SMJLED vs. SMJLED2

Is this bulb: http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1768

as bright as this one: http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?products_id=853

The 2nd one states:
The new SMJLED2 PR bulb has a boost converter and is brighter than the former 4-die SMJLED.

I have the lighthound one in a cheap plastic 2AA light & it's good for basic indoor tasks, looking in closets, etc.

Is the 2nd one a lot brighter?

john2551 said:

The 2nd one states:
The new SMJLED2 PR bulb has a boost converter and is brighter than the former 4-die SMJLED.

Click to expand...

The former 4 die SMJLED referred to is the raw LED that people plugs into the minimag. It is NOT the PR bulb at lighthound.
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_52_82&products_id=754

john2551 said:

Is this bulb: http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1768

as bright as this one: http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?products_id=853

I have the lighthound one in a cheap plastic 2AA light & it's good for basic indoor tasks, looking in closets, etc.

Is the 2nd one a lot brighter?

Click to expand...

No. It is brighter than the raw LED but not the Lighthound PR bulb.

Note these are 1/2 watt LEDs and cannot compare with the 1 or 3 watt LEDs in brightness let alone a Cree XRE or Soeul SSC or Lumiled Rebel.

For my money I'd browse through the review/LED forums for the more reliable inexpensive Cree/SSC/rebel lights. You can get very bright AA or AAA torches for under $20, some under $15.
The MTE 1xAA SSC-P4 42180-U has replased the Dorcy 2AA GEL BRITE with SMJLED PR (Lighthound version) as my bedside light.

The LED only SMJLED is good when you have incan minimags lying around not used. It's about the same brightness as stock incan bulb, but runs for 30 something hours.

Thanks, I already know about the inexpensive DX & Kai lights. I just wanted some bulbs, decent & inexpensive, for a few plastic generic lights. I don't need Cree level brightness for these. I already have the SMJLED from LightHound & just wanted to know if the SMJLED2 was brighter.

When I spoke with arcmania he said the smjled2 are 3-4 lumens brighter.

That's not much of a difference. I don't think the naked eye could tell a 3 lumens difference.

Identical hosts and batteries. The one on the left is the original 4-die smjled pr2 drop in module. The one on the right is the new single die smjled2 pr2 drop in from lighthound.

The old version is still the brightest 5mm pr2 drop in.
The old version drains batteries below .08 volts and still produces light (from D-cells) after 13 days.
The new version stops working at about 1 volt and draws more amps to produce less light.
new one : 100.3ma
old one : 83.9ma

WOW! That is a big difference. But Sandwich Shoppe says they have the SMJLED2 & LightHound says they have the SMJLED. Are you getting the 2 confused. Mine is from LightHound but it is very white like the one on the left side of the pic. Now i'm confused.

The LEDs in the 1st batch from Sandwich Shoppe were overdriven and burning out after about 50 hours. Later batches have the drive current reduced.

Lighthound used to sell the 4 die version. Then 1 CPF member got the 1 die version. (Lighthound sent him 1 of each kind, that is how he found out). Lighthound claims he only sold the 4 die version.

Here is the thread on the original SMJLED2 PR2 bulb:
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/128801

I have the version from LightHound but it is very white, not greenish like in the pic.
So the one on the left side in the pic is no longer available? So the later batches won't be as bright? I ordered a Terralux TLE-1F to compare & i'll also buy a Dorcy 1 watt module to compare also.

John, did you make those comparisons yet?
We're having a flurry of PR-bulb threads lately, I mistakenly started a redundant one a week or so ago but it now points to a summary thread listing all the PR bulbs available. I'll try to come back with a link to that summary.

I just got a couple of Dorcy "1.5 volt to 8 volt" PR bulbs figuring safe to drop into anything up to a 5-cell light, and be able to put in either alkaline or NiCd/NiMH -- good for the emergency bin lights.

Note Dorcy's web page shows a side-emitter (LED wider at the tip with a narrow collar); the actual bulb received has the same part number on the blister pack, but is a dome-shaped lens over a small square yellow emitter. It makes a very round blue white spot with almost no side throw, in a M@g or in one of the old Dorcy Turtle-like 4xaa lights.

_

I have both, the older 4 die version is a better bulb all round,

can we still buy the older 4 die version?
i'll take one for a minimag emergency light!

hank said:

John, did you make those comparisons yet?
We're having a flurry of PR-bulb threads lately, I mistakenly started a redundant one a week or so ago but it now points to a summary thread listing all the PR bulbs available. I'll try to come back with a link to that summary.

I just got a couple of Dorcy "1.5 volt to 8 volt" PR bulbs figuring safe to drop into anything up to a 5-cell light, and be able to put in either alkaline or NiCd/NiMH -- good for the emergency bin lights.

Note Dorcy's web page shows a side-emitter (LED wider at the tip with a narrow collar); the actual bulb received has the same part number on the blister pack, but is a dome-shaped lens over a small square yellow emitter. It makes a very round blue white spot with almost no side throw, in a M@g or in one of the old Dorcy Turtle-like 4xaa lights.

