Cree white 3mm/T1 Led ?

[up1950s]

Are these the best color for headlights ? Which of the 3 values ?

[victor miranda]

ummm?

the lower kelvin number is more yellow.

what cree lamps are you looking at?

v

[up1950s]

Standard white ones . I ordered all 3 values from Mouser . I will compare and photograph with a golden white I have coming from eBay . Cree sells some flashlights and house lights that look closer to incandescents than I have ever seen in a LED .

http://www.mouser.com/Cree-Inc/_/N-1yzs6io?Keyword=cree+3mm+white+led&FS=True

[TiVoPrince]

For 
steam era I would be suggesting to look for 5600K colour and the smallest light angle you can find.  Brighter values may be necesary if you are not direct viewing the LED but using light pipes or fiber optics.  Ignore the 4.6v LEDs even with DCC they are harder to get resistor values just right.  Maybe someone can correct me, but I definately see the 4.6v LEDs as the road far less travelled...

[up1950s]

You would think that with all the problems with white LEDs some manufacturer would have come up with a tinted condom or disk to color shift them to a more realistic hue for MRR headlights . They could sell them by the sheet and we could use a hole punch to make disks .

[victor miranda]

yeah LED and white come into a whole stack of variables.


the problem is kinda two things that make a lot of differences

one is the amount of light being created
and that makes a difference in the overall apperance
the other is that the more light you have the more color filtering you want.

I built the light and test it and then paint the lamp with the amber tint.

if you can find it, the color number I think you want is in the 4200k range.
I like 5200k myself.

victor



 

[TiVoPrince]

Tamiya  
has enough tints over at hobbytown to make me reasonably happy.  A more focused product might draw interest in the year 2943 when my Tamiya supply runs low. 

Although I fear that way too many simply accept the LEDs that come in locos or on decoders.  Five to ten percent of Nscalers (who might care enough to alter LEDs) is a seriously small slice of an already small pie...

[up1950s]

So far this is by far the whitest I found , unfortunately Cree is not going to make this 12,000 MCD or the other 2 MCD values ( 8,200 , 4,180 ) in this 3MM t1 style as per Mouser . Mouser still has them in stock though . Knowing this and the MCD of highest value being the whitest by far I did some searching and found that TOPBRIGHT88 has a min order of 50 22,000 MCD for 15 bucks with free shipping . I await their arrival and tests . My feeling is that dimer is easy to do by adding a foggy clear filter , than trying to deal with tints . I prefer as white as I can get . I put a black sleeve of shrink tubing around the led as that would represent a mounted one for the photo shoot . There is some blue but in the halo only coming from the bottom and the rounded dome I think , the mass of white which is the whole diameter is so bright it affects you eyes when taking these shots .

[up1950s]

Well I clipped the tip and ground it flat , painted the led black with the exception of a pin head diameter in the flat front . I still see a blue tint , so I hole punched a yellow loose leaf transparent tab and glued it behind the front smokebox door and tender rear cap . I give up . What's with white , can't make decals without high expense or hat tricks , and LED's giving us headaches as well .

[wcfn100]

I still see a blue tint.

Jason

[up1950s]

Jason

Thanks , I will get me one .

[up1950s]

Tamiya  
has enough tints over at hobbytown to make me reasonably happy.  A more focused product might draw interest in the year 2943 when my Tamiya supply runs low. 

Although I fear that way too many simply accept the LEDs that come in locos or on decoders.  Five to ten percent of Nscalers (who might care enough to alter LEDs) is a seriously small slice of an already small pie...

Thanks , I will get me some too .

[sizemore]

Richie,
I find the Miniatronics T1 white "yeloglo" LEDS as a pretty good headlamp representation.

The S.

[TiVoPrince]

Well I clipped the tip and ground it flat , painted the led black with the exception of a pin head diameter in the flat front .

Paint 
LED back and side surfaces white first.  I like Testors flat white or Scalecoat 1 reefer white for this.  Sticks to the LED polymer reasonably well but does reflect, not absorb light.  In actuality I find that most LEDs seem to get better and the light seems to be more focused where I want it by limiting where light can escape.  Sleeving a 3mm LED with a segment of aluminium tubing (polish the inside) or simple white shrink tubing is also a great help too.  Bonus is that these materials are they are not conductive inside a cramped shell, especially where lighting was not designed in.  After two coats paint over the white as necessary with a final finish coat. 

Tried a lot of silver options thinking that it would help reflectivity but it does not.  Silver tends to absorb, not reflect.  Don't know why but results simply don't lie...

[up1950s]

Thanks for the hints guys .