So this is the second installment of my LED tests.
I am using the same modified PVC true integrating sphere as all my other tests. Basically everything you need should be in the spreadsheet.
So I decided to test out a Latticebright “XM-L” knock off since I have yet to see any kind of official numbers on them. I needed a new test LED for testing drivers anyways so I reflowed it onto a copper DTP star to make testing fair.
This particular LED was out of an 8x Skyray king. It was a cold tint but not anything more then you see in most lights, pretty average in tint really for a cool white.
Before we get to the output test one thing does need to be pointed out about these, they may be XM-L knock offs but they are most certainty NOT XM-L’s in anything but external size.
The die size is basically the same as an XP-G2 and it should really be compared to those due to this. You also get the much tighter beam with them as well just like the XP-G2 vs XM-L.
Overall I was surprised at the results, I had expected closer to ~600 lumens. I stopped the test since I didn’t feel like reflowing another one at the time and I knew output would just keep dropping till it popped. I can do another test sometime if people really want to see when they blow.
Now for the results, click for larger and easier to read version:
If anyone has any other knock off LED’s or any other LED’s that you would like to see tested let me know. I have the time at the moment but not the funds to buy random LED’s.
I have never managed to get a fake XM-L2 so I don’t have any to test sadly. I rarely buy XM-L2 lights to start with and the ones I have are usually “brand names” and come with real Cree emitters. When shopping ebay ect I only look at the host value so generally I am sopping the XM-L lineup.
If it was a better tint then you see in most fakes then that suggests its not the same chip (second generation?), many complain about ugly blue tint that will likely test as less lumens.
I would not say better then most fakes, it is just not neon blue like some fakes. The super blue/purple tints are the odd ones out for me.
I would say this one is around a ~1x tint, somewhere around 6000k if I had to guess. Way too cool for my liking but also not all that much different then most of the real Cree LED’s I get in cheap lights.
Interesting results, like I said the best I ever tried was a sliced dome and was simply not impressed. I only tried it in 2 lights though and those I didn’t try that hard.
True, most ppl count it as garbage yet i`ve found its better than most( nearly all) Hi emitters at 2.8 amps in C8, X6 or so look alike lights, 150 lumens less yet it throws better, the tint is good and i have like 60-80 of those luying arround doing nothing ( came from various flashligt used as hosts)
They cant hold high amps though
Surprisingly not really, although the tint was really not part of the test, just noting the tint of the LED for comparison purposes.
I have had real Cree’s with worse tints, I got 23 Skyray kings earlier this year and out of them only 3 had real Crees but tint wise 1 of them was no batter and if anything worse the most of the latticebright. The LB LED’s also varied a lot between lights, some had a fairly reasonable cool tint such as this LED and others had a much worse tint.
I even had one LB with a reasonably neutral tint.
Another thing I noticed is that the tint seems to improve as you drive them harder (well until they start turning blue due to heat anyways).
For the record, I am not defending the Latticebright LED’s, simply testing them and reporting the findings.
