This stuff is great. It not only protects the phosphor coating after dedoming, but also prevents reflector shorts in situations where an insulating disk cannot be used.
I wonder what chemical in gasoline is doing most of the work. They do sell Xylene in the hardware store. If it doesn't work, then dump it in your gas tank for a slight octane boost.
Honestly, I've never tried. The spray emitted from the can is pretty thin, as is a single coating from same. When used as an electrical insulator, I make two or three passes.
A year's worth of use has left me with just under half a can left, FWIW.
Even with the Internet it takes time for word to get around. Iām here daily and only recently heard about it. I donāt read every single thread every day.
I'm sure you're right, but it's been difficult to find for sure what the best method really is in all these postings and threads with the mix of successes and failures. Think we need a shared googles doc just for dedoming, or some way of summarizing the experiences. The big thread on dedoming is just way too big to get a bottom line answer from. I'm still not sure exactly what to do with the gasoline method. If you could reference threads/posts with specifics, that would be a great help. My questions with gas:
does the octane, content, source of the gas make a difference?
12 hrs min time, but ok if longer?
Is all the silicon remnants supposed to be completely gone off the LED? I found it wasn't and needed to be pushed off - maybe I did something wrong?
can you do just minimum amount to cover the LED dome for the soaking, or should you use a full jar/can of gas? Does it matter?
the LED Seal stuff sounds good. Is everyone using it? Any side effect like measured output drops?
should the wires be clear of the gooey stuff as well or only the surface matters?
should the LED be rinsed/cleaned after the gas soaking? How? I used isopropyl alcohol - seemed ok, anything better?
When I used acetone, I thought the rule was 30 minutes, then that's it, good to do. But it didn't work out that simply. There are several ways of doing the heat method, but again, seems like details are lacking, or skills/knowledge of what to look for are not there. I think what happens is if you have success with a method, you stay with it, so if someone has 100% success rate on a heat method, why change? But for someone trying this for the first time, it seems like the gas method is the best way to go perhaps.
Also with the chemical approach, I think everyone is a little apprehensive about potential damage and long term effects, follow-up care/treatment, etc.
I think thereās some confusion about what octane rating means.
iow, 92 octane from one supplier might be a different cocktail of hydrocarbons than from anotherā¦but they should ignite at very nearly the same conditions
I just tried using silicone conformal coating on the de-domed emitter and the results are troubling.
Dedomed XM-L @ 700mA (more details in my earlier post)
Before coating: 264 lm
After coating: 252 lm
Itās not huge, about 5% loss. Worth noting anyway. Since the LedSeal is silicone based, Iām thinking it would have a similar effect. Maybe spraying a very light coat is the best way to do it.
Is the coating even necessary? What happens if you leave it?
I dunked it in gasoline again for a few minutes and it recovered some of the loss; back to 257 lm.
I agree that having some protection is good. I was more concerned about the phosphor layer browning, but I read somewhere that itās coated already.
The bond wires are made of gold, so they will not degrade in open air. Physical contact with them is not good, and LedSeal isnāt going to help with that.
Iāve handled de-domed xml2 pretty roughly. No problems.
The bond wires are delicate, but after the dome is gone, they tend to get squished down instead of yanked off (from handlingā¦.a tool slip is a different story)
The phosphor on the xml2s is pretty tough.
Iāve done a similar experiment to relicās but with clear acrylic spray instead of led seal, and I was measuring throw not output.
I got about the same decrease (~6%) w/ one light coat.
Even so, the hydrocarbons used are likely to be very similar. By trying different octanes, it gives a clue as to which chemical is doing the job. That's why I mentioned Xylene earlier. That's a component of gasoline with a higher octane rating. If folks find that higher octane gas is more effective at dedoming, then the next step is trying Xylene or other high octane components of gasoline. Toluene is also worth checking out.
Folks should be careful around gasoline and its components, not just because of the fire risk, but also because components of gasoline are made up of aromatic hydrocarbons that have strong links to cancer. I'd avoid direct contact with skin and would have good ventilation.
Interesting, good input. I was so careful in handling the dedomed LED. I know I accidentally hit the domes all the time with a finger, knuckle, etc., and usually go over it with alcohol before buttoning it up. It just looked so vunerable, naked and all - now don't get too excited .
Is there an alternate to petrol (gasolene), I cant keep it here as the wife has a problem with it similar to the problem I have with alcoholic beverages.
Thanks ChicagoX.
Going along the lines that somethings that works in one place and not another, we have flyspray here that says on the instructions on the can that it will kill spiders in the state where I live but apparently will not kill spiders in the state next to us. I have noticed lately that there is a lot less spiders here. I'd say that they are all moving to the next state (NSW).
What about its components like toluene and xylene? You should be able to find those at your hardware store. Whatever you don't use for LEDs you can put into the gasoline tank of your vehicle.