Review: Zeusray FL05518 Domed & De-Domed

Interesting, i want try something like that on my next dedome.

You said on coppar it is even hotter? i bought some diffrent xp-l & xm-l2 on noctigon from hank that i had planned to try in the zeusray when i get some better driver for it.
Did you take the stock led and put in on a coppar mcpcb?

I don’t have a cell in my C8.

As Cereal Killer said, that is what modes are for.

The LED will be cooler but the flashlight body will be hotter much faster with noctigon.
I did it with the stock LED, its easier to do it with a aluminium star because you want the LED dome to be very hot so it become soft.

You should try XP-G2 1D for dedome, better tint and better throw. There won’t be much change compared to stock with another XM-L2 or XP-L.

Thanks for the answer Omega_17,

The plan is to get some A17DD-SO8 or BLF17DD drivers, and upgrade the switch to an omten and use one of the newer lumens bins XP-L V6 or XM-L2 U3 in some different hue bins to test what hue i like the most, i am rather new at this so i don’t have a preference yet. i also upgraded the lens to a glass one, it is not perfect in focus but almost so i will probably leave it like that.

I got the XP-L V6 3D among others because i think it is the warmest of the highest lumens bins.

So my plan is to max it out to the best of my abilities :slight_smile: the one thing i don’t know yet is what i like in hue, but thats where the different xp-l and xm-l2 comes in.

I know you said there is not much to gain from an similar led but Tom E upgraded his with the XM-L2 U3 on noctigon + omten + braided spring upgrade and got a pretty respectable lumens boost even before the FET driver upgrade, ~300 lumens extra.

This was Tom E’s post about it from the consolidated zeusray thread
“Post above has latest lumens measured with the U3 1A. The original #1 stock ZeusRay did 782 OTF stock w/tail of 3.6A. The 918 OTF lumens # was before the tailswitch replacement, afterwards, I measured 1081 OTF lumens. Also I found out later the XM-L2 U2 1A I had and tested in there was defective - it had that weird doggy image on the dye? I didn’t think it effected max lumens, but the XM-L2 U3-1A definiteily did better - bout another 220 lumens bump.”

Video Review:

Nice video review :slight_smile:

And surprisingly good camera work in the dark with lots of different flashlights to keep track of :wink:

What is the effect in terms of lifespan on the pill after de-doming it?

I would happily convert all my pills but if it kills the life it’s not a good trade.

I think you have a point Wentil. Cree has come out with an almost domeless version, but it has some left to protect the LED. I think the life span effect must be negligible as long as you keep the light indoors.

I don’t think it’s a weather issue, as after all the interior of the flashlight’s head, including the collaminator, is pretty much waterproof, given its O-ring design and tight threading.

I’m more concerned that by removing the dome, the lifetime of the emitter surface will be adversely affected. It may burn much more brightly, but at what cost? Surely the engineers at CREE didn’t waste their time and money engineering, manufacturing and applying that dome atop each LED emitter surface for no purpose.

— Wentil

THe purpose of dome is to extract more lumen, make the LED more efficient, so its not wasting their time and money. WE dedome it, is to either get more throw or to change the tint, its like trading for lumen & efficiency.

If have dedomed and dome version, you can compare it. The light is more gradual and even across the illumination area with dome version, where as dedomed version have different tint (colour), different brightness, different throw distance, etc. There are a thread sharing all about dedome facts, but i forgot where is it ~

It seemed to me (in the photos of the review, above) that far more lumens were being generated by the pills with their domes removed.

My interest is mainly in getting the most lumens possible, it doesn’t matter to me whether the tint of the light is cooler or warmer.

However, if removing the dome significantly shortens the life of the pill, that’s something I want to know in advance. :slight_smile:

I’m not sure I understand what you are saying. When you say “pill” do you mean driver? If all else is equal, a domed LED will produce more output than a de-domed LED. If output is all that you care about, leave the dome on.

Used in rain and dust, even though it starts off sealed, I would expect that the LED will likely need wiping off some time. Without the dome, that means wiping off the bond wires as well as the dust and mud.

https://www.google.com/search?q=led+phosphor+seal+volatile

I’m sure domed emitters last longer, but they last a lot of hours anyway. They won’t be the first things to go out on your flashlight, unless, of course, they get fried and go poof, but de-doming won’t change that anyway. I’m not a huge fan of de-doming, but I’m in the minority, and haven’t done much of it.

My only goal is to increase lumen output of the flashlight, so if de-doming accomplishes that — and does not massively reduce the emitter’s lifespan — I’ll give it a shot. I have a large number of LED flashlights to experiment with. :slight_smile:

Yes, lumen output is my main goal. So de-doming will not increase output. Thanks, I’ll leave my LEDs domed. :slight_smile:

Dedoming increases throw. Lux I think is the unit of light per solid angle. It slightly decreases lumens, total light output in all directions.

That’s admittedly a bit puzzling, as the throw of the lumens being generated is dictated by the angle of the reflector, not the emitter. If you aren’t actually generating more lumens by de-doming, and also since you aren’t changing the reflector by removing the dome, you must be changing the angle of the generated light before it hits the reflector. Making it deeper in the well of the reflector, per se, less “floody”, and more concentrated into one area… which would, in turn, increase the effective throw by reducing the width of the beam — which makes sense, given that you say you effectively reduce the light output in other directions than the throw.

As Dr. Jones explains, the dome helps light escape at the surface of the phosphor. Without it, that light is reflected back and some of it scatters out. That makes the surface brighter. Dedoming makes the LED surface brighter but makes it look smaller from the outside so the total light is less.