Page: ......
*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
I just finished soldering up my 'Hyperlights'. Red, Green, and Blue Luxeon PIC Uber poi cool






Non-Https Image Link



Non-Https Image Link

Non-Https Image Link






More images with the Luxeons running here

Cake or Death?


RevBRONZE Member
Bastard Newbie Messiah
1,269 posts
Location: Apparently lost in my ego, USA


Posted:
the reason I was going for the luxeons is because they were brighter so I wouldnt need as many and becase they look like a more stable aprratus.. the wires on the led's tend to break easy.. and these domes seem to be a lot more stable and by my reasoning more durable..

More useless information courtesy of Rev...
Confusing the masses, one post at a time...
"Obviously, you're not a golfer.."- The Dude
"Buy the ticket... Take the ride..." -Raoul Duke
"FEMA has never done catastrophe planning..."-Michael Brown


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
Luxeons are definitely much brighter, but the actualy LED part is a little fragile. Either way I'd suggest you put something around the actual LED/Luxeon so that it can't get damaged. If it's inside a stick, that should certainly help.

Cake or Death?


Mr ChutneySILVER Member
Tosser
1,712 posts
Location: Bristol,UK


Posted:
I was lucky enough to get to spin the early prototypes this evening and I must say I am very impressed- the brightness and versatility of the light emitted by these is really good- with some further development they will be a very desirable item, and due to their design an interesting alternative to the ever arriving Illumminati poi.

John has video we shot and Polarity took some excellent pictures so expect an idea shortly I expect biggrin

RevBRONZE Member
Bastard Newbie Messiah
1,269 posts
Location: Apparently lost in my ego, USA


Posted:
so since the luxeons have heat issues.. I guess I would need to work around the star.. but now arises a new problem.. how to diffuse the light inside the stick.. I mean the old celophane (sp?) trick wont work if it gets hot.. and how much heat are we talking here?

also I noticed that some of them some in different light styles.. given that I want the light through the stick, would the batwing design be a bit more helpful than the lambert (or whatever the mainstyle is) since the batwing doesnt put as much striaght out but more at at a slight angle..

forgive my constant barrage of questions.. I'm trying to make simple, durable, sticks.. I'm tired of spinning dead sticks.. I dont need the fancy programming.. just some simple bright sticks..

More useless information courtesy of Rev...
Confusing the masses, one post at a time...
"Obviously, you're not a golfer.."- The Dude
"Buy the ticket... Take the ride..." -Raoul Duke
"FEMA has never done catastrophe planning..."-Michael Brown


mtbeerGOLD Member
ARRRR!
529 posts
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA


Posted:
I used a polycarb tube and stuck a sleeve of frosted window film inside which disperses the light quite nicely. Got them here: www.tapplastics.com



If you want the light through a long stick (assuming staff), the Star/O Luxeon might be the answer. It's a tight beam -5 to +5 degrees. If you place two of them near the center of the stick pointing out both directions and cap the ends with half spheres, you should get a nice dispersion. Alternatively you could use the regular lambert stars at the ends of the sick, pointing in but the center will not be very bright.



For shorter sticks (poi), I'd use the regular lambert or batwing star. They have a wide beam -60 to +60 degrees. One per poi will do unless you are an electronics guru like Hyper and Polarity and want sequenced colors.
EDITED_BY: mtbeer (1119685514)

"My skin is singed but it heals my heart and with glowing pride I'll wear my scars." -Davey Havok


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
*thread hi-jacking detected... moving to intercept* j/k wink

I've got my luxeons mounted on small heatsinks, and with them constantly strobing, they've never gotten too hot. The star should help as long as you leave the aluminium exposed in some way - the air will need to get to it.

As for the different types, have a look at the documentation. A lot of your questions will be answered smile Check out pages 15-18 to see how the light is distributed. I'd suggest getting a lambertian emitter and a collimiting lens so that the light is focussed into a 10° beam which you could point up your stick. The batwing models kick most of their light out at ~45° the sides so that's probably not what you want - the lambertian throw more light straight up so they'd probably be better for you.

I'm in the process of putting together a vid of last night's spinning. Taking me a while to get to grips with editing videos, but I'm getting there smile

Cake or Death?


