Lux 3 brighter than K2? WTF?!

[Kant Lavar]

No, I'm not on crack.

I picked up a K2 with my replacement Lux 3 for my saber, since I went and melted parts of the dome on my original one, and I figured with 38" of exposed blade to light, I'd need the K2. (The first Lux 3 actually does still work - but I'm just not sanguine about how these clumps of black, burnt plastic are going to work for a lightsaber. But I digress.)

So, being the geeky sort that I am, I grab my battery (7.2v 2800mAh, if it makes a difference), grab the male end for it with nice, exposed wires, and briefly test the LEDs.

And both of the Lux 3s are brighter than the K2. My initial reaction: "What the frak?"

My question to you is - is this normal? Once I get this sucker all put together, and the CF board is feeding 1.4-1.5 mA to the K2, will it actually be brighter than what I saw with the LED all naked and feeding off the battery directly? Or did I just get an odd LED?

[Arm on Fire]

I could be wrong, but by hooking up 7.2 v directly to any led will make it seem super bright thats twice the forward voltage it should be getting with unrestriced current as well , it will also fry it pretty quickly if you keep it on too long. so I would say it would not be as bright when hooked up properly, but it also wont burn out in 30 seconds.

[eastern57]

I've had the same experience with greens... The 3w was brighter than the k2. I gave it (k2) to vortextwist, and he got the same problem. maybe the 3s are more sensitive to over-driving, maybe the k2 really are just dimmer, maybe we're ALL on crack.......