LED emitter ranking

A list of LED emitters arranged by light output.

Here's the List of LEDs by order of lumen output.

Luxeon Rebel 040-bin (84+ lm @ 1A)
Luxeon Rebel 050-bin (105+ lm @ 1A)
Luxeon Rebel 060-bin (126+ lm @ 1A)
SSC P4 S1-bin (127-141 lm @ 1A)
SSC P4 S2-bin (141-165 lm @ 1A)
Luxeon Rebel 070-bin (147+ lm @ 1A)
SSC P4 T1-bin (165-188 lm @ 1A)
Luxeon Rebel 080-bin (168+ lm @ 1A)
Cree XRE/XPE P4-bin (177-192 lm @ 1A)
Luxeon Rebel 090-bin (189+ lm @ 1A)
Cree XRE/XPE Q2-bin (192-207 lm @ 1A)
SSC P4 T2-bin (188-214 lm @ 1A)
Cree XRE/XPE Q3-bin (207-220 lm @ 1A)
Luxeon Rebel 100-bin (210+ lm @ 1A)
Cree XRE/XPE Q4-bin (220-233 lm @ 1A)
SSC P4 U1-bin (214-235 lm @ 1A)
Luxeon Rebel ES (225+ lm @ 1A)
Luxeon Rebel 110-bin (231+ lm @ 1A)
Cree XRE/XPE Q5-bin (233-251 lm @ 1A)
SSC P4 U2-bin (235-256 lm @ 1A)
Cree XRE/XPE R2-bin (251-268 lm @ 1A)
SSC P4 U3-bin (256-280 lm @ 1A)*
Cree XRE/XPE R3-bin (268-286 lm @ 1A)
Cree XRE/XPE R4-bin (286-306 lm @ 1A)
Cree XPG R2-bin (380-406 lm @ 1.5A)
Cree XPG R3-bin (406-433 lm @ 1.5A)
Cree XPG R4-bin (433-463 lm @ 1.5A)
Cree XPG R5-bin (463-493 lm @ 1.5A)
Cree XPG S2-bin (493-520 lm @ 1.5A)
Cree MCE H-bin (490-560 lm @ 2.8A)
SSC P7 A-bin (440-570 lm @ 2.8A)
Cree MCE J-bin (560-648 lm @ 2.8A)
SSC P7 B-bin (570-700 lm @ 2.8A)
Cree MCE K-bin (648-753 lm @ 2.8A)
SSC P7 C-bin (700-800 lm @ 2.8A)
Luminus SST-50 F-bin (635-823 lm @ 5A)
Cree MCE M-bin (753-858 lm @ 2.8A)
SSC P7 D-bin (800-900 lm @ 2.8A)
Cree MCE N-bin (858-980 lm @ 2.8A)
Luminus SST-50 G-bin (823-999 lm @ 5A)
SSC P7 E-bin (900-1100 lm @ 2.8A)
Luminus SST-50 H-bin (999-1175 lm @ 5A)
Luminus SST-50 J-bin (1175-1410 lm @ 5A)
Luminus SST-50 K-bin (1410-1645 lm @ 5A)
Luminus SST-90 K-bin (1410-1645 lm @ 9A)
Luminus SST-90 L-bin (1645-1998 lm @ 9A)
Luminus SST-90 M-bin (1998-2350 lm @ 9A)
Luminus SST-90 N-bin (2350-2820lm@9A)
Luminus SST-90 P-bin (2820-3408lm@9A)

Newer Leds

XML T5 (504-543 lm @ 1.5A)
XML T6 (543-582 lm @ 1.5A)
XML U2 (582-621 lm @ 1.5A)
XML U3 (621-660 lm @ 1.5A)

XML T5 (845-910 lm @ 3.0A)
XML T6 (910-975 lm @ 3.0A)
XML U2 (975-1040 lm @ 3.0A)
XML U3 (1040-1105 lm @ 3.0A)

The list is unverified so take it with a grain of salt.

List courtesy of tipidpc user ian2381
source


the end

second generation LED maglite repair

If you read my older posts here, you know that my family has a few second generation led maglite 2AA flashlights. My mom uses hers practically every day. Lots of scratches and its fallen from the table a few times. But this time, the light died.

I was dismayed. I though maglites were indestructible! I initially despaired of being able to fix it and bought a cheap cdrking LED flashlight as a temporary replacement. A few days later, my mom asked about the flashlight and she suggested that I disassemble it and try to repair it.

