U bin? T bin?? What? What does it all mean?

Ok, I see people use terms about the different LEDs like the type of "bin" it is. All of this is Greek to me, but I have started to realize that it relates to the tint and maybe the brightness. Where can I go to educate myself on this. Or could someone explain it to me.

What I really would like to know, is how do you just by look at a light what bin it is? If it's that obvious, why don't flashlight manufacturers just use the "best" bin? Is there a "best" bin?

WilsonCQB1911 said:

Ok, I see people use terms about the different LEDs like the type of "bin" it is. All of this is Greek to me, but I have started to realize that it relates to the tint and maybe the brightness. Where can I go to educate myself on this. Or could someone explain it to me.

What I really would like to know, is how do you just by look at a light what bin it is? If it's that obvious, why don't flashlight manufacturers just use the "best" bin? Is there a "best" bin?

Click to expand...

Here is a thread that can help:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/93124&highlight=bin+tint

RJM

Ummmm Now I know why you guys want U-Bins....
Thanks thats explain a lot to me.....

I saved this when I found it, I take no responsibility or credit for this...


Bin Codes Explained
Bin Coding is a method of describing the specifications of an LED in a short and simple manor.
The code consist of 4 parts: The flux rating, tint, Vf (forward voltage), and color.
Sometimes the color code will be left off. Leaving just a 3 part code.
--- 1W & 3W (colored) & 5W ---
Flux.......Min Lumens............Max Lumens
M................13.9...........................18.1
N................18.1........................... 23.5
P.................23.5.......................... 30.6
Q................30.6........................... 39.8
R.................39.8.......................... 51.7
S.................51.7...........................67.2
T.................67.2...........................87.4
U.................87.4..........................113.6
V................113.6.........................147.7
W...............147.7.........................192.0
X................192.0.........................249.6

--- 3W (white) ---
S.................60.0..........................67.2
T.................67.2..........................87.4
U.................87.4..........................113.6
V.................113.6........................147.7
W................147.7........................192.0
X.................192.0........................249.6

White Color Tint
1 quite green
2 yellowish
3 white
4 bluish
5 purplish
Vf
E.............2.31V - 2.55V
F.............2.55V - 2.79V
G............2.79V - 3.03V
H............3.03V - 3.27V
J.............3.27V - 3.51V
K............3.51V - 3.75V
L.............3.75V - 3.99V
M............3.99V - 4.23V
N............4.23V - 4.47V
R.............5.43V - 5.91V
S.............5.91V - 6.39V
T.............6.39V - 6.87V
U.............6.87V - 7.35V
V.............7.35V - 7.83V
W............7.83V - 8.31V



Color
W..............white
Y...............royal blue
B...............blue
C...............cyan
G..............green
A..............amber
H..............red-orange
R..............red

Cool. So if my U2 is about as bright (if not brighter) than my C3, it would have to be a U bin. Because otherwise it would be a T bin and it would be obvious that it's not as powerful as the C3.



As for the tint -- if it has some blue tint, will it be incredibly obvious? It looks to me like it goes white, royal blue, blue. Can it be predominantly white with the barest hint of blue? My LED is quite white, but sometimes I think I can tell a hint of blue (maybe). Is that just my imagination?

It's hard to say on the tint Wilson... it certainly won't be a blue or royal blue... those are SOLID BLUE, not tints. The Y0s and YAs are the bluer tints though the YAs can get into the violet range also. A lot of times, a light will look perfectly white until it is comapred to an LED from a different bin. In my experience, Lux I LEDs had the biggest range of tint on white LEDs, most of the T and U bin Lux IIIs are pretty good and I haven't really seen enough non-modified Lux Vs to have an honest representation of the range encountered in production lights.

The letters I'm talking about would be the second and third character of the 4 character bin code. For example, the TW0J is a popular choice for stars... T is the lumen range, W0 is the tint and J is the forward voltage.

As far as your bin, the U2 is a Lux V light which starts at a U bin... U bins can be either Lux IIIs or Lux Vs, but the U2s are Lux V lights.

Here's a link that should prove helpful.

http://home.comcast.net/~theledguy/bin_codes/index.htm

Please note that in PSMs info, he listed the older Luxeon white bin tint coding system. The newer one is supposed to be more accurate. Within every bin, there is a certain amount of variation, i.e., all LEDs of a certain bin are not the same, hence the ranges. The charts for color variation in white are a bit farther down. A white LED could have a bare hint of color, or more than that. And since all of us have different eyes, that would probably have a subjective factor.