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
I just finished putting together the [Old link] - I hope you have as much fun watching it as we did shooting it smile

Cake or Death?


RevBRONZE Member
Bastard Newbie Messiah
1,269 posts
Location: Apparently lost in my ego, USA


Posted:
I read the thing I thought the batwing was more at 20 degrees.. whihc would have put it lighting the sides of the stick more than the center of the stick.. but not wide out to the sides like the side emitters..

I was only going for one led. I don't like color changing.. its a nice effect but you lose the effect of passes and switches when people don't have a clear way of distinghuishing one poi from the other.

now considering the whole thing is going to be sealed up in a tube, perhaps I should drill a few holes near the bottom of the tube so that it can 'breathe'... whihc brings my next question... whihc part do I need to cool the top or the bottom.. because the bottom would be easy but the top might create a funny lighting effect where the wholes are..

if I hijack too much, tell me to muck off.. but the thread title is luxeon poi.. isnt that what I'm building wink j/k

More useless information courtesy of Rev...
Confusing the masses, one post at a time...
"Obviously, you're not a golfer.."- The Dude
"Buy the ticket... Take the ride..." -Raoul Duke
"FEMA has never done catastrophe planning..."-Michael Brown


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
hehe, I was just stirring wink

You only need to cool the meal star - the rest should be fine to enclose. Drilling holes ought to work fine IMHO

Cake or Death?


RevBRONZE Member
Bastard Newbie Messiah
1,269 posts
Location: Apparently lost in my ego, USA


Posted:
me too...:)

I read some more and it said that all their leds are mounted to heatsinks.. just the star heatsink I guess is larger.. so I take it I don't need a heat sink for the emitters? but then I wouldnt be able to mount them the way I wanted either since it wouldnt have breathing room.. though I'm not sure the star offers any better mounting potential..

More useless information courtesy of Rev...
Confusing the masses, one post at a time...
"Obviously, you're not a golfer.."- The Dude
"Buy the ticket... Take the ride..." -Raoul Duke
"FEMA has never done catastrophe planning..."-Michael Brown


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
No, i think you've read what they said wrong. The emitters come without heatsinks. You'll need to provide some for them..

Cake or Death?


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
Hello there mr. hyperlight (or another techpriest) smile
i've experimented with different kinds of 'normal' led-poi (nothing flashy, just one-coloured led-poi)... but your hyperlight-thingies got my attention and i'm intend of starting my own led-pic-project and see where it leads. (no, i don't wanna copy your project, don't worry wink )

but... i have seriously NO idea where to start. maybe you have a list of needed materials or some tips to get me started?

As far as i can think of the first things will be:
1. at least 1 led
2. proper batteries for the led(s)
3. a pic
4. a board where i can mount everything on (dunno how these things are called)
5. some thingie to connect the pic to my PC
6. wiring

do you have any tips? any 'maps' or information to connect the pic on the board and materials?

your help is móre than welcome... when i have a good start i can make it on my own, but for now i need some help and tips

thanks in advance

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
You could try https://nautilus.homeunix.org/ledpoi/
for starters. I'm trying to put together a site on LED poi constuction there, although I'm just documenting my own efforts at the moment.

I could do with some feedback on how the server's performing, as I think it might need moving to a faster computer.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


RevBRONZE Member
Bastard Newbie Messiah
1,269 posts
Location: Apparently lost in my ego, USA


Posted:
polarity- was going to give ya feedback but it just time's out... I use firefox though.. I know that has issues with some places... shrug

More useless information courtesy of Rev...
Confusing the masses, one post at a time...
"Obviously, you're not a golfer.."- The Dude
"Buy the ticket... Take the ride..." -Raoul Duke
"FEMA has never done catastrophe planning..."-Michael Brown


polaritySILVER Member
veteran
1,228 posts
Location: on the wrong planet, United Kingdom


Posted:
Guess I should lay off the P2P, as it eats all the bandwidth wink I'll play with the firewall and give the web server traffic priority, that should help.

You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgment of your existence.

Green peppers, lime pickle and whole-grain mustard = best sandwich filling.


