of my eyes.
This LED is really, really, really bright. It will be tempting to look at it. I did, and it didn't blind me, but it was a good thrill.
Love it.
So I'm confused about this whole "painfully bright" thing. I've seen many comments about how these (and other) high-power LEDs are painful to look at, and that folks were afraid to feed them full power, etc.
From what I can tell by doing the math, these LEDs aren't any more powerful than a nightlight! I have no problem staring at one of those, so what am I missing?
Is this because the light is emitted in a tighter beam, or because none of the energy is wasted in wavelengths that the human eye isn't good at seeing? Or is it just really bright for an LED...
Any thoughts on this?
- Dean
the idea is that the light is radiating from a very small area, so it is concentrated, they are also about 3 times as efficietn as incadescent lights.
First, while "bright" is a descriptive term, it has no specific technical meaning.
My experience is that when most people refer to "brightness" they are talking about either intensity or sterance. For these, they are talking about luminous intensity == luminous flux emitted within a specific solid angle (lumens/steradian). Intensity for these devices is typically higher than for incandescent sources that emit more total flux.
On the other hand, sterance would be luminous intensity/unit area. Commonly discussed as the "brightness" of an entire surface. Unless you place the light source behind some diffusing material (aka. the coffee cup), the apparent size of the light source is very small. (point source)
If you want to see more information on LED's and eye safety, you could visit the Avago web sites. They used to be the HP Optoelectronic Division and they have a number of well written application notes on the subject.