Fenix non premium,silver core?

[ergotelis]

Hi, i just received my fenix olive l2d ce, non premium. Even though it isn't premium, it has a silver core! L2d is supposed to be at least a P4, but i guess there are no P4 silver core cree.
Has anyone else received a silver core one l2d? Can i guess that it could be a q5?
I have read that most of the new fenix non-premium are in the q2-q4 range.So i guess i am lucky right?
I am asking because i was thinking to upgrade to R2, but if it is a q4-q5 bin, it is not worth of course.

 

[Marduke]

It is statistically most likely some Q bin. However, there is nothing which would preclude it from being a P4. All you know for sure is it's P4 or better, but is most likely much better.

It could conceivably be anything from P4 to R2.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

if by silver core you mean that the phosphor is only covering the chip and not the metal parts in the LED, then that simply means that it is newer than the old style where Cree just slathered the phosphor on everything visible. This was probably a move by Cree to save by using half the phosphor by area and probably has nothing to do with performance of the LED. well, very little. I have a P4, Q3, and a Q5. They are all the newer version. In fact, I have never seen one of the old ones in person before. (kind of a n00b)

 

[Marduke]

The silver core means it was made in Cree's newer Chinese plant. This plant came online when the XR-E model line was mature, meaning most led's typically were Q bins or better. The North Carolina plant still produces yellow core to my knowlede, along with all EZ1000 dice.

The thing to remember is when you buy large quantities of led's to a certain bin, you are not buying just that bin. You are being sold anything which meets you minimum spec, or exceeds it.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

The silver core means it was made in Cree's newer Chinese plant. This plant came online when the XR-E model line was mature, meaning most led's typically were Q bins or better. The North Carolina plant still produces yellow core to my knowlede, along with all EZ1000 dice.

so does this mean that Cree ships a load of dice to china where it is assembled and shipped back? Interesting, I wasn't aware of a chinese cree plant. That explains quite a bit lol

The thing to remember is when you buy large quantities of led's to a certain bin, you are not buying just that bin. You are being sold anything which meets you minimum spec, or exceeds it

do you mean if I bought a bunch of q3 flux LEDs, I could have leds that are q3 and up? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a business standpoint. unless Cree sells all of its xr-e for same price regardless of tint/flux

 

[jtr1962]

do you mean if I bought a bunch of q3 flux LEDs, I could have leds that are q3 and up? This doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a business standpoint. Unless Cree sells all of its xr-e for same price regardless of tint/flux.

Actually, it does make sense precisely because Cree charges more for their premium bins. When Cree manufactures LEDs, it doesn't just say we're going to whip up a batch of R2s today and some Q3s tomorrow. It always strives to make the brightest, most efficient LED. Due to variations in the production process beyond its control, you end up with a statistical distribution of bins. Maybe nowadays most LEDs end up being Q3 or Q4, a smaller amount are Q2s and Q5s, and a fairly small number are P4s and R2s. Given the current economy, the number of customers with large orders willing to pay a large premium for a higher bin like a Q5 is probably relatively small. What would happen then is Cree would be sitting on a bunch of Q5s that it couldn't sell, and as time goes on (i.e. better bins come out of the manufacturing process), the value of those Q5s drops. At some point they're better off letting them go at Q3 prices just to clear out inventory. Now when LED bins start to plateau as we reach practical efficiency limits it might be another story. Or maybe by then they'll have the manufacturing process down so that most of the production ends up in the same flux bin. There would still be a statistical flux distribution even here, but the standard deviation might be well under one flux bin instead of one or two.

 

[Marduke]

Yes, Cree ships dice to their China assembly plant, as well as to SSC in Korea.

All orders of items bought to minimum spec are sold the same way. It is cheaper for a company to sell you whatever they have the most which meets or exceeds your requirements. It would not benefit them to make a special run of worse product to satisfy your particular needs.

So when a company orders a shipment of P4's or better, and all Cree has are Q bins, that's what you are going to get.

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

Neat-o! I see how that would work. Never thought I'd be getting an economics lesson on a flashlight forum.