U-bin Lux IIIs

Hello all

I just ordered some UX1Ks from the sandwich shoppe- at 23 US bucks a piece these seem like a bargain to me.

These should indeed be very nice, but you should have realistic expectations. You might get a LIII which is barelly "U" and therefore would not be much brighter than a good "T" bin. This is what's called the Luxeon lottery - you really don't know what you will get within that BIN.

Folks here have reported that from the same bin they have seen 20% or more variation in terms of light output - that is a lot!

What light/project are you going to use yours into?

Will

hmm, may have to get one for a Q-III but it almost seems like overkill to but that nice of a lux into that light. I'll have to ponder it.

Thomas

The T bins with 'J' voltage put out as much as the U bins with 'K' voltage. (Using an R123)

Now if you can get the U bins with 'J' voltage, thats another story.

Jeff

wquiles- yes I know there is overlap- I might be lucky and get a high-output U-bin!!! By the looks of some recent posts by Newbie there would seem to be pressure on Luxeon to bin more tightly- this is only a guess

I really like my Longbow Micra so my plan is to put the Ubin on a McCapsule at 1000mA
I'll let you know how it goes
xpxbx-
do you mean when used in direct drive?

I measured mine with my Q-III. Either way, K bins are not as overdriven as the J bins with an R123. Direct drive may produce similar results.

Jeff

Ahhh, the difference between the cpf optimist and the pessimist; the pessimist says the emitter will be low and the optimists says the emitter can be high. Both are right.

Sure, the U-bin emitter could be low but it would be slightly better than the highest T bin emitter and you win the brightness lottery. You could say the U-bin emitter is a super premium T-bin or a T-bin plus with attitude. That is nice to know. With odds in the U-bin favor the emitter could be in the medium range of the U-bin brightness and you would have a superior T-bin emitter. Finally you could have a majestic U-bin and have an emitter that would just shame any, lowly or premium, T-bin.

To me a lot of people seem to think the T-bin emitters are all premium. That is not true. The T-bin emitters go through the same Luxeon Lottery the other bins go though. The bad news of owners of T-bin do not want to hears is that they could have a lower T-bin. People do not want to hear that. We could call a lowly T-bin the same as a superior S-bin…right? Again, people do not like to hear that. The same Lottery works for U-bin emitters too. The guarantee of getting the brightest T-bin emitter is to get a U-bin emitter.

I haven't tried any UX1K emitters yet to see if they are premium output. They sound like something worth trying. I have managed to try some UX1J emitters and all I can say is I'm an optimist at to the brightness of the U-bin emitters! All the U-bin emitters I've tried are brighter than the T-bins.

To beat a dead horse; I'm sure you've seen this picture before.

Hey, Billy would you mind doing a max lux reading of those two MiniMags.
To finally bring us one step closer to the ...

MiniMags? Don't you mean the KI light?

Yes please max lux reading of you can

I'm getting a UX1J and UX1L and would like to know cpfer's opinion what the best output to drive these luxeons at to get max brightness using R123's

@TrueBlue, May I ask why 550mA for the TWOH and 600mA for the UX1J?

Using a homemade light intregrating box and comparing the stock 550mA TW0H converter with the boosted 600mA UX1J converter I get a reading of 8% brighter with the UX1J. That is nice. For only 50mA more power and a U-bin emitter an 8% increase in light is good. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

From The Last Samurai mod:

"The stock #107 light with the ARCMania SCIII converter and a TW0H emitter with a rechargeable CR2 cell put out a respectable 930 lux at one meter. The light with reflector has an intense hot spot with a decent spill light. With the new converter and UH1J emitter The Last Samurai lux reading jumped to 1350 lux. That is a very noticeable increase of light. 45 percent more light for 50mA more current and a UX1J emitter. The Last Samurai is brighter and the beam is a nice frosty white."

THE LAST SAMURAI has more information.

It's really closer to a twenty percent increase (which is still good).

[ QUOTE ]

Using a homemade light intregrating box and comparing the stock 550mA TW0H converter with the boosted 600mA UX1J converter I get a reading of 8% brighter with the UX1J. That is nice. For only 50mA more power and a U-bin emitter an 8% increase in light is good.


[/ QUOTE ]

So you got an 8% increase in output from a 9% increase in current. Sounds like the two were pretty much identical to me.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/popcorn.gif

I assume bottom-of-bin brightness when looking at Luxeon binning for a simple reason - flux is binned at a die temp of 25C, which doesn't without active cooling, a feature notably absent in every portable lighting device I've ever used. Pile on some real-world heat and the charts indicate that relative output drops.