Q5 XR-E on Star, okay to de-solder?

Just found the Q5-WG for $10.5 listed on the DX site.

Since it's already soldered on Star MCPCB, will it be damaged if I de-solder it on the BBQ hot plate?

I dropped my Lumapower M1 by accident and the glass dome on XR-E was separated. :mecry: M1 use another smaller type MCPCB, and this Star MCPCB won't fit. I don't know if it's okay to de-solder and solder it again? (solder twice)

Thanks.

i don't think anything bad will happen.

if you are willing, you could sand/file down the edges till it fits perfectly.

safer then de-soldering.

I just looked again and here's the engine:


I think I could just file a small bit and press into it.

Thanks.

I'm going to have to agree with another CPF dealer on this one. Unless DealExtreme shows a picture of the bin labelling, I'm not going to buy it. A single WG tint Q5 bin from Cutter is $28.61 shipped including "CPF1" discount ($29.75 without discount). I can't imagine that DX can get them for $7-$8 each to sell them this cheap. They may have just found info that the Q5 was out and indicated as such.

Until someone does a side-by-side comparison to a known Q5...I won't believe that it is true. Be careful what you order.

wintermute said:

I'm going to have to agree with another CPF dealer on this one. Unless DealExtreme shows a picture of the bin labelling, I'm not going to buy it. A single WG tint Q5 bin from Cutter is $28.61 shipped including "CPF1" discount ($29.75 without discount). I can't imagine that DX can get them for $7-$8 each to sell them this cheap. They may have just found info that the Q5 was out and indicated as such.

Until someone does a side-by-side comparison to a known Q5...I won't believe that it is true. Be careful what you order.

Click to expand...

Cree has announced that they are shipping Q5 bin leds in volume. I think that after recent improvements Cree has made the Q4 and Q5 bin leds are now or in very near future just as common as P3 and P4 bins have been until now.

When Kai was selling Cree P3/P4 mixed batches - they indicated as such. They also said that DX was getting the same batches - just telling everyone they were P4.

If they really have the Q5s - they need to take a pic of the bin label on the spool and post it.

I sure hope its Q5 bin. that'll be great news for everyone of us who's held out spending close to 30 dollars on one. I hope someone can prove without a doubt if its Q5 or not.

wintermute said:

.... I can't imagine that DX can get them for $7-$8 each to sell them this cheap....

Click to expand...

Actually, this IS the sort of price Cree XREs are sold for wholsale.

Other dealers may well have paid a premium for Q5s a few weeks ago, and are now regretting it...

In Poland, about 6 month ago, our distributor was selling P3 stars for 6,5$ at the same time the lowest price in other EU countries was 11-12$ (at the same time in my city Lediko claimed 14$ each). So Cree is giving huge part of final price to local distributors I think...

kakster said:

Actually, this IS the sort of price Cree XREs are sold for wholsale.

Other dealers may well have paid a premium for Q5s a few weeks ago, and are now regretting it...

Click to expand...

We'll see what happens. There's more info that's out there that hasn't surfaced yet...so we'll see.

But they have to sell them at a profit...plus pay for shipping...all for $10. Like I have already said, until I see a picture of the bin label on the spool (should be very easy to take) or a side by side comparison by someone here - I will be hesitant.

is there a seoul equivalent using the Q5 as a base yet ?

mountainpenguin said:

is there a seoul equivalent using the Q5 as a base yet ?

Click to expand...

The increase in output from P4 to Q5 may not in fact be due to changes in the blue die (that the Seoul is based on) but improvements in the phosphor efficiency and packaging. If that is the reason for the improvement there is no reason the Seoul would automatically improve -- as the Seoul already has a more efficient (but unfortunately significantly less durable) packaging. If it is related to improvements in quality of the blue die, then that should lead to comparable boosts in Seoul performance.

Either way though, manufacturers don't explicitly try to make Q5, or P4, or whatever bins, they usually just try to make their LEDs as efficient as possible, and due to random variatons, some end up being better than others. After they are made, the LEDs are sorted into bins by performance. For example, right now it looks like the only color bin available in Q5 is WG. Cree probably just recently some huge batch of emitters that all happened to have similar color (WG) and efficiency (Q5).

As for the DX emitters, I will probably buy some simply because I know the color bin is decent -- IMO that is actually more important to me than the flux bins as minor increases in brightness usually aren't highly noticeable, but variations in color certainly are.

mountainpenguin said:

is there a seoul equivalent using the Q5 as a base yet ?

