DX Cree Q5 star

kwarwick

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I just received this Cree Q5 star from DealExtreme today and installed it in one of my flashlights to replace a Cree P4. I'm wondering if there is any way to tell if this really is a Q5? It has the 4 bond wires of other Q5s but I'm curious about the clear dome over the LED... all the pictures of the Q5 I've seen have had yellow domes.

Q5star.jpg

Q5LEDcloseup.jpg
 
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WeLight

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All new Cree leds have removed the phosphor colour surrounding the die. This is the latest Q5 led
 

JB01245

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WeLight
All new Cree leds have removed the phosphor colour surrounding the die. This is the latest Q5 led


???? The latest Cree R2's that I just recieved do not look like this, they have the phosphor surrounding the die. Anybody else?
 

SteveDavis

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This LED was made at the retooled Cotco facility in China. It is a genuine Cree, and there is no performance difference from those made in the US with the phosphor coating over the lead frame. There is no way to request one version over the other, and everyone can expect to get some of each type with successive orders (though a single reel will be all one type).
 

VanIsleDSM

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I'm not sure, but I thought that all CREE LEDs were made in Carolina? What's this outsourcing to China crap all about? I'll stop buying CREE if that's the case.

...there's no way an LED made is China is as good.. same factory setup or not.. it just never ends up like that.
 

LukeA

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I'm not sure, but I thought that all CREE LEDs were made in Carolina? What's this outsourcing to China crap all about? I'll stop buying CREE if that's the case.

...there's no way an LED made is China is as good.. same factory setup or not.. it just never ends up like that.

Yawn.

Ever buy an iPod?
 

WeLight

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The reality is the magic mostly lies in the die which is still made in NC. The Cotco facility is a packaging plant. Initial tests from several customers indicates slightly lower vf with this package and improved light output. This however is only anecdotal at this stage as Cree's Product Change Notice advises no change in product spec

 

SteveDavis

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Also, this is not outsourcing to China. Cree has bought Cotco, and keeps a close eye on quality from the Chinese manufacturing facility. There is absolutely no reason to expect a drop in quality.
 

kwarwick

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how is the performance?
a) better
b) relatively still the same
c) worse than before

Hard to say at this point since I don't have a light meter. Subjectively I'd say the brightness is about the same, maybe a little brighter, but with a whiter tint. With the previous LED, which I believe was a P4 approximately 900-925 ma were being pulled from a fresh 18650. With this Q5 I'm seeing about 700-725 ma. I'm going to replace the driver with a multimode rated at 1A, so hopefully this will allow a more current.
 

JB01245

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SteveDavis
How come you guys, Arrow Lighting, can't get the latest releases of Crees, or can you? Waiting on stuff to come from the other side of the planet is a real pain.
 

SteveDavis

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We do get the latest releases. It is admittedly tough to get them through our website in small quantities, but if you're willing to buy a mini reel at 250pcs, we can probably get what you want, provided some flexibility on exact color bins. Are you in the US? If you can do an order of decent size, go ahead and call 1-888-9light1 and we'll see what we can do for you.

We have R2's in limited quantity, and some warmer white P4's.
 

nanotech17

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Hard to say at this point since I don't have a light meter. Subjectively I'd say the brightness is about the same, maybe a little brighter, but with a whiter tint. With the previous LED, which I believe was a P4 approximately 900-925 ma were being pulled from a fresh 18650. With this Q5 I'm seeing about 700-725 ma. I'm going to replace the driver with a multimode rated at 1A, so hopefully this will allow a more current.

Thank You bro,

You can guess what i just did :whistle:
 

VanIsleDSM

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Yawn.

Ever buy an iPod?

No.. I haven't.

... you must live in a box, watch the news at all in 2007?



Good that the die is still made in NC, I suppose that is the magic.. I still don't think it's right, but at least the quality won't go to crap.. I'm willing to bet we won't see the benefit of the money they save from cheap foreign labour though... if they were doing it so they could chop the price of the LED for us, ok.. fair enough.. but what are the chances of that? When companies turn to chinese manufacturing they're just trying to be more lucrative..
 

VidPro

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thanks for the PIC Kwarwick.

the Q5s i got from DX earlier with the same base star, look the same EXCEPT for mine have the yellow slop all over, not like your pic there.
that looks so "clean" .

I wonder if there is now any less effect of the yellowish side spill, you know called Rings when the reflector is on it.
most of the yellow side shooting i am sure is through the phosphors on the emitting thing, going sideways,. but i woulder how much of it was "reflected" off of that base around it.

wonder which one reflects more light, the yellowish stuff there or the shiney metalic look.
 

lightfet

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I received the Q5 star from DX last week and installed it into my Romisen RC-G2 it give out a purple tint which I didn't like.

Does anyone else experience the same purple tint with WG Q5 from DX?
 

SemiMan

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No.. I haven't.

... you must live in a box, watch the news at all in 2007?



Good that the die is still made in NC, I suppose that is the magic.. I still don't think it's right, but at least the quality won't go to crap.. I'm willing to bet we won't see the benefit of the money they save from cheap foreign labour though... if they were doing it so they could chop the price of the LED for us, ok.. fair enough.. but what are the chances of that? When companies turn to chinese manufacturing they're just trying to be more lucrative..

While there are still several wafer fabs in the U.S. I do not think there is even one high volume semiconductor product that is packaged in the U.S. Virtually all the semiconductor packaging plants are in low wage locations, i.e. China, Phillipines, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Malaysia and that general area of the world are still huge in packaging, but that is starting to be viewed as too expensive, hence new plants were moved into China. Now some are looking for even cheaper packaging plants.

Packaging is a surprisingly labour intensive process (well at least it is now), hence why it is in cheap labour locations.

Certainly those cost savings are passed along to the consumer, but we always have a choice. You can pay either twice as much for your LEDs or accept wages that are half as much.......or have both forced on you by shopping at Walmart and the likes.... a choice that many have made freely... :)


Semiman
 

VanIsleDSM

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You forgot Taiwan and Mexico.

I'm quite aware of the situation.. I liked how CREE wasn't swinging that way though... I don't want to get lead poisoning from my LEDs :)
 

koala

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You wont get lead on cree if its RoHS compliant. However if you buy cree on star from places like dx then thats another story.
 

EntropyQ3

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You forgot Taiwan and Mexico.

I'm quite aware of the situation.. I liked how CREE wasn't swinging that way though... I don't want to get lead poisoning from my LEDs :)

I know you're joking but - glass blowers blowing crystal glass used to get grams(!) of lead into their system every day. They lived healthy lives but it was said that if they started drinking milk to their meals they got acute lead poisoning - the lead was driven out from their bones by the increased intake of calcium. Medical studies later concluded that the body could pass a couple of grams of lead through per day. The limits we see today are there for other reasons.
 
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