R2K turn sour

Hi all,

Last year I bought 5 Luxeon R2K. Picked two, the lowest vf and whitest tint(to my eyes) and proceed to put them in to my KL1 and KL3. The output tint looks *exactly* the same to me(my eyes) after the transplant. I was very happy with the bright hotspot and great spills. Both R2K in the KL1 and KL3 are stock driven. I did not do any modifications to the boost circuit but I made sure that there is good thermal path between the slug and the head.

I EDC the KL1 most of the time, KL3 sits on the cupboard waiting for a body to host it. The E2c adaptor arrived but KL3 on an E2e body look kinda bigheaded to me so stashed away while the KL1 worked like a tired horse all the time.

I use it for everything. After a year or so, I find that the output tint is warm compared to my ARC4+. I thought the ARC4+ has extreme premium bin however the KL3 shows the truth. The rest of the 3 unused R2K are also whiter.

So is my Luxeon at end of it's life? Come to think of it, hardly.. 24hours x 365days = 8760hours. It's rated 100,000hours isn't it?

Vince.

Luxeon5 white (portable) has a rated life of 500 hours.
With a good thermal path and no overdrive, these may go longer than that.

R2K is a Luxeon 1 bin.

I think it's more likely that your eyes are playing tricks on you. One lux (any bin) will appear to be white until you start comparing them back to back with other luxeons. Also, beam dispersion makes a difference, the more intense the hotspot, the whiter it will appear. You didnt mention how the remaining 3 R2Ks were rigged up when you compared them. If they were bare, they will look whiter. It's only when you get the emitter behind some optics that the true tint becomes visible.

It's highly unlikely that the luxeons have actually shifted in tint after only a year, but i guess it's not impossible. They may have come from a bad batch or something.

If you had compared it to the ARC 4+ when you originally bought it and not noticed the shift you now describe I would say it has indeed "gone sour". If you had not compared it then and are only comparing it now I would agree with Kakster.

Brightnorm

All 5 R2K are tested with NX05 optics with the exception of KL1 and KL3 seperate power supply.

The R2K in KL1 matches the KL3 tint for quite a few months, I power them up frequently to compare. Yes I know ARC4+ is very white, whiter than any of my R2Ks.

Regarding the 'sour' R2K it's still very bright with intense hotspot except for the warm tint it's getting. The tint is a mix of purple plus yellow. The rest of the R2k are all white.