The newer white color tints are express in two parts. In a TWOJ bin, the color tint is the WO part. It's still a three part code expressed that way.

T = flux, in this case lumen range of 67.2 - 87.4
W = color temp (tint) on chart
O = color temp (tint) on chart
J = Vf, in this case 3.27v-3.51v

It it were four part, it'd be TWOJW, with the last W standing for white. Mostly this last part is left off.

That's my understanding anyway. Hope this helps!

I have T bin with 500 mA driver. If I change to U bin, would it noticeable brighter?
Thanks.

Yeah, it's all about sorting and testing... nothing is concrete and 100% certain. I've had two UX1Ls and one was bluer and one was more violet. I had two RW0Hs next to each other on the same spool or whatever and one was more green and one was more violet though they both looked very white on its own. The worst example was my two Costco lights... both were QV1Js... one was MUCH MUCH greener and dimmer than the other one... so much that when I modded them both, I half expected something to be wrong with the board, not just the stars... Matter of fact, I would think the one should have been like an N or P bin.

Thanks guys, that definitely helps. I'll never be an expert on this kind of stuff, but at least now I'm not completely ignorant.

If you had a 3 AAA light, would you want an N VF, or how do you tell what the forward voltage is with batteries?

I'm not personally recommending this, but I've built several Lux III lights that run on 3xAAA direct with Vf as low as G but would be more comfortable with about a K. I've not done a lot or research or testing to see how much current NiMH AAA cells can provide, but I'd imagine it's not as much as D cells and I've built several lights that ran direct on 3 C or D cells with a Vf of L.

For a U bin, for instance, what would the minimum power output be in order to produce the minimum 87.4 lumens? What would the max power requirement be in order to produce 113.6 lumens? Would those be the minimum and max Vf numbers?

The LuxIII's specifications assume the emitter is getting 700mA. The maximum recommended current for a white LuxIII is 1000mA.

http://www.luxeon.com/pdfs/DS45.PDF

More datasheets and product info than you can shake a stick at here:

http://www.luxeon.com/products/family.cfm?familyId=7

The consensus is that current regulation is preferred over voltage regulation. Some of CPF's LED gurus have documented a shift in Vf over time - it seems that the Vf decreases somewhat after a break-in period.

Thanks, Hookd!

Yeah, what the supposedly do is hit them with 700mA, see how many lumens it puts out and if it's between 87-113, it gets slapped with the U-bin designation. The individual stars and emitters will put out different amounts of light when sent the same 700mA current... it's not like every single U-bin Lux III is capable of 113 lumens, some will only be capable of 87 lumens at 700ma.

It's just a rating, not an absolute. Like if you build high end lights, you would probably order, say, 25 UW0Ks... with everything else being exactly the same, some will be brighter than others. The bin is a range.

Thanks, Cratz2. I was under the impression, at first, that the lumen output varied within the bin depending on the power input. So, at 700mA, some U-bins will put out a minimum of 87 lumens (guaranteed?), some will put out 113 lumens, and others will put out somewhere in between?

Exactly.

That's right. If you look at the data sheets, Lumileds allows for some variability within each bin class for flux, Vf, and so forth. The "typical" rating they state is supposed to be an average.

So a very good T bin Lux3 could be equivalent in performance to an underachieving U bin Lux3.

I don't know the exact methodology of how the emitters are sorted by bin. I doubt each individual emitter is rated for luminous flux by putting it in an integrating sphere to accurately measure the lumen output. It could very well be that Lumileds does that, but I'm a skeptic by nature. The Vf rating is relatively easy to measure, so I think that's reliable.

The situation is roughly equivalent to the octane ratings of the various formulations of gasoline. If you rigorously test the properties of 93 octane gasoline, there will be variation between gas stations, and even between batches at the same gas station. But overall the octane rating of the 93 Premium will exceed the octane rating of the 89 Regular.

I wonder if a similar situation exist with converter boards. I noticed that the same Luxeon III UX1L appeared greenish using one Wiz2 board (750mA), but then it was whiter using another Wiz2 board (also 750mA).