BlueSwordM wrote:

Guys, if you can offer me somewhere to put a payment, I could order those LEDs.

Would be nice for my 3rd gen BeCu springs+ LED GB.

I can order some FD2, the FA3 are not available sadly.

If you want to get some FD2 let me know. It is a 500pc minimum order last I checked.

500pcs is easy now that we have quite a bit of interest.

Just need to revive it in my thread.

djozz wrote:

This evening I did the test I was most curious of: modding 3 of the FA3 leds into my freshly received FW3A.

(I did all the tint checks with the FW3A’s AR-coated lens in place, I hope and think that using a plain glass lens will make results only slightly different, not much)

…

I feel quite spoiled to have such nice leds in my FW3A.

That sounds really nice. I’m definitely curious about your results with different optics, and in particular, with an uncoated lens.

In the D18 that I have, the SST-20 4000K are very close to the BBL line. For turbo (10528 Lm) I got 3944K and Duv 0.0010. At a lower power, 850 Lm, the color is 3970K and the Duv is only slightly higher because 0.0012. I’m very happy.

Good info. Seems like Emisar might have gotten their hands on some FD2 tints too.

I got similar results, very well could be FD2.

Something lower above moon and below top of ramp:

CCT = 3893K (Duv 0.0033)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 96.6 [ R9 = 94.8 ]

Top of ramp:

CCT = 3895K (Duv 0.0012)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 93.7 [ R9 = 79.2 ]

Turbo:

CCT = 3879K (Duv 0.0010)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 93.6 [ R9 = 79.1 ]

Since I replaced all my D18 LEDs with 219B I did a little test with a frosted narrow Carclo 20MM TIR using the old SST-20 4000K from Emisar D18:

Result is XYZ: 328.591970 327.669203 191.744281, Yxy: 327.669203 0.387488 0.386400
Ambient = 327.7 Lux, CCT = 3887K (Duv 0.0025)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 97.3 [ R9 = 96.7 ]

Result is XYZ: 882.429254 877.078547 519.529607, Yxy: 877.078547 0.387194 0.384846
Ambient = 877.1 Lux, CCT = 3882K (Duv 0.0018)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 97.3 [ R9 = 94.7 ]

Result is XYZ: 1139.849852 1132.186200 684.048856, Yxy: 1132.186200 0.385594 0.383002
Ambient = 1132.2 Lux, CCT = 3910K (Duv 0.0014)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 96.7 [ R9 = 91.7 ]

Result is XYZ: 1987.408736 1947.756714 1216.169431, Yxy: 1947.756714 0.385805 0.378107
Ambient = 1947.8 Lux, CCT = 3867K (Duv -0.0009)
Color Rendering Index (Ra) = 96.5 [ R9 = 89.9 ]

How long do you think one of these will last me @ 5 amps in my M21A (regulated to 55C, but the led itself would likely be much much hotter)? Trying to figure out if I should buy a few spares or learn to solder, etc…

It should last a good long time. With a DTP mcpcb you are unlikely to have the LED die in any flashlight to be honest. I think I have had 1 LED die in all the lights I have used that was not caused by something I did (and even this one was questionable since it was one of the first lights I built).

The LED is rated for something like 125-150c BTW, so 55c is nothing for it.

Texas_Ace wrote:

It should last a good long time. With a DTP mcpcb you are unlikely to have the LED die in any flashlight to be honest. I think I have had 1 LED die in all the lights I have used that was not caused by something I did (and even this one was questionable since it was one of the first lights I built).

The LED is rated for something like 125-150c BTW, so 55c is nothing for it.

While this is a good answer I think he should order a spare because of your “something I did” category. I’ve killed several with a bad re flow and he is a beginner after all.

Yeah, I was not saying he shouldn’t get a backup. Just that the LED itself should not inherently be at risk just from the use case he describes.

True, I almost take back my post cause I forgot most people order LEDs on MCPCB by default so probably more risk shearing the dome off with a reflector/centering ring than anything, lol.

