Where are the U bins?

Tried this in the mnfg's corner with little luck. Trying to understand why the U bin Lux III based lights are hard to find. Seems last year with the initial Orb Raw and the U85 runs the U bins were blowing everyone away. Then, almost a year later there's no U-bin in sight (I've recently gotten the Raw Ns, FF3, Peak Rainier - all bright but all T bins I believe).

With the push and competition to be the brightest why wouldn't the U's rule? To slip backwards over a period of a year does not fit the normal progression of technology and production capability!! What am I missing here?

There are quite a few left at Wayne's Sandwich shoppe

http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/index.php?cPath=48_52_29_33

Both stars and emitters. He is out of UX1Ks, but there are some UX1Ls left over. Photonfanatic might still have some. Hes one of the people with all of the latest LEDs.

Can someone tell me why the last letter in the Bin makes it so much more desirable? I know that having the last letter as and H is the most desired, I just don't know why.

I see these LED's are available but I'm not a modder - why would the light manufacturers not be using these in their lights as sold?

The last letter is the Vf, or minimum voltage. I believe the UX1K is so popular due to its perfect minimum input voltage (forgot what it was stupid me) for Direct Drive which is quite a popular mod with LEDs in general. I havent really looked at all the Vf ratings lately so I have no idea how much the UX1L is.

Mags said:

The last letter is the Vf, or minimum voltage. I believe the UX1K is so popular due to its perfect minimum input voltage (forgot what it was stupid me) for Direct Drive which is quite a popular mod with LEDs in general. I havent really looked at all the Vf ratings lately so I have no idea how much the UX1L is.

Click to expand...

So on the K model, approximately how long would it shine direct drive with a protected 18650 2200mah?

The lower the Vf, the more efficient the LED is. That means you will get longer battery life while still producing the same amount of output as compared to a matching one but with a higher Vf bin.

The Bin code for Vf is as follows:
Vf
E.............2.31V - 2.55V
F.............2.55V - 2.79V
G............2.79V - 3.03V
H............3.03V - 3.27V
J.............3.27V - 3.51V
K............3.51V - 3.75V
L.............3.75V - 3.99V
M............3.99V - 4.23V
N............4.23V - 4.47V
R.............5.43V - 5.91V
S.............5.91V - 6.39V
T.............6.39V - 6.87V
U.............6.87V - 7.35V
V.............7.35V - 7.83V
W............7.83V - 8.31V

lightrod said:

I see these LED's are available but I'm not a modder - why would the light manufacturers not be using these in their lights as sold?

Click to expand...

The manufacturer does not set out to make inferior grade LEDs, it costs them the same for any grade. There are just variations that happen that make the LEDs come out differently. They measure each LED after it's made and throw them in a "bin" with other LEDs that have similar measurements. If they had their way, they'd all be U bin.

BTW, computer CPUs are the same. They *try* to make them all the fastest speed but some measure out slower.

The differently binned LEDs have sharply different values so the company can sell them all. If U bins and T bins are all $20, everyone will buy U bins and the T bins will be impossible to sell, by varying the prices all the LEDs can be sold, if a T bin is $10 and U bin $30, the average price the company makes is the same, they can sell out of both kinds, and the customer can pay what they want based on the application.

Thanks for the info folks. I'm (slowly) catching on. I understand the binning concept and the premium pricing - but I am a bit surprised at the price differential between T and U bins other things the same. I suppose that cost difference and perhaps just plain availability, as well as the fact that the T and U bins butt up against each other there's no assurance of any noticable difference at all, would explain mnfg's use of T's more than U's.