It’s an S3 bin for only $2.47 (not sure if that’s USD or AUD, but it’s cheap either way) and mounted on a star. It says it’s “authentic”, so am just wondering if it’s to be trusted?
I have read on here where some people have had some flashlights with fake crees, and I don’t think I’m experienced enough to tell the difference between a real and a fake (seems to be getting harder and harder to spot the difference).
I guess I could go to a cree distributor like arrow or mouser, but none of these places seem to have the LEDs mounted on stars.
There are others I have seen that do seem to be trusted places and have stars mounted but they’re pretty expensive so was hoping to avoid that. I’m in Australia, so maybe somebody could recommend a cheap place? But yeah fasttrack seems really good, free shipping, can’t beat that… I don’t mind the extra wait time.
Thanks for the reply. Yeah I saw them, I thought there prices were a little bit high, like compared to ledsales.com.au (I just discovered that site not long ago) they sell the same thing for $3 compared to $4.13 for what cutter was. But then again the cutter bin was s3 where as ledsales was an r5. Not really sure if it would make too much difference between those bins? I’m fairly new to when it comes to cree LEDs.
I need to purchase about 70 or so, so that’s why I was nit picking on price
The difference is there, whether it matters to you? S3 is 2 or 3 steps above R5 and each step is ~7%. I prefer being certain of what I get when buying just an led. When it comes in a host I just keep my fingers crossed since then it’s more hit or miss.
Unless Aussie dollars can be selected and is selected most overseas shops are US dollars. To get a rough conversion to Aussie dollars multiply US dollars x 1.4. I agree with RBD on his thoughts above on LED selection.
Cutter Electronics australia has the latest bin XPG2 on copper direct thermal path stars which are a premium product and i have been very happy with my purchases. The copper dtp stars have thick traces and offer much better thermal performance and output than a masked aluminium star.
The one linked is a aluminium star and not dtp.
The xpg2 s4 bin is the latest and brightest.
Also the new XPG3 S5 bin has just been released which is brighter and the newest in the XPG series.
Another alternative would be a XPL V6 which is the same size but brighter again than any xpg series.
I have also purchased some good latest Cree leds from Kadomain and international outdoor store which are cheaper and come on quality copper pcbs such as noctigons but take a couple of weeks for delivery.
Thanks all for the replies. Geez so many options (they’re for a big’ish aquarium). I haven’t heard of kaidomain but yeah they’re cheap as well. I will ponder my options
I have looked so much on LEDs lately. So many different kinds and distributors and throw fake crees in the mix and blah blah… Anyway, I know cutter is reliable and authentic, so this one here: http://www.cutter.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=cut3051
On the products page (http://www.cutter.com.au/products.php?cat=Cree+XPG-3&scri=47&filter) it says this LED is “20mm TPAD DTP 20mm star, XPG-3, 1C Bin Tint, S5 Flux”. It’s a 6500k light (1C bin tint) and S5 flux. But then when I look at the binning data sheet, the highest flux bin for the 6500k light is an S3. The S5 is for the 6000k light. Not sure why they say S5?
That aside… everything about it looks good. It’s mounted on a TPAD DTP (which are supposed to be pretty good), high flux and only $3.30 AUD including tax ($2.28 USD). Why so cheap? The XP-G3s are better than the G2 yet are cheaper?
The datasheet specs are guidelines. Actual “out of spec” products may come out from the factory, and Cutter is known to receive & stock special batches. Their prices do look good to me, but shipping to where I live not so.
I don't care much about “flux” (except maybe to ease soldering ).
Go look for those 90+CRI XP-G3s. Thank me/us later. :-)
Yeah some reds are needed but I have a deep tank (24”) so will need more (royal) blues. The reds won’t penetrate as deep as blues.
To be honest, I didn’t even look at CRI. I didn’t think it was important for plants, at least not much anyway. It’s more for aesthetics. But having read more in to it I can see that higher CRI would be nice. What CRI would those XP-G3s on the cutter site be?
The DXHP70 look ok… haven’t seen them, it opens up a whole new can of worms. I guess the only reason why I would prefer to stick to the XP* or XT-E lights is because more people use them and it’s what all of my research is based on. Same goes for Cree vs Nichia vs X, everybody (at least in the aquarium world) use Crees so that’s what all my research is based on.
Optics is another area I haven’t looked at yet (but need to).
So if I have a white light (~6500k) with low CRI, I can’t make up for that by adding royal blues or anything can I? So I should stick with 80+ CRI. Ok… It’s really hard to judge what I need without actually seeing what a certain light with certain CRI looks like. It’s all just based on what I’ve read. Anyway thanks for the replies, appreciate it.
Many doing aquarium lighting will add blue and red leds into the mix as well so you are thinking correctly. Basically lots of xtes from what I have read.
There’s a lot of ‘royal blue’ in white LEDs.
What is lacking, is cyan blue (turquoise).
Cyan blue is however the typical ‘water color’ so to speak.
If you want that, you should look for some cyan blue LEDs (485nm wavelength)
That i didn’t know.
That’s right (i think).
Plants apparently need royal blue and deep red.
You see this in LED grow lights.
[quote]
It’s more for aesthetics. But having read more in to it I can see that higher CRI would be nice. What CRI would those XP-G3s on the cutter site be?
I don’t think there’s any real practical difference between the two brands, or any equivalent from any brand.
Cree usually are a little more efficient, but the tints are usually to the green side and even their higher CRI LEDs lack deep red.
Yep that’s right the white lights do have a lot of royal blues. I am going to get a few extra royal blues as well though. I didn’t consider cyan, I will look in to that.
From what I can tell, the XP G3s on the cutter site with a high bin (s5 for example) will be a 70 CRI light. The other ones listed there such as the ones with an r3 bin are 90 CRI (but they’re not 6500k lights).
They only have 6500k XP G3s in s5 bin (70 CRI). Should I get these and suppliment with other colours? I have absolutely no idea I wish there were side by side examples. Maybe it won’t matter if I have royal blues and deep reds mixed in? I prefer a white looking tank with slight blue tinge look.
Ya, that’s the bummer about high cri. They don’t come in the highrpest bins but that pretty much accepted around here for the nice color reproduction.
The nice thing about your application is you can mix the colors till you get the look your wanting. Add some blu… add some red… it seems that those building aquarium lights don’t bother with high cri, but I haven’t red up on the subject within the last year or so and my reading was limited at that. And then we have my memory and well, you get the picture
I bought a couple from an AliExpress store (just for fun).
I don’t now if Cutter has any.
I think you would be pleased with Nichia 90 CRI 5000K or 5700K.
It’s just much more pleasant light and not as inefficient as i think you assume.
You can hook them up the same way as you would an XTE or XP-E or XP-G.
You could buy a couple to check it out and compare to what you have.
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