KD CREE XR-E P4 LED Camping Lantern

Here's the second Cree based lantern I've seen
http://www.kaidomain.com/WEBUI/ProductDetail.aspx?TranID=2784

Looks like a River Rock with a cree installed for $15.
What's better is that there is Low mode in addition to the High and flashing modes. The description says it has an SOS mode which I wish it would have lost, but a video on the site shows more of a flashing than SOS which must still be gone through in order to turn it off.

Here are the specs listed:
Low: 3.21V (measured across the LED)
High: 4.25V (measured across the LED)
*using four Sanyo 2700mAh AA (total: 5.4V at no load)

Runtime estimation:
Low: 10+ hours
High: 2-3 hours

Light overall output:
Estimated 5000+ lux

I highly doubt the Vf is 4.25 V at high. Most XR-E's reach 1000 mA at 3.80 V so probably it wouldn't take long to fry the LED when driven at 4.25 V and with a relatively small heatsink inside. I think it's just a measuring mistake and the product looks nice for a good price

EDIT : and the estimated overall output makes no sense since lux is the intensity measured at one point and not a number of total output.

Just found DX has a Q2 4AA lantern!!
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3346

Pretty difficult to tell from the "beamshots" but looks like the light doesnt spread too much. My expectations might be a little high as I have never owned an LED lantern..
Robert

These look nearly identical to the older style River Rock 4aa lanterns that were very popular - I have two. I modded one with a USWOH and it rocks pretty hard. The river rocks were regulated with a runtime around 8 hours - only one output level, and a strobe. These two look like real winners with low and high output!

The only downside of the River Rock lanterns was the ringy output. Some folks were frosting the dome and whatnot, but Walmart sells a kit of four travel-size plastic bottles in the pharmacy area - you can cut the top and bottom off one of the round bottles in the kit and fit the resulting opaque ring inside the lantern's glass and outside the two metal posts. Works like a champ. Both mine have this mod, and while I lose a little output, the usability is dramatically improved. The glare and rings are gone, and I get a nice smooth lantern glow.

Robatman said:

Just found DX has a Q2 4AA lantern!!
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3346

Click to expand...

Wow, DX shows five different models of this lantern each based on a different LED. You can get it with a Cree, Cree Q2, Seoul, Edison and generic luxeon clone.

I'm a little concerned in that a review of the generic version of the lantern said there was no heatsink for the LED and that it burnt out on high after three hours of running. I don't know if the heatsink issue holds true for the other models but I would like the question answered.

I have the Target River Rock version of this lantern and with a little defusing of the globe using Glad [SIZE=-1]Press N' Seal plastic wrap it has been a great little lantern. Getting the same thing with one of these brighter LED's and the new low setting could make for an outstanding 4AA lantern... if it's properly heatsinked.
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Hello everybody...

Please welcome me... this is going to be my first post here. ;-)

I just received my Cree Q5 Lantern from dealextreme and was very disappointed. :-( At first I had to be very patient since DX needed about 8 weeks for having it back in stock and sending it out to me. No worries... I was patient... but unfortunately it arrived broken. That means, it is working... for 30 seconds... then it turns off by itself. I assume that it has strong heat problems since there is (as already mentioned here) NO heatsink inside and the LED is in a small compartment with no air circulation.

I allready sent out an email to DX describing the problem. Let's see what happens... but I quess they will just send me another one which will have the same problem. I'm really wondering how anyone can build something like this?! It's very easy to see that heatproblems have to occure!

So if anyone of you guys considers buying one of these lanterns please be aware that you might have heat problems with them. If anyone has a good idea how i can solve this problem please write a post.

I apologize for any mistakes in my post... I'm German ;-)