Hi guys,
There has been a lot of posts and questions about the Nichia High CRI LED's on the forum and lately much has been said about the Nichia 219 High CRI. I think it's great that Nichia has found somewhat of a niche at least in the flashlights with their high CRI LED's and I know I have enjoyed using them and being a proponent for them for quite a while now.
There is some confusion on what Nichia offers and what a partial listing of one of their par number actually conveys.
I don't want to get too caught up in their nomenclature and part numbers and I have been guilty of using a truncated part number as an ID myself. I.E. using the identifier of 119 for one of their High CRI LED's when 119 does not tell the whole story. I am going to continue with the use of an abbreviated Nichia part number which I will identify as the 119V.
Basically the difference between a 119 and a 219 distinction is the solder pad footprint of the LED package. These numbers do not tell you anything about the die being used or what its flux, CCT, or CRI might be. There are additional characters in the complete Nichia part number that designate these various attributes.
The 119 I have been using and will continue to use is a NCSL 119 H1 and this is not a complete part number but the significant element I need to address in the part number is the "C". The C designates the die being used and in this case it is a 1.0 mm X 1.0 mm square die having a max drive current of 700 mA (I drive these max at ~ 500 mA which I have found to be the sweet spot). There is of more recent another 119 Nichia has made available and its partial part number of import is a NVSL 119 H1. The V designates a die of 1.3 mm X 1.3 mm square and a max drive current of 1500 mA.
The 219 Nichias being talked about elsewhere on the forum are, to the best of my knowledge, a NVSL 219 H1 LED. These are using the same die as what I will abbreviate and identify as the 119V.
the advantage to the 219 is its foot print being essentially the same as the Cree XP-G. Had the original 119 that I started with been a 219 (didn't exist back then) I would have enjoyed using the same MCPCB for both the Nichia and the XP-G. But as it was, I had to have a custom MCPCB made for the 119 and I have been using this MCPCB ever since. (off topic, I just posted that the wave of Haiku XP-G lights is now closed because I have run out of MCPCB's for the XP-G LED and don't see another run being justified), Anyway the advantage to the 119 foot print and especially for someone like me is that it is a much friendlier solder pad format to work with. The 219 has three skinny solder pads that need to be reflowed when mounting on the MCPCB. The 119 has two larger pads to flow which is much easier to do manually.
Since I have plenty MCPCB's on hand for the 119 LEDs I have as an ongoing program, it follows that I would embrace the 119V now which has the ability do be driven harder and provide more flux as a result.
I purchased some 119V's from Nichia and can now add confusion to my offering by adding them as another option in these lights. While on the subject of part numbers, the complete part number of the Nichia LED I have added to the mix is NVSL119AT-H1 bin sw45B10L. The H1 in the part number refers to the High CRI distinction. The sw45 designates a CCT range from 4500 - 5000K. The B10 designates the flux. At present they have from B8-B10 with the higher number designating a higher flux. The L refers to Vf and presently they have L and M bins with the L being a lower Vf range. These are nice LED's!
Now for some of you I have not provided enough information on these LED's and their differences and for others you have already clicked out of this post due to TMI and boring at that.
One thing nice about Nichia is that their binning is pretty tight and variations from one part to another within the same bin is not very significant. Any testing of a single sample though can not be taken as a true example to be assumed representative of the entire population. It is an indicator an nothing more.
I did take a sample of the 119 I am using along with two samples of these 119V's I now have and built Light Engines that I tested in my integrating sphere. I used two of the 119V's because I built both a 3 volt and 6 volt Light Engine.
LE: 119 3V - 119V 3V - 119V 6V
CRI: 93 - 94 - 93
CCT: 4800 K - 4600 K - 4800 K *
Lumens low: 5 - 7 - 8
Lumens med: 25 - 28 - 43
Lumens high: 107 - 125 - 161
mA high level: 500 mA - 650 mA - 1000 mA
* The 6V 119V LE saw a range of CCT from 4500 K on low to 4900 K on high. I believe it safe to assume that the CCT will increase for all of these LED's to some extent as the current increases.
I did not attempt to measure lux differences and in theory the smaller die of the 119 might have an advantage over the 119V if it has a higher surface brightness.
So anyway, the XP-G LED is currently off the roster now but I have added the 119V to the mix. What I have yet to do is get into the various threads and introduce the 119V as an added option. The physical size is the same as the 119 and its use in the various light heads will be for the most part the same as the 119 has been with the significant differences being in lumen output and associated run time. I plan to use the 119V in the 3 Volt 3S light engines driving it on high at the 650 mA level so it will give you more light with less run time on high compared to the original 119 Light Engine. The original 119 is still an option at the 500 mA. Where the greatest difference is I believe is in the 6V Light Engine and at a drive current of 1000 mA. With the 119V I have been able to effectively and still conservatively raise the ceiling on high CRI good quality lumens in my light offerings. And in partial defense of my retiring the XP-G, the 119V driven at the same level as the XP-G falls short in lumens but the gap is narrowing and becoming less significant. If flux is key then I think the XM-L does a very nice job of filling the bill.
