alphabet soup LED help

Hi all. Im new here, been reading off and on for a few months
looking at different stuff.

If this has been posted I appologize but quite honestly the search feature on any of these sites is all but useless when you dont know how to ask the question.

Anyway, Ive been looking at these different led types but the alphabet soup means NOTHING and I cant find anything that says this is what this one does vs the other....

Im Talking about CREE this and that and so many different R2, Q5, Cree XP-G, CREE XPG, CREE MC-E

then you have BIN this and that.....

Is there ONE post or place I can go to get some idea what all that means?

Id like to understand what im reading.

Im looking to build a couple weapon lights fom my M4. I want one
for throw and the other for flood. I was planning on using Solarforce hosts and was looking at the different drop ins but SHEESH.

BTW I currently own 6 surefires, 6p, 6z, 2 E2s and 2 M2s all are Icans and I am planning on switching them all over to LEDS with Rechargeable batts in the future but I would like to know what im buying before I do.

TIA

Great forum BTW

Larry

:welcome:

Yes, it can be quite confusing to start with.

The most commonly discussed LEDs on here are indeed manufactured by Cree although Surefire is one of the brands that use other makes of LEDs.

For Cree LEDs a good place to start would be the horse's mouth:

http://www.cree.com/

You can download the data sheets from there.

Welcome to CPF, 45Shooter.

LED emitters and their characteristics are discussed in more detail in the LED section (rather than the LED Flashlights section) so I'm moving your thread there.

its worse when you start looking at current requirements and lens vs reflector's


You might look at the Luminus site and the SST-50 or SST-90 for floods

OK guys thanks alot

Moonshadow thanks that tells me that I am way over my head with info....Bin types, different models and then different Manufactures this is worse than trying to figure out what motherboard and CPU unit to use.... no thanks ......Ill just ask what I need in the LED forum and go with that.

DM51 sorry about posting in the wrong place....

thanks again

Larry

Have a read of the Welcome mat.
:welcome:

XR-E was the first commonly used Cree emitter. It is slowly getting phased out because newer models are more efficient and smaller. The most current version of the XR-E comes in R2 bin, which is slowly becoming outdated (as R5's are common with XP-G now). People at first had a very hard time making good reflectors for the XR-E but seem to have it down to a science now. Also, Cree provided TIR (total internal reflection, like a prism) lenses for the XR-E which were popular for some uses.

XP-E is a smaller version of the XR-E. It has the smallest die of the three most commonly used Cree LEDs making it easier to make throwy reflectors for it.

XP-G is the most recent model of LED from Cree for common lights and it is the same size package as the XP-E but it has a larger die for higher efficiency. It's harder to make a throwy light based on the XP-G but not impossible.

The die is what creates the light inside an LED but the whole LED is a package of a die, a phosphor coat, and a lens, along with other mundane things.

The MC-E is a 4-die LED, and is capable of some very high outputs, although somewhat superceded by the Luminus SST's which are capable of even higher outputs. Still, the MC-E is quite desirable because it's far cheaper and still inccredibly poweful.

Luminous Devices is new on the scene with their PhlatLight SST's. The SST50 and 90 are similar, except that the 90 is a larger package and capable of a higher input wattage. They are used mostly in extremely high output lights (1000+ lumens) and are also insanely expensive per individual LED (compared to Cree, Seoul, Lumileds).

Seoul Semi Conductor (SSC) is another popular LED manufacturer. They use the same dies as Cree does (they buy them from Cree) but use a different phosophor and come in a different, somewhat less robust package. A lot of people prefer them due to their higher CRI and more similar beam characteristics to the older Luxeons that defined the power LED as we know it. The P4 and P7 are the most common LEDs, with the P4 being roughly comparable to the XR-E or Luxeon III, and the P7 being most similar to the MC-E or Luxeon V.

Anyone who tries to characterize the beam shapes of LED's in flashlights is making sweeping generalizations. It all depends on the reflectors or lenses being used.

Carrot

THANK YOU :thumbsup:

so basically when you pick a drop in or even a light its less because of what LED its running than it is what the company (assuming a respected company) says about it or what people are saying about it here.

nothing complicated about this is there.

ok so on the reflector the OP is better for throw and the smooth is more for flood? or is that too general too.... OR I could have that backwards
IM SO CONFUSED

thanks again everyone

Larry