LED test / review – Lumileds Luxeon MZ 5700 K min. 90 CRI (3V) – Finally! High CRI, High power, beautiful light

This LED looks like a great way to get a lot of light from a single cell light. I did not know about it. I guess the non standard footprint has kept it from seeing more use by flashlight modders.

Nice LED for pebbled TIR optics. :+1:

The use of XP boards is possible, though. I’m own a flashlight with the MZ already.

But this LED was called ‘power hungry’ to get 2800 lumens of high CRI light, which is true in some point.

Because that there are not much boost driver or compact modding hosts for multi battery use out there the needed amperage is a problem indeed because the current is way too high which ‘traditional’ drivers for single battery can handle. In my JAXMAN M8 the Luxeon MZ is powered by the A17DD_L and the FET gets really! hot at Turbo (approx. 13 Amps with more than 100 deg C on FET!) which should lowers it’s lifetime rapidly.

For building a triple I would recommend the 12 V variant of the MZ (LMZ9-SW57) and a hypothetical high power buck/boost driver with 4S battery config. Because of the needed diffusor or matte optic bigger reflectors of the also bigger host would also increase the throw.

I just ordered a couple of the 3V 70cri type from digikey. I’m thinking it might work well in an EE X6 maybe with ledil iris TIR.

Good luck with the triple tricky reflow! :innocent: :slight_smile:

I think that will make a great light!

Do you have any throw numbers from the testing you’ve done?

Soon I'll make few builds, but theoretically light with this led (T bin) should have ~2 times the throw of domed XM-L2 or domed XP-L in same reflector at close to max. power (14-15Amps).

That would be great, but is that taking into account the cross between the dies? In reflector lights the cross reduces throw because when you look into the reflector there is always some area reflecting the dark cross.

I will also report my findings when I test the LED in a C8.

There should be no cross/donut if OP reflector is used, of course this reduces throw, but it still should be way better than any triple/quad. Gap between dies is smaller than XHP-50 or XHP-70, and should be similar to dedomed/shaved XHP-50.

I did some testing of this LED in a supfire L6 (26650 light with C8 head). I purchased the LMZ7-QW57 (3V 5700K) emitter from digi-key. I reflowed on a 20mm Tpad XP footprint MCPCB (I got it on the first try :sunglasses: ). With a fully charged 30Q I measured 11.7A by measuring the voltage across a 10mOhm shunt in place of the tailcap (this cell is old so the current might be higher with a new cell).

The results are a bit disappointing. I measured 69Kcd at 6.78m (with smooth reflector, reading taken at point with highest lux), and less than 2400 lumens OTF (ceiling bounce test).

A XHP-50 4500K 90CRI de-domed will do 2000 otf lumens at 6V and 5A (10A for the Luxeon 3V). So in this regard it’s actually quite similar. This shouldn’t come as a suprise as the Luxeon M and MZ are also from 2015. They aren’t new.

How do you like the tint?

Mine is the 70 CRI version. I would say the tint is fine. It is definitely on the cooler side but not noticeably blue like a cree 1A.

Ok, then it really isn’t that efficient. :frowning:

Does luxeon make a domeless emitter with a single one of these dies?

I considered upgrading my BLF Q8 with 4 of the HCRI MZ’s but realised something would probably melt if I tried!

Luxeon Z ES (German test here)

Thank you!

Looks like it wouldn’t work for a Q8, I misjudged the size and thought the dies were “XP-G” size.

Back to the drawing board. A 6V MZ in a convoy L6 looks like it might work!

They are basically dedomed XP-G size, very similar.

A 6V variant would definitely work in the L6. The only one that is not so great is the XHP-50 because of the rather high Vf.

I am wondering WHO will be the first lunatic to put 3 LMZ7-QW65/QW57s under 10507 with VTC5A and witness quickest step down/throw out of hand/deflow/melt optics in history :partying_face:

EDIT: I forgot about poor little omten 1288 :weary:

That would indeed be glorious! :smiling_imp:
I think a FETie switch would make sense :).

I wonder if there will be a donut hole when using clear optics and three LEDs.