TIR Lens for Radion LED provides up to 30% more light in the aquarium

By Jake Adams on May 16, 2012

The TIR Lens for the Radion LED light is a new lens cluster from Ecotech Marine which gives the Radion XR30w a lot more depth penetration in the aquarium. Ecotech Marine’s TIR Lens is designed with Total Internal Reflection (TIR) with an unspecified beam angle, but more with purpose of getting a good light spread at 30 inches deep, over a 24″ square area.

The Radion TIR Lens is easily swapped out with the current common reflector, also replacing the current splash lens. INterestingly enough, the Radion TIR Lens includes four more lenses than there are LEDs in the Radion which is a sure fire sign that new LED cluster will be coming down the pipe with more LEDs, perhaps taking advantage of the six channels of color control already baked into the Radion.

Ecotech worked very hard to make the Radion TIR Lens retain its very wide light distribution, so if you get a TIR lens for your Radion you can expect the same spread, with more intensity all over. Pricing for the Radion TIR Lens will be announced after Ecotech returns from Germany and you can expect easy upgrade through the Ecotech parts store as we have seen in the past when the Ecosmart and other accessories were launched.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Mathieu-Gagné/659241296 Mathieu Gagné

Nice design! I guess using TIF instead of lens gives you better uniformity by only affecting the side of the beam, but keeping spread and getting higher intensity doesn’t really make sense.

It would be really cool to have clusters with more LEDs! Can’t wait to see what’s up coming up from Ecotech.
Narwhal72

I agree. How do you keep the same spread and increase the intensity? The chips aren’t putting out more light than they were before so one or the other has to give.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mathieu-Gagné/659241296 Mathieu Gagné

The only way would be that the present reflector design is a bit lossy which would be surprising. I guess they will explain in details what’s the idea behind this modification.
under cover

Agreed. You cannot increase light intensity without focusing down more light, which would of course reduce the light spread.

Great claim Ecotech..
BrianBarthel

UMMMM I counted and there have the same number of openings (21 per puck) but different placement of the LEDs which points to different clusters as well. In the old puck style there are 2 screws on the outside of the reflector these are now replaced with 2 Diodes per side. The mounting seems now to be accomplished by 4 hex screws in the new design.
TerenceF

I hope the new light comes out soon as this impression of a new cluster will certainly stall sales. If there is not going to be a new cluster with 4 additional LED, it would be a good idea, marketing wise, for EcoTech to quash it ASAP. Due to this news, I for one will be recommending to people to wait for the next version. I was already because I do not usually recommend v1.0 products, but now this is yet another reason.
Clive Bentley

Try again. The original Radion setup, with the stock reflector has 17 LEDs total per side. The new TIR lens has 21 LED positions. The two screws that were replaced by the four new LED locations were just to hold the splash guard in place, and seeing as the new lens doesn’t need them, they aren’t there. The four bolts are the same ones used to hold everything down to the heatsink.
BrianBarthel

Yep I’m dumb just counted the wholes and didn’t remember the mounting screws!!
Clive Bentley

Well, before we start speculating a bunch on new modules or fixture variants, lets wait until Interzoo officially starts tomorrow and we get word right from the horses mouth. I’m sure a lot of what is being seen right now is what is laid out at booths with no-one to give information.

The additional 4 LEDs may not be anything dramatic for all we know. If my assumption about the module connections is correct, there is only 6 discrete LED channels (14 wires, but I’m pretty sure one pair is for a temperature sensor on the board), so there won’t be any additional control. I could be wrong though
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-Ferreira/100002065745351 Jason Ferreira

I love how people see something, have no info on them and just start rambling on how its a waste and it sucks and blah blah blah. You think a company like Ecotech that has not failed on any of its products are going to make something that customers find a waste. They aren’t going to say these new pucks are made to penetrate to 30″ instead of 24″ and fail. Wait till the damn product comes out, has details and have experience with it before you start knocking something.
http://www.facebook.com/robin.lutchman Robin Lutchman

It will be nice to see data on the optics spread in the future since they mentioned ” unspecified beam angle”. They seem to be going the same route as Maxspect did with there Mazzara and Razor series optics. Except they incorporate them all into a cluster instead.
Well after the inter zoo show is done Im sure all the questions will be answered. I can’t wait so I’m going to find out now lol.
TerenceF

But why would they put an extra four LED lenses on here if not for a future LED module that would undoubtedly be on a v2 of the fixture? It may not be any new color or channel control, but it certainly seems like it would be better than the existing one or why would they add these four lenses? This is like seeing the parts in the supply chain of the next iphone and deciding on the rumors if you want to wait it out our not…the only difference is I plan on having my light fixture more than one year.
Clive Bentley

Never said they weren’t going to add more LEDs at some point, but we just don’t know what they will be, or how they will be controlled. I’m sure we will find out here in the near future, but I honestly think that any changes made in the LED setup will be fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. It’s not like it will dramatically increase the performance of the unit.
Full_Monty

I just bought three of these and am extremely sad to know this came out and I didn’t get the new version! Ouch!

Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=501867238 Joel Maxwell

So they are trying to eliminate TIR? The reason why I ask is because TIR (Or Total Internal Reflection) is the threshold of when light gets reflected BACK and not through an object (Such as glass or water). Basically, if they are using TIR to increase spread, unless they replace the led chips with something higher power, you would be losing intensity. Just some info on TIR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_internal_reflection

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