A Perfect Dedome?

When I flick off the dome, I always do it from the side opposite the wires. I am very paranoid, resulting in being very careful when handling these de-domed LED's. I constantly check with a 10x (listed as 30x) lighted magnifier (from who else? - FastTech) when working on them. I never attempt to clean up the side with the wires, actually 2 sides. On those sides, I'll only push off material that is on or over the edge of the square LED base - again, very carefully.

That’s the thing, I never touched it physically! Would it even be possible to break the wires by flinging or blowing? I thought not, but results don’t lie. Must not have respected the fragility of these wires…

Okay, here is how I did it:

Put some cellulose thinner into a glass.
Then take a string and use it to hang the star with the led on it into the cellulose thinner in the glass (head first).
After that put the cap on to fix the string.
Should look like this:

While you wait about 45 mins, pan (?) it from time to time carefully and slowly.

The dome should fall off within an hour.
Then get it out and put it on kitchenpaper to let it dry.

Thats it. Worked perfectly everytime.

Toppel

Yes, entirely possible, if the silicone hadn't been softened all the way through and it was still intact surrounding the bond wires. Leave it in longer until the dome floats completely off on its own, it won't hurt a thing.

I have one that just as an experiment has been soaking for around 3 weeks and maybe twice a week I take it out, rinse it off, and test it. No change from how it worked after the initial ~6 hour bath that removed the dome.

Makes sense, thanks. That’s not the first time my lack of patience has come back to bite me! :_(

God help me, I’m thinking about getting another C8, with XM-L2 U2 or U3 emitter…and driven Hard.

I finally killed one, but the gas didn't do it. I had the bright idea to try rinsing in acetone instead of iso and even though it was just a quick dunk the phosphor went goofy and peeled up at the corners. LED still works, I managed to get all the phosphor off and now have a dangerously bright XML2 T6 UV emitter on a 16mm Sinkpad. :steve:

So, don't do what I did. Rinse in iso only.

this somewhat illustrates why i think solvents other then gas should be tried, i am curious if the gasoline in contact with the phosphor reduces its output at all, if someone did a test between several dedoming methods/solvents i would be very interested in the results

Very Fast……… :bigsmile:

Well, the rule is double the throw (in kcd), and then some little more - so, maybe 105%-110% increase at throw in kcd. I know guys using other methods get this result - Manual Man here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/17492). So for example, I've done 3 Small Sun T08's, de-domed in gas. They all go from 95-100 kcd to 200-210 kcd. My results show this same approximate percent increase, so I'm thinking nothing is lost at all, if there is, it's little. Now with XP-G2's, I've had some disappointing results of not even getting 100%, but for some reason it seems like I'm losing amps after de-doming XP-G2's - maybe they are that much cooler and drives up Vf, dunno.

Small Sun T08s don’t start at 100kcd, stock they’re closer to 50kcd.

Thought it sounded to good to be true, ahh well you saved me $27.

Did you really get a UV emitter by removing the phosphor layer? I thought the tint you get was blue, can you make things fluorescence like a passport or driver license?

This raises the question…“why do they put domes on the LEDs in the first place?”

Ooops! My mod'ed T08's start at 95 - 100 kcd. I meant fully mod'ed with dome (4.2A nanjg, XM-L2/SinkPAD, copper, UCL/p lens), then after de-doming this highly mod'ed light... Sorry I didn't make that clear. These are all true numbers, verified after the de-doming by another BLF'er on his well published throw measurements (https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/18214), but only after the modding .

Yeah I ground mine off too and it still wont tail stand very well so like you no mods for me either.

LOL!! :smiley:

Well, my A3 DOES tailstand at least! (I used wire cutters and sandpaper) …then blackened with a Sharpie…some real high tech stuff, I’m mighty proud… :nerd_face:

Makes much more sense now!

I have an actual UV light (but only 3x 3mm LEDs) for A/C leak detection, and this one with phosphor scraped off looks the same, except about 300 times brighter. Maybe the tint is a little more blue than purple but it's still putting out TONS in the UV range. Even 'blue' LEDs have a lot of UV in them and glowy stuff will glow enough to be noticeable, but this one is fierce. I'm not using it again until I have some proper protective glasses, even though I of course never looked directly at the emitter just looking at things it was pointed at left me with purple shadows in my vision for several hours afterwards.

Unlike the original XML, XML2 isn't damaged by scraping the top of the die, it's just a flat featureless slab of ceramic(?) with no traces to be damaged. Doing the same to a XML would have killed it.

Also, your eyes are not very sensitive to blue light and your iris won’t close down… you get hit with a LOT more light than you think…

Interesting ideas... I'll check if I got mineral or baby oil and give it a go. Got at least 20 of XML T6's laying around now, so good for experimentation.