2015 LED 5050 Emitter Bulb Roundup.

[posplayr]

This is a side by side comparison of 18,27 and 40 5.0mmx5.0mm emitter bulbs with an 1156 Incandescent.

18 x 5050

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-X-Car-RV...Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr&hash=item46155e99bc

27 x 5050

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201291799753?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

40x 5050

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301256820818?item=301256820818&viewitem=&vxp=mtr

The LED bulbs are really not that much different with much less difference between them as the difference to the Incandescent bulb.

 

[JEEPRUSTY]

WOw a huge diff in brightness thanks for the vid.

 

[ShadowFocus603]

Very informative. Thank you.

 

[jbird7262]

WOW, the old school bulb still kicks butt.

 

[posplayr]

WOW, the old school bulb still kicks butt.

I would not want to leave the impression that the LED's are not visible; they ARE. But there is just a diminishing return with trying to find one that is bright as the Incandescent. And the LED's do certainly use much less current. The incandescent uses something like 2.2A while all the most the 40 emitter uses is about 450 mAmps (about 1/5).

If you have a 1157 bulb, and are switching to LED, I would wire both elements together (I did this for my brake lights). It will be much brighter than a single low setting on the 1157. If you were to hook up both elements in an 1157 incandescent, you would have a small heater.

 

[posplayr]

Another update; I measured the current draw of of each lamp.

18 280mA or 5.18mA per Emitter
27 310mA or 3.83mA per Emitter
40 500mA or 4.17mA per Emitter

Each mini board has three emitters in series with a current limiting resistor. Depending upon the resistor there can be more or less current drawn and more or less light that comes out of each.

You can see that the 27 emitter units are not being stressed as much but are almost as bright as the 40 emitter unit.

Out of curiosity I disassembled an 18 emitter unit and it used a 120 ohm resistor while the 27 emitter unit had a 150 ohm resistor and a protection diode. The 27 emitter is going to have much more longevity. The 40 unit is a bit more pricy ($4.5 bucks) so I did not want to tear one of them apart.

 

[Grimly]

That's useful, thanks.
Gradually replacing all the filament bulbs as I go, and handy to see the comparison.
When I fitted an 1156 to the tail, I used a stubby one that was supposed to be man enough to light up a blinker - it was adequate for the tail light, where it's doing a great job and matches the original 5 or 10W one well. The stop/tail replacement was OK, but from a different supplier and at least was more honest about his lumens claims.

 

[posplayr]

That's useful, thanks.
Gradually replacing all the filament bulbs as I go, and handy to see the comparison.
When I fitted an 1156 to the tail, I used a stubby one that was supposed to be man enough to light up a blinker - it was adequate for the tail light, where it's doing a great job and matches the original 5 or 10W one well. The stop/tail replacement was OK, but from a different supplier and at least was more honest about his lumens claims.

I'm also looking at using a DC-DC step convertor to keep a constant voltage/current on the Directional LEDs and probably boost them up to about 16-18 V for more light.

I just ordered a couple of these just for that purpose. I'm pretty sure you could put 20V onto the LED and get much more light and for a directional at intermittent duty they will not overheat too much. The DC to DC will also keep the voltage there no matter how the system is charging or just battery powered.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/XL6009-DC-D...3&rk=1&rkt=1&mehot=pp&so=cart&sd=171301504949

 

[posplayr]

I'm linking this thread here so that people are aware of the work BassCliff did a few years back.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_foru...s-Incandescent-blinkers&highlight=superbright

Remember when trying to make sense of all this that many of the LED bulbs are using the same type of chip but they primarily differ in three ways.

1.) The number of emitters: If you only have one emitter you are highly directional. Most of the LEDs I'm reviewing have hemispherical coverage (or sometimes called 360 degree) . By the time you get to 18 emitters the uniformity in all directions is pretty good and directionality of the bulb itself is not an issue. So as you continue to increase the number of emitters you are just increasing the total amount of light available.

