cryhavok
Enlightened
Hey all,
Some of you may know that I build LE's for Alephs. Well, I am happy to report my first EXTREMELY successful test of an Cree XR-E Aleph LE.
As of late, I've been watching the plethora of threads about the XR-E and have been trying to find out as much info as I can before I start building. I think the general consensus is the MCPCB has pretty bad thermal relief and should be avoided for any application over, say, 600mA. As a urban flashoholic
I always try to squeeze the maximum out of every light (meaning no less than 1a :naughty
. So I've come to the conclusion that the best way to mount a Cree is epoxying the bare emitter directly to a heatsink.
I have a bare aluminum A3/1xcr123 light that I don't use much (I also have a chrome A3/1xcr123/NG1000/UXOJ) and I chose it for the host. The XR-E I'm using is a P4 WH from esramus and it is driven with a NG1000.
To build the LE, I made a pedestal out of copper and epoxied the emitter directly to this, which I epoxied to the E-screw. The pedestal is the same shape as the bottom central contact pad, so it should provide good thermal relief. The contact pad raises the Cree LED so that the base of the aluminum ring around the die is just about the same height as the lip of the E-screw. I soldered the leads to the bottom pads and put a small coat of epoxy on the top pads so I could put the LED inside the reflector as much as it will go. This reduces the amount of reflector I have to grind away as well as makes the hole the LED goes into stay small. Looking at McGizmo's A3 he modded, the gap between the aluminum ring of the XR-E and the opening of the reflector is halved by this method, which looks much better IMO. Plus, I barely had to remove any of the reflector to get a good focus. Right now, the beam is awesome, but there may be some more lux to be gained from sanding the reflector more...I'm not sure.
So what does this all amount to? Well the brightest (in terms of Lux@1 meter) LuxIII light I ever made/have is a NG1000/UXOJ in my A3. The UXOJ was hand picked out of about 10 for brightness. That light makes about 6500 lux@1 meter. The Cree light makes 9900 lux @ 1 meter through a very, very dirty window. With some cleaning, I'm sure the lux will jump to over the coveted 10k. Plus, the spill is about twice as bright as the UXOJ.
The tint from the WH bin is spectacular. It is very very white/neutral to my eyes. Slightly on the warm side, which I think is a good thing. I EDC a UVOJ/A1/FluPIC and the WH tint makes the UVOJ, which I thought was the whitest LED I own, look a little on the red side. The A3 has a trim tailcap with McE2S switch, and the level on low is ~500 lux@1 meter. This makes the light extremely useful and the levels seem to be nicely spaced out.
Overall I am extremely satisfied with this light and I may end up transplanting the guts into my Chrome A3. I may start offering to build these LE's in addition to my Luxeon's, but they take a much longer time to build.
Some of you may know that I build LE's for Alephs. Well, I am happy to report my first EXTREMELY successful test of an Cree XR-E Aleph LE.
As of late, I've been watching the plethora of threads about the XR-E and have been trying to find out as much info as I can before I start building. I think the general consensus is the MCPCB has pretty bad thermal relief and should be avoided for any application over, say, 600mA. As a urban flashoholic
I always try to squeeze the maximum out of every light (meaning no less than 1a :naughty. So I've come to the conclusion that the best way to mount a Cree is epoxying the bare emitter directly to a heatsink. I have a bare aluminum A3/1xcr123 light that I don't use much (I also have a chrome A3/1xcr123/NG1000/UXOJ) and I chose it for the host. The XR-E I'm using is a P4 WH from esramus and it is driven with a NG1000.
To build the LE, I made a pedestal out of copper and epoxied the emitter directly to this, which I epoxied to the E-screw. The pedestal is the same shape as the bottom central contact pad, so it should provide good thermal relief. The contact pad raises the Cree LED so that the base of the aluminum ring around the die is just about the same height as the lip of the E-screw. I soldered the leads to the bottom pads and put a small coat of epoxy on the top pads so I could put the LED inside the reflector as much as it will go. This reduces the amount of reflector I have to grind away as well as makes the hole the LED goes into stay small. Looking at McGizmo's A3 he modded, the gap between the aluminum ring of the XR-E and the opening of the reflector is halved by this method, which looks much better IMO. Plus, I barely had to remove any of the reflector to get a good focus. Right now, the beam is awesome, but there may be some more lux to be gained from sanding the reflector more...I'm not sure.
So what does this all amount to? Well the brightest (in terms of Lux@1 meter) LuxIII light I ever made/have is a NG1000/UXOJ in my A3. The UXOJ was hand picked out of about 10 for brightness. That light makes about 6500 lux@1 meter. The Cree light makes 9900 lux @ 1 meter through a very, very dirty window. With some cleaning, I'm sure the lux will jump to over the coveted 10k. Plus, the spill is about twice as bright as the UXOJ.
The tint from the WH bin is spectacular. It is very very white/neutral to my eyes. Slightly on the warm side, which I think is a good thing. I EDC a UVOJ/A1/FluPIC and the WH tint makes the UVOJ, which I thought was the whitest LED I own, look a little on the red side. The A3 has a trim tailcap with McE2S switch, and the level on low is ~500 lux@1 meter. This makes the light extremely useful and the levels seem to be nicely spaced out.
Overall I am extremely satisfied with this light and I may end up transplanting the guts into my Chrome A3. I may start offering to build these LE's in addition to my Luxeon's, but they take a much longer time to build.
Last edited:
