Question about the SSC P7 LED?

How come some SSC P7 lights are rated 580 lumens and others are rated up to 900 lumens? Is the just market bluff or are there P7's that are brighter than others?

Thanks

Scott

They are binned just like any other LED. The P7 uses A, B, and C bins, with B and C being the two you commonly see. IIRC, 580-700 is B, 700-900 is C

Cool thanks

Are there any high end C-bin P7's... I know DX and KD have alot of cheaper ones but do you know of any higher end ones? (around $75-150$)

Some lights are rated at 580 lumens not because of different bin but lower current. P7 in WE flashlights is driven @ 2,4A which gives about 580 lm, @2,8A it will be about 750lm. 900 lumens - theoretically possible for this emitter, but not now...

It can also depend upon how honest the flashlight manufacturer and retailers are. While an LED may produce 800 lumens (when driven at the appropriate current as stated above) not all of those lumens actually make it out the window of the light to where they are useful. This is called emitter lumens vs. torch lumens.
Many still lie and list the maximum potential lumen output of the LED on the packaging of a light that won't ever reach anything near the theoretical maximum. Marketing :thumbsdow

I just tested the Mac P7, which runs 2800 mA on high setting (single AW protected C-LiIon). My sphere showed 782 lumens out the front, and it reads a bit lower than commercial spheres. Probably 810-820 lumens in a commercial IS.

The most limiting factor in power LEDs is thermal management. Mac uses a custom-built heat sink to transfer emitter heat away from the die (actually 4 dies), so the heat spreads quickly to the batt tube and reflector head. After a couple of minutes on the high setting, the head is beginning to feel warm, showing that the heat sink is working as it should.

As phantom23 said, you need 2800 mA to reach full potential in the P7. That pretty much means nothing smaller than one C-LiIon. Two C-cells, or two D-cells would give longer runtime but would not give greater lumen output.

I think 3A shouldn't be a problem for good 18650.

"LEDninja" was arguing with me that P7 has no more than 750 lumens...

I think 3A shouldn't be a problem for good 18650.

Click to expand...

AW says that his 18650's are 2200 mAH (http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=180449)

I'm not sure of the time vs current curve on the 18650, but figuring that 2200 mA gives one hour runtime, 3000 mA will probably reduce that to half an hour. That's a lot of juice to pull from a smaller cell.

LEDninja was arguing with me that P7 has no more than 750 lumens

Click to expand...

You get used to using one light quite a bit, a 6P + M60 in my case, and 200-250L seems bright at first. After using it for a few months, it no longer seems unusual. Then replace it with a P7 with roughly 4x the output ... it may take some time to get used to that:devil:

precisionworks said:

AW says that his 18650's are 2200 mAH (http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=180449)

I'm not sure of the time vs current curve on the 18650, but figuring that 2200 mA gives one hour runtime, 3000 mA will probably reduce that to half an hour. That's a lot of juice to pull from a smaller cell.

Click to expand...

Yes but safe current from Li-Ion is 1,5-2C (different sources). Even 1,5C means 3,3A from AW 18650 or 3,6A from Trustfire.

SSC caused a lot of confusion and arguments (especially between phantom23 and myself) as they keep changing the specs of the SSC P7

Old spec
B-bin 5xx to 740 lumens @ 2.8A
C bin 740-900 lumens @ 2.8A
New spec
C bin 700-800 lumens @ 2.8A
D bin 800-1100 lumens @ 2.8A

SSC is shipping new spec LEDs as D bins are now available from photonFanatic.
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=182492
But old spec B bins are still available
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11809
and if you see C bin there is no clue if it is old spec or new spec.

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Old spec
C bin 740-900 lumens @ 2.8A
1) Some optimistic flashlight manufacturers simply use the biggest # they see - 900 lumens.
2) Wolf-eyes figure their lights are only running at 2.1-2.2A and not all P7s are 900 lumens so de-rate to 580 lumens at the LED.
3) Surefire gives #s for light out the front (as measured, not guessed) and only claim 400 lumens for the UB2.

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BTW
fire-stick there is something wrong with your latest thread (will there be a 3xSSC-P7?).

1) The smallest reflector that will work with a P7 seem to be 27mm. 3 of them won't fit into a M@glite head.
2) The M@glite switch can only handle 5 or 6A. 3xP7 in parallel requires 8.4A plus a safety reserve.
3) 3xP7 in series requires 10.8V such as 9x C or D batteries. The biggest M@glite is 6 cell.
It is possible for some custom 3xP7 lights to be built, but I would not expect production lights.

That being said a 4xP7 light is available from Elektrolumens run in 2S2P configuration. 6D NiMH or 2D Li-on.
Elektrolumens Wall-of-Fire.
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=179644