Is the Deal Extreme Seoul P4 star poorly made?

I was reading the comments over at Deal Extreme for the Seoul P4 star. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1445 It sounds like people have had problems with them not working or just shoddy construction. Have these problems been corrected? I am especially concerned about the slug not being epoxied or soldered to the star. I will be attempting my first mod (EOS P4) and don't want to waste my time if these are junk.

Mine went like this:

BRIGHT.... BLUE... POP!!!!


In a Q-3 host without any other mods..

DanCP said:

I was reading the comments over at Deal Extreme for the Seoul P4 star. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1445 It sounds like people have had problems with them not working or just shoddy construction. Have these problems been corrected? I am especially concerned about the slug not being epoxied or soldered to the star. I will be attempting my first mod (EOS P4) and don't want to waste my time if these are junk.

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Are there other dealers who offer P4 stars that are better made?

Dan, I can highly recommend member "PhotonFanatic":

http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=85330

Best regards

___
Tom

Thanks Long John, I'll give him a try.

DanCP said:

Thanks Long John, I'll give him a try.

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You're welcome Dan

You will be sold on him:thumbsup:

Best regards

____
Tom

I've used the Deal Extreme stars and PhotonFanatic stars in the last month without any problems. I've run the DX ones up to 1A for short periods but mainly at around 300mA and the PF ones at around 400mA.

I'd go with PhotonFanatic just to be safe.

I have a V0 tinted star from PF sitting here waiting for my PT EOS to arrive in the mail

Photonfanatic is my go-to guy for all my LED purchases. He'll treat you well

270winchester said:

Photonfanatic is my go-to guy for all my LED purchases. He'll treat you well

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+1

+2 for Photonfanatic. I have bought many different leds for him and never a problem, always top notch product.

no matter where a star comes from: check it for good placement of the emitter
(I once got one from DE with an air gap between star and slug)

of, better, purchase the bare emitter and place it directly on sink.

I've had over 100 hours use out of mine in a front bike light and it seems OK. Mind you the first one didn't work - they sent a replacement out. Apparently the quality control is much better now.

If I'm in need of some good quality SSCP4 stars, I get them from Photonfanatic because the ones he sells are actually from SSC. The SSCP4 stars that DX sells come from the factory they get their flashlights from. Apparently that factory buys the emitters and stars separately from SSC and then mounts them on the Star MCPCB at the factory. From my understanding, they just use thermal paste and not thermal epoxy. I use the SSCP4 stars I get from DX in my cheapy and giveaway flashlights and so far I haven't had any problems with them.

Don't the latest SSC P4 Stars from DX have the emitter soldered to the star base? I thought I read that somewhere on CPF.

jsr said:

Don't the latest SSC P4 Stars from DX have the emitter soldered to the star base? I thought I read that somewhere on CPF.

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I haven't bought an SSCP4 star from them in a couple months, so I'm unaware of that. The ones I bought had thermal grease. Maybe they do solder them now. If someone can confirm that they do, then that would make the DX stars a really good deal...