RevBRONZE Member
Bastard Newbie Messiah
1,269 posts
Location: Apparently lost in my ego, USA


Posted:
its a little slow loading.. but.. worth the wait..
1- its wiki.. very nice..
2- very direct... covers the main points without rambling on like I tend to do..
3- I noticed some of the parts were sitll being worked on (since they ask me to login to edit.. ) but overall I found it very helpful..
4- you have a few typos.. but I think its more important that the diagrams, and such be correct than a few mispelled words here or there.. I mean.. its for building poi, not an english exam.. wink

clap very awesome.. let me know when its finished.. I'd like to put a link to it on |s| if you don't mind..

More useless information courtesy of Rev...
Confusing the masses, one post at a time...
"Obviously, you're not a golfer.."- The Dude
"Buy the ticket... Take the ride..." -Raoul Duke
"FEMA has never done catastrophe planning..."-Michael Brown


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
nice site indeed Rev... me thinks that'll start me off...

but im still thinking about the leds.

i'm thinking about ordering superflux leds, (one red, one green, one blue) because the RGB-superflux leds seem to be not very bright...

and the normal 5mm RGB leds from this site seem to be very bright but not wide-angled...



anybody got tips for the leds? im not sure what to buy. mono leds will probably be easier to connect (only 3 wires to the pic afaik) but i have to take care of the brightness of each light... and i seriously have no idea how to do that :S



my poi will have to be 'wrappable' so ill probably put everything in a sock so the light of the leds will be diffused in some way.



anybody tips?

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
I've had some good LEDs from LED-Lights.co.uk Super bright and reasonably cheap. There's a guy in Hong-Kong that sells enormous quantities of very cheap LEDs on ebay - have a search on there.

Seperate LEDs will give you much higher brightness, but there may well be some seperation between the colours from the LEDs being ~5mm apart.

You could take care of the brightness in one of two ways: Either adjust the values of your current limiting resistors, or compensate for it in software using PWM. Don't know what PWM is? It's what I've been using to reproduce all the colours you see in the photo's in this thread. Basically, you turn the LEDs on/off faster than you can see. Then you adjust how much of each flash is on and off (this is called duty cycle). Say you set a 50% duty cycle, your LEDs will be on for half the time and off the other half. The result is that your LEDs will appear to be only half as bright as full power (actually they won't appear half as bright.. but that's another story). Set the duty cycle to 100%, and they'll be maximum brightness, 0% = off. If you then start adjusting the different colours by different amounts, you'll be able to reproduce any colour in the visible spectrum :O ..get that far and you'll have something approaching what my HyperLights are capable of (only not as bright :P).

Socks will work. I use a cone of rip-stop Nylon for my HyperLights which works remarkably well.

Cake or Death?


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
Ok, thnx hyper!... today i had a pretty long conversation with a very friendly fella working at a local electronics shop. He told me about PWM, and programming the pic etc. still lot's to find out but i have a small start now... he gave me some internetsites for basic radio-electronics and programming, cuz I'm a total nitwit considering those subject... but i can learn damn fast biggrin

I bought some superflux leds and they look quite bright (no, not as bright as luxeon :P )... i chose seperate colours. very nice small thingies smile

now im going to look for batteries that fit the design... I wanna do it as small as possible. I found some batteries used for camera that are 6v and fairly small (1/4 by 1/2 inch or something)... but those are alkalines so I have to replace them... anyone knows how long they'll go with 3 led's and a pic?

also found a pic-programmer and a 4mhz pic, for about $45 (39.95 euros)... when I have the money I might be buying that...

anyone more tips? (no, im not hiyacking this thread wink )

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
another question: the resistance-thingies needs to be connected to the + side of the led, right?

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
I use a programmer from Kits R Us.com - very reasonably priced, and they come with excellent support.

If you want to know how long your batteries will last, check their rating - you need to look for their mAh rating. If your LEDs draw say 30mA each, and you have all three on, that's 90mA. The battery rating is in milli-Amps / hour so battery rating/90 = ~how long your poi will last with all three LEDs on (in hours).

