I know it is a bit early for a thread on lights for next winter ,but nothing like being prepared.

Cree have just announced a big hike in lumen output in their next led offering .
Press Room

Cree Announces Industry’s Brightest and Highest-Efficiency Lighting-Class LED

Cree to Demonstrate XLamp® XP-G LED, Features 132 Lumens per Watt Efficacy, at LIGHTFAIR International

DURHAM, N.C., APRIL 30, 2009 — Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces it is demonstrating the newest addition to its lighting-class XLamp® LED family—the XLamp XP-G LED—at LIGHTFAIR International in New York, May 5-7, 2009.

The cool white XLamp XP-G provides 139 lumens and 132 lumens per Watt at 350 mA. Driven at 1 A, the XP-G produces 345 lumens, which is 37 percent brighter and 53 percent more efficient than the brightest XR-E LED. The XP-G LED has the highest lumen density of any available lighting-class LED, and it is based on the XLamp XP family package.

“The XLamp XP-G again raises the level of performance available from our XLamp LED family,” said Paul Thieken, Cree, marketing director, LED components. “This product is designed for customers requiring the highest levels of brightness and efficacy.”

The XLamp XP-G LED is being demonstrated at Cree’s LIGHTFAIR International Booth #1463. Cree is currently taking sample requests for the XLamp XP-G and targets the product to be commercially available the third quarter of calendar 2009.

Sorry if this bores anyone out there
but it does mean my Troutlight gets a boost to 2000 lumens from 1100 lumens
or a mini Troutlight with 4 leds 1300 lumens

Mark my words. Forests are going to burn because of these and deer will be blinded.

Jeeze they will be ferociously bright – gonna need to wear shades on winter night rides next

hang on a moment!

I have 4 homebrew’d lights, each knocking out 250lumen (ish) and weighing 58g each, so 1000 lumen of fairly concentrated light is easily achievable on my helmet.

Now i can barely make out the trail with all 4 switched on, its so bright that the usual ‘no shadows’ from a helmet light isnt a problem, there just isnt any contrast, even dark brown soil comes up white! 500 is about the limit of whats usefull and all I can handle.

Unless you have some massive 180deg flood lense how is 2000lumen going to help?

Can’t have too much power!

Remember my 4x150W halogen home mades? they were daylight makers until I stopped and they overheated setting fire to the garage.

mmmmmmmmmm light.,,,mmmmmmmm

I’ve recently been riding with a L&M HID light, rather than my own Lumi HID.
My Lumi is silly bright and has the most incredible beam. But the L&M, whilst nowhere near as bright (Or white!) has a far better beam pattern: Bigger spread, more even, only a small central spot. The L&M is the better light to ride with, no question.
So it’s not all about power, it’s where the light goes that counts.

Has anybody thought to put some work into the reflectors yet????

Might as well go out in the day 😉

I gave up with home made lights after the second fire. Now I use 2 £15 LED torches bought off the www with some rechargeable batteries. A bit of a focussed beam but fine for 3 hours riding around Lordswood or the New Forest which is as much as I do.

Trout’s use of XPE’s with a variety of optics gives an ace beam, great control etc.

Shame it took me an hour to mount it to my helmet (in a way I could take it on and off etc), but it’s a great product.

We all ride with so much light that when you ride through sunlight-dappled singletrack on a clear day, you can’t see the trail as well as you can at night.

Yep I agree a bit on the too much light but with sensible optic choice a nice beam is achieveable and you dont have to run it flat out .

I am thinking smaller housings with good output also here.

and you dont have to run it flat out .

Exactly… I don’t know if I’d want more light than I’ve currently got but I’d be interested in a smaller/lighter battery.

I’d say that the big advantage of more efficient LEDs is that you can run them at lower current (which is even more efficient), still get lots of light but have a tiny battery pack without having a short run time.

Or you can just burn out everyone else’s retinas 🙂

I’m happy with my Vision 4’s that I’ve only just got. I don’t think I need any more power, I just need to see the trees………..

trout, are you going to be making any smaller lights, like the Hope twins or something similar with just one or two of these new super powered LEDs?

Thanks for the heads up, Trout.

I love the way lights get more powerful every year now, but the way the trail features get flattened out has caused me a few “moments”

I’m going to find some yellow LEDs and mount them at axle height to give a contrast at low level.

It’s the way we used to mount our lights in the bad old days of low wattage torch bulbs – there was no hope of illuminating the road, but a low mounted light showed up the holes just before you hit them 🙂

Swoosh
I will probably do a triple half the size of the 6er already have one and it is a killer not with the new leds though .
and it will be cheap as a kit or built up .

put the XP-G in and it will rival all the big players lights.

how about a wide spread light for use on your forks to give you better low level periphery lighting.

I’d buy that.

Trout, that is amazing info. I was interested in your light units, but the timing was wrong. If you’re going to be producing a light unit with these LEDs in the future then I’m certainly interested. Could this lead to a lighting war with Seol SemiConductors?

trout…if you build it, they will come.

Trout, I want to chat with you at some point about dynamo-powered (or at least semi-dynamo-powered battery-supported lighting)…

: P

£40 P7 runs very well, never needed to go above “low” mode, don’t see the need for some 1100 lumens.

JxL – you might not…

Epicyclo.
It does not work mounting any lights down at axle height as you get a massive shadow from the tyre even with one on each side. it has been tried and rejected

Count
If they are available before this winter then there will definatly be a couple of lights to suit the owls or the blind . and even the weight weenies.
SSC use Cree Dies in their leds and Cree always seem to be a step in front.

Pierre
I dont know much about dynos but it seems the way forward with these leds some guys are doing cracking dyno setups even with USB to charge the phone/mp3 player

Here is a pic of the Troutlight family at the moment

Trout,

do you think these new LEDs will be retro-fitable (I’m sure that’s not a real word!) in the lamps you’ve already made?

I’m looking forward to this winter already!

Troutie, I guess you could turn these gems into a fairly decent floodlight for your home?
Or replacing the halogen downlighters in the home.

I guess this is the reason that Lumicycle have made a big point about the fact that there new LED unit is upgradeable as LED technology improves.

I think that as soon as I am in stable employment again I will be attempting to convert my halogen Lumi cans to LEDs using the Cutter kits. Will probably do one at a time to see if it’s worth it.
Although saying that….I do find the colour output of halogens more comfortable to ride with than LEDs. I think because Lumi overvolt their halogens they aren’t as orange as some are.

Hmmm… I’m getting close to 132 lumens per watt already by using 9 x MCE devices (that’s 36 LED chips) running at 20% or so of full output. Plenty of light at about 15W of power with the option to go flat out for fast DH sections of trail.

trout, i like the look of the 4th from the left, the small 3LED one. it’s not on your website is that a new body for these new superdooperfantastic LEDs or just a new design?

Was it Audi that said “Power is nothing without control”? PP has hit the nail on the head here, I’m not remotely interested in Lumen output (well not so’s it matters) What I’m interested in is how long will it go? how much does it weigh, does the light go where I need it, and only lastly, how much of the trail does it light up.

I had just as much fun night riding when I had two poxxy halogen bathroom lights strapped to my handlebar, I don’t want to be able to signal the Mars Rover, all I need is for it not to break, and last for as long as I want.