So now, I'm at my desk, poking and prodding at the flashlight. It was empty, i.e. no batteries. I removed the end cap and was poking the emitter head back and forth when this fell out. By the way, its normal for the emitter head to move like that.

Its a plastic holder with the positive electrode for the batteries on the posterior end and a circuit board inside. There are 2 electrical slots on the inside posterior end of the plastic holder which should match with the 2 contacts on one end of the board.

UPDATE: the circuit board can be inserted onto the  black plastic holder in 2 directions. Since the holder is pretty symmetrical, its difficult to know which direction is correct. So you can try using trial and error.





This gave me hope. I thought that if I could get at the emitter head, I might have a chance of ficing this. I thought about asking in a flashlight message board that I'm a member of. But before asking, I decide to search for "maglite dissasemble" in the forums. I found this.

I used two screwdrivers and just pushed the LED module out the other end. Now for reassembling...

OK so this gave me hope. I opted to use a  small hammer and a chopstick to remove the emitter head.



I placed the tip of the chopstick on the metal beside the actual LED and VERY GENTLY began tapping with a hammer. Eventually, the metal emitter head fell down through the back end of the flashlight body. A black plastic ring remained which fell out the forward end of the flashlight body. The ring serves to lock the head in place

UPDATE: you can use your fingers to press the metal emitter head down instead of using a hammer.



I just re-assembled the emitter head, the board and the black holder. The emitter head has 3 electrical slots on its back so the end of the circuit board with 3 electrical contacts goes there. But I noticed that there are no positive and negative signs and the board can go in 2 ways. I thought, OK go for broke, 50/50 chance. I'm just hoping that what maglite says about the electronics being vulnerable to reverse current flow isnt true.

UPDATE: The metal emitter head has writing on one side and the other side as seen in the picture above has no writing. For standardization purposes,  the side of the circuit board with the cylindrical black plastic cylinder with wire coiled around it and a "100" printed on top faces the side of the metal emitter head which has writing on it. And getting it backwards doesn't seem to fry the electronics if you don't try it for too long.

I placed the emitter in the back end of the flashlight body and placed 2 AA batteries after the emitter. I then pushed the batteries upwards with my finger. The emitter head is now in the proper place. I got the black ring and pushed it through the front end of the body and with a gentle push, locked the head in place. I then tried the flashlight, IT WORKS!!!!

the end

Camelion FL3L2AA

The Camelion FL3L2AA. Here's a shot of the back of the packaging.




I found this in Marquee mall, Angeles city, Pampanga. Specifically the department store. Cost is PhP 79.00. At this price point I do not expect it to compete with the more powerful flashlights like the maglite.




Build quality is fair. Yellow plastic for the body. the switch is on the side, a sliding switch. The design of the switch and the body looks like this was based on an older model conventional flashlight and the bulb and reflector assembly was replaced by a LED one. Being a sliding switch, there is a hole in the side of the body. Hence this is not a waterproof flashlight.

It uses 2xAA batteries. One quibble is that the upper AA battery can wiggle around a little when you screw on the cap. So the positive end might not make contact with the positive end of the emitter.

The butt end is not completely flat so you cannot stand the light on it. It does have a swing out ring which you can use to hang the flashlight. The ring's hinge again makes a hole in the flashlight body so its not waterproof.




The 3 leds each come with their own reflector so the beam throw is kind of decent. Of course its less than a higher quality light like a maglite. Light intensity is rougly equal to the maglite's low mode.


Pictures of the beam with the camelion on the left, compared to the beam of a maglite on high on the right. You can also note the slightly bluish tinge compared to the maglite's warmer white.




For the price this makes an excellent flashlight for use inside the house. Dont expect it to last long if physically abused or exposed to water though. And dont expect very very long light throw.

I give this 4/5 stars, considering that its really cheap.


Link to official site with specs
link1
link2

The end.

TrustFire XP-E F23

Ok, I bought a new LED flashlight from Dealextreme (LINK). $13.61, free shipping. It took 1 month to arrive from Hongkong to the Philippines.

Dont I have enough flashlights? Well, I have one unfilled niche. This flashlight is AAA and small enough to be a keychain, for emergencies so I always have a flashlight on me.

