- Unscrew and remove the bezel and optic (Hopefully your sample isn’t glued)
- with the optic removed, look at the emitters. Is the top of the LED casing touching the dome silver? then it’s CREE, if not then it’s 219B.
- Note: Just because the tint appears more greenish than your other 219B lights does not mean your Manker is the CREE version. The “rosy tint” 219B LEDs are the more common 4500K color temp version. Manker used the cooler and slightly more greenish 5000K color temp 219B. Both versions are 90+ CRI, but many people prefer the rosy tint of the 4500K.
Thanks for clearing that up for me. Mine are indeed white.
Bob
The “white” and “silver” mentioned is called the substrate (sub-straight), it’s the part of the emitter the die is sitting on.
I can’t check mine for comparison because I just gave it to a friend of mine.
Nice job! 
The Cree have a silver metallic look to the substrate while the Nichia are ceramic, that greyish white look. Nichia’s also have that black triangle marking the cathode side which is plainly visible, where the Cree has it’s identifier’s under the dome material so it makes em harder to see (also marked underneath, on the pads).
Not surprisingly it turns out that it’s not that easy to capture the tints as they appear in real life. I think the following is my best attempt, it was done with some ambient sunlight:
I also did one in the dark but that doesn’t seem to show the greenish tint of the S41 as much, seems to show it a bit more blueish:
And finally:
After what you all have written I’m thinking that these might be Nichia’s after all and that it’s just the 5000K tint that I don’t like as much as that of the A01 which apparently uses the 4500K tint (doesn’t say so explicitly in the spec over at Banggood). I just checked and the box it came in also says it’s Nichia so if there was a mistake it would have been Manker’s, not Banggood’s. Doesn’t seem very likely.
So what do you think? Are these Crees or Nichias?
Nichia’s
If you have an Android phone you can quite accurately approximate the CCT with the White Balance Color Temp Meter App
As for CRI, the best way to compare is to shine the light on any deep red surface. Low CRI lights usually depict it as more of an orange than red. From tint alone on a white wall, no way to tell. Nichias also tend to have less tint shift on different parts of the beam whereas Crees often have greenish or purplish rings. I don’t have any multi emitter Cree though so I cannot say if it hides the artifacts or not.
Bummer. Maybe I should just try it and see how it does in actual use, it might work just fine for walks in the forest etc.
Would it be easy (and cost-effective) to replace the Nichia’s with the 4500K version? I do have a fairly decent soldering station (Weller PU81).
Or perhaps I should try to sell this while it’s still essentially unused and get something else, perhaps the triple-Nichia from Mountain Electronics, if it ever gets back in stock?
Sorry for hijacking this thread for my own question but can you please tell me more about how to identify + and - on Cree LEDs? For example, if I want to solder an XP-L on a noctigon pad labeled with + and - , how do I know the correct orientation of the LED itself on the pad?
On images like THIS
I can see that the side with the two bond wires are oriented to the + side of the pad, is that a general rule with CREE´s ?
Thanks,
K.
The bond wires are the positive on all the newer XP-G2 and XM-L2 lights as far as I know. More difficult to see on the XP-G3 and nearly impossible to tell on the MT-G2. The XHP-70/50/35 have multiple bond wires facing different directions so they can be confusing. Best to look up the spec sheet and get the exact emitter’s reference information. Just run a search on the Cree emitter of interest and reference data sheet.
I’ll say this too, if you get a 6V MT-G2 and it accidentally ships out in the 9V variant, you can’t tell till you build it. Then you’ll see it barely working at all when you’re expecting big numbers. It’ll take 3 cells to run the 9V version, but it will run on direct drive from the 3 cells and make significantly more light than it’s lower voltage sibling. 
Thanks Dale, that helps!
K.
I made a “PDF” folder and have all the data sheets of things I’ve been interested in stored there. From Cree emitters to Nichia UV emitters, Ledil optics to Khatod… if I’ve thought about using it for a build I’ll have a data sheet on it in my PDF folder.
Then when I start building a light I can pull up that specific item and make sure I’m re-flowing it right, or whatever. 
I have added a piece of LEE filter 223 (eight C.T) to my s41 nichia and this actually cleans the tint quite nicely.
Interesting, I might try that. Definitely a lot easier than reflowing different emitters. Thanks!
I’ve had the opportunity to use the S41 in practice and I definitely don’t like its tint, very much preferring that of the S1, so if this will correct it that would be great. The S41 worked great as a hand-warmer for my girlfriend though who was carrying it .
Wondering how long such a filter will last but given the size of a single sheet I’m sure I would have a lifetime supply of filter should they fade.
Just curious, what does 1/8 CT mean? I couldn’t find any information on that.
You’ll lose about 15% light transmission with the Lee filter, always keep that in mind. You will gain a more pleasing tint but be robbed of quite a few lumens you may have worked hard to achieve. It’s also not classified as a high temperature film so it might warp if you use Turbo a lot.
As far as identifying which LED’s are in your S41, mine says it on the label on the box.
yes take it out in the real world and use it.you will drive yourself nuts “white wall hunting”
It recently came back in stock. I signed up for the email notification so I knew when they were back in stock. Mine should be arriving with its driver tomorrow. The plan is to put it in an S2+.
Currently there is one left if you are looking for one:
http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=206
Bob
Thanks for the heads up. That MCPCB wouldn’t fit in my S41, wouldn’t it? Would it fit in an S1? Actually, this does not include a driver, does it? I really like the UI and the finish of the S1/S41 so would be nice if I could use an S1 as the host but I’m not really sure if it’s possible and if so what’s involved in getting that to work.
If none of that is possible I might go for the pre-built S3 with perhaps the DrJones H17F driver but I would prefer the S1 as a host and the S1 UI.
I think that the E-14 is 22MM. I am sure that you can find it on a 22MM MCPCB.
I am not sure about the S1. The driver is seperate.
I too am a big fan of the UI and that is the UI I normally use for the drive when I build a light.
To build a light you need a soldering iron, some soldering skills, and some good tweezers. It is not hard and there are plenty of YouTube videos. The members here are als very helpful.
Bob