Lens mounting question

videoman

Enlightened
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Jul 26, 2009
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I have to put a Ledil 20mm square optic to a 20mm star with a XP-G on it.However when I solder the leads, the hump of the solder will prevent the lens to fully seat properly to the board.The star is from Cutter. I also seem to have the same problem with the Carlco 70 degree reflector. Do I need larger boards with the connectors on the far edges?
 
Just remove a small area of the lens holder with a craft knife/dremel to allow it to seat correctly. I had the same issues when mounting Ledil LXP on stars...;)
 
Yep, the dremel tool is your friend! I think the lenses are designed with the assumption that the LED is mounted on a circuit board and powered by traces.
I've had to dremel out a recess for both the wires on the star as well as the screw heads that attached the star to the heatsink.

regards,
Steve K.
 
I was afraid of that, but if it is the only way, so be it. I need to do several hundred of them. I need lenses or reflectors that would mount easily on 20mm stars with XP-G, max diameter of 22mm either square or round with a wide beam spread like 60 to 80 degree.
 
dremeling several hundred optics is going to take some time. Any chance of getting a small metal core circuit board made? Conventional circuit boards are not too costly in quantity, but I don't know who does metal core boards.

Steve K.
 
I get metal core boards from PCB Cart in China...yeah I know China. They are pretty good with their pricing and can do everything from prototype work to medium production. You will just have to design your own PCB or have someone do it for you.

Also I think Arrow Electronics may have lighting solutions with Cree LEDs on different boards, but I'm not sure about optics.
 
I get metal core boards from PCB Cart in China...yeah I know China. They are pretty good with their pricing and can do everything from prototype work to medium production. You will just have to design your own PCB or have someone do it for you.

Also I think Arrow Electronics may have lighting solutions with Cree LEDs on different boards, but I'm not sure about optics.

Are those boards from PCB Cart with thermal prepreg or just FR4?. I can get rapid response FR4 on metal core, but realistically I can get much better thermal performance with FR4 and lots of vias. Quick low cost metal core with thermal prepreg would be a great thing to have.

Semiman
 
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Modifying the Ledil optics is really not what I had anticipated in doing. I would have thought that Ledil would design them with a standard star 20mm in mind and with the consideration of soldered wires that have to pass under it. They did specify them for the Cree XP-G's, but with which PCB ?? Any standardization of star sizes?
 
The optic is probably meant for putting in a lamp assembly where there would be an array of LEDS on a PCB, and the lenses go on top the PCB, rather then on top of a star.

Cutter is rather lacking in providing information about the items they sell, worst distributor website that I can think of. At least give us real manufacturer part numbers so we can find our own datasheets. And I also hate how they dont even have their own part numbers, and completely different parts fall under "options" for one part.

MCPCB for XP series led, and you pick the option if you want a 10mm one round, square, a 20mm individual addressible or series all from a dropdown. :shakehead
 
I agree, also there is never an easy way to anything anymore. Always some surprise or glitch along the way. anyway that's what modding is for. There should be some sort of order and standardization in the led arena. I guess it's too early in the game to expect a smooth workflow. Ledil along with Carclo , Khatod and Fraen should at least specify which stars or rounds are compatible with their optics/reflectors so they seat properly on their designs and also allowing some room, ease of soldering. Not everyone mounts ther leds on a circuit board and certainly not every star is without an optic.I know that some optics fit perfectly on some leds, but those are not the optics I need.
 
Cutter is rather lacking in providing information about the items they sell, worst distributor website that I can think of. At least give us real manufacturer part numbers so we can find our own datasheets. And I also hate how they dont even have their own part numbers, and completely different parts fall under "options" for one part.

Regarding optics, all the Carclo parts I've been interested in seem to be referenced by manufacturer part number, and the same seems to go for Polymer Optics stuff.

MCPCB for XP series led, and you pick the option if you want a 10mm one round, square, a 20mm individual addressible or series all from a dropdown.
If they're going to do a dozen or so different brightness/colour bins, and 10 different board styles, they can't really have a list of all the combinations.

At least now they've reorganised, the XPG LED has a page to itself, rather than being buried in the middle of a page of optics
 
I agree, also there is never an easy way to anything anymore. Always some surprise or glitch along the way. anyway that's what modding is for. There should be some sort of order and standardization in the led arena. I guess it's too early in the game to expect a smooth workflow. Ledil along with Carclo , Khatod and Fraen should at least specify which stars or rounds are compatible with their optics/reflectors so they seat properly on their designs and also allowing some room, ease of soldering. Not everyone mounts ther leds on a circuit board and certainly not every star is without an optic.I know that some optics fit perfectly on some leds, but those are not the optics I need.

Read the data sheet and compare it to the star board to see if it will fit. Star boards are but a small portion of manufacturing for LEDs at this point.

Semiman
 

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