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fyrstormer

fyrstormer

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Jul 24, 2009
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I have done the unspeakable. Which is why I'm typing instead. 😛 I replaced the Luxeon 3 in my McLuxIII-T with a Luxeon K2, cool-white. (didn't want to duplicate the functionality of my Arc6 with its neutral-white K2.) Boy, is it ever a lot brighter. That old Lux3 was pretty inefficient compared to what we've got now.

Pics!

Before:
CIMG3813a.png


After:
CIMG3913a.png


Why yes, it is very nice. 😎 I'm curious though, do the lights originally built with Luxeons use a different reflector than the lights originally built with SSCs? The very bottom of the reflector looks like it has a slightly different curve to it.

EDIT: So I was comparing this to one of my Cree Q5 lights, and at first I was caught off-guard, thinking that I might have managed to mix up my emitters and install a neutral-white K2 in this instead. But when I compare it to the neutral-white K2 in my Arc6, it's clearly much cooler than that. Yet it's still noticeably warmer than the Q5. Kinda puts the Q5 to shame, really; makes it look like a cheap fluorescent light by comparison.
 
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KeyGrip said:
The K2 is on the list of contenders for upgrading my LuxIII head. How does the beam compare to the Arc6?
Click to expand...
It's pretty much identical to my K2-modded Arc6. 😀 Compared to a stock Arc6 though, the Ti-PD is more focused and not as good at, say, lighting up the edge of the woods at night. That being said, the PD-S and S27 (both using the SSC P4 emitter) also don't have the "wall-of-light" effect that the Arc6 has. The Arc6 is pretty unique among PD lights in that regard.

Given that your Ti-McLuxIII-L20-C 🙂p) was originally equipped with a Luxeon, I'd mod it with another Luxeon because the reflector is shaped slightly differently near the base. I can see a somewhat sharper curve at the base of both of my Luxeon lights, as compared to lights designed to use the SSC P4. Based on this mod I did, I can safely say the "cool-white" K2 will have a warmer beam than most cool-white emitters. I actually mistook it for a neutral-white emitter, until I compared it to one that I knew was one.
 
I've been away from CPF for years and am now looking to update my LuxIII Alephs and McLuxIIIs. Was this a straight swap of the emitter, or did you have to replace/modify any other parts, like the light engine, reflector, and driver?

Also, is the Luxeon K2 of the same generation/similar output to the Cree XP-E/Gs that I've been reading about?

Thanks!
 
I think the K2s require a bit more power than the Cree XR emitters, but they are nonetheless capable of the same light output. The Cree XP emitters are brighter, though. They also have a standard beam pattern that doesn't require extra-long reflectors to focus properly, and I like the light quality from the K2 better than all but the best XR-Es.

With this light, it was a straight emitter swap, but I did have to round-off two of the corners on the emitter casing because the K2s are more squarish than the older Luxeons. Nothing terribly difficult though.
 
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fyrstormer said:
Im curious though, do the lights originally built with Luxeons use a different reflector than the lights originally built with SSCs? The very bottom of the reflector looks like it has a slightly different curve to it.
Click to expand...

The reflectors are different but not by much, IIRC the only difference is the SSC reflectors (the ones with an "-S" after the size) are shorter by .030". The .030" was removed from the back (LED) end. Don could tell us more but I don't think the parabolic curve was changed between the Lux and SSC reflectors of the same sizes.
 
Morelite said:
The reflectors are different but not by much, IIRC the only difference is the SSC reflectors (the ones with an "-S" after the size) are shorter by .030". The .030" was removed from the back (LED) end. Don could tell us more but I don't think the parabolic curve was changed between the Lux and SSC reflectors of the same sizes.
Click to expand...
Okay, that makes sense. Any idea if the Luxeon reflectors are still available for purchase? I might want to pick one up in case this one ever gets trashed -- which should never happen, but who can tell?
 
Morelite said:
The reflectors are different but not by much, IIRC the only difference is the SSC reflectors (the ones with an "-S" after the size) are shorter by .030". The .030" was removed from the back (LED) end. Don could tell us more but I don't think the parabolic curve was changed between the Lux and SSC reflectors of the same sizes.
Click to expand...

I just remembered the "Joker" Luxeons, there was a different reflector for the Joker LEDs. The McR20J had the same exterior specs as the McR20 but they did have a different curve to them. I don't know exactly what was different but it may very well be what you where seeing at the base of the one you mentioned. I can't say without doing some research how to tell the "Jokers apart from the regular LuxIII emitters.

The Shoppe is currently out of regular McR20's and the McR20J's but I'm sure I have one somewhere if you need one.
 
Well, just so I understand, you're saying there IS a difference between the McR20 for Luxeons and the McR20 for SSCs, disregarding the differences between the sub-types of Luxeon reflectors, right? So, even if the Shoppe had McR20's in stock, how would I know if they are intended for use with SSCs or Luxeons?
 
The McR20S is for the Seouls. The McR20 were originally designed for the Luxeons (with the exception of the Joker).
 
fyrstormer said:
Well, just so I understand, you're saying there IS a difference between the McR20 for Luxeons and the McR20 for SSCs, disregarding the differences between the sub-types of Luxeon reflectors, right? So, even if the Shoppe had McR20's in stock, how would I know if they are intended for use with SSCs or Luxeons?
Click to expand...

There are three McR20's
McR20 is for the normal Luxeons (I,III, and V)
McR20-S is for SSC P4 emitters
McR20-J is for the Luxeon "joker" emitters
"joker" was not a real name, IIRC Don coined the name for some LuxIII emitters that had something different about them. There was a time when Lumileds change the Lexeons and nobody know about till Don discovered the beam profile was different, so Don started calling these redisigned emitters "jokers". I think the die was raised more inside the emitter or the emitter base was thicker something along those lines, its been a long while since those days.
 
You'd have to pay someone to put a stronger resistor on the low-level regulator if you wanted to do that.

It's not fantastically brighter, it's just on-par with my newer Gizmos now. The low is still quite comfortable to use for reading books in the dark.
 
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