I purchased (2) BLF A6 XPL’s from BangGood in September 2017.
Last night I noticed that the beam on one of the lights seemed dimmer than usual and upon checking the LED I found that it had a black spot on it. I thought maybe a piece of the gasket came loose and melted onto the LED. Foolishly I tried scraping it off and most of it did come off but so did much of the transparent bubble that covered the LED. I wish I would have taken a picture of the black stuff but it’s now lost in the grass somewhere.
So now the LED is missing most of the transparent plastic bubble that covered it, it’s slightly brown, and there’s a corresponding slightly darker/more yellow spot in the center of the beam.
I also found the the LED module actually says AstroLux S1 and not BLF Special Edition like the other unit! It looks like BangGood sent me a mixed lot. An I correct in assuming the 2 lights are very similar if not identical?
My questions are:
1. What happened?
I found the gasket completely intact so don’t think any foreign body touched the LED. My best guess is that the transparent bubble material over heated and turned black.
2. Did I destroy the LED with my cleaning efforts?
Does it need this bubble intact to operate normally?
If so is there something I can re-cover it with? (Glue/Epoxy)
3. What are the chances I can get a replacement from BangGood?
Given that they technically sent me 2 different, albeit very similar models and the one that failed isn’t even listed on the invoice I feel SOL.
You could try to lift off what is left of the silicon dome and hope that all the brown stuff was in the silicon and not on the yellow surface of the led itself.
Dedoming leds is common around here, it improves the brightness of the hotspot but decreases the output a bit.
The way to do it is set the light in highest output for a while to heat up the led, before it has cooled down, on the side of the led cut the silicone a bit in where it meets the led, on the opposite side of where the little gold wires are, and move the knife upwards and lift the dome off the led. Be careful never to touch the yellow stuff or the gold wires.
Good news: The brown stuff is gone.
Bad news: When the remains of the dome pulled off, part of the edge of the yellow LED substance came with it and it no longer illuminates.
I’m guessing it just didn’t get hot enough to keep the LED from adhering to the dome substance or my poor dexterity may have caught the edge of the LED square as I pulled up.
Either way, lesson learned.
I’m surprisingly pretty bummed at the loss. I might go find a spot in the yard to bury it next to Mittens.
Seriously though, can I buy just the LED module somewhere? If not, I suppose I’ll just wait for the whole thing to be on sale.
With XPL HI you get a smaller more intense hotspot. Meaning the beam will throw further.
Replacing an LED is in a modern light is fairly easy. You will need basic soldering skills. I would also recommend getting some thermal grease to put under the new star. Arctic Silver 5 works well (also available from Mountain Electronics).
You could get a new XP-L HI already on the MCPCB for less than 10 bucks, ( the metal disk/star the LED is soldered on that has the red & black wires soldered to) and easily replace the LED with the star, ( much easier than re-flowing a new LED on the original flashlight star)
