Natural white emitters: Cree vs. Seoul

[olrac]

Modded out two lights tonight, a Raw with a Cree P4 to Cree Q3 5A and and Exolion SS with a Seoul natural white 4000K. Both are great improvements over the stock emitters. Side by side I have to give the top dog award to the Cree, IMO the color rendition is better and it is more even hotspot to spill.



Cree on left side and Seoul on the right



Cree Seoul

 

[JamisonM]

I got to say I'm disappointed with the seoul. It looks very purple and nothing like the neutral emitters I got from PhotonFanatic. They look much better and are much closer if not the same tint as the cree from your pictures olrac.

 

[Sgt. LED]

There has to be something wrong with your Seoul!

It does not look like the 93 CRI 4000K Seoul I have in my hand right now at all. :shrug:

If anything I would say the Seoul should be a hair warmer than the Cree. Could it of gotten a little too hot during soldering?

 

[MWClint]

Nice work! caution these warmer leds are quite addicting and will
make you want to mod every light you own.

I got to say I'm disappointed with the seoul. It looks very purple and nothing like the neutral emitters I got from PhotonFanatic. They look much better and are much closer if not the same tint as the cree from your pictures olrac.

the purple shots in olracs pics are the cool white original leds, not the naturals. left pic is cree vs cree and right is ssc vs ssc?
at least it has to be unless the 4000K is broken. :thinking:

i found the seoul to portray a slightly deeper red than the cree, but it was
pretty close and more of deciding which warm led to use based on the
existing reflector that's in the light.

 

[olrac]

The shots are both Cree vs. Seoul. I will say the the Seoul doesn't look purple in real life and if you look at the shots of the shirt it is more representative of how the Seoul looks.

Here is a shot of the Seoul Vs. Golden Dragon Plus

GDP on left and Seoul on right



R2 WH, Q3 5A, GDP, Seoul

obviously drive levels are different

The camera seems to see the seoul differently than the cree than in real life side by side, I don't know why. The cree does seem warmer then the seoul. This particular emitter may be off, I didn't use excessive heat soldering (not reflow) to PCB but I guess it might be possible. This is my first experience with the Seoul Hi CRI. I have another so I will have to find a light to put it into and see how it compares. I am by no means unhappy with the seoul, just wondering if others who have used both cree and seoul noticed differences as well.

MWClint: Are the Seoul hi cri emitters touchy when it comes to soldering? This is my first experience soldering with them. I have soldered P7's, K2's and Cree's without problem.

Edit: The more I look at this the more it doesn't seem right. Tonight I will try another emitter paying particular attention to solder temp. I will let everyone know results.

 

[toby_pra]

Very nice mods, many thx for sharing!:wave:

 

[MWClint]

R2 WH, Q3 5A, GDP, Seoul

obviously drive levels are different

The camera seems to see the seoul differently than the cree than in real life side by side, I don't know why.

MWClint: Are the Seoul hi cri emitters touchy when it comes to soldering? This is my first experience soldering with them. I have soldered P7's, K2's and Cree's without problem.

Edit: The more I look at this the more it doesn't seem right. Tonight I will try another emitter paying particular attention to solder temp. I will let everyone know results.

is the seoul light PWM'd? it just might be playing tricks on the camera.
if it looks ok in real life..i doubt the led is broken.

very puzzling indeed. got any other cameras to try?

 

[olrac]

is the seoul light PWM'd? it just might be playing tricks on the camera.
if it looks ok in real life..i doubt the led is broken.

very puzzling indeed. got any other cameras to try?

Yup, running a flupic ver. 2.2, the raw is DD and resistored on low.

I'll try my daughter's camera, unlike mine it's from this century :laughing:

 

[MWClint]

In the name of science..i just swapped a 4000K seoul into a Peak Caribbean.
The Caribbean drives the led at 1amp using an RCR123.

when they say 800mah max for these high cri seouls..they mean it.

didnt last more than 5 minutes total at 1amp, but man was it bright.
comparitivly, it was as bright as a U2 bin seoul on 750mah.

 

[olrac]

That's might be the problem I have with mine (though I did get the flupic for seoul emitter but honestly am not sure of the output figures for this driver). I have not had the time to sit down at the workbench and experiment. Maybe this weekend. I have driven the Cree Q3 5A up to 1.2A with no problems or change in tint.

 

[TexLite]

I don't think drive current is the problem. I've used these at 1000mA with no problem with tint shift or overheating so far.

I did have one out of many that seemed to be cooler than the others, nowhere close to this.

What part number are you using? There are Natural White emitters available that are not high CRI.

-Michael

 

[olrac]

I don't think drive current is the problem. I've used these at 1000mA with no problem with tint shift or overheating so far.

I did have one out of many that seemed to be cooler than the others, nowhere close to this.

What part number are you using? There are Natural White emitters available that are not high CRI.

-Michael

got them from mouser

Natural White 4000K
Mfg. P/N: S42180-S2

 

[TexLite]

got them from mouser

Natural White 4000K
Mfg. P/N: S42180-S2

Thats the 93 CRI emitter. Unless they stocked another reel since my last order of these they should be SRO tint bin, which would actually be warmer than the 5A XR-E.

Could be any number of scenarios, but somethings awry.

-Michael

 

[MWClint]

Could be any number of scenarios, but somethings awry.

-Michael

aha it's reflector dynamics...i just played with the focus using a cut ims20 and you can get a blue hotspot if not focused properly on a 4000k seoul.
on a u2swoh seoul, it becomes a yellow hotspot..so basically the tint of the
corona is not being dispersed properly.

 

[olrac]

I tried changing the focal length of the emitter in the McGizmo16S reflector but there wasn't any appreciable change in the color of the hot spot, so my problem lies elsewhere. My guess is I inadvertently damaged the emitter.

 

[olrac]

Had the day off today so I thought I would revisit this again. Installed a new Seoul High CRI into the Exolion SS. Was very careful about heat when soldering didn't even test the emitter until it was installed in the light itself. the verdict is the same. The Cree 5A is warmer. I don't know why, because it should not be warmer but it is.This is only the second one I have used so maybe this were out of spec to begin with. Don't get me wrong the Seoul is very nice and I actually wound up with a cleaner looking LE and better focus as well. The Seoul's hotspot appears cooler than it's corona but the corona is about the same warmth as the 5A. The Cree 5A has the same color hotspot to corona. Both are very useable lights and I have no complaints.

 

[ambientmind]

Had the day off today so I thought I would revisit this again. Installed a new Seoul High CRI into the Exolion SS. Was very careful about heat when soldering didn't even test the emitter until it was installed in the light itself. the verdict is the same. The Cree 5A is warmer. I don't know why, because it should not be warmer but it is.This is only the second one I have used so maybe this were out of spec to begin with. Don't get me wrong the Seoul is very nice and I actually wound up with a cleaner looking LE and better focus as well. The Seoul's hotspot appears cooler than it's corona but the corona is about the same warmth as the 5A. The Cree 5A has the same color hotspot to corona. Both are very useable lights and I have no complaints.

I'm guessing its the reflector. I love these leds in most lights, but it has to be a nice reflector or optic to properly show how nice the color is. I have them in two novatacs and they look great, but when I put one in my KL1 w/ the optic, the hotspot was cool surrounded by a warm corona. All in all I like them though, and colors just seem to pop with them.

 

[olrac]

I'm using a McR 16S (seoul) reflector. I have a few different reflectors and optics lying around so I will do a little experimenting with the the extra emitter. thanks for the tip.