Noob question on types of LEDs

[CarlR]

OK I thought I was a flashlight nerd until I joined this site. Apparently I really am completely unenlightened.

I have a fair number of flashlights - a few streamlights including a lightbox, a surefire, Pelican, and others, and finally a Fenix LD20 LED light which is what opened my eyes to this new world of super-powerful LEDs.

My question is this - is there any reference or primer to get up to speed on the alphabet soup of LED descriptors? I'm talking about XRE, XPG, R4 R5 Q5, "bin" codes etc. They mean nothing to me at this point.

I spent a few minutes searching CPF but didn't find anything concise, although I feel like this *must* have been covered before.

Thanks in advance,
Carl

 

[gcbryan]

OK I thought I was a flashlight nerd until I joined this site. Apparently I really am completely unenlightened.

I have a fair number of flashlights - a few streamlights including a lightbox, a surefire, Pelican, and others, and finally a Fenix LD20 LED light which is what opened my eyes to this new world of super-powerful LEDs.

My question is this - is there any reference or primer to get up to speed on the alphabet soup of LED descriptors? I'm talking about XRE, XPG, R4 R5 Q5, "bin" codes etc. They mean nothing to me at this point.

I spent a few minutes searching CPF but didn't find anything concise, although I feel like this *must* have been covered before.

Thanks in advance,
Carl

It's spread all over although there are stickies at the beginning of some of the forums. Check the LED flashlight subforum as well as the LED subforum.

Popular leds (emitters) today are the Cree XR-E and the XP-G. This are just the model designators. The XR-E is small (meaning the die is small) and max lumen is around 220 or so (just from memory so check for yourself). The XP-G is a little newer and it's size is a little larger as is it's max lumen output...around 325 lumens or so.

The R2 you mentioned refers to the flux bin or in other words the grading system for lumen output. This would be the 220 lumens I mentioned.

The R5 is from the flux bin numbering system for the XP-G and this refers to the 325 lumens I mentioned.

Led's for a particular model are all produced at the same time but they don't all come out to the same spec so they are sorted into a "bin" system so those that are particularly bright are R2 for the XR-E, those that aren't quite as bright are Q5 and on down to P4.

For the XP-G you commonly find R4 and R5.

I'm giving you a quick overview and it may not make total sense. That's why you need to read the threads at the top of the subforums I mentioned but this may give you a head start anyway.

I should add that SST-50 and SST-90 refer to large emitters made by another company. You may be MC-E referred to and P7. Both of these last two are multiply (4) emitters on one die. I'll stop for now as I'm sure it is quite confusing!

 

[CarlR]

Yeah, the fact that it's "all over" is what I was finding. So I will try to sum up for myself (and other newbies like me...).

So there are are "Types" of LEDs, such as:

SSC P7
Cree MC-E
Cree XP-G
Cree XR-E

And the "quality" within each type is designated by a bin code.

Is that fair to say? I wonder if I could make a big chart of all this.

Side note, on gcbryan's advice I looked at the .pdf files for the individual LEDs and saw one called the MPL-EZW which looks like it could be awesome - but it seems difficult to get to 27V.

 

[vaska]

Look here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=156772

 

[carrot]

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=261047

 

[gcbryan]

Yeah, the fact that it's "all over" is what I was finding. So I will try to sum up for myself (and other newbies like me...).

So there are are "Types" of LEDs, such as:

SSC P7
Cree MC-E
Cree XP-G
Cree XR-E

And the "quality" within each type is designated by a bin code.

Is that fair to say? I wonder if I could make a big chart of all this.

Side note, on gcbryan's advice I looked at the .pdf files for the individual LEDs and saw one called the MPL-EZW which looks like it could be awesome - but it seems difficult to get to 27V.

The thing that makes it easier assuming you are interested in leds only for flashlights rather than for use in buildings or something is that there are only so many that are currently being used in flashlights.

Those that you've listed above plus SST-50 and SST-90 account for most of the leds in flashlights today.

With Cree leds X means single emitter and M means multiple emitter. P and R (XR-G and XP-G) refers to the physical size of the emitter die.

MC-E and P7 are two common quad leds and are used for higher lumen output but are also more for floody applications since it's hard to focus the beam when you had 4 leds on one die.

When you are looking for a light with greater throw...XR-E would come to mind.

So, when you decide what applications are more important to you regarding flashlights it naturally suggests certain leds.

 

[yellow]

add timescale:

Luxeon I+III --> oldest
Luxeon Rebel --> newer, said to be as bright as
Cree XR-E (P3, P4, Q1-5, R2) and Seoul P4 (T, U) and now
Cree XP-G (around R2, ...) --> lastes emitter plate, brigthest,
those are all single emitter led, the most actual is the XP-G. Brightest at same power consumed
(there are slight differences, but for entry level they are to be ignored)


quad emitter led (four emitter plates mounted into one housing) are
Osram Ostar quad --> oldest
Cree MC-E and Seoul P7 --> more actual, emitter plates of XR-E

roughly You can count on the older led being only half as bright as the new models, at same power consumed (means they make much more heat, which is really bad)

then it comes to a special led - XR-E for example - the versions here are put into classes (--> bin),
usually a charakter and a number.
The later in the alphabet, the better (brighter) the bin; the higher the number, the better the bin.
P3 is less bright then P4, which is less bringt than R2

got it?

 

[CarlR]

Thanks also to Vaska, Carrot and Yellow - I now have a much better idea of what is what...

I took a took at those links and I almost "get it" now.


Appreciate your help.
Carl

 

[anonymoususer]

x2

Lots of great information here