Click to expand...

Hank,

Sorry i've been busy lately. I did compare them all. The dorcy died after a few weeks. The dorcy had a wierd incan 4000k temp. tint. The color looked incan. not LED. It was the brightest but got the hottest & burned itself up. I put it in a 4D light & would shut off after a few minutes. It was BURNING hot! I then used it in a 2AA & would still get hot after a while. It finally gave up the ghost after a few weeks. I'm going to contact Dorcy & will advise how it goes. On the other hand the Terralux is the 2nd brightest, very white, perfect regulation, very bright with almost dead batteries, works just as good in a 2AA as well as a 4D. The TLE-1F is brighter than the SMJLED with better regulation. The SMJLED is good for a 2 cell only which limits it's applications but is very good for long power outages because it dims gradually over time. The TLE-1F stays bright until it shuts off. Hope this helps.

Hank,

I forgot to mention that i also got the one with the dome-shaped lens over a small square yellow emitter. Also it has exposed wires!! A blue exposed wire on one side & a yellow exposed wire on the other side. Does yours have exposed wires????

jasonsmaglites said:

can we still buy the older 4 die version?
i'll take one for a minimag emergency light!

Click to expand...

AFAIK there is only one minimag boosted version. These are the same. I believe the LED is 5 die SMJLED2. Comes with replacement reflector. This is the only version that works with NiMH batteries. Also brighter than the other versions below.
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_52_82&products_id=940
http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=2542

It is the PR base bulb version that is causing all the confusion.
SMJLED2 PR (Lambda & early Lighthound***) 4 die SMJLED
http://home.mchsi.com/~lambda_lights/pr2bulb.htm
SS PR (Shoppe) single big die - Cree claimed but very yellow tint.
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_52_82&products_id=853
WPR (BST a couple of years back) Unknown

If you want just the raw LED (you need CONDITIONED Energizer e2 L91/L92 lithium batteries)
MJLED uncut (1 die 100mA rated)
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_52_24&products_id=578
MJLED cut (1 die)
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_52_82&products_id=568
http://home.mchsi.com/~lambda2/mjled2.htm
SMJLED uncut (4 die)
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_52_82&products_id=754
SMJLED cut (4 die)
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_52_82&products_id=755
http://home.mchsi.com/~lambda_lights/smjled.htm

***
There are 2 possibilities:
1) Lighthound changed suppliers.
2) A naughty boy bought one from each supplier and returned the one he did not like to Lighthound who unknowingly resold it to carbine15. I have seen posts of people who will buy 3 lights and return the ones he did not like. I will have to get another one from Lighthound to see if he is still selling the real ARCmania 4 die version.

John2551, re the Dorcy, yes, mine also has the wires showing.
Closeup here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wossname/2172603544/

EDIT -- I see you reported Dorcys dying fairly fast here:
http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showpost.php?p=2244510&postcount=63

Same one? These have yellow and blue wires; the LED is on a metal slug that's trapped in a slotted cylinder, and the wires go through the slots, you can look right through there. Some air circulation across the back of the slug I guess, maybe.
Did Dorcy respond and replace the ones you had die?

I put one in a 5D light and the other in a 4D light, both work just fine, making a nice long-throw spot.
EDIT, this also works fine in a 1xD using a NiCD cell and gives a decently bright light. It's an old Eveready

There's a chart on the card for the Dorcy "41-1642"
cell------V-----FromSource-mA-----PowerConsumption----ThroughLED-mA----estimated flux lumens
one----1.5---------490-------------------.735-------------------164--------------24
two----3.0...........410-------------------1.23-------------------285--------------37
three--4.5---------340-------------------1.53-------------------350--------------45
four---6.0---------280-------------------1.68-------------------380--------------47
five---8.0---------230-------------------1.84-------------------400--------------50

One of the two I got is noticeably yellower, the other more blue, almost pink (not the 'angry' blue-violet) and that's the LED not hte voltage; I swapped them between the 4-D and 5-D lights

EDIT -- I notice at an older thread that TrueBlue had a 'warm' and a 'cool' PR2 dropin. Are others also found with this difference? Personally I like the warmer ones.

Not bad if these hold up in use, for no-brainer any-battery loaner lights for emergency use, so I don't have any worry about people exhausting my NiCD cells and using alkalines in an emergency.

I am curious how these compare to the (many) other PR bulbs out there in real use, but good enough for now, they got my last two incandescent M@gs, 4xD and 5xD lights into the usable bucket for $12 apiece, and I've got lightweight NiCD D cells (I'm sure they're AAs in a big case) that hold charge tolerably well in them for intermittent use, and alkalines in the emergency bin.

For the 2-cell lights I like the Shoppe's PR2 deal much better:
http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?products_id=924



> CONDITIONED
found it explained in yet another thread about these:

SMJLED confusion explained - CandlePowerForums
Conditioned lithium batteries are Energizer e2 L91/L92 batteries that have been used in another device for a few minutes to bring the voltage down from 1.8V ...
www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=128865