Got a care package in the mail...

OddOne · Sep 9, 2005

Called up the ETG folks and bugged 'em about some Cree LEDs...

Few days later, I got this:

Cree's latest creation, their 3W LEDs.

Initial impression: With 230mA of input these are brighter than the Luxeon IIIs I have when driven at the same current level.

Gotta get a driver or two and crank 'em!

More size references:

oO

DUQ · Sep 9, 2005

Ooooooooo Ahhhhhh!!!! Those look promising. Light 'em up and post some pics. Nice of them to send you some like that.

OddOne · Sep 9, 2005

Well, I did pay for 'em, so they'd better have sent some!

Anyway, pics and lightmeter readings will be forthcoming. Although the Carlco 2-degree optic doesn't QUITE fit right on a Cree (the dome's much smaller than a Luxeon's), the beam's a thing to behold...

oO

Kevin Tan · Sep 9, 2005

OT - Wats a care package? TQ

Nitroz · Sep 9, 2005

Kevin Tan said:
OT - Wats a care package? TQ

Anxiously awaiting the results. :drool:

If you don't mind me asking. What is the part number and the cost of these LEDs?

Trashman · Sep 10, 2005

Kevin Tan, a care package is a package meant to "take care of" someone. Example: Parents send "care packages" to their children who are off in college. Stuff like their favorite foods/snacks, clothing, etc... Another example: When somebody is sick, sad, or lonely, people send them "care packages", which is often just foods intended to lift the person up.

NotEnoughLight · Sep 10, 2005

So this is like food for the soul?

Kevin Tan · Sep 10, 2005

TQ Trashman, its it literally means wat it sez!! I thought its an acronym or a shortform or someting!!!

balazer · Sep 10, 2005

I'll be very curious to know how these things do with different optics. Polymer Optics make some not particularly tight-beamed (16 degrees) but very small optics for the XLamp - 13 x 11 mm. I could probably pack 3 or 4 Xlamps into a flashlight.

With all the good things I'm hearing about Cree's upcoming XLamps, I think I just might take a chance and use the XLamp 3 in my next project.

Anyone know where I can buy some XLamp 3s and know something about the bins I'm buying from? It would be nice to get something white, even if that means mixing 3 or 4 not-quite-white LEDs.

goldenlight · Sep 10, 2005

Trashman said:
Kevin Tan, a care package is a package meant to "take care of" someone. Example: Parents send "care packages" to their children who are off in college. Stuff like their favorite foods/snacks, clothing, etc... Another example: When somebody is sick, sad, or lonely, people send them "care packages", which is often just foods intended to lift the person up.

Actually, care packages were part of a program from a nonprofit charitable organization; like the Red Cross, but much smaller, and working in 3rd world countries. The packages would have food, clothing, medicine, etc. It really was C.A.R.E. packages, but I can't remeber what the acronym stood for. I haven't heard of the formal organization for decades, so I assume they're gone. But 'care packages' became part of the American lexicon as a result of this organization's honorable work.

Doug Owen · Sep 10, 2005

goldenlight said:
Actually, care packages were part of a program from a nonprofit charitable organization; like the Red Cross, but much smaller, and working in 3rd world countries. The packages would have food, clothing, medicine, etc. It really was C.A.R.E. packages, but I can't remeber what the acronym stood for. I haven't heard of the formal organization for decades, so I assume they're gone. But 'care packages' became part of the American lexicon as a result of this organization's honorable work.

Are you sure? My (Dust bowl Oakie) Grandmother used the term, I seriously doubt she picked it up in later life. As I understand it, the term has been around for some time, the acronym was just picked to match the term, not the other way about.

Something that predates sending one's laundry home from college.

I recall CARE when I was young, it's a cold war thing......

Doug

Doug Owen · Sep 10, 2005

So, I got curious about CARE (they're still here):

http://www.careusa.org/about/history.asp

It's a post war deal, aimed initially at Europe with surplus GI food packs intended for the invasion of Japan. It stood for "Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe." Now "Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, Inc."

Smacks of trying to fit the acronym to the (existing) name.....

Doug Owen

OddOne · Sep 10, 2005

Just ran some prelim underdriven brightness tests against a 1-watt Luxeon I had lying around. Had to measure lux at 6 inches since I tested with NO optics in a room with a base light level of 85 lux.

1w Luxeon @ 225 mA - 350 lux @ 6 in.
3w Cree @ 225 mA - 450 lux @ 6 in.

And I also did one full-power test by feeding it directly off a 5VDC 1A switcher:
3w Cree @ 800 mA - 1,150 lux @ 6 in.

The #s don't really mean anything in the real world since there's no focusing at all and the distance is totally wrong, but it does convey an impression of the comparative differences. At 225mA, the Cree is WAY brighter to the eye than the Luxeon. (Bear in mind, however, this is an older Luxeon - the latest bins will probably be closer to 400 in the same test.)

To answer Balazer's question, the specsheet for binning the 3w Crees can be found here. Mine are 3XL7090CW-L100-WD-P-003: 73-80 lm @ 700mA. The hottest ones will end in Q-00x - the Q-004s will kick out over 100 lm.

Price from ETG is $9 per LED, and minimum order's 10 pieces. Not much to look at for the price, until you power one up!

oO

balazer · Sep 10, 2005

Thanks, OddOne. I'm just wondering if ETG or anyone else will sell the XLamp 3 and give you a choice of bins.

NewBie · Sep 10, 2005

OddOne said:
Just ran some prelim underdriven brightness tests against a 1-watt Luxeon I had lying around. Had to measure lux at 6 inches since I tested with NO optics in a room with a base light level of 85 lux.