Now how did i choose this from the wide selection at Dealextreme? Its quite easy with my simple criteria

• Lowest possible price
• Multi mode
• Relatively Bright
• AAA. Yes I know this is more expensive and less common compared to AA but I need small size. I avoided button cells because I would sacrifice brightness and I would have resupply problems.
• Not generic, at least have a class A chinese brand. That way I get slightly more quality and hopefully I get a tougher light.

The modes are as follows :
Hi 150LM 1200mA > Low 80LM 900mA > SOS 120LM


LM means lumens, mA is milli amps. And one nice thing about the light is that it has a mode memory. What that means is that the light remembers what the last mode was. So the logic of the circuitry is simple. If the circuit finds out that you turned the light on-off-on with 1 or 2 seconds in between the two ons, it will move to the next mode. So if you turn the flashlight on after a long time, the mode it is in will be the last mode used. Nice trick. If this trick was not present as a second choice I would choose the Low mode to be the default mode.


Now since I insisted on AAA and multi mode, I had to make a few sacrifices. First, no knurling and the shiny finish. No knurling means that I might have problems holding this if my hands were slippery and the shiny finish is not stealthy but it looks good. Its shiny! Second, its a bit longer and noticably heavier. It is made of stainless steel though, thts why its heavy. It sits a bit heavy in my pants pocket but I should get used to it over time. If there was an aluminum multi mode AAA flashlight in the same price range available, I would havegotten that but no other choice was available.

Build quality and machining is good except for a little sloppyness at the contact for the Positive end of the battery. A wipe with a clean rag helps. You can barely see the junction between the body and the tailcap BTW. Even with your fingers you can barely feel the seam. The Seam between the body and the head is another matter. Of course you can see the gold plated ring but with your fingers you can definitely feel the seam.

No sharp edges or roughness. The screws are not as well made as say my maglites and its a little difficult to screw back on specially when fighting the spring's pressure but its ok and it should improve with a little petroleum jelly lubricant.

The tailcap protrudes out and you cannot sit the light on its base. It also does not have a candle mode, i.e. a naked bulb with no reflector.

An unusual feature is the use of glow in the dark green rubber for all the 4 O rings and the tailcap. I havent tested how the glow lasts. These are all 10 second exposures with my Canon 590IS digicam.

Here's a little enhanced shot of the O ring at the glass face. This also glows in the dark after you turn the light on for a few seconds.

The light is very bright at high mode. Comparable in intensity to my other lights like my maglite LEDs. Low mode light output is quite good too. The reflector is deep and shiny. Being of a smaller diameter, we dont expect much from the reflector but it does its job. At 1 meter the central spot is a bitlarger than 1 foot in diameter. Unlike my maglites, much more light spills out. Even the spill is bright enough to work by. All are acceptable compromises for a smaller diameter flashlight.

The light on the Left is my maglite AA. You can see that the area of spill is a little brighter and the delineation between the central spot and the spill is more gradual.

The tailcap switch feels good. Hope it lasts.


Well, so far so good. A good quality light. Thanks again to dealextreme.

update: I'd also like to point out that since this is a keychain light, size is a factor in choosing this. And its now Aug 25, 2010. Still works like a charm. No problems

iTP Light A3 EOS Upgrade Edition AAA LED Flashlight

Here's something unusual, a 3 mode AAA flashlight. $20 only. Just make sure you get the upgrade edition. The standard is only 1 mode.

review

You can order them here

note, a very similar model, the maratac can be bought here

tank007 tk-568 review

Ok I bought one. This is the link to the website  . They sell a large number of stuff including LED flashlights.

It arrived ~ 4 weeks after ordering. cost $14.80 and free shipping, no tax. It arrived in an envelope. Shipping is free and takes a month because it uses old fashioned snail mail, i.e. the post office.



Build quality looks OK. The clicky button is solid. You can macgyver a momentary on switch by turning it on and loosening the butt end until it turns off. Pressing the butt end (not the button ) will turn it on momentarily.The button is recessed so you can stand the light on end. Combined with the removable top end, you have candle mode. It has Gold plated contacts.






Compared to my maglite, its almost the same intensity. Color is a little on the warm white side. The beam angle is bigger. At 1 meter, you get a 1 meter circle and a 12cm spot. You are supposed to be able to adjust the focus by loosening the top end but the difference is minimal.The light does get warm after some minutes of use.





ONE BIG PROBLEM.

The website of dealextreme says its 3 mode, high, low and SOS. The tank website says its 5 or 1 mode and no you cant tell if you got the normal or the deluxe model just by looking because they have the same model number. Well the one I got has only 1 mode.