2.) The size of the individual emitters. While I cannot confirm this from testing , but the vendors for the the 2015 bulb roundup claim that a 40 emitter 5050 (5.0mmx5,0mm) bulb is like a 120 emitter 3528 (3.5mmx2.8mm)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/291156637003?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

This one pulled a full 500 mAmp so it is almost twice the current of the 18 emitter bulbs.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/301256820818?item=301256820818&viewitem=&vxp=mtr

3.) The third factor is how hard the emitters are being driven. Most of these tower LED's have 3 emitters stacked in series with an additional series current limiting resistor. Each LED drops about 3V so 3 in series is 9V so at 14.5 V you are dropping almost 5 volts in the current limiting resistor. Playing with this resistor changes the output light level and the stress on the diodes. From what I could tell it is the resistor that actually gets the hottest, so why the manufactures are not putting 4 in series I don't know. The resistor would drop a lot less voltage and so less power dissipated in current limiting.

I should also mention color as a big factor as well. If you get a red or amber bulb to better match your lense you will be disappointed. Those colors just put out much less light for the same size and number of LED emitter chips. Stick to the cool white.

I should also mention that I'm going to experiment with increase the voltage to the LED's to push them harder and get out more light. Alternatively I could try and open them up and change resistor values but that is a bunch of hand work so I'm just going to look for a slight improvement not expecting any great gains. Most larger LED lights have internal DC-DC current amplifiers so you can pick these up pretty cheap and integrate one with an LED that has none. It will keep the light brightness the same regardless of charging system voltage.

 

[posplayr]

Quick update: I received the eBay DC to DC converters and ran some of the 27 led emitters side by side as a test. The control led at 14.5v and the test unit at 20v. The bulbs current increased from 0.3 amps to over 1 amp. It was brighter but it was clearly not going up in brightness in proportion to the excess current. After about 5 minutes the light started to flicker as it was getting hot enough to melt the solder cool down then recycle as contact was made again. Bottom line is there was not much benefit to boosting the voltage. A boost to say 16.5v was hardly noticeable while current went from 0.3a to 0.5a

 

[Astir]

Greatest thread ever! Love the video comparison of light output. Thanks posplayr! I had been considering (but haven't gotten to the balance sheet of the plan) switching to LED in order to add accessories without worry like the ability to charge a cell, driving lights for safety, maybe even <gasp> a heated jacket. My understanding was the LED was a win win with less current and more light output. debunked!

Not so sure I want to put my kids on the street with less light. Definately have something to think about.

 

[posplayr]

Greatest thread ever! Love the video comparison of light output. Thanks posplayr! I had been considering (but haven't gotten to the balance sheet of the plan) switching to LED in order to add accessories without worry like the ability to charge a cell, driving lights for safety, maybe even <gasp> a heated jacket. My understanding was the LED was a win win with less current and more light output. debunked!

Not so sure I want to put my kids on the street with less light. Definately have something to think about.

Hopefully I did not leave the wrong impression. I'm still moving to LED with the 27 5050 units. The current draw is about 300 mAmps v.s. 2.25 amps for teh 1156 incandescent. I think you have to consider the sharp turn on of the LED gives it more noticeably than the sluggish turn on of incandescent. Your eye and brain operate off differences so just having it brighter light does no necessarily equate to better if the LED turn on is sharp and bright enough.

You might also recall Basscliff's video series. He was comparing to a lower wattage 1156 (IIR 1074).

I'm still debating using incandescent bulb in front as the LED headlamp is going to bright and those markers may not be noticeable. I already plan to wire the front 1157 dual elements in parallel for turn signals (or just use 1156 LED).

 

[Astir]

There is so much great information on this site, scattered everywhere. :adoration: Found a video by Basscliff, thanks for clueing me in to look for it. Interesting especially the daylight rear view where honestly neither were bright enough for mom crazyness over protecting kids. I would like to see a daytime laser burning brightness where people brake and steer away from the bike out of sheer bright awesomeness (or to save their eyes from light damage lol).

You make a very good point about human nature noticing differences. I am by no means a human factors expert but to me the blinking in either case is eye catching at night on the video. Day the LED does have a bright center making it a bit more noticeable but I replayed that to make sure and neither are really eye catching, the brake light (hopefully) will clue a driver in to look for a signal to see what the rider is doing.

On the other hand, in New Mexico using turn signals are considered a sign of weakness so what am I worried about. :topsy_turvy:

The power savings seems worth giving LED's a try. I will pick up a few and play, found a 20 pack for $19 on Amazon. With four bikes and four vehicles I am sure we will use them somewhere.