Yinding "5050 30W" round die domeless led tested

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
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I can’t find it back on BLF but someone (JaredM?) recently pointed to this Yinding 5050 led on aliexpress as a potential high performance throw led. It has a die size that is slightly larger than an Osram PM1 die and claims to run at 8A which is definity high performance throw area. And the die is round! :heart_eyes: , which promises beautiful hotspots, from both reflectors and aspheric projection lenses.

Chinese leds are improving fast, so let’s see how this one compares to the established brands (Osram, Cree, Luminus). I bought the 5000K version here, they also sell a 5900-6300K version.

First the uniformity of the die, this is the die at 0.5 mA.

It very nice evenly illuminated with a sharp cutoff at the edge.

The hotspot (on the ceiling) from a smooth X6 reflector, underexposed to see it well on a picture.

It is the roundest, sharpest defined hotspot that I have ever seen from a reflector, a sharp edge with no petals! A round die does make sense in a flashlight. Btw, this is at 50mA, at a normal working current the tint is less green.

The tint, here measured at 2A, in the hotspot of the X6 reflector. Ouch!

Very low CRI and way above the BBL, as others have noticed already this led does look fairly green! But for a thrower led for flashlight use I’m not that bothered, it does provide a sufficiently white illumination that will do the job seeing stuff well in a distance.

The voltage/output test was done like all my more recent emitter tests, for links to my other led tests, see my sig-line below this post. I described the method in detail in my XP-L test, with two minor upgrades since that should not matter significantly for the results: I used my Integrating sphere no. II instead of no. I, and for the current I used a clamp meter, which appears to measure 0.1A lower than the power supply current-reading that I used for my earliest led tests.

Some further remarks about my led tests: 1) just one led was tested which I hope is representative for the whole batch, reflowed on a DTP copper board (XM-KDlight 20mm), 2) I used my large version II integrating sphere with high quality luxmeter, 3) the output numbers and voltages were measured with the led close to ‘steady state’ for each current, so warmed up and settled, you should be able to get these numbers in a well heatsinked flashlight. Mind that these are output numbers of the bare led, in a flashlight there will be losses from light obstructions, lens and optic, 4) output is in ‘djozz-lumen’ defined as 1/550 of the output of my Sunwayman D40A on high setting, which I hope is close to the real lumen, but at least is consistent over all my emitter tests done in integrating spheres. Last year I checked the djozz-lumen with lights measured by maukka and the djozz-lumen seems 7% to 11% high (depending on spectrum) compared to maukka’s calibration.

I added the graphs from three earlier led tests that I thought relevant in the chart, for comparison.

Test data:

In summary, yes this led performs in the same league as the established big manufacturers.

*the voltage graph starts to curve up starting at 12A which is unusual, and indeed after the test-torture (I stopped at 15A, before the led was really dead) when dialing down to 6A, the output is a bit less than on the way up and the voltage has gone up by 0.5V. Sounds like damage occurring when going over 12A (which is well over max, so small deal).

*both voltage and output of the Yingding follows the XP-L Hi U5 quite closely, but the XPL-Hi has 1.8 times the die size so the illuminance of the Yinding is way better (even if this is not the latest output bin of the XP-L hi). What I like about the Yinding voltage curve is that, unlike the modern low voltage leds, it looks very suitable for direct driving it on a single li-ion cell. I can use my favourite BLF-A6 driver again :slight_smile:

*for real comparison as a thrower led we need to add the die sizes to the equation. Recently I did an unscientific measurement of several domeless leds so we can use that:

Now we can calculate the output/die surface area at the maximum output. For the Yinding5050 this is 895 lumen/mm2 while its closest competitor Osram KW CSLPM1-TG makes 835 lumen/mm2. So it is slightly better. The smaller die Osram NM1 still throws a bit better at 950 lumen/mm2, but with less output and smaller hotspot. Other leds in this list: the SFT40 emits 675 lumen/mm2 and the XP-L Hi U5 emits 490 lumen/mm2.

