Thrower LED Options

ti-force

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Been away for quite a while, so I'm not up to date on much these days. Back in my day the XR-E and XP-E were the go to for tight spots/throw, but I'm sure I've missed out on some advancements.

I've got a project in mind to install LED's up in my ceiling in the tv/entertainment room for use as point source lighting so we can see to eat our food while watching tv. I prefer that over having the whole room lit up as ambient lighting takes away from the show, imo.

Anyhow, that's why I need an emitter with a tight beam angle so I can light up only the area needed to see to eat. I generally use Carclo optics with the emitter flowed onto a 20mm board, but I'm open to other ideas.

Thanks,

Casey
 
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Zak

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There are lots of options. For absolute throw numbers, I think the current winner is the Oslon Black Flat, but you probably aren't looking to illuminate your food with an intensity in the hundreds of kcd. These are only in cool white with low CRI, which I suspect is suboptimal for the application.

I'd probably use the Nichia E21A, or maybe the E17A for this sort of thing. They have small emitter areas, no dome, and extremely high CRI. Virence.com sells them in single quantities with appropriate MCPCBs in a variety of color temperatures.
 

ti-force

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Nice thanks for the advice. And you're correct I don't need a tan while eating lol.. However, I can remotely control the LED brightness anywhere from a couple percent to one hundred percent brightness. I have high CRI Nichia 219's on hand and thought about using those driven at .5A max brightness. I'll check out the ones you suggested. Do you know off hand if Carclo or someone makes optics for the suggested emitters?
 

Zak

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It seems to me you'd be looking for an optic with hard cutoffs and relatively even intensity across the beam like an aspheric, but Carclo does list data for the E21A and E17A with many of its 20mm TIRs.
 

ti-force

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Absolutely hard cutoffs. I'll check out what they offer. I used a tight spot Carclo optic for xpg with some 219's for lighting over my lathe and it turned out really good, but the cutoff could stand to be better, and spot tighter for this project as the emitter will be further away from the area to be lit.
 

Zak

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I'd just go with an aspheric, in which case you can almost certainly focus the beam smaller than you want no matter what emitter you use. The E21A is still a great choice for color quality though, and is available in a lot of different color temperatures.
 

ti-force

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I'd just go with an aspheric, in which case you can almost certainly focus the beam smaller than you want no matter what emitter you use. The E21A is still a great choice for color quality though, and is available in a lot of different color temperatures.

Does anyone offer readily available aspheric lens holders to adjust for the correct focal length to get the desired beam angle? I could make something to do this, but I'd probably have more time in it than what I could buy something for. That is, if someone makes such a beast.
 
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