A while ago I got a few bare XP-G2's from a trusted source, they all came in their tape packaging, I bought 3 at that time, but all cut apart individually.
The first 2 I used right away had the normal green base (silver on top, green on bottom), this third one I finally had a need for today so I opened it up and reflowed it to a noctigon and was only able to get 1.8A testing it straight to a battery. I even tried using a 5V source and can not get it up over 1.8A at all. I took it back off the board thinking I had a bad solder joint (or no connection on the center thermal pad) and I found this. The one with green base is one of the other two I removed after finding this to check it, I unfortunately damaged the dome picking it up with tweezers (I can probably dedome it and still use it), both it and the other good one(now in a customer's light and returned to them) had no issues pulling over 4A each, its only this one that wont. Other than the now damaged dome they look exactly identical on top, even under magnification, the only difference is the color of the base.
Just wonder WTF is going on with this one, why its different and why it wont pull the normal current.
All 3 were supposed to be S2 2B.
Top picture, the bad one is on the left in this pic (the good one with green base is the one with the damaged dome on the right)
In this shot the good one (the green one) is the one of the left (sorry for getting them mixed up)
Yes thatās why I said āI donāt want to assumeā and also why I didnāt put āpossibly fakeā as the thread title. Iām not trying to state itās fake or counterfeit, especially coming fromwhere they did, but something is definitely āoffā with it. It doesnāt perform even to 50% of what a ānormalā XP-G2 S2 2B does and it physically looks different. In fact Iāve never seen any gen 2 ANY cree with anything other than green there.
Ok I get what youāre saying, its not counterfit, but SOMETHING is wrong with it / different about it, letās focus on what/why.
edit: Iām not looking for a fight man, sorry, statement redacted. I just have an especially low tolerance for bickering / nitpicking this time of yearā¦
Hereās a better pic for you, the green isnt just on the bottom, itās the sideās too.
left is like any other emitter Iāve ever seen, right is this one the OP is about
Also it cant be a simple higher vF issue cause I tried all the way up to 5V, if that STILL wasnt high enough to cover a slight increase (like we saw in the newest emitters) then this couldnt even be considered a 3V emitter any more.
Something is up with this emitter, its not the same as a regular XP-G2, its completely untouched as far as the ESD diode (the dome is still perfectly intact), something is up with this emitterā¦
First time I seen a Black, maybe something happened to the thermal path and the green plastic got burnedā¦ can you scrape it a little with a needle or file to see if it is all black or there is green underneath?
Interesting and disturbing if Cree is deciding to control by any means how much current passes thru their leds
I scraped as much as I could without breaking it with the point if a diamond needle point file (even tho itās not usable Iād like to keep it intact so I dont want to use to much force / to aggressive of a tool) and I never got threw the black. Not sure how deep I really got tho, isnt it ceramic? Seemed pretty resilient to the diamond file.
@ wight
my testing method was using a voltage & current adjustable AC-DC constant current converter my uncle built me (I simply just dont understand all the components in that thing to better explain it, heās way smarter than I am, heās a EEāing professor at BGSU) but it has a max output voltage I set (under zero load) and then it supplies 1-3A out (also selectable, both parameterās are set by a pair of POTās) at whatever voltage the load needās up to the set limit. With the way I had it set it could of drawn any voltage it needed up to 5V and any current it needed up to 3A, even at those settings it was still only doing the 1.8A (didnt have a second DMM connected during the test to see instantaneous vF it was pulling but this test SHOULD have eliminated a slight increase in vF being the culprit of the low current draw, since it had available to it up to 5v should it have wanted it)
edit: I think a more simple way to describe the unit would be an AC-DC selectable constant current analog power supply, like I said itās a piece of equipment I rarely dig out and dont really understandā¦
Good idea, on the bottom of that page there was a direct email: productsupport@cree.com, Iāll see if I get an answer, I figure probably not till next week, cause of the holiday, at the earliest.