how to tell, luxeon 1 or 3

is it possible to tell the difference between an original.

luxeon 1 and a luxeon 3, when they are epoxied in a flashlight.

I have a few 1 and 3 luxeons and i can`t tell the difference.

can you help.

You can only tell if you can see the text on the star: https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/1348165&postcount=13

yes that works great on original luxeons i have checked all mine and it pans out.

my goldston 7W looks like an luxeon 1, must be a fake.

thankyou.

thermal grease them both to a heatsink and then make the input current of both led to 1500mah. the one which die first is the luxI.

a little extreme and impossible so plz don't blame me if anything goes wrong

Who makes Lux LED's and where do you get them?

I've noticed that the thickness of the stars is different, the Luxeon III being almost twice as thick as the Luxeon I.

For stars:

A lux I star has thin power leads and the emitter sits entirely on top of the whole star board. The Lux I star board is a 1/16" aluminium star with a very thin PCB layer on top.

A Lux III star has wide power leads, and is countersunk into the star board. The Lux III star board is a 1/16" aluminium star with a thick (1/16") PCB layer on top. The PCB layer has a hole in it, through which the emitter projects.

A Lux III emitter that has been freed from a star board will have the wide power leads. A Lux I emitter that has been freed from a star board has thin power leads.

There is absolutely no way to distinguish a Lux I emitter from a Lux III emitter if both were shipped as bare emitters from the factory. None, nada.

hello evan9162

thankyou for that information, it should be in a sticky as it is handy to know.

regards.

Evan, isnt there any way to differentiate between the two electrically? By comparing forward voltages or voltage drops with a given amount of current or any other electrically measurable parameter? There's such a large difference in their power handling capacity and output, there's got to be some SAFE non destructive way to figure it out. I have a side emitter cyan that I'm dying to know if its a I or a III.... I wish I knew so I could choose a safe drive level.

Lunar - from my testing of Luxs (traced out on a curve tracer so I see every bias point and not just a couple of points), a measurement at 350mA might indicate it's a J-bin, but at 700mA, it will be in the range of a K-bin, so is it a J-bin Lux1 or a K-bin Lux3? Electrically, Lux1s and Lux3s follow essentially the same VF-IF curve, so you can't tell even with that. Unless there's a difference in the leakage or other parameter, it seems difficult, if not impossible as evan stated to tell.

I'm surprised Lumileds uses different packaging/lead sizes for the Lux1s when placed on a Star vs. an Emitter...they'd save on materials cost and inventory if they standardized the package/lead sizes like they did with the Lux3s.

JSR answered the question very well, and I agree with his response - no way electrically either.

I'm going to parrot something I've brought up before, but no one has really disputed it so here goes :candle: :

The current iteration of the Lux1 is no different than the Lux3, i.e. they are both made the same way and come off the same production line. The difference is in how they are binned: the Lux1 at 350 mA and the Lux3 at 700 mA. That means that a TWAJ Lux3 might also be sold as an RWOH Lux1, depending on market demand.

The old Lux1 was definitely a different animal, and did not have the "conformal" phosphor coating process of the Lux3, but now they share the same process. There is hardly even a price difference between the two when purchased from Lumileds directly. Whadda y'all think?

I'd agree unless someone can prove otherwise. Many semicon companies do as much of this as they can to minimize costs and dead inventory.

If you order an luxeon emitter by itself, how can you tell if it is from the right bin that you ordered it from.

If you order one on the star, the bin number is on the back of the star.

is the bin number writen on the slug.

regards.

I don't think the bin or any markings are on the bare emitters. You might have to just trust the seller. I haven't noticed any markings on the emitters I played with, but all of those have been removed from stars. Others may have more accurate info.

wasBlinded said:

I'm going to parrot something I've brought up before, but no one has really disputed it so here goes :candle: :

The current iteration of the Lux1 is no different than the Lux3, i.e. they are both made the same way and come off the same production line. The difference is in how they are binned: the Lux1 at 350 mA and the Lux3 at 700 mA. That means that a TWAJ Lux3 might also be sold as an RWOH Lux1, depending on market demand.

The old Lux1 was definitely a different animal, and did not have the "conformal" phosphor coating process of the Lux3, but now they share the same process. There is hardly even a price difference between the two when purchased from Lumileds directly. Whadda y'all think?

Click to expand...

Hmmmm, perhaps this explains the odd appearance of my 1W Luxeonstar emitter in my Nuwai made 6AAA light. I picked it up from GoldenGadgets for $9.99 on sale.

http://www.goldengadgets.com/produc...-alx816a&cName=led-flashlights-highpower-leds

At first, the large round die made me question whether it was a clone or 5W Lux reject underdriven in this light. Since Nuwai isn't known to manufacture with clones, this 1W was assumed to be legit, but didn't resemble any of my other 1W/3W LuxeonStars.
The output is dim compared to current Lux1/3 stars, with yellowy corona and a blue center. Quite disappointing.
Does anyone have a pic of the old Lux1?