This is false advertising, or just a mistake????

Otherwise its an ok 1 mode flashlight. Dont know how long it will last.

This is a class A chinese brand. I bought it because at the time I didnt have the budget to buy a quark mini AA.

cree headlamp vs led lenser h7 for surgery

The cree headlamp was discussed here.

The led lenser h7 is available in hahn for 2800 pesos versus 1500 pesos for the cree. It is rated at 160 lumens versus 300 for the cree. Maybe the 300 value is exaggerated. But the led lenser H7 is a little weaker than the cree. The focusing system of the H7 is inferior to the cree. Just look at the cree's lens assembly, its so long compared to the H7. Just like a DSLR telephoto lens, if you want zoom , you need a longer barrel.

My bro in law has a cree and I have used it in surgery so I can safely say that its focus system is excellent. The cree has little spill while the led lenser has a lot of spill. Its intensity is probably the minimum needed for surgery. Sorry led lenser, I have to turn you down this once.

Conclusion: the cree headlamp is definitely usable for surgery.

surgical grade headlamp versus ordinary headlamp

* Spill. A hiker, spelunker or whatever uses both his peripheral vision as well as being focused on what is ahead. This is why most flashlights and headlights, aside from the bright spot, also have a lot of light that spills over. A surgeon does not use his peripheral vision much. If he is using loupes, he cant use his peripheral vision becuase he is totally concentrated on what is within the field of view of the loupe. The ideal surgical headlamp must have a very concentrated cone of light focused a handlength away, with little or no spill. Spilled light just wastes energy.

* Comfort. A surgical headlight must be utterly comfortable. I've used headlights that cause headaches when used for a long time unless you move it around. Surgeons can be wearing the headlight for hours so it has to be utterly comfortable. A surgeon cannot adjust the headlight by himself because he is sterile so there better be no pressure points that can cause pain and skin ulcers.

* Tilt adjustment. The led lenser headlights are notorious for this. The hinge has ratchets so the tilt can only be adjusted to a certain number of angles. If you are not wearing loupes you can just tilt your eyeballs up or down so that your field of vision conicides with  the focus of the light. If you are wearing loupes you cant do that. A work around is to move the headlamp up or down on the forehead. And the light better stay pointed where it is set. A surgeon can't easily adjust a headlamp once he is sterile.

* Coaxiality. If you're a hiker it doesnt matter if your light is a meter away from your eyes. You can still see. If however you are looking down a small pipe, then you need the light to be near your eyes. Most surgical lights have the emitter in between or maybe slightly above the line of sight

* Intensity. For a hiker, most likely it would be night time so even a weak light will help. A surgeon using a headlamp already has the operating light shining on the patient so his pupils will be already contracted. So the intensity needs to be high. Photographers would be familiar with this. Try photographing the contents of a tin can in bright sunlight without a flash, with the interior of the can in shadow. Thats what surgeons deal with all the time. Plus loupes tend to decrease the aparrent light intensity. However there are times when a weak headlight will work. These include office or bedside procedures or surgeries where the surgical light is focused on some other part of the body, as long as the headlamp does not have to fight against an operating room light. Of course you could just turn down the operating room light. But then your assistan and the nurses cant see anything unless you get them their own lights.

* Switch. A surgical headlamp ideally would have a switch that the surgeon can turn on and off without breaking sterility. You can macgyver this by installing a switch at say belt level. Just press the switch through your sterile gown.

* Modes. Most often you only need 2 modes, OFF and MAXIMUM. A normal user would maybe need other modes like flashing or low modes.

Led lenser k3 and p3

The led lenser k3 costs 799 in hahn. Because it uses button cells, its very small

The p3 costs 899.

The price is very reasonable compared the the US price of $16-$20 for the p3. It uses 1AAA and has a zoomable lens. Only 1 mode though.

cree headlamps in the philippines

If you remember an older post here, I talked about this headlamp. Well, I found one for sale in the philippines. Well, at least it looks similar.

cree headlamp

CREE Q4 High Power Headlamp LED 300 Lumens Flashlight

Seller was smartshop.123. Took 39 days for the package to arrive in the mail from hongkong. It cost me US $0.99  or approximately PHP 45.46 + Postage US $12.99 and php 35 pesos handling fee at the post office.

Ok this is a generic, as in no brand light. Wait, didnt I promise that I wont buy generic lights anymore? Yes. Well am I breaking my promise? NO. Why? Simple, this isnt mine. I bought it for my bro in law.