1w Luxeon @ 225 mA - 350 lux @ 6 in.
3w Cree @ 225 mA - 450 lux @ 6 in.

And I also did one full-power test by feeding it directly off a 5VDC 1A switcher:
3w Cree @ 800 mA - 1,150 lux @ 6 in.

The #s don't really mean anything in the real world since there's no focusing at all and the distance is totally wrong, but it does convey an impression of the comparative differences. At 225mA, the Cree is WAY brighter to the eye than the Luxeon. (Bear in mind, however, this is an older Luxeon - the latest bins will probably be closer to 400 in the same test.)

To answer Balazer's question, the specsheet for binning the 3w Crees can be found here. Mine are 3XL7090CW-L100-WD-P-003: 73-80 lm @ 700mA. The hottest ones will end in Q-00x - the Q-004s will kick out over 100 lm.

Price from ETG is $9 per LED, and minimum order's 10 pieces. Not much to look at for the price, until you power one up!

oO

They sound really nice.

Hopefully someone gets a group buy going to greatly lower the price.

Nitroz · Sep 10, 2005

OddOne said:
Price from ETG is $9 per LED, and minimum order's 10 pieces. Not much to look at for the price, until you power one up!

oO

Thanks OddOne for the information. I can't wait until the competition heats up between LED makers as I am getting bored using the same LEDs for mods. I need something brighter without using multiple LEDs. :broke:

IsaacHayes · Sep 10, 2005

Well, is the cree the same beam pattern/spread of the luxeon? Or does it have a tighter viewing angle? That could influence lux readings... My only concern with new LEDs like these is A) focusing is a pain (no optic/reflectors fit, or do not get tight beam), and B) the phosphur is just dumped everywhere.

How is the color conformity on these?

OddOne · Sep 10, 2005

From what I can tell, color uniformity seemed pretty good. There's no outline of internals like there would be if it's directly coated, but the entire visible surface is uniformly yellow, which makes me think the phosphor layer is actually up off the die or dice, perhaps deposited on the back side of the lens?

Beam angle seems to be about 120 degrees, which is close enough to Luxeons to make most optics work. Thedome height is not quite as much in terms of how much of a sphere pokes out, which explains the beam angle difference. The only issue I've seen thus far with using Luxeon optics relates to the size difference of the lenses of Xlamp vs. Luxeon, and I'm sure someone could come up with a little lens condom to allow using Lux optics with Xlamps directly, or simply mount them off-lens with a little more precise/fixed mounting.

Don't think I'd expect the price to come down much for a while on these - they're pretty well-engineered from what I can see. The base is cermamic, and they're very obviously intended for reflow soldering operations only, which is typical for SOICs/SMDs. The top plate looks to be aluminum, and the lens is whatever the hell you'd use for a LED lens, hehehe...

I'm debating locating a small chunk of 3/4" dia. copper bar stock and turning some Luxeon-esque "coin" style premounts for these on my lathe. (Side note: Anyone got a small chunk of 3/4" copper round they could let me "borrow" a few inches of?

)

Thus far, I'm impressed. The light versus package size makes Luxeons look like bloated dinosaurs. And I'm not even able to power 'em up fully yet.

oO

Nitroz · Sep 10, 2005

OddOne said:
From what I can tell, color uniformity seemed pretty good. There's no outline of internals like there would be if it's directly coated, but the entire visible surface is uniformly yellow, which makes me think the phosphor layer is actually up off the die or dice, perhaps deposited on the back side of the lens?

I'm debating locating a small chunk of 3/4" dia. copper bar stock and turning some Luxeon-esque "coin" style premounts for these on my lathe. (Side note: Anyone got a small chunk of 3/4" copper round they could let me "borrow" a few inches of? )
oO

If I had some copper it would be yours. I would like to see some pics of a light once you can machine some heat sinks and put this in a light. :popcorn:

Nitroz · Sep 10, 2005

OddOne said:
From what I can tell, color uniformity seemed pretty good. There's no outline of internals like there would be if it's directly coated, but the entire visible surface is uniformly yellow, which makes me think the phosphor layer is actually up off the die or dice, perhaps deposited on the back side of the lens?

Beam angle seems to be about 120 degrees, which is close enough to Luxeons to make most optics work. Thedome height is not quite as much in terms of how much of a sphere pokes out, which explains the beam angle difference. The only issue I've seen thus far with using Luxeon optics relates to the size difference of the lenses of Xlamp vs. Luxeon, and I'm sure someone could come up with a little lens condom to allow using Lux optics with Xlamps directly, or simply mount them off-lens with a little more precise/fixed mounting.

Don't think I'd expect the price to come down much for a while on these - they're pretty well-engineered from what I can see. The base is cermamic, and they're very obviously intended for reflow soldering operations only, which is typical for SOICs/SMDs. The top plate looks to be aluminum, and the lens is whatever the hell you'd use for a LED lens, hehehe...

I'm debating locating a small chunk of 3/4" dia. copper bar stock and turning some Luxeon-esque "coin" style premounts for these on my lathe. (Side note: Anyone got a small chunk of 3/4" copper round they could let me "borrow" a few inches of? )

Thus far, I'm impressed. The light versus package size makes Luxeons look like bloated dinosaurs. And I'm not even able to power 'em up fully yet.

oO

Do you have any shots of the cree next to the luxeon on a wall? Do these have any of the nasty color tints that some luxeons have?(IE. Pee green or pink)

Got a care package in the mail...

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