A Perfect Dedome?

I have done it with slight cutting then heating and pulling off with tweezer some times and it works every time. The dome is clear and the bond wires still a bit messy…
Is this as easy with an XML2?

There may be an even better way. All you have to do is build a rocket to launch the LED to fly close to the sun to heat up the dome, then a super-intelligent robot can poke it with a pin and peel the dome off. Do you think that might work better than just dunking the damn thing in gasoline and then a few hours later like magic you have a freshly de-domed LED?

Been there, done that. Problem is robots eats phosphors…

I get the impression you may be mocking me. That’s cool. It’s all good with me. I’m telling you though, the led was clean and probably took less than a minute to dedome (not counting other issues). No left over gunk like I see in most of the pictures using gasoline.

Have you tried it? What's left cleans off very very easy. Just crumbles away. A spritz of rubbing alcohol from a spray bottle gets rid of most of it. Anything left after that falls right off with a little brush from a pointy piece of plastic.

I think most of the 'after' pics of the gas method are taken before it's been given a final cleaning, which might be what's throwing you off.

No, I haven’t tried the gas method yet. I wasn’t trying to dis that method. It sounds like a good approach.

I was just being lazy and in a hurry. Turned out it worked quite well. In hindsight, it makes sense because the hottest spot is the led itself. The thing you want to get the silicone off. Was just sharing my experience with a method I haven’t heard about yet. This thread seemed like the best place to share it. If it wasn’t, I apologize.

No no, it's just that I tried (most) all the other methods too and they were miserable failures, not a single one of them worked afterwards for more than 3-4 seconds before going POOF. I've done 5 or so with gas and all have been perfect.

Thanks for sharing ImA4Wheelr. I’m a gasoline dunker myself, but the best method is what works for you.

I haven't had much time for experimenting, but did 2 gas de-domes today, my 2nd and 3rd, both look perfect, and it only took 6 hours in the gas, because I checked and noticed one dome was completely off and the other was floating up, dangling on.

XM-L2 T6 0D:

XM-L2 U2 1A:

I fired up both just to test and they both were blinding - duh, don't look at the LED while testing! The U2 1A is going in a T08 mod'ed up, hoping to achieve some big numbers.

it made a significant increase in lux when I de-domed an sst-90 - but its late and can’t recall the % gained :weary:

same w/ green xp-e - but I think that tiny little emitter has enough problems w/ artifacts before a de-dome and I might not do anymore. at least w/ those you don’t have to worry about phosphor damage…

Tom, please report on how was the tint shift on that 0D XM-L2 T6 you dedomed, I am hoping that it will shift to a 2A or 2B tint.

Thanks!

We were thinking that 0D would would warm up nice, hoping next day or two. Little backed up now . Just de-domed it because I was doing the other light.

Finished this mod. Tested it out in the C8 pill and it warmed up nicely. I'm a bad judge of tints though and don't think my pics would do it justice. Compared to a 3C? Maybe close - think it warmed up quite a bit, maybe warmer than 2A or 2B.

Thats good news TomE. Thanks was wondering the same thing as AlexGT

I soaked a xre in gas for about 24 hours and the dome was gone. Then I tried to pop off the ring and upon doing so I damaged the led someway and it doesnt work. I then did another for about the same amount of time soaking and popped off the ring this time and it still works! Success with the xre! Thanks for whoever posted about popping the ring off after soaking in gas, I tried to pop it off after a dedome with out gas and it wouldnt come off.

I am now soaking a green xre with hopefully good results.

Please update us on that. I might want to try a red.

Ok sure will!

Wish they had something like a sinkpad for these. Might have to make it a direct bond to a copper disc and try to over power it to see what power it can take.

Just dedomed my C8 XM-L2 U2 in petrol for 3 hours and the dome just fell off. :slight_smile:

Hotspot on the beam is now half the size and twice as bright! :smiley:

P.S im off to dedome my black shadow darth 3x XM-L U2 :wink:

Has anyone sent a dedomed LED to Craig at LEDMuseum?
(I’m not sure if he’s got a photometer right now, but I’d sure be curious to see a spectrum of the output.
I wonder if the dome is doing any significant filtering of light at the UV end of the spectrum, for example)

Haven't heard but I don't think I've heard of LEDMuseum either. I could certainly spare a T6 to de-dome, got quite a few laying around from all the upgrades.

Hm…
I never took a close look at my de-domed XM’L since it JustWorks™, but this thread got me interested, and…
looks like my emitter, that is working completely fine, is supposed to be royally f**ed?! (look at the bond wires)

Here’s a full pic, not like it contains any extra things to see, but I’m just throwing it in since it looks kind of cool: http://shadowww.eu/blf/DSC_0014.jpg

Edit: took a pic of fully lit emitter (taking a pic of emitter in a ~5A direct-drive flashlight wasn’t as easy as I expected!), seems to look somewhat normal. Hm.