Mind that all calculations here are based on my own led tests of single leds, while leds can vary individually and not everything may be dead-accurate. And my djozz-lumen is known to be a bit high (7-11% compared to maukka’s calibration) so to compare these numbers with other lists you have to compensate for that.

Conclusion
Yes, this chinese led does perform among the best thrower leds currently available, with great output to go with it and a round die for beautiful beams. If you can overcome the quite disastrous tint and CRI that is, but since this is a dedicated thrower led, I find that forgivable.


(At 50mA low current the tint is really really green, duv=+0.0335!)

2 Thanks
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Lmao 60 CRI and the duv is basically twelve. Good thing the interest is for throwers.

Thanks for testing, djozz

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I’ve been curious about this one as well. Thanks for testing. I wish round emitters would become more of a thing.

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So I didn’t imagine it seems green. :smiley:

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Would be very interesting to see a higher CRI version.

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Thank you for the excellent review dj

i’m a big fan of the round dies, it just makes sense for a flashlight and no beam artifacts from square corners.

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I like the round die, but I can’t see myself putting that in anything. There comes a point where i don’t think it should even count as white anymore. How does it compare to the green osram? With a green filter it might be useful for hunting…

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No, it is nothing like the green osram, if you look at the spectrum there is enough of most wavelengths to make reds look red, greens green and blues blue. Not all great accurate enjoyable saturated colours over the entire spectrum but it definitely is a “white” led. Same with the current LEP lights: extremely cool and low CRI but they still do the job of showing the colours.

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My main complaint on the green osram is that it isn’t really that green. I forget what the cri is but I think it’s half way between green and a low cri white. My maxtoch l2k actually has pretty good color for a LEP once you get out there a bit. Up close it looks bad, but nobody uses a light like that up close.

I had high hopes for the yinding, but it doesn’t really seem any better than the pm1 all things considered.

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Thanks djozz! It’s interesting that the peak lumens is almost exactly at 8A. Most other emitters peak to the right of their rating.

I think the LED is good enough where I’m going to pull the trigger and pair with a 8A driver and the empty C8 host that I have. I’m going to buy the 5000k version and hope it isn’t as green and the CRI is slightly better.

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Yep the F1 Osrams have a wide spectrum and are more yellow-green than deep green. There is a lot of light above 600nm.

This is from djozz’s test:

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Thank you so much for the test Djozz. It is greatly appreciated. The performance is surprisingly good. The tint is unfortunate, especially since the Cslpm and Culpm LEDs I have seen have had surprisingly decent tints. I wonder what the odds are that we will see better tints?

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Thanks djozz for the test! I’ve been dying to see the results as my three ‘5000k’ emitters are stuck in transit, likely to never be seen again.

The tint is pretty intensely green. I wonder how much of a hit it’d take in flux to drop the duv tenfold if it hypothetically came in another bin?

If mine ever show up, ( In Chicago now! ETA is Saturday… :partying_face: ) I will try them in a bunch of lights. The round die is super cool. Also, the Vf is perfect for true direct drive… My favorite way to run a dedicated thrower.

@Djozz Did you purchase the cool white or neutral white?

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I’ll grab some for the Convoy Z1, customers aren’t so fond with a square

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I forgot to mention that I bought and tested the 5000K version (which is also most consistent with the spectrum results). I updated the OP with that.

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Interesting that Chinese LEDs got so good already.
Thanks for the test djozz!

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Interesting that they rate the 5k as having a slightly higher luminous flux compared to the 6k, we usually see the opposite. I wonder if the 6k would lean more towards blue than green (and if that’s an improvement)?

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Thanks. I was assuming that was the case. I’ll order some cold white ones in a replacement order among with a ‘green’.

There’s also the other variation of this emitter with the Osram Q8WP-esque glass flat lens/encapsulation I’ll try out

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I’m thinking this is the case. Because of the lumen/w advantage of thee green wavelengths, the green heavy phosphor likely increases the lumen output over the cooler version (more blue, less green). Since they go so light on the red phosphor, the radiant power losses of the phosphor conversion are more than made up for by the lm/w difference.

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I still prefer the CULNM1, large footprint 1mm2 :slight_smile: With my circle die mod of course…

This is a cool runner up though