Need ideas - Blue LED in small, simple host

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

I’m thinking of something like a Ti3 or A01 AAA, or something a little bigger in AA. 3 - 5 modes, no blinkies preferred. Is there something like an S2+ that runs AA but keeps the S2+ price point? CR123 powered would work too. MAYBE LiIon, but it would have to be cheap and have an internal charger.

Goal - a small blue field light for an Army buddy.

Any thoughts on what emitter & host combination would work well for someone with only limited modding capabilities? The A01 or Ti3 would be about perfect, but I doubt I could get into one without a vice and hacksaw.

I’d think of a drop-in for a Surefire 6p or Nitrolon, but those tend to be a little on the expensive side and are probably single brightness like the original host…??

2

Convoy T2?

3

Nothing speaks against an SST-20 blue modded in any flashlight you like

Its basically a white without phosphor

dedoming and removing phosphor from a flip chip diode like XPL2 would also work

4

Beat me to it. Was gonna suggest any light with a G3 in it, just peel off the dome and any phosphor that’d remain.

5

Depending on how bright you need it to be —- I just did a whole bunch of Tool aaa with Green XPEs—-about 75 lumens on high (surprising how bright they are ) — these work excellent for hunters going to stands — most of the time they use Mid mode — about 25 lumens

6

Blue is an odd color for a field light. What is the use case?

If you don’t want to dedome, XT-E, XP-G3 are available in blue, I think. You could also go the gel route.

7

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=fasttech+blue+led+flashlight

8

US military used to use Red as their low light / low discoverability flashlight color. It was shifting to Blue lights the last time it applied to me. My buddy is military, and this seems like a cool thing to give him.

It’s only needed for up-close work - map reading, checking vehicle/radio settings, etc, so a rather low lumen count is needed. Durability, common bateries, then small size are the driving needs.

9

I was looking at the Tool AAA - the host price is right where I want it to be, and the quality if good.

How hard is it to gain access into the head of a AAA Tool?

10

What is involved in removing the dome and/or phosphor without destroying the emitter? The result is a mid to deep blue?

Hmmm… cheap battery holder, cheap driver(?), some LED stars with G3 variants — experimentation doesn’t sound like it would be too difficult or expensive.

11

Interesting, I had not heard about the switch to blue. Unfortunately, all the mounted Blue leds at MTN are on 16 or 20mm MCPB. Kaidomain has them. Maybe a cheap AA or AAA donor, although it’s hard to beat a Tool AAA or similar.

12

Unlike the G and G2, the G3 is a flip-chip, so no bond wires on top that you have to watch out for. So strangely enough, they’re pretty robust. People who tried regular dedoming would end up ripping off most of the phosphor layer anyway, so that very quickly fell out of favor, but you’d want to get rid of the phosphor as much as possible, so win-win.

It ends up just a regular blue emitter. Dunno exactly what wavelength, in the area of 470nm or so if I had to guess.

It’ll still cause mild fluorescence, like making copier-paper and sneakers glow, etc.

13

They are simple little lights— a pair of pointy tweezers in the driver holes removes a pill—you have to be careful —some are glued some aren’t — a little heat from a heat gun frees them up easily—once you get the pill out the LED board is easily accessible—you have to reflow your new LED to the tiny board though

14

I’m specifically not looking for UV. Making things glow is a problem from two sides - Joe Snuffy isn’t going to have any UV blocking glasses, particularly at night, and glowing things give those you’re fighting a nice way to know which direction to point their guns.

I don’t know the specific wavelength I’m looking for, but it will be on the human-visible side of UV.

hmmm… or maybe just a UV blocking lens in it?

15

It’s just a regular blue LED, is all. Not even violet, let alone UV. But copier-paper, etc., does glow under regular blue light.

16

Once you get into the blue range the photons pack enough energy to knock electrons around, inducing phosphorescence.

Effects of blue light on the circadian system and eye physiology

17

“G3”… XP-G3, XPL-G3, Lasagna-G3…?? I know just enough to ask the wrong questions in this realm.

Is there a simpler/cheaper experimental route to dedoming than a cell holder and the simplest driver & LED board Simon sells? I figure, worst case, if I trash an LED, a new mounted one will be cheap, and I can eventually replace the trashed emitter with something more interesting…. like something in the IR range.

18

XP is the package, G3 is the chip.

Just keep your options open.

19

I’ve swapped a Royal Blue XP-G3 450nm into a decorative MR16 bulb, specifically the XPGDRY-L1-0000-00601 from Mouser.

These are bright - so much so that a lower brightness bin (like say XPGDRY-L1-0000-00401), or even a Royal Blue XP-E (XPEROY-L1‑0000‑00902 / XPEROY-L1‑0000‑00A02) might actually be desirable for this use case.
Just throwing out a data point in case you’re looking for a bare emitter - I would assume de-domed emitters are similarly bright either way.

A moonlight mode would be handy, I really do believe blue light sickness exists after fooling with 405-450nm light.