True Violet Lens Reliability

[phasezero]

I purchased 12 True Violets march last year and noticed a few months later that all of their lens had degraded and become brittle and discolored, eventually turning black. These were tuned to 600mA and run at 100%. Thinking I may have run them too high and pushed the LED's past their thermal capabilities, I decided to give the true violets another chance in my most recent rebuild using the 24" makers heatsink. This time around I tuned them for a max 500mA and ran them with the dimmer knob turned half way. It's been around 3 months and I've noticed that 4 out of the 6 have already displayed the same symptoms as my previous true violets. Do you have any suggestions or comments on this issue? I've read in a few posts of people with similar issues and was also wondering what your warranty or replacement policy is on these LED's. My guess is that the Optics material is absorbing the small amount of UV, causing the lens to prematurely degrade.

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

I purchased 12 True Violets march last year and noticed a few months later that all of their lens had degraded and become brittle and discolored, eventually turning black. These were tuned to 600mA and run at 100%. Thinking I may have run them too high and pushed the LED's past their thermal capabilities, I decided to give the true violets another chance in my most recent rebuild using the 24" makers heatsink. This time around I tuned them for a max 500mA and ran them with the dimmer knob turned half way. It's been around 3 months and I've noticed that 4 out of the 6 have already displayed the same symptoms as my previous true violets. Do you have any suggestions or comments on this issue? I've read in a few posts of people with similar issues and was also wondering what your warranty or replacement policy is on these LED's. My guess is that the Optics material is absorbing the small amount of UV, causing the lens to prematurely degrade.

Hi Phasezero

 

shoot me an email at info@ledgroupbuy.com and we can figure out some options for your setup.

[rO.oster]

hey milad, can you give some info for us in the post as well? thanks

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

hey milad, can you give some info for us in the post as well? thanks

its case by case basically

depends on age/driver used/current and what exactly is damaged.

[GTi]

I had a similar thing happen with a PAR38 that contained some violet leds.

[kevinlogan42]

I had the same thing happen to my true violets. After about montha on half power the lens browned and distorted the light. This cauldron interesting thread.

Kevin

[jack1978]

Same here. All of my TV have discolored within 3 months or so.

[phasezero]

Bump. Still awaiting a resolution.

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Bump. Still awaiting a resolution.

yup sorry, still working on it.

[Deckoz2302]

Its because of the spectrum of the diode. The main output is between 395 and 420nm. However part of the spectrum drops as low as 340nm. Or partially UVA. While this is not damaging to you, your eyes or your corals it has a huge effect on the acrylic lens. Only solution is to run a glass lens or reflective bowl. Same reasons headlights yellow and brown. And all clear plastics exposed to the sun for a few minths will yellow or brown. Its also the same reason solar panels are encased in glass now instead of epoxy or plexiglass. Obviouslu the higher your mA the more radiance at zero distance is put through the lense speeding the process. I have tried running TV at 250mA all the way upto 700mA with the same results every time. My solution was remove the lens and then silicon just the reflective bowl from an xpg lens to the diode. The reflective coating has not changed or tarnished in 7 months. With this solution you are leavubg the diode electrically exposed and you need glass shield or to be far enough above the tank as to not aquire salt creep on the fixture

[rO.oster]

are all SemiLED and/or Bridgelux TVs using acrylic lenses??

 

http://www.aqualogo.ru/phpbb2/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=129784

[Deckoz2302]

are all SemiLED and/or Bridgelux TVs using acrylic lenses??

http://www.aqualogo.ru/phpbb2/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=129784]http://www.aqualogo.ru/phpbb2/index.php?app=core&module=attach§ion=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=129784[/url]

Yes. You see cree leds use Polymethylmethacrylate aka PMMA. Same thing contact lenses are made from. The original Cree 415nm bin used a pmma lens without uv absorbing chromophores and those lenses are still clear after years of use. One of the many reasons cree is the industry leader in LIDs(light emitting diodes) lol but cree stopped binning 360-425nm 4 or 5 years ago. Not all acrylic is created equal

[rO.oster]

Is there an update to the reliability of the TV lenses?

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Is there an update to the reliability of the TV lenses?

we are handling each case one by one. So far the only issues have been on a batch from 2012 of the 405nm with white base.

[BlueThumb]

Wow...I'm a bit late to the race. Lenses discoloring has been a huge issue for most 405-430nm "True Violet", "UV", "Hyper Violet", etc. The sub 400nm light, though very small, is enough to cause a chemical reaction within certain lenses. Some say it's impurities, while others say it's inherent to the lense material itself.

 

Well, StevesLeds now offers an updated version of all their "UV/Violet" LEDS. He is calling them "2.0". To quote him...

"Version 2.0 includes an improved soft silicone based lens, that does not degrade over time. You can count on this LED to last years and years with no burn in."

