The fine people over at LED Group Buy have been busy it seems, working on the Lumia 5.1 multi-chip LED. Many people feel that high power multi-chip LEDs are the holy grail of LED lighting, regarding Kessil as one of the best solutions available with tight chip spacing, high single point intensity, and low color separation. It’s been great for those that have wanted to purchase a fixture outright, but hasn’t been something that has been within reach for the DIY enthusiast. It would seem that this problem has been fixed.
Sporting an average power of 100W, the Lumia 5.1 is a serious bit of kit. Each of the 50 chips is rated for operation at 500mA (~100W), with a limit of 700mA (~126W) for those that really want to push the limits of this product (excellent heatsinking is required). Five channels of control give complete adjustability to this full spectrum LED. The five individual channels are broken down like so:
Channel 1 – 4500K neutral white
Channel 2 – 450-453nm royal blue
Channel 3 – 427.5-430nm hyper violet
Channel 4 – 660-665nm deep red / 492.5-495nm turquoise
Channel 5 – 410-412.5nm violet / 470-472.5nm blue
While it doesn’t offer super fine control like you would see in a high channel count fixture like a Radion Pro, it’s a good blend of colors, and the channels that are mixed look like they balance well.
A lot of thought was put into this LED, with a tin plated copper base for good thermal performance, 99.9% pure gold bond wires, and Dow Corning optical encapsulant. The terminals are pre-wired for easy installation, and the bolt pattern is designed to fit perfectly with the MakersLED line of heatsinks. The only cautionary point is the low thermal limit of 70C. This is because of the low thermal limit of the deep red LEDs. The rest of the chips can certainly handle higher temperatures, but you have to go with the lowest common denominator on this.
Overall, it looks to be a solid offering, bringing something new and novel to the DIY world, and is available now. We will have a hands-on with this LED shortly.