For those of you who don't want to get confused with all of this, please stay tuned and I will try to get threads and my offering information caught up and hopefully somewhat comprehensible. :green:
There has been a lot of posts and questions about the Nichia High CRI LED's on the forum and lately much has been said about the Nichia 219 High CRI. I think it's great that Nichia has found somewhat of a niche at least in the flashlights with their high CRI LED's and I know I have enjoyed using them and being a proponent for them for quite a while now.
There is some confusion on what Nichia offers and what a partial listing of one of their par number actually conveys.
I don't want to get too caught up in their nomenclature and part numbers and I have been guilty of using a truncated part number as an ID myself. I.E. using the identifier of 119 for one of their High CRI LED's when 119 does not tell the whole story. I am going to continue with the use of an abbreviated Nichia part number which I will identify as the 119V.
Basically the difference between a 119 and a 219 distinction is the solder pad footprint of the LED package. These numbers do not tell you anything about the die being used or what its flux, CCT, or CRI might be. There are additional characters in the complete Nichia part number that designate these various attributes.
The 119 I have been using and will continue to use is a NCSL 119 H1 and this is not a complete part number but the significant element I need to address in the part number is the "C". The C designates the die being used and in this case it is a 1.0 mm X 1.0 mm square die having a max drive current of 700 mA (I drive these max at ~ 500 mA which I have found to be the sweet spot). There is of more recent another 119 Nichia has made available and its partial part number of import is a NVSL 119 H1. The V designates a die of 1.3 mm X 1.3 mm square and a max drive current of 1500 mA.
The 219 Nichias being talked about elsewhere on the forum are, to the best of my knowledge, a NVSL 219 H1 LED. These are using the same die as what I will abbreviate and identify as the 119V.
the advantage to the 219 is its foot print being essentially the same as the Cree XP-G. Had the original 119 that I started with been a 219 (didn't exist back then) I would have enjoyed using the same MCPCB for both the Nichia and the XP-G. But as it was, I had to have a custom MCPCB made for the 119 and I have been using this MCPCB ever since. (off topic, I just posted that the wave of Haiku XP-G lights is now closed because I have run out of MCPCB's for the XP-G LED and don't see another run being justified), Anyway the advantage to the 119 foot print and especially for someone like me is that it is a much friendlier solder pad format to work with. The 219 has three skinny solder pads that need to be reflowed when mounting on the MCPCB. The 119 has two larger pads to flow which is much easier to do manually.
Since I have plenty MCPCB's on hand for the 119 LEDs I have as an ongoing program, it follows that I would embrace the 119V now which has the ability do be driven harder and provide more flux as a result.
I purchased some 119V's from Nichia and can now add confusion to my offering by adding them as another option in these lights. While on the subject of part numbers, the complete part number of the Nichia LED I have added to the mix is NVSL119AT-H1 bin sw45B10L. The H1 in the part number refers to the High CRI distinction. The sw45 designates a CCT range from 4500 - 5000K. The B10 designates the flux. At present they have from B8-B10 with the higher number designating a higher flux. The L refers to Vf and presently they have L and M bins with the L being a lower Vf range. These are nice LED's!
Now for some of you I have not provided enough information on these LED's and their differences and for others you have already clicked out of this post due to TMI and boring at that.
One thing nice about Nichia is that their binning is pretty tight and variations from one part to another within the same bin is not very significant. Any testing of a single sample though can not be taken as a true example to be assumed representative of the entire population. It is an indicator an nothing more.
I did take a sample of the 119 I am using along with two samples of these 119V's I now have and built Light Engines that I tested in my integrating sphere. I used two of the 119V's because I built both a 3 volt and 6 volt Light Engine.
LE: 119 3V - 119V 3V - 119V 6V
CRI: 93 - 94 - 93
CCT: 4800 K - 4600 K - 4800 K *
Lumens low: 5 - 7 - 8
Lumens med: 25 - 28 - 43
Lumens high: 107 - 125 - 161
mA high level: 500 mA - 650 mA - 1000 mA
* The 6V 119V LE saw a range of CCT from 4500 K on low to 4900 K on high. I believe it safe to assume that the CCT will increase for all of these LED's to some extent as the current increases.
I did not attempt to measure lux differences and in theory the smaller die of the 119 might have an advantage over the 119V if it has a higher surface brightness.
So anyway, the XP-G LED is currently off the roster now but I have added the 119V to the mix. What I have yet to do is get into the various threads and introduce the 119V as an added option. The physical size is the same as the 119 and its use in the various light heads will be for the most part the same as the 119 has been with the significant differences being in lumen output and associated run time. I plan to use the 119V in the 3 Volt 3S light engines driving it on high at the 650 mA level so it will give you more light with less run time on high compared to the original 119 Light Engine. The original 119 is still an option at the 500 mA. Where the greatest difference is I believe is in the 6V Light Engine and at a drive current of 1000 mA. With the 119V I have been able to effectively and still conservatively raise the ceiling on high CRI good quality lumens in my light offerings. And in partial defense of my retiring the XP-G, the 119V driven at the same level as the XP-G falls short in lumens but the gap is narrowing and becoming less significant. If flux is key then I think the XM-L does a very nice job of filling the bill.
For those of you who don't want to get confused with all of this, please stay tuned and I will try to get threads and my offering information caught up and hopefully somewhat comprehensible. :green:
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