LED: Open Source (UnPotted) V/S Closed Source (Potted Lights)

Off Late, I have been thinking about this a lot. More so because of the Cree XR E and the new Z-LED by SSC, New LED Technologies are appearing fast for better and brighter LED's. The Flashlight bodies & electronics more or less stable and will probably last for more than a couple of years. LED's where as are improving in a matter of weeks.

It becomes almost IMPOSSIBLE access the LED for Potted LED Lights. More difficult to replace the LED.

I have about 10 - 12 LED lights. only 3 of them have easy access to LED i.e. they are Open Source, Namely
1) Mag 2AA LED
2) LRI Proton
3) LRI Photon (all variants)

all others Namely
1) Fenix Lights (the models that I have, L2P, Civictor, L0P)
2) Peak LED Solutions
are Closed Source.

Potted LED Lights are particularly at disadvantage.

These Days, in terms of software, Open Source is getting preference and are winning in almost every front. User Modification & Customization is the key here apart from being open source.

Do you feel the same should happen to flashlights?

I am thinking of Quitting on buying any of the potted lights from now onwards.
I would preferably be thinking of buying lights from manufacturers like LumaPower, UltraFire & HuntLights (almost all of their lights are Open Source).


what do you think?

Good thought. With all the new goodies arriving in short order, I have been delaying my buying habits. It is not just the potted units, but also the ones with bezels that are loctited together and next to impossible to open without damage.

Nell said:

Good thought. With all the new goodies arriving in short order, I have been delaying my buying habits. It is not just the potted units, but also the ones with bezels that are loctited together and next to impossible to open without damage.

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next step would preferably to have LED Modules separate (with heat sink) and converter/driver separate. Adding Modularity would help even more, like for instance HDS has same module (as seen from pictures) which hosts converter board as well as the LED, so much so that the module is machined to fit only LumiLED's Luxeon Emitters. This sort of inflexibility renders the light useless and impossible to install any other LED.

In contrast, Arc Light is said to have different modules for LED and driver board. highly flexible, but I m not sure if they will ship lights potted or unpotted, allowing users to replace the LED & reflector of their choice.

I know sometimes potting is needed to allow the converter board and heat sync to work properly - alot of my mods are potted, however, I always try to take upgrading into account. Even a system like the Aleph - you can change the LED very simply, and once it gets to the point that your board is totally outdated, you can change that too, you just destroy your old one.

I think that is a really good balance of quality now/upgradeable later.

Josh

Depends on if you're a Seller or a Buyer. As a seller, you don't want the next engineer somewhere around the world stealing all your hours of circuit development a week after you introduce a new flashlight gizmo.

As a Buyer - well I like my McLux being "open". I just changed to a Cree XR-E LED and I'm probably going to upgrade the driver board to a more efficient design, as the original is only 65% efficient

I prefer lights that are difficult for me to tamper with. I break things.

Depends on if you're a Seller or a Buyer. As a seller, you don't want the next engineer somewhere around the world stealing all your hours of circuit development a week after you introduce a new flashlight gizmo.

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yup, the Circuit certainly can be always potted, there are not major changes happening on that side. electronics in flashlight is more or less stabilized. however, that's not the case with LED.

I have seen a couple of lights which have Driver Board potted / the Converter IC's / Chips sanded to protect the IP.

chevrofreak said:

I prefer lights that are difficult for me to tamper with. I break things.

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Hahaha... yeah, my very first LED light (PT Impact XL) lasted about 5 minutes before I managed to destroy the LED module.

wow, 90% like Unpotted lights...