Cheapo R5 dropins in UF hosts at DX

XR-E has the ring, right? I don't think either the XR-E or XP-E come in a R5 bin though (R2 is the highest I've seen either of them in lights, but an R3 XP-E is supposed to be out). So I'm not sure what the deal is with these lights.

I was speaking rubbish.

The XP-E is only rated at up to one amp - now available in up to S2 bins according to Cree. These do not have the ring. The XP-E is presumably cheaper

The XR-E and XP-G are rated to 1.5A, the XP-E to 1A

All the R5 bins are rated at 139-148lm at 350mA

Cree hasn't updated the XR-E binning info since 2008 and it only goes up to Q5 though R2 and apparently R3 bins are available

An R3 is producing 122-130lm at 350mA - but the XR-E and XP-G dies can be driven harder with adequate heat sinking. With the Q5 and R2 XP-E emitters, quite a few of the Chinese lights were being driven out of spec at more than 1000mA if the manufacturers' blurbs were to be believed.

Ah! Is that why many XP-E lights have a dark ring around the hotspot?

Hello anduril, welcome! Enjoy your time here. Thanks for the products tip.

Would have been if I'd not been speaking rubbish - the XR-E is the one with the ring. The beamshot on the left here http://budgetlightforum.cz.cc/node/224 is a truly classic example. It is not normally noticeable in the real world - just when white wall hunting.

I think I will have to wait to find out if these are really R5's. I've been looking to get something with a XP-G R5, but I would be afraid that the XP-E part is correct and the R5 part is wrong, rather than the other way around. It is a great price though. Just a couple of dollars more than just a R5 drop-in. I'm really tempted by the Skyray R5

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.32749

Not sure how much longer I can hold out now that I don't have anything in the mail.

Take care, the Skyray is an R4, R5 is just the name :)

BTW - my 5-mode R2@504B just arrived... wow. Now I officially have a lightsaber ;)

Did you get silver or black? I have the silver one and really like it. I just put a new driver in it so that now it is 2 modes with memory.

Which driver did you use, Ted?

Silver, but just because it had modes. No regrets though, it looks great.

My drop-in looks different, though - no labels ("super bright R2" or something)...

Can I safely assume that 4-wire, 4-segment LED is an R2, or is it not that easy? If not, then how to verify?

Mine had a label on the drop-in that said Super Bright R2 on it. There isn't really any way to tell by looking at the LED because all XR-E's have the same design, just different bins (except some old ones which looked a little different).

I swapped in this driver from Kai Domain. It is a Nanjing with the 4 stars on the back. I wrote a review at KD and was thinking about writing up something here as well (did it; you can read it here). I'm happy with it.

http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=10243

They also changed the description from XP-G to XP-E for some reason, but someone posted today and said they had gotten an XP-G labelled R5. I might wait and see what people think of the cheap ones though now. Never hurts to wait a little (okay, it hurts).

Well, I gave in and got one of the cheap hosts today and am hoping for the best. I saw the first review of one of these at DX. The guy said it was really bright for 5 minutes before it burned out. That was a 501. So I ordered the 1-mode 502B:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.35074

Plus this driver:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6190

Once I get it, I will measure the tailcap current and then probably go ahead and swap out the driver. I'd like a 1400mA multi-mode driver, but this 1000mA should still be brighter than the R2 which is also driven at 1000mA.

DX says it shipped today, so I should have a new light in a couple of weeks. Of course they said they shipped my last order too and then the status reverted to "packaging" a day later. But it said "Packaging by Air Mail" which I didn't know could be done, so I'm hoping it is actually on the way.

Nevermind. They seem to have broken the previous shipment into two, so this notice was for the second half of that shipment. The light itself shows "packaging" so it shouldn't be too long anyway.

Just to motivate you a bit - I'm waiting for your review, got one spare 18650 lying around :D

I'll definitely write something up once I get it. It's the waiting . . .

Somebody must have been listening. Today on Shiningbeam I see a 3-mode 1400mA driver. Looks like exactly what I've been looking for.

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-133/**NEW**-3-dsh-Mode-Regulated-Circuit/Detail

It is the same model name as this 16-mode one from DX that is missing the 4th 7135 chip:

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.7612

So I just bought the one from Shiningbeam. My first order with them. I came close to getting one of their XP-G LED's but I already have one coming from KD plus there is a possible CPF group buy from Cutter for what could possibly be a more neutral tint.

That shiningbeam driver looks interesting. No flashing modes and not expensive either. Doubt there's room in a P60 driver to stack two of those to make a real 2.8A driver which would be interesting with MC-E or P7 emitters. Heatsinking might be a problem though.

Got the 502B today. I will write up a full review once I have a chance to test it out. My first impressions are good. The 502B looks good, came lubed already (too much, I'll wipe it all off and do it over), the clip seems strong, and the switch is firm, but the threads are kind of rough. The throat is way bigger than the drop-in so I don't see how it can have hardly any heat sinking. The 504B was a better fit but I put some pieces of aluminum cut out of a soda can to get it tight. I would need too many layers to do that here. I might coil up some thick copper wire and put that down there.

The drop-in is a single mode XP-G and says Super Bright R5 on it. It seems quite bright, but I haven't run it for very long. On a 18650 at 4.08V, I measured a draw of 1.2A at the tail, which seems reasonable. People have reported problems with the 5-mode driver burning up, so the 1-mode seems the way to go for now. I also got a multi-mode driver that I will put in eventually. The LED is on a white Cree board and seems securely fastened to the pill. I haven't taken the pill apart to look at the driver.

At first glance, this is a pretty good light.

Looking forward to see the comparison shots between R2@504B and R5@502B.

And yes, I'm developing luxoholism ;)