Click to expand...

Theoretical numbers:

SSC U-bin:
min @350mA: 91lm - @750mA: 164lm - @1000mA: 200lm
max @350mA: 118lm - @750mA: 213lm - @1000mA: 260lm

Cree Q5 bin:
min @350mA: 107lm - @750mA: 193lm - @1000mA: 235lm
max @350mA: 114lm - @750mA: 205lm - @1000mA: 250lm

In short - yes, sort of...you could get a SSC which performs less...then again, you could get a SSC which performs more. With the Crees, the bin numbers are closer - so you can more accurately plan what you're going to get. @350mA, the SSC can vary by 27 lumens, the Cree will only vary by 7 lumens.

wintermute said:

I'm going to have to agree with another CPF dealer on this one. Unless DealExtreme shows a picture of the bin labelling, I'm not going to buy it. A single WG tint Q5 bin from Cutter is $28.61 shipped including "CPF1" discount ($29.75 without discount). I can't imagine that DX can get them for $7-$8 each to sell them this cheap. They may have just found info that the Q5 was out and indicated as such.

Until someone does a side-by-side comparison to a known Q5...I won't believe that it is true. Be careful what you order.

Click to expand...

DX doesn't seem like the price gouging type.

wintermute said:

Theoretical numbers:

SSC U-bin:
min @350mA: 91lm - @750mA: 164lm - @1000mA: 200lm
max @350mA: 118lm - @750mA: 213lm - @1000mA: 260lm

Cree Q5 bin:
min @350mA: 107lm - @750mA: 193lm - @1000mA: 235lm
max @350mA: 114lm - @750mA: 205lm - @1000mA: 250lm

In short - yes, sort of...you could get a SSC which performs less...then again, you could get a SSC which performs more. With the Crees, the bin numbers are closer - so you can more accurately plan what you're going to get. @350mA, the SSC can vary by 27 lumens, the Cree will only vary by 7 lumens.

Click to expand...

thanks a lot for explaining this, I didn't even see it this way before. :twothumbs


"DX doesn't seem like the price gouging type."

Chevrofreak, I ordered a one because you make good point, I'd think they have more to lose if they did that.

wintermute said:

I'm going to have to agree with another CPF dealer on this one. Unless DealExtreme shows a picture of the bin labelling, I'm not going to buy it. A single WG tint Q5 bin from Cutter is $28.61 shipped including "CPF1" discount ($29.75 without discount). I can't imagine that DX can get them for $7-$8 each to sell them this cheap. They may have just found info that the Q5 was out and indicated as such.

Until someone does a side-by-side comparison to a known Q5...I won't believe that it is true. Be careful what you order.

Click to expand...

Although, I understand your scepticism, if you look at the difference between
Cutter's price for the Q4 and Q5, its absoloutely enormous even though there
is only a marginal difference in output.

I think if Cutter can afford to sell the Q4 for so much less than the Q5, it
tells you far more about what Cutter is charging for the Q5 than DealExtreme.

So DealExtreme is not undercutting Cutter , rather Cutter is exploiting the
unfeasible desire amongst us to have the latest immediately.

At least that's how it seems to me.

In any case, since DealExtreme is now an authorised Dealer for CPF, we can
ask them directly and they would be taking an enormous risk if they were
not being truthful.

If you file the star, make sure to test with a DMM to see if the contacts arent shorted out. Sometimes that can happen if you are filing/griding and a solder pad or trace gets pushed into the aluminum burs.

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/169064

I'm not certain that the Q5 bins are even available yet. Do what you wish - I look forward to seeing how they perform. Don't think that I am anti-DX. I just ordered a cheap light yesterday...just being weary.

I wouldn't read anything into Cree's roadmap. They have never stuck
to the timings in the past and it is no surprise that they haven't now either.

The nature of improvements in led efficiency is not very predictable time-wise -
it happens when it happens.

This can be earlier or later than expected.

It won't be difficult for anyone to measure the output of the Q5s on sale
compared to the Q4s/Q2s etc.

I really don't think there's anything underhand going on here.

Eh, for the most part I've had good results with DX. I wouldn't peg Kyle to be the shifty type. I've also been told by a US LED dealer that the guys in Asia seem to have a MUCH EASIER time getting emitters from Cree and SSC than he does here. So it never surprises me that Asia get the new emiters fast and cheap. Personally I can't understand why the US reps for these companies are more difficult to deal with, but apparently they feel that there's a bigger market for their LEDs in Asia.