Cree and Seul COLOR

Do tell me anything you know about the colors of these thing, different bins how they compare.
my crees seem to be yellowish when run at say 1 W, but when pumped up seem to get more bluish. yellower than a lux3, then bluer as driven harder.

i never saw a seul in real life yet.
i realise there are "warm" versions also, do tell, how they Compare to other things visually, simply.

ahh, i see reading this there are somewhat similar charachteristics.
http://www.molalla.net/~leeper/seoulmy.htm
depending on the particular ITEM itself, they seem to lean to blue as the current rises.

All "white" leds are subject to tint variations due to normal process variation. You can't really generalize and say that Cree's are "more yellow" or "more blue" and that Seouls are more this or that etc. All manufacturers of "white" led's bin their products accordingly and you just need to read the data sheet to see that they all have tints that range all over the place. A few generalizations can be made in that the tint uniformity across the beam is much better with the Luxeons than with the Seouls and Crees. The Seouls have the most variation if you look at the hotspot (warmer) and move away towards the fringes (cooler) The Cree's are not as bad but still not as good as Luxeons. No surprise since Lumiled's own the patents related to phosphor deposition.

However, I can tell you one thing that is consistent regardless of tint. The Crees and Seouls walk over everyone else's led when it comes to output at a given input power. It is not at all unusual to realize about 100% increase in output when going from a T bin Luxeon to a U bin SSC-P4 LED. This alone makes the slight tint variation I mentioned above a minor issue for me since I want output dammit!

yup all the cree conversions, wether i stayed with the same output, and used less power, or stayed with the same power and went for more output, were worth the 7$ and the labor .

i stil dont know which has the best "lumens per watt" overall output, and which is more likly to be blueish.
ya read the data sheet and they SOUND like its really a 1W led, that easily can be driven at 3W , and it has a very nice color (nice being subjective) at the 1W drive current.

The best "lumens per watt" is the Seoul. If you prefer warmer, go with a VO tint. Seoul uses tint bins that are almost identical to Lumileds. Provided you have sufficient heatsinking, the Seouls and Crees will take 1A easily.

Hey CR,
Do these really have 100% more output than a good luxeon? Do they really have 100-200% more runtime? How many of us really need 100% more output than a good luxeon puts out? Do you and others here really use your lights where you need that kind of output and use it for any length of time for more than okay, 60 minutes.

All of my "obsolete" luxeons have 2 stage switches and on low have more runtime and brightness than I will ever need in my enviornment.

I'm not trying to start anything here but I remember you live in the desert where it's dark all the time and I live in a forest where it's dark all the time. You like everyone else have gone mad over these Seouls and Crees! My old luxeons have more than enough output that I will EVER realistically need in a dark enviornment.

I have 1W luxeons that produce more than enough light that I need and will burn as long as all these Crees and Seouls.

Sorry, but to me, this Cree and Seoul maddness is nuts! How many of you even use your lights more than 60 minutes at a time? I'm not redoing any of my white and perfectly beamed luxeons anytime soon for this craziness.

Bring on the slamming but when I have a perfectly centered hotspot, tons of sidespill and good enough runtime with luxeons, I'm not going to pay extra for this stuff.

Again, a TON of people will respond to this and tell me they use their lights for hours a day and they live in L.A. or some other big city. They will even say that they now NEED CREES and Seouls because they use their lights so often a day. Yeah, right!

Almost all of the people that have bought into this CREE/Seoul maddness live in big cities with tons of ambient light and they would really be better off with incandescent light!

Okay, IF you want this sort of thing, go for it! A year from now, all this maddness will be replaced by something else.

Gene said:

Okay, IF you want this sort of thing, go for it! A year from now, all this maddness will be replaced by something else.

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I think that's part of the fun Probably for most folks here this is a hobby, how many people would join a forum and spend this much of their time on these things if all they want is some occassional battery powered light.

For some of us of course it goes beyond a hobby, it's more lf an addiction :lolsign:

Different LEDs for different folks...

Who buys lights to use them? :lolsign:

I just bought two EL Blaster-1Ds. While it certainly was possible to build them with LuxIIIs if they had just the right bin code, the new Seoul P4s make them easy to find parts for.

They are primarily emergency lights running at 400 and 600ma. I don't know how much the tint shifts when the P4s are driven harder but I can report that they are both white, white, white when compared to my LuxIII lights.

I'm not tint sensitive but they are very nice.

Gene said:

How many of you even use your lights more than 60 minutes at a time? I'm not redoing any of my white and perfectly beamed luxeons anytime soon for this craziness.

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umm i do almost every night like 5 out of 7, for more than an hour, BUT i sure dont need full level, so like you i wander around with (some) light and boost it as needed.

also 2x the runtime is really important (over 2x the brightness) when backpacking, and counting ounces, or just juggling to much crud.

also to wedge in some good power into a tiny light, that cant have 3 and 5 emitters they just dont fit.

i want a 100,000cp spotlight that is no bigger than my pocket knife but it can be on low 90% of the time.

nothing Obsoleted my lux3 stuff, they all work great still, and your lux stuff aint obsolete either, heck the average consumer still doesnt know what a LED is.

but there is "NO BLUE FOOD" and there isnt much of anything outdoors that is blue, except stuff you dont want to light.

Gene said:

Hey CR,
Do these really have 100% more output than a good luxeon? Do they really have 100-200% more runtime? How many of us really need 100% more output than a good luxeon puts out? Do you and others here really use your lights where you need that kind of output and use it for any length of time for more than okay, 60 minutes.

All of my "obsolete" luxeons have 2 stage switches and on low have more runtime and brightness than I will ever need in my enviornment.

