Honest discussion of LED lighting

[LIL' Joe]

That was just a little dig for the comment you made to me in the other post is all Grizz. Here is what I dug up from the Maglite and Luxeonstar webpages.

This is what I could find on the Maglite so far.
Per the luxeonstart website the incandescent bulb the Mini Maglite came with is only 4.3 lumens.
Replacement for the Mini Maglite is a minimum of 42 lumens (50 Typical).

The 4D Cell Magelite incandescent bulb is 23,000 candle power. Not sure what this is in lumens.

Two reasons LEDs are brighter.
- how much radiant flux is emitted toward the observer; (Tighter beam of light as Jigs stated earler.)
- how sensitive the observer is to the wavelength(s) of the light. (Spectrum of light the LED is pushing out. The webpage states they use a pure white light.)

[GRIZZ]

Hmm GRIZZ shines his LED maglite in joe's eyes. :p

[Jumping Cholla Jigs]

That was just a little dig for the comment you made to me in the other post is all Grizz. Here is what I dug up from the Maglite and Luxeonstar webpages.

This is what I could find on the Maglite so far.
Per the luxeonstart website the incandescent bulb the Mini Maglite came with is only 4.3 lumens.
Replacement for the Mini Maglite is a minimum of 42 lumens (50 Typical).

The 4D Cell Magelite incandescent bulb is 23,000 candle power. Not sure what this is in lumens.

Two reasons LEDs are brighter.
- how much radiant flux is emitted toward the observer; (Tighter beam of light as Jigs stated earler.)
- how sensitive the observer is to the wavelength(s) of the light. (Spectrum of light the LED is pushing out. The webpage states they use a pure white light.)

Well said. You do your homework for sure. Using the right lens a light can be made to throw a very tight beam for miles. With LED's its even easier as the light leaves the emitter in an almost perfectly straight line. Try making shadow puppets with a standard mag light and then again with the LED one. You will see a much sharper shadow from the LED.

[ruler7171]

What about using a full spectrum bulb that is supposed to simulate sunlight?

[Jumping Cholla Jigs]

Sure, you can do so but you will be wasting energy since water filters out light pretty fast. Reds are first and with a few feet reds are totally absorbed by water. Actually visible UV penetrates water best but does little to attract plankton, and therefore fish. UVV actually seams to repel fish in our tests. "Pure" white light contains all colors of light but only a few go through the water very far. Blue, then green going the farthest. Blue light draws some plankton, but green draws far more and the fish seem to know this. So a blue light will have the best penatration of water for the same amount of power draw than green but the green will attract more plankton so its your best choice and gets you the most bang for the buck.

[stinkies daddy]

do your leds require a power source or can they be hooked up to the battery. The 1's produced by GE that we use in our signs have a p/s like a ballast for flouresent lights and can only run 7 lights to 1 leg out of 4, so each 7 light run has to wired to a diff leg on the same power source. We also dont mix the code #'s on the light itself, never using a 4g with a 5f, also we have to set the dip switches to the # code on the light. does a 12 v system avoid all this because its a simple 12 v system

[Dickieboy]

My question:

In reviewing specs on LED's I often see a light measurement of something like 60,000mcd usually on 10mm diodes. Is this millicandles? So that would equal 60 candlepower?

Just what does that mean?

[Jumping Cholla Jigs]

do your leds require a power source or can they be hooked up to the battery. The 1's produced by GE that we use in our signs have a p/s like a ballast for flouresent lights and can only run 7 lights to 1 leg out of 4, so each 7 light run has to wired to a diff leg on the same power source. We also dont mix the code #'s on the light itself, never using a 4g with a 5f, also we have to set the dip switches to the # code on the light. does a 12 v system avoid all this because its a simple 12 v system

Sounds like your talking about Gel Core LED's system for channel letters. (in the same business here) Gel Core LED's are nice for the job but don't put out much light for an underwater fishing light. Since you are familiar with them though... It will take 150 of them to equal our light and their green is very bluish. It does not work like a pure green light to draw fish.

[Nick4u1]

pure green led light can easily be achieved with a decent Tri-chip RGB led

[boatstall]

Aurora has out performed all of the lights that I have tried. PERIOD.....

Carbide, then:
Coleman lanterns,
Auto headlamps in styrofoam,
Quartz (starfire & others) submersible,
4ft. green fluorescent,(factory, not homemade)
cheap LED's,
Aurora,

I run a 28ft. toon for night fishing, and have tested and observed most all of the above lights from underwater after dark. I set the depth of all of the lights at 5ft. (to completely submerge the fluorescent). Allowed 1hr. of run time, moonless night, with boat anchored (4 point, to stop any drift), in 30ft. of water.

1 Aurora off the bow, centered between pontoons, 4ft. fluorescent centered off the stern, 4 starfires, (2 port, 2 starboard) centered on the outboard side of the pontoons. All submerged, and were all energized at the same time to see which light circle drew bait the quickest. Was a draw on the speed at which bait started to show up. Green on both ends with the whites centered between.

Was amazing laying on the bottom looking up. Green definitely penetrates the water column better than the white light. Bait ball was deeper and wider off of the Aurora. The others had a tighter wad of smaller bait, but the Aurora was the first to start the larger minnows and that started to draw shad. Looked like a spaceship with all that light.
Crappie were hanging way deeper than I would have predicted, and did not start to show up until I only had about 5 min. of air left.

The Aurora showed light almost 3 times deeper than the white Starfire's, and I was amazed that the 4ft. fluorescent had a wider circle of light than the Starfires, but did not have the depth reach of the Starfires. The Aurora was superior in both width and depth of light. Amperage draw is irrelevant with the LED.

I will be ordering another Aurora for the stern, and will be giving the Starfires to son-in-law. I don't speak all of the techno-babble, but after seeing them all under actual conditions, I'll be able to light the entire boat with 2 Aurora's.

Best thing is that the Aurora holds the bait even with grandkids swimming around trying to catch bait with their hands. Great entertainment during night swims.

LED's are the only way to go in my opinion.
Green has proven to penetrate better. With well over a year of use, the Aurora has shown to be a well designed product that does what it was advertised to do. About the size of a hockey puck, machined out of aluminum, with a quality power cable. Unless someone can come up with a better option, I'm about to order my second one. Sorry Jumping Cholla, this next one's going to be ordered through skiptomylou.

I'm just an old Louisiana boy that has to see for himself. And I have seen the light, and it was GREEN:D:D:D

boatstall