Chance I have damaged my light?

[Divine_Madcat]

So, I know the saying... Heat kills. Well, I just noticed that my light was on, and on full blast... Once I felt it, it was too hot to hold.. It has since cooled, and has not displayed a problem. It is a xml2, copper base, and well connected to the body (heat transfer).

Ideas on potential issues down the road? Shortened life span, or... ?

 

[kj2]

Life span could be shortened. Light works, as you say, so that a positive
Just keep checking the coming days. If nothing ordinary happens, you should be fine.

 

[SimulatedZero]

One way to check for heat damage to an LED is to see if the phosphor or the silicon dome has started to brown or discolor. There would also be a corresponding dim or discolored patch in your hotspot when you turn the light on. Something to keep an eye for. But, if the light is working fine now, you're probably in the clear this time.

 

[Divine_Madcat]

Thanks for the hints on what to look for. The dome and phosphorus look fine, so I will keep an eye for now, and hope for the best.

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

There's no way you did any serious damage to the LED. Cree tests the XML's at drive currents up to 3000 mA and temperatures up to 105 C. As long as the LED is well heat-sinked, your light would have to be scolding hot to be putting stress on the LED. If you look at Cree's LM-80 results, even LEDs at 105C are still lasting tens-of-thousands of hours before they noticeably put out less light. So if your light was on full-blast for an hour, you probably used up less than 0.01% of the LED's life span.

Your light's driver or electronics are much more likely to be damaged from excessive heat than the LED. If your light still seems to work okay, it is okay.

 

[Divine_Madcat]

There's no way you did any serious damage to the LED. Cree tests the XML's at drive currents up to 3000 mA and temperatures up to 105 C. As long as the LED is well heat-sinked, your light would have to be scolding hot to be putting stress on the LED. If you look at Cree's LM-80 results, even LEDs at 105C are still lasting tens-of-thousands of hours before they noticeably put out less light. So if your light was on full-blast for an hour, you probably used up less than 0.01% of the LED's life span.

Your light's driver or electronics are much more likely to be damaged from excessive heat than the LED. If your light still seems to work okay, it is okay.

I can't be totally sure, but I don't believe it was running more than 10 min. The unit itself is a p60 from intl out.. Copper base, AL foil between the drop in a different body.. I am hopeful that the body being so hot was good heats inking..

 

[WalkIntoTheLight]

I can't be totally sure, but I don't believe it was running more than 10 min. The unit itself is a p60 from intl out.. Copper base, AL foil between the drop in a different body.. I am hopeful that the body being so hot was good heats inking..

For a light to get that hot after only 10 minutes, you must be really driving that LED hard, or the light is really small. If this is a mod that is over-driving the LED (beyond 3 amps), that may be a concern over the long-term. You should still get thousands of hours out of it, though.

 

[Divine_Madcat]

For a light to get that hot after only 10 minutes, you must be really driving that LED hard, or the light is really small. If this is a mod that is over-driving the LED (beyond 3 amps), that may be a concern over the long-term. You should still get thousands of hours out of it, though.

No, didn't mod anything at all.. But could have been more.. I didn't notice it on.. A coworker pointed it out.
Well, least it isn't expensive to replace down the line.. ;-)

 

[Cerealand]

Brand/model may help assist with your question. If it works fine, I would not worry about it too much.