I have a small stash of the R9080’s, the FA3 looks like it could give them a run for the money! When I build new photo illuminators I use the R9080’s as they are very stable.

Sadly the FA3 is not 9080 quality but at higher currents they are the best high CRI LED out now.

The real issue is at low currents, the 9080 was great at all currents, the FA3 does not look good at low currents.

Texas Ace, that was how I read the graph as well. I think I only have about 20 R9080’s left and then I will be pulling them from older builds for newer builds. In place of a flash for macro, I am usually running in the upper half of the output range for the R9080’s to get good output. The output levels on these may not require that they are driven hard, thus dropping them into the crap light range. I did order 10 of the FD2’s to test with in general purpose triples and singles. I am not expecting the best tint, but at higher output they may be impressive.

I may build one of the FW3A’s with R9080’s as it is my favorite all time EDC led.

As a photographer doesn’t it bother you that both the 219B and SST-20 shift so much depending on current?

At higher output levels the FD2 is a pretty nice tint compare to other options on the market. Just at lower output levels it suffers some.

The sST-20 in general really does best with FET drivers. Once the FET kicks in the tint improves drastically so PWM FET is my go to for these for sure.

contactcr wrote:

As a photographer doesn’t it bother you that both the 219B and SST-20 shift so much depending on current?

Yeah, this is annoying to me as well. The best way around this is to use a PWM FET driver. The only real downside is the lack of moon mode and the ramp is not smooth at low levels. Which is why a second channel is needed for those modes.

contactcr wrote:

As a photographer doesn’t it bother you that both the 219B and SST-20 shift so much depending on current?

It does, I build my scene flashlights with wide optics and very limited mode selections. The camera is very easy to adjust to the inbound light levels. The R9080 really makes colors pop and that is why I use them. I suspect with the FD2 I will end up running singles at 3.5 to 4.5 amps and triples will only be used in FET modes. The R9080 lights will be used when lower output levels are needed.

Texas_Ace wrote:

contactcr wrote:

As a photographer doesn’t it bother you that both the 219B and SST-20 shift so much depending on current?

Yeah, this is annoying to me as well. The best way around this is to use a PWM FET driver. The only real downside is the lack of moon mode and the ramp is not smooth at low levels. Which is why a second channel is needed for those modes.

How about a MCPCB that splits the LEDs into like 3 banks and then only ramps up 1 bank at low levels, until you pass a threshold and it turns on the 2nd and 3rd bank of LEDs

That would be really neat. I would want about 2 amps per channel across a triple for the R9080’s and maybe what 3 amps per SST-20? Getting all those wires into the head of a light might be a challenge and then there is the driver… 3 FETs with some PWM control each.

While technically possible it would add a lot of complication for minimal benefits in practical terms.

An FET channel can be PWM’ed down to around ~150-300 lumens in most cases (technically much lower then this but you loose resolution that low and it can be inconsistent light to light). So above that the tint will be good. Creating multiple channels for under that lumen level would be very communicated and not help all that much since the tint would still be bad.

Good idea though.

maukka, does your equipment allow calculating radiant flux?

At least with a spectrum you have all the information to read radiant flux, it is a matter of what is in the software.

What’s the highest amperage these emitters can take? Thinking of a triple sst20 in direct drive.

trailhunter wrote:

What’s the highest amperage these emitters can take? Thinking of a triple sst20 in direct drive.

So an FW3A in other words? FW3A is direct drive on turbo. They can handle it.

trailhunter wrote:

What’s the highest amperage these emitters can take? Thinking of a triple sst20 in direct drive.

They die at 7 amps per emitter.

trailhunter wrote:

What’s the highest amperage these emitters can take? Thinking of a triple sst20 in direct drive.

The data for that, and answers to several other related questions, are provided in quite a bit of detail in the first post of this thread.

Has someone started a group buy for these emitters? I would be interested in trying some out.

Harvest them from an FW3A and then put something else in that