Just looked at Lumiled's web sight, notice they had the star and the emmiter at about the same price. Would somebody please edumacate as to the difference between the two?
Thanks
Will
in my opinion no, cos they are usually encased inside the flashlight bezel so heat dissipation is definitely not enough....better have it attached to a bigger heat sink by a good heat transfer epoxy.
If you are wanting to mod an existing light, then you probably need one or the other (either the star or the bare emitter). Of course, the emitter is easy enough to remove and then reattach to the star if needed for future projects.
The star makes it easier to handle as it has solder pads to add wire without extra solder, and screws can be used to hold it down onto a heatsink. The emitter is more fragile but there's more mounting flexibility because it's small and one less thermal path to the main heatsink.