Packaging was austere but OK. No manual though.

Now for build quality. The body is the usual cheap plastic. The lens and lens cover are made of plastic. The threads on the lens cover are plastic.

As you can see, the entire front of the unit detaches to gain access to the 3x AAA battery compartment.




The hinge is stepped and constructed of plastic. There are many steps so you can adjust the angle well.





The button is a bit small but it works. There appear to be 3 modes. Press once for high mode, press again for low mode then again for flashing. The ebay description says 6 modes. The lens casing can be pulled forwards for zoom or back for wide angle.

Here are side views of the beam at wide and zoom settings. I think I would advise covering the red band with aluminum foil to avoid spillage of light to the side.




The wide mode has a clean and clear 71 cm diameter round beam at 1 meter. No artifacts. At zoom, its an 11 cm wide square at 1 meter with minimal spill. Its square because thats the shape of the LED emitter. Its supposed to be a cree.




Compared to my led mini maglite 2nd gen 2 AA on the Left, its actually a bit brighter specially on zoom.




I dont have any rechargeable AAA batteries so there will be no burn times. All pics with the light on were done using 3 unomat AA batteries in a battery holder and the battery holder was connected to the headlamp's contacts with alligator clips.


So to summarize

build quality - plastic, but everything fits and works, 3/5 stars
price - 4/5 stars
light quality - its strong and the zoom is good - 5/5 stars
speed of delivery - 2/5 stars

update: My bro in law is a doctor like me. He's a urologist. Now, as surgeons compared to say hunters or spelunkers,  the zoom is very important because, specially if we are using loupes, we need a very very concentrated beam of light of high intensity focused at around hand length. Too low of an intensity and you would not even notice that the beam is on because it is drowned out by the operating room light. A hunter of a spelunker would need a less focused beam with a little spill over to illuminate peripheral vision. In the operating room, the spilled light would be a waste and would interfere with your assistants.

Let me give an example to illustrate. Imagine A mound of dirt that is waist high. You have a tall tin can buried flush to the ground. Its night so you have 1 strong spotlight that illuminates the mound of dirt. You are standing right next to the mound so the tin can is at wasit level. You can see the ground well but the bottom of the tin can is in shadow. You cant position the spotlight to illuminate the bottom of the can because your head blocks the light. Now in situations like that you will need a headlight. Actually a weak one will do  but only if you turn off the spotlight or direct it somewhere else. If the ground around the tin can's mouth is illuminated by the spotlight, then your irises will contract so you can't see the inside of the tin can unless your headlight is also strong. Photographers should be familiar with this problem.

Update: You can buy a model very similar to this except for the color for 1,500 pesos in local malls. I forgot the name of the store but its a small kiosk decorated in camoflage colors. It sells camoflage clothes, airsoft accessories and some generic and class A china LED flashlights. There are branches in Robinsons malls like Robinsons San Fernando Pampanga and Robinsons Ermita.

This particular model once modded with an external AA battery pack (for longer lasting AA nimh batteries) and an external switch (So a surgeon can turn it on and off without breaking sterility) is personally recommended by me for use as a surgical headlight. See this other blog post for more about surgical eadlights.

JetBeam C-LE

Their website here looks pretty slick
http://www.jetbeam.com.cn/links/

If you pay attention, the dot CN in the URL means its a chinese website  and yes this is a chinese brand. Probably class A or better.




A quick spec overview:

* Cree XR-E P4
* Aluminum OP reflector
* Harden glass lens
* T6061 Aluminum Alloy, Type III HA
* 1 AA battery (1.0-1.5v)
* Head dia. 19.5mm, tail dia. 17mm, length 85mm
* Weight 32g (bettery not included)
* Twisty type switch
* 10m water-resistance
* Multi-mode output: Med/Low/High/Strobe(10Hz)/SOS
* Output level: about 40/20/80 Lm
* Run time: about 7/30/2 hrs.


$26, free shipping





Acc to the review here
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=151087

One big turn off is the lack of a spring on the negative end/tail cap. This can damage nimh batteries by crusing the negative terminal.

in reference to: JetBeam C-LE Cree 1xAA Flashlight [E2315] : BestOfferBuy.com, Buy DVD, Shop for PC accessories, Discount MP3 Players, Bargain Deal for Surveillance Equipment, Cheap R4 for NDS, X-sim Unlock (view on Google Sidewiki)