Colored P4 Question

[Novastar]

Well, I've been able to test a Green P4 in a more in-depth way (finally).

I don't need to go into great detail since it's only my first outlook on them, but here's what I've found:

Comparison basis was:
K2 Green (from Flange III) @ 1500mA (so, "normal" max. cont. curr. driving for it). Using Ultra-style blades of effectively the same length... but not the same "wear & tear"... best I could do.

Having a look at the P4 alone vs. K2 in Flange III, I did a quick "direct drive" test with a single 3.6v Li-Ion cell:

Metered 750mA from the circuit (no resistor)... P4 looked great. It was even with or a bit ABOVE the K2 green @ 1500mA under CF's PWM/driving.
Result = TIE. In my opinion.

Fully charged the Li-Ion for the heck of it.

Metered 820mA from the circuit (no resistor)... P4 looked even better. It was slightly ABOVE the K2 green @ 1500mA under CF's PWM/driving.
Result = P4 by a slight bit. No question.

Enough of all that, let's see it in Flange III with some DRIVING.

I didn't even bother setting it at 1A, I just sent it 1.21 for ONE-POINT-TWENTY-ONE GIGAWATTS??!?!?!?!?! I thought it fun and fitting, since 1.138 seemed a tad low...

Anyhow. I didn't need to meter it, I trust Erv's driver. And although I could no longer "compare" it to the K2 under CF-driven conditions, I then placed the K2 under direct drive...

Now THAT was a little more unfair, since I didn't really have a way to give it 1500mA. But anyhow... the result seemed clear:

* K2 wants 1500mA
* P4 wants 1000mA
* P4 under 0820mA looked "on par" (at the least) with the K2 @ 1500mA!!
* P4's typical fwd V is slightly less than the K2... @ 3.25. Granted this will not yield the highest lumens... duh. More like 4v, such as the K2.
* Result = P4 is the winner.

But anyway I slice it... at the very very LEAST: I'm saving battery life/runtime... and I seem not to be losing anything. In fact, it seems to be a bit better overall.

Now... would I think it to be brighter than a Luxeon V? Hmm... I don't know. I don't think so... but it's certainly better (to me) than having to throw 7v at it just to get it to be happy.

Not to mention if you're using a driver with a Luxeon V, well... you can throw using 7.2v out the window since you will need at least 8v or 9v. To me... that begins to become just RIDICULOUS for something like a toy saber, lol.

[Braxus]

awesome post novastar!! very informative. i sent my saber w/ CF4.0 to erv about 2 months ago for repair and i had a green K2 installed on it. in the time after i sent it, i bought a few different colored P4s and i still cant wait to test em out. i had heard how much more efficient the P4s are and now your test has deffinetly convinced me that i made a good choice in buying em. With ervs move im still waiting on the repair but now i cant wait to try em myself

thanks nova

[xwingband]

They may be more efficient than a K2. I didn't compare the Green P4 to a K2. Mainly because I gave up on K2's.

So I'd go... III -> K2 -> P4 -> V -> Rebel for brightness and efficiency.