 

I bought a couple of his True Violets (first generation) a few months ago to test out as I was skeptical of quality and output. I will say that at initial use I was very impressed and felt they were close to Actinic T5s that we've all gotten used to. But, like the rest of you guys, both LEDs browned out on me within a couple months and are now nearly useless. I only drove them at 350mA most of the time and always less than 100F. The fact that they browned out is a defect and they should be warrantied. This said, I just hit-up Steve to work with me - thus keeping a loyal customer who always plugs his website. I'd like to try out the new silicone versions but I'm not going to pay full retail all over again. Steve's got to meet me at least half way...and talk me off the ledge. Honestly, I'm now moving toward a LED/T5 actinic hybrid as I just don't trust the Violet LEDs anymore...as the vast majority of them seem to be a letdown.

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Wow...I'm a bit late to the race. Lenses discoloring has been a huge issue for most 405-430nm "True Violet", "UV", "Hyper Violet", etc. The sub 400nm light, though very small, is enough to cause a chemical reaction within certain lenses. Some say it's impurities, while others say it's inherent to the lense material itself.

 

Well, StevesLeds now offers an updated version of all their "UV/Violet" LEDS. He is calling them "2.0". To quote him...

"Version 2.0 includes an improved soft silicone based lens, that does not degrade over time. You can count on this LED to last years and years with no burn in."

 

I bought a couple of his True Violets (first generation) a few months ago to test out as I was skeptical of quality and output. I will say that at initial use I was very impressed and felt they were close to Actinic T5s that we've all gotten used to. But, like the rest of you guys, both LEDs browned out on me within a couple months and are now nearly useless. I only drove them at 350mA most of the time and always less than 100F. The fact that they browned out is a defect and they should be warrantied. This said, I just hit-up Steve to work with me - thus keeping a loyal customer who always plugs his website. I'd like to try out the new silicone versions but I'm not going to pay full retail all over again. Steve's got to meet me at least half way...and talk me off the ledge. Honestly, I'm now moving toward a LED/T5 actinic hybrid as I just don't trust the Violet LEDs anymore...as the vast majority of them seem to be a letdown.

 

Hi Blue, fyi we arent steve. We are replacing the ones that are obviously effected by the bad batch of lenses.

We also do not carry semiled because they are an inferior product to ours.

 

have a peek at:

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/318320-tv-uv-hv-violet-showdown-ledgroupbuy-vs-semiled/

 

If you want the new gold standard for violets, these are the way to go:

http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/exotic-hyper-violet-led-430nm/

[curtie444]

I have had the same issue with my HV led's. I'm driving them with a 450mA inventronics and have had them dimmed about half way since day one. I've sent email direct and thru the "contact us" link on your website but still have not had any response. Is this covered under your case by case basis? (my order # was 3640)

 

Thanks,

 

Curtis

 

 

 

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

I have had the same issue with my HV led's. I'm driving them with a 450mA inventronics and have had them dimmed about half way since day one. I've sent email direct and thru the "contact us" link on your website but still have not had any response. Is this covered under your case by case basis? (my order # was 3640)

 

Thanks,

 

Curtis

 

Hi Curtis

Did you get a reply from us? We are usually very quick on the contact us form. I did a quick search and dont see anything from a user named "curtis"

[curtie444]

Hi Milad,

 

No, nothing yet. I emailed you in mid September (15th) and then did the "leave a message" thing on your website around 10/17 I think. I'm guessing you didn't get either as correspondence in the past has usually been prompt. So what do you think? All the HV LEDs still work, it's just that the optic/lens has burned.

 

Curtis

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Click on "contact us" here: http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/contact-us/

also please remove my email address from your post so i dont get spammed!

[Tom@HaslettMI]

If you want the new gold standard for violets, these are the way to go:

http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/exotic-hyper-violet-led-430nm/

 

 

Milad - Do these use a different lens material then?

 

Reefers - I'd like to hear some feedback from folks running these. Any brown lens issues?

 

Thanks,

Tom

[phasezero]

I checked my new solderless violets recently and noticed the true violet lenses still degraded and browned out. No where near as bad as the previous style ones. My solderless Hyper Violet lenses look fine. I've just accepted that the plastic lenses cannot handle the uv portion of the true violet and will inevitably degrade.

[curtie444]

I checked my new solderless violets recently and noticed the true violet lenses still degraded and browned out. No where near as bad as the previous style ones. My solderless Hyper Violet lenses look fine. I've just accepted that the plastic lenses cannot handle the uv portion of the true violet and will inevitably degrade.

 

Well that isn't very encouraging...

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

I checked my new solderless violets recently and noticed the true violet lenses still degraded and browned out. No where near as bad as the previous style ones. My solderless Hyper Violet lenses look fine. I've just accepted that the plastic lenses cannot handle the uv portion of the true violet and will inevitably degrade.

 

your secondary lens is browning not the LED correct?

[curtie444]

Click on "contact us" here: http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/contact-us/

 

Milad,

 

Did you get my information thru the "contact us" form on your website? I submitted it on Wednesday.

 

Curtis