Any USA suppliers for the bare, unmounted triple Stars? I see
http://www.led-tech.de has some triple Stars- gold plated too, nifty, and cheap too- but it's in Germany. I'm not big on spending that much for shipping and going through international shipping for a small bare board.
I need flexibility here- and $38.49 for a star with 3x $6.60 Cool White 100's does not work for me.
As far as mounting, Brlux has concluded that the new Cool White 100 Rebels can't be mounted with a soldering iron, the thermal pad is too sensitive to temp profiles but a simple reflow oven (toaster oven) worked:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=169915
Just to clarify: The wire pads on the Star can of course be done with a soldering iron. The issue would be mounting the Rebels- the particular issue is with the thermal pad, but the power pads must be done at the same time. It wouldn't be possible to mount with a soldering iron on a Star anyways, since the Star lacks any exposed copper around the thermal pad that you could apply a soldering iron to.
Based on my experience with 3x Rebels on about 4.5sq in of PCB @700mA overheating badly, I would say there is zero chance that the Star would work at 700mA (or more) and maintain adequate junction temp unless perhaps you plan to operate them outside at McMurdough Station. On the positive side, unlike the original Luxeon Emitter lines,
the thermal pad of the Rebel and thus the entire Star backing is electrically isolated from the power wires. Thus you do not need an insulating pad and insulated holddown screws between this type of Star and a grounded heatsink. Not only is it cheaper but yields a somewhat lower thermal resistance to the sink.