Help a Noob identify emitters

[Pistolero]

I'm not sure where to post this. I'm also not sure if this is a stupid question or not.

Is it possible to tell what kind of emitter is in a flashlight just by looking at it? I know most of the better websites will let you know, but in brick and mortar stores, it's a whole different ballgame. Most of the time, the labeling is a generic "High Powered LED" or "New 3-Watt State-of-the-Art LED" The only ones that did identify it was the River Rock and Energizer (NICHIA!!!) brands at Target. The RR ones were labeled as K2 Luxeon's.

I'm curious as to what new emitters are making it out to the 'mainstream' market. Someone posted that the new Brinkmann 2AA Minimag clone was a Seoul emitter, but I've heard no confirmation.

So, is there a sort of buying guide or way to tell emitters apart? And what's up with that Brinkmann? And that Dorcy 120Lumen 2xCR123A light? What does it have under the hood?

 

[LukeA]

Re: Help a Noob look for flashlights

The Dorcy 120 lumen lights are K2. 3Watt lights are almost always LuxIII.

 

[Lightingguy321]

Re: Help a Noob look for flashlights

Well I can give you for starters some guide of telling apart Luxeon emitters from each other. All information is from the lumileds website

There are three types of silicon top lenses on the LED itself; the lambertian, batwing, and side emitter (the side emitter is not seen much in flashlights any more). The batwing LED is commonly called the "low dome" LED since the lens on the LED looks like a flattened dome. The lambertian LEDs are known as high dome and have a spherical shaped silicone lens ( i might have that reversed). The Luxeon I (one watt) and Luxeon III (3 watt) leds are both single die LEDs (they contain within the package a single LED chip). Also they only have a single pair of leads (an anode and cathode) leading out from the package. A note, all lumen outputs are for lamp lumens, not the flashlights output.
Luxeon I LEDs have a maximum output of 45 lumens for Cool white emitters. The colored LEDs have the following outputs: green (max 53lm), red(max 44lm), red orange (max 55lm), amber (max 42lm), and cyan (max 45lm). These are commonly found in 2 AA flashlights and occasionally in C or D lights (rarely). The full color spectrum is available (Cool white, warm white, red, red orange, amber, blue , royal blue, cyan, green, and dental blue) standard drive current is 350mA for all colors except red/red orange/amber which are driven at 270mA
Luxeon III LEDs have a maximum output of 80 lumens for cool white. The colored LEDs have the following outputs: Red (max 140lm), blue (max 30lm), green (max 80lm), amber (max 110lm), red orange (max 190lm), and Cyan (max 80lm), all maximums except amber are if the LED is driven at 1Amp, amber's maximum/minimum drive is 1.4Amps. All other LEDs have a minimum drive of 700mA and maximum of 1Amp. These are typically only driven by Lithium cells (1 or 2) and there are several AA flashlights that also use them (the mini mag LED/ energizer tactical metal LED lights), the only thing is they are very difficult to distinguish from the Luxeon I.
Luxeon V LEDs are five watt 4-die LEDs, which means that with in the LED package, there are four visible single die LED chips that have been bound into one package.
Luxeon V LEDs are available in white(cool), blue, green, cyan, royal blue, and dental blue. The maximum outputs are as follows: cool white (120lm), green(160lm), blue(48lm), cyan(160lm). These are found in 2x123A lights or more than 2 123A lights. Again the biggest difference between this and a Lux I or III is the 4-die package.
Luxeon K2 LEDs are the easiest to tell apart since they have two of each lead and are slightly larger than all of the other models in package size, they also use the new Thin Film die (?).

 

[LukeA]

Re: Help a Noob look for flashlights

I would like to add that the K2 is bigger and has a square package.

 

[carrot]

Re: Help a Noob look for flashlights

Take a look at the pictures on NewBie's site. After studying up you will easily be able to identify the major LEDs.

http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/creexre.htm
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/seoulmy.htm
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/rebel.htm

 

[Lightingguy321]

Actually for a question of my own: do the K2s use the thin film die that Lumileds just released?

 

[Pistolero]

Re: Help a Noob look for flashlights

Take a look at the pictures on NewBie's site. After studying up you will easily be able to identify the major LEDs.

http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/creexre.htm
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/seoulmy.htm
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/rebel.htm

OMG
thx