Resistors can be connected to either side of the LED. All they're doing is limiting the amount of current that can flow through the LED. Without the resistors, the LED would turn on and current would flow through it. When current flows, it heats the LED up. As LEDs heat up, they become less resistive, and so more current flows etc. etc. until the LED gets so hot it melts / goes bang! So always use resistors! smile

Cake or Death?


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
the mA rating is only on rechargeble batteries... those tiny 6v batteries i've found aren't rechargeble... so dunno the mA rating...

just tested the leds with proper voltage and WOW, for 2 bucks per piece these things are BRIGHT!

ill be doing lots of research (the guy in the electronics shop gave me a bunch of urls for info)... soon ill be a smart guy :P

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
Nice one - I look forward to seeing pics and vids on here soon biggrin

Cake or Death?


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
argh... i've been testing some designs but i got stuck more or less. problem is:
i want to put it in a sock but the problem is: if i put batteries on the bottom and the lights on top, then only the 'cone' of the sock is lit up... and if i put the lights on the bottom and the battery on top, then the end of the sock will be lit up but not the cone...i guess the best thing would be a battery in the middle and the lights around it, but then the structure wouldnt be as strong as i want it :S

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:

Non-Https Image Link



Non-Https Image Link



here are the first 2 images. next to thingie on the second image is a AA sized battery. smile welll... these are the very very first basics... still alot the do biggrin

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
Looking like a good start to me. Personally, I'd go with the lights on top of the batteries, lighting the cone.. but then that's the design I'm using for my Hyperlights and I'm pretty pleased with the way it looks. If you get all your batteries next to each other, you're only really losing ~50mm!

Cake or Death?


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
atm im busy with my design... i'll try to place everything in a globall kind of thingies, running on 4 AAA size batteries @ 4.8volt.
the problem is... the PIC ive seen runs on 5.0 volt...
would the 0.2v make a difference?? (i know it's a noob question, but I need to know this for sure before f*cking up my design...)

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


*HyperLightBRONZE Member
old hand
1,174 posts
Location: Great Malvern [UK]


Posted:
Which pic are you using? You may well find you can use it at lower voltages, if you run it slower. The PIC I'm using for example can run on 2v if you bring it down to 4Mhz

Cake or Death?


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
im not yet using a pic... ive seen one in the store packed together with a programmer... thought it would be a pretty good deal. it''s a '16f...?' pic, dunno the exact number...
i have to use these batteries anyways... 2x AA = 3.0v = not enough (the blue led runs on 3.6v, green 3.5v and the red one on 2.1v as far as i remember... 3x AAA would be ok, but then the ball would be out of balance... :S ) ...

but you still didn't answer the question wink

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


anonomatosGOLD Member
enthusiast
389 posts
Location: Utrecht [NL], Netherlands


Posted:
Well, say hello to "P.lu (mark 1)"! (p.lu = programmable lightunit)

still not programmable though... when i have money ill buy the programmer and chip for the first prototype. design is finished, interior hardware is finished 'cept for the PIC and resistance.




Non-Https Image Link





Non-Https Image Link




the design is a heavily modified globall. no, it's not totally round, but the ball is well balanced and weighted well, so good enough to poi with (at least for a first prototype). the design may look very fragile but it's VERY shockresistance. it's basicially one tube of polycarb for the lights, resistance and PIC (it'll fit according to my calculations) and the vertical (top picture)/ horizontal (bottom pciture) 'tubes' on the picture above are for the batteries...



well... lot's more to do... actually I'm just getting started, but it's a nice begin if you ask me smile

"Don’t know how long, this one’s gonna take;
I could fail, but I’d rather be a fuckup, than a fake"


Page: ......

Similar Topics

Using the keywords [luxeon poi] we found the following existing topics.

  1. Forums > Luxeon Star LED, 660,000 mcd [7 replies]
  2. Forums > A Splendiferous LED, if you can afford it [5 replies]
  3. Forums > Luxeon LED Poi Pics [35 replies]
  4. Forums > Luxeon Poi... [241 replies]
  5. Forums > Single Colour Luxeon Poi, easier construction [10 replies]

      Show more..

HOP Newsletter

Sign up to get the latest on sales, new releases and more...