I'm not trying to start anything here but I remember you live in the desert where it's dark all the time and I live in a forest where it's dark all the time. You like everyone else have gone mad over these Seouls and Crees! My old luxeons have more than enough output that I will EVER realistically need in a dark enviornment.

I have 1W luxeons that produce more than enough light that I need and will burn as long as all these Crees and Seouls.

Sorry, but to me, this Cree and Seoul maddness is nuts! How many of you even use your lights more than 60 minutes at a time? I'm not redoing any of my white and perfectly beamed luxeons anytime soon for this craziness.

(...)

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Aww, you're just jealous.

How can you argue against a more efficient emitter? Just got a L2D-CE and on low (9 lumens) it lasts for over 55 hours (two days). Medium is 40 lumens and you get 10 hours of light. I'm using it on high right now as my only source of light, tail-standing on the computer desk. Even at 80 lumens it's good for at least 4-5 hours.

I don't need any of these lights. I live in a well lit city and at night I've got to keep my shades drawn to keep the room dark. So it's all for fun for me. Personally I love the longer runtimes. It means if you do have to stay out all night (or for a few days) where it is dark and you need the light it'll be there.

Nobody is saying the older lights are 'obsolete', people just want the latest and greatest toy, and added runtime is a good thing.

Gene, not everybody NEEDS more output or better runtimes. The output can always be turned down for longer runtimes.

Much longer runtimes = better efficiency = saves power = less batteries = better for environment.

Gene, did I hear you throw down a gauntlet? Oh Oh!

fnmag,
Of course I did! I always make enemies but I really perfer not to.

FloggedSynapse,
Jealous? I've experienced every major light revolution since these forums began of which I'm a charter member. I was originally member #125. I'm just mentioning this to say I've been through every fad or "upgrade" CPF has initiated since the beginning and I've owned almost every light in this evolution!

If you read my post carefully, you'll see that ALL my 3W luxeons have a low/high. Most of them will glow sufficiently for over 40 hours on low and my 1W luxeons will do the same for over 80 hours! How's that for being efficient?

What great responses and except for VidPro, (just kidding! ), who uses his lights well over an hour 5 out of 7 days a week, you're all being honest here. We don't NEED these lights but they are fun and of course, we don't NEED them but we like them!

Look, this CREE and Seoul madness has changed the face of CPF forever! BUT, you guys STILL go back and forth about beam characteristics, color and flood beams and blah, blah, blah just like we did in the early years. It's the same games we went through with high and low dome luxeons and also when "premium" Luxeon bins came into fruition.

Bottom line is, these new CREE/Seoul emitters are great and fabulous and perfect and how did we ever survive without them and they will lead us to a path to Nirvana, (ESPECIALLY if we buy them with overpriced McGizmo lights to just join "the club" here and they will NEVER get used!), and we must spend ALL our available money to enjoy them!

These emitters are still an ongoing process in the evolution of LED lights. We are all here for brightess, long runtimes and FUN! I'm just here to save a few newbies all the expense and trouble of buying and selling lights all their lights every few months to have the latest and greatest! If you want to cut through the chase, buy them but you'll still use your "old and worthless" luxeons at times.

Yeah I agree that I will still use Luxeon based flashlights only becuase some manufacturers have not switched to the higher efficiency LEDs from CREE/Seoul. However I would love to have a flashlight that could last 4 times as long using the same battery and outputing the same amount of light.

I have got 4 Cree P4 lights. Two of them have warmer tint. The brightest and the most white is the DX $13 P1 clone on RCR123.

But the same light when fed with used CR123 shows the warmer tint along with reduced output.

White led actually contains blue led with the yellow phosphor on it. Depending upon how thicker the phosphor layer is and how hard the led is being driven will dictate the tint. If LED is not driven hard, it will be yellowish or in the worst case greenish. When driven hard it will start turning whiter and eventually bluer. Also the phosphor coating either not uniform or more probably the "effective thickness" of the coating is higher for the spill beam resulting in yellowish corona. Depending upon the reflector design, that portion of the beam could get merged in to forward throwing light or not.

The only way you can compare the tint is if you can drive them in series i.e. with the same drive current. Anything else is just a lottery.

In general, I don't think you can say that Cree is yellow or SSC is yellow.

- Vikas

Horses for courses. If the lights you've got now do everything you need, then what are you doing wasting your time on here? Unsubscribe right now and go and do something more constructive.

Personally I used my triple Cree light for almost 8 hours on Saturday night, hence had it running most of the time on its lowest, 16 hour setting, at which it gives ~100lm, however with the option of going to 400lm when needed To get the runtime with Luxeons I'd either have much less light or a heavier battery.

Vikas Sontakke said:

I have got 4 Cree P4 lights. Two of them have warmer tint. The brightest and the most white is the DX $13 P1 clone on RCR123.

But the same light when fed with used CR123 shows the warmer tint along with reduced output.


In general, I don't think you can say that Cree is yellow or SSC is yellow.

- Vikas

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thanks vikas , so you experience the same basic thing, with your lower voltage, and therfore current, you get warmer light.

also thanks for STAYING ON TOPIC color.

chris_m,
Thanks but I don't need advice from a new member, (October 2006!), to unsubscribe to these forums that I helped build! My different opinion is what made these boards!

You are the kind of person we don't need here as replies like YOURS are not constructive at all! Enjoy your triple Cree light but keep your insultive comments to yourself.

Gene said:

chris_m,
Thanks but I don't need advice from a new member, (October 2006!), to unsubscribe to these forums that I helped build! My different opinion is what made these boards!

You are the kind of person we don't need here as replies like YOURS are not constructive at all! Enjoy your triple Cree light but keep your insultive comments to yourself.

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Whoa. Hey, don't hold back...tell us how you really feel!