XP-L2 V5 Output & Death test by Texas_Ace Over 2200 lumens! Still worked after 15 Amps!

smart to cover the inserts with reflective foil, it was one of my objections to Josh’s sphere that he used inserts that alter the reflectivity of the sphere, in your case I agree that it will create a fairly constant large reflector for any (edit: reflector- )flashlight.

Looking forward to your thread! :slight_smile:

A 280mm radiator AIO performs better than any cpu heatsink that exists though…
The point of the water is to move the heat away faster than copper and heatpipes do, not to soak up heat.
The coolant reaches a constant temp within minutes, there is very little and it does not absorb much energy, usually stays below 40C.

I think josh changed his design to include the reflective tape based on you if I had to guess. My sphere showed up with the reflective tape when I got it and it is where I got the idea to use it on the PVC version.

The change combined with the rings made a massive difference in consistency. The other big change was the internal baffle. Although that is a bit hard to explain here although it is quite simple really and works amazing.

Thanks for the tests! Looks very promising…

About the improving the chart, I do have a few small suggestions:
-Place lumen on the primary axis and Vf on the secondary for easier reading
-Reduce Vf axis range to 0-5V, and remove the unused decimals for current and vf
-Bigger font, adding axis titles optional

After this you’ll have a very nice chart that you can use for future tests, and adding more lines just requires a few clicks.

1: I swapped the axis’s because most people are more interested in the high end range of the lumen curve vs the low end. This makes the high end easier to read I figured. The right side axis is what all the guidelines are based off of. If people would prefer the lumen axis on the left side that is easy to swap.

2: I increased the Vf range so as to move the VF line away from the lumen line. It was confusing when they were overlayed in the same range although that was before I added the colors. I could knock the VF down some to put it more in the center of the chart if people think that would be easier to read.

3: Which font are you referring to? I should add axis titles, I forgot to do that.

For that reason I let the Vf axis not start at zero but a bit under the minimum measured voltage.

Yeah, same result.

Excellent work TA! I love this torture testing stuff. Posting work like this provides excellent points of reference for modders :+1:

Put me on the list of those wanting to know more about your setup with lots of pictures!

Wow, excellent work on this! I'd love to see the details on the PVC sphere as well, plus a XM-L2 U4 and XPL V6 and W2 if possible. The U4 will pop early compared to XPL's but output is still pretty good.

Cutter has the W2's listed here: https://www.cutter.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=cut2752, but the description says V4 3D, so who knows. If they were W2's, you would still have to de-solder and reflow them onto a single LED board. The website is always a problem with Cutter, plus their usual lack of responding. I would ask them but I've had too many problems with them in the past.

Thanks!

Sadly I do not have the funds to buy anything at the moment so it will be awhile till I am able to do anymore tests then what I already have lined up. All the other emitters I have on hand would not be all that interesting as Djozz has already tested most of them.

Now if someone has some spares laying around let me know, I got the time right now due to time off for Christmas, just no funds.

What are peoples opinions on the axis’s in the chart? Should I swap them so that the lumens is on the left and voltage on the right or leave it as it is?

My vote is lumens on the left. Actually had to stare at it for a while to find it.

You know I could send you two of the Ali W2's. I got a few. Would be great to test them against a V6 though - could send you one V6 as well. Actually though if you have identical bin/tints as Djozz tested, it would be a good comparison of the test configuration.

lets pm on it.

Orsm work TA. Threads like this are invaluable and looking forward to more of your testing for comparisons. :beer:

About the measuring device. Yes please new thread. :slight_smile:

PM Sent.

Thanks, yeah, I think people want to see it bad enough that I will need to make a thread for the sphere.

Holy cow, these LED’s preform just as good in a light as they do on the bench! If I can now just find a neutral tint version preferably in 90+ CRI with cheap shipping.

I just built an S2+ with the second XP-L2 that was sent to me (I like to get 2 of any LED’s I test so that I have a spare in case something goes wrong or if the first test results are inconsistent for some reason, plus I like to install one in a light so I can see what it looks like in the real world).

Wow, this is easily the brightest single emitter tube like I have!

The really surprising thing is how much more efficient it is. With the TA17 drivers I have a regulated 350ma mode that generally nets me around 120-150 lumens depending on the LED, the highest I have seen was 180 with an XP-L V6 HD IIRC.

With the XP-L2 I am getting 200 lumens @ 350ma!

I then have a 2.45A regulated mode that normally nets me around 850-900 lumens, with the XP-L2 I am getting 1150 lumens!

Then we come to turbo, here are the results with different cells, these are all from a cold start, this is why I retest the peak output on the bench from a cold start to see what it would do in a flashlight.

Cheap laptop pull - ~6A - 1950 lumens
GA - ~7A - 2100 lumens
30Q - ~8.5A - 2300 lumens

Now of course things get hot fast and the output drops fast as well but I didn’t feel like testing each at 30 seconds. Still, 2300 lumens @ turn on from an EDC S2+ is seriously impressive!

It is also nice to see that the cold start test on the bench is indeed a good indication of what happens in a real light. It also explains why the numbers people report from flashlights are sometimes higher then what djozz’s tests says they would be.

After I got done being impressed with it on the sphere I then started looking at the beam.

Edit, just built a 5700k 90+ CRI XP-G3 for direct comparison. Updated the rest of the post accordingly.

First thing I noticed is that it is much like the XG-G3 with the tint shift as others have mentioned around the edge of the beam. The tint shift is basically the same as the G3, the tint plays a larger factor then the type of LED I think.

Compared to the 5700k G3 I would say the tint is close in the hot spot although the L2 has more red in the beam giving it a slight purple hue when white wall hunting. When used in the wild it is actually not that bad of a tint, but still too cool for my tastes.

I am thinking I would want 4000k to get a neutral tint, this one is far too cool for my liking, CRI is not about average for a 70CRI.

The beam size is naturally larger then the G3 but not a ton, maybe 25% larger.

Overall except for the cold tint I really like this LED, the tint shift is not ideal but it is livable for the performance you get. A good TIR lens that mixes the beam would really improve things, the TIR I am using helps but doesn’t fix the tint shift.

If these can be found in neutral tints and 90+ CRI I can easily see these becoming the go to LED’s for myself.

In other news I was comparing the graphs from the XP-L2 and XHP35 (test not released yet) and I am pretty sure that we are reaching the limits of the 3535 footprint at around 40W. Both LED’s have the same general curve shape when looking at wattage, I am guessing that 40W is just the limit for how fast the heat can be moved out of the LED no matter what star you have it mounted on. Honestly that is seriously impressive for that tiny footprint.

This does make me look forward to an XM-L3 to be released with this latest die tech, it is possible it could reach even higher numbers due to the larger footprint.

Nice! Just ordered 12 of these: https://www.arrow.com/en/products/xplbwt-00-0000-000bv50e5/cree

These are V5 bin, E5 tint (4000K), 70 CRI min.

Still free shipping w/Arrow, but my local NY sales tax is a pain.

O great, so after the WD and WJ (etc) bin codes we got the more comprehensible 1A and 3C (etc) codes and now they’re doing E5 and what nots?
And how do we read those?

Boy, calm down there. The "En" code system was always used. When we buy from distributors like Mouser, Digikey and Arrow, it's always been by the "En" grouping, never by a specific tint, like 3C, 1A, etc. You get them cheaper this way. I can only assume a middle man breaks the "En" groups down further into a specific tint by testing them. Check the CREE specs - it's there for all the main LED's we use. CREE calls it a kit #, so E5 includes 5A, 5B, 5C, and 5D - it's all in their specs.

Very nice, They must have taken my suggestion to allow the LED’s to be purchased individually! Just yesterday those were only for sale in 500 quantity minium orders. I know, I searched them for any XP-L2 options and they were all 500 min then contacted them via chat to ask if they could sell them individually.

They told me it was not possible but apparently it was!

I had my eye one these V3 4000k 80cri versions:

https://www.arrow.com/en/products/xplbwt-00-0000-000hv340g/cree

https://www.arrow.com/en/products/xplbwt-00-0000-000hv30e5/cree

Hmm, now to see if I can scrounge up the funds for some of those to play with. Man, being broke sucks sometimes lol.

Yep, that ^

As far as I know you can’t even buy a “3D” bin emitter, at least it doesn’t appear that way in the data sheets. You can simply buy tighter binned emitters that will be closer to each other.

I have never seen an official Cree part number with the “normal” tint rating system we are used to.