Haha. Yes, I did the same thing with my first Nichia C from RMM not long ago — I just touched the dome accidentally with my clamp right after soldering the wires to the board and zip, dome gone (luckily leaving a fragment right over the connecting wires). Mentioned it in RMM’s thread and he said that kind of accident is how he learned about dedoming too. Soooooo easy to do.
Lovely result, too.
Is there some kind of sealant that can be painted on to protect the phosphor from volatiles? I recall reading that the phosphor will absorb anything that outgasses and change color over time.
That kind of neutral coating should be available...
Some led even have a thermochromic coating (cheap alternative to nanophosphors)
By the way, did phosphors have been damaged on your 219C? By checking some other posts, dedoming the C seems quite difficult.
...Or is it the method?..
Also, the new manufacturing process for the C series seems not to include an extra 1st (protecting/or filtering?) coating like the B. Could you confirm?
About the C tint, do you have some images sample of your dedomed 219C - outdoor pics?
I hope its not against the rules to bump such an old thread, but I did want to thank diozz for this thread. I used the hot dedome method, and some of the phosphor came off my 219b but it still works wonderfully.
I had two hot dedomes, one was from a fresh emitter swap, and the other was induced after I tried how a 5700K 219B would look. It looked absolutely awful.
The first one did not have any phosphors come off, and has a very warm color. The 2nd lost some of it and has a very clean neutral color. I got these LEDs with the intention to dedome them. I used a cheap razor blade as well.
For anyone trying to dedome them, I have had success so far, and its not that bad, but its still a rather intense process. heres some of the phosphor that came off.
This is indeed a rather long time ago, it isa 219A and I can see now that the it has a different way the phosfor layer is applied than the 219B and 219C (those have a low rim around the phosfor, this 219A led does not have that).
I have not had anything happened to my dedomed leds yet (my flashlight do not get much runtime at all and certainly not on highest setting), but some have reported dedomed leds failing early.
Yes, with the limited number of reports (I do not think I can find back who suffered from it) the failing of dedomed leds is IMO a bit anecdotical, it is possible that the failing is caused by something different like a bad reflow or leaving dirt on the dedomed surface.
heres some of the phosphor that came off.