wasBlinded
Flashlight Enthusiast
With my Seoul Semiconductor P4 USWOH bin emitters in hand, I decided to upgrade my Stenlight. I had previously installed the recently available reflectors from JSB, and later upgraded the stock Luxeons with UVOJ emitters, for an increase in peak Lux readings of from 1400 to 1800 in Turbo mode.
Getting to the emitters in the Stenlight is not difficult. They are easy to remove. Underneath each emitter, and isolating the slug from the circuit board/heat sink is a sticky thermal pad. I elected to remove the pads, and lay down a very thin layer of Arctic ceramic epoxy instead. On top of the cured epoxy, I put a small dollop of Arctic Ceramique thermal compound. I don't know if this is better than the pad or not, it simply seemed like it might be.
Positioning the new emitters was not easy, and I spent quite a bit of time nudging them about to center them in the reflectors. It was not really worth the effort from the performance standpoint, because slightly off-center emitters did not reduce peak lux values or influence beam pattern to a noticeable degree.
After all was said and done, the peak Lux reading was actually a bit lower than with the UVOJ Luxeons, (1600 Lux vs. 1800 Lux). The hotspot is quite a bit larger than with the Luxeons, so this is where the extra light generated by the SSC P4 LEDs is going. For caving, I like a larger hotspot (if I need big throw in a big room, I'll pull a Mag74 out of my pack). These P4s have a nice tint to them, and there is no color fringing in this application.
Edit: I was erroneously measuring Lux at 43.5 inches instead of 39.4 inches (1 meter). Measuring peak Lux now, I get 2150 with the P4 LEDs in Turbo before it drops down to around 1700 over 2 minutes or so.
Getting to the emitters in the Stenlight is not difficult. They are easy to remove. Underneath each emitter, and isolating the slug from the circuit board/heat sink is a sticky thermal pad. I elected to remove the pads, and lay down a very thin layer of Arctic ceramic epoxy instead. On top of the cured epoxy, I put a small dollop of Arctic Ceramique thermal compound. I don't know if this is better than the pad or not, it simply seemed like it might be.
Positioning the new emitters was not easy, and I spent quite a bit of time nudging them about to center them in the reflectors. It was not really worth the effort from the performance standpoint, because slightly off-center emitters did not reduce peak lux values or influence beam pattern to a noticeable degree.
After all was said and done, the peak Lux reading was actually a bit lower than with the UVOJ Luxeons, (1600 Lux vs. 1800 Lux). The hotspot is quite a bit larger than with the Luxeons, so this is where the extra light generated by the SSC P4 LEDs is going. For caving, I like a larger hotspot (if I need big throw in a big room, I'll pull a Mag74 out of my pack). These P4s have a nice tint to them, and there is no color fringing in this application.
Edit: I was erroneously measuring Lux at 43.5 inches instead of 39.4 inches (1 meter). Measuring peak Lux now, I get 2150 with the P4 LEDs in Turbo before it drops down to around 1700 over 2 minutes or so.
Last edited:
