SST-40 de-dome

Got my SST-40’s in and couldn’t be happier. Fantastic at high amps. Seriously crank out the lumens and not much of a tint shift when de-domed although I started with the very coolest tint. The domes on these are really tough though, so it takes a bit of work to get them to de-dome right. What worked for me was to first do a close to clean shave on them. Almost like you are de-doming them with a razor blade first. Then I soaked them in high octane gasoline. I used hot gasoline too. I soak mine in a little crock with a half inch of gas in it, that I float it on top of a big bucket full of super hot water. This keeps the gasoline pretty hot and it seems to help. Or at least I think it does anyway. They still didn’t float free completely but they lifted up enough that I could then gently peal them off and I got mine very clean. Pretty much perfect.

So are XM-L2’s obsolete now? Well for me I’d say they are. Same for XP-L2’s. I suppose the XP-L Hi’s are still good for some people who don’t want to mess with de-doming. But on any super high amp build I know I’ll be using these.

My first build with them was a C8. I put in a BLF FET driver with 10 gauge wire clipped as short as you can possibly do it. Then I did both tailcap and spring mods. Popped in a high amp LG and holy moley what a little beast. Just crazy bright and didn’t seem to get super hot right away either. Well not any hotter than any other hot rodded C8 anyway.

Thanks for your thoughts 18sixfifty. I ordered a few after djozz’s test to have a play.

I used luminarium iaculator´s metode from this thread it came out very nice :


X6 SST-40 DD 6500K (left) C8S XP-L HI 4500K (right)

What about tint shift for dedomed SST-40s?

Where do you get these emitters from?

Maybe here: “sst-40” search at Kaidomain

Hi 18sixfifty, Would you say that the dedomed SST-40 is brighter than a XP-L HI V3? Did you purchase yours from KD?

Thanks!

Thanks Barkuti!

At 6 amps or better it sure seems to be. I hate to say anything as an absolute but from the little testing I have done so far it is.

Nice, thanks for sharing.

Hey mate thanks for the update. How is the Candela rating? I would guess its close to the XML2 range? How much output did you lose from the dedome?

I’m also interested in some candela numbers. Based on djozz’s thread, the SST-40 can have higher output with dome, because of lower Vf, but the measured candela was not as high as a good dