Does anyone know what kind of LED light source they are using in the Vessel Luau portable lamp( pictured)? I am working on a rechargeable lamp and I am looking for a suitably strong light source that does not drain the batteries too fast but still gives a strong enough, multi directional light.
I dont know for that particular product but http://www.lc-led.com/ and http://www.plusopto.co.uk/ have some LED products which might be of use to you.
Thanks for the lead! A couple of the Globe LED bulbs look promising.
This is what i was informed from Vessel:
The Luau has a bank of 36 LEDs inside. They have a approximately 100,000 hour lifespan, so they should never need replacing. If they did need to be replaced, a replacement LED source is available from Vessel.
Its a little unclear if they are using a standard bulb or have made their own board. I’m going to have to use a standard bulb anyway, but I might look into compact fluorecent bulb as well.
yeah maybe they create there own array of LED to suit their application.
that thing will get H.O.T!
i bet that once you have use the thing for 3000 hours the lovely warm white LEDs will have turned blue!
(3 hours a day approx for 3 years = 3000 hours)
36 x 5mm leds pointing at different angles; at 24VDC, each string of 6 at 25mA = .025A x 24VDC x 6 = 3.6W of LED light,
their website states 50W equiv, so i dont belive what they are saying.
I cant comment on whether or not the leds will change color over time, but it seems like normally when someone says something like 50w equivalent, they are referring to the fact that they expect the light to be comparable to that of a 50w incandescent light bulb.
3.6W of LED does not equal 50W incadescent, that’s for darn sure! I would say equivalent to 20W max.
No worries with heat though. The 5mm LEDs don’t heat up too much, even 50 of them packed on a small PCB. I wouldn’t be surprised to see early failure though, or a changing in the color temperature. I doubt there was the kind of engineering done on this product to avoid problems.
White LEDs are dyed at the factory to be the color required. Be it 4300K, 3500K, etc. Its a UV dye, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see color change.
3.6W seems strange because that would be quite dim, and it would mean each led is consuming .1W of power. Most white LED arrays I’ve used are around .5 to .6W each.
a white LED starts life as a blue LED, then it is coated with a phosphorsant agent; just like fluro tubes.
this phosphor degades with prolonged excessive heat - hence the led goes from white to blue. warm white is more prone to this blue shift than cool white., (different phosphor used)
because cool white is more “reliable”, the led manuf. are using cool white to set their ambisious, marketing lead and frankly, unsustainable in the practical situation (due to heat sinking) 100lm/W+ figures.
heers what realy throws me,
50W of fillament lighting @10lumens/W = 500Lm
W.White leds are (at their very best) 40lm/W
so 500/40 = 12.5W of LED lighing mounted on an area the size of a coaster with little exposure to the outside air = cook your eggs on this thing.,
and where do they get their figures from?
you right 3.6W is not alot, but it is brighter than you think, spread is around and youl get the righ effect
“it aint what you use, its how you use it” (the cannonball run) 
Nice to see some new life in an old thread.
I have researched possible led sources further, and i am still stumped at how they claim to achieve an equivalent of 50W incandescent. I have looked at several 3W led sources, but none of them achieve more lumens than equivalent to 20W. That and the rather long batterie life leeds me to suspect that they might be stretching the truth a bit in their specs. Any one out there had a first hand look at the lamp?
I still dont see that it should get as hot as you claim it would though. I have tried out some pretty large arrays without reaching temperatures as high as that.
The point about color change is very interesting though. I assume the colored plastic might counteract the color change in the leds, so that you avoid a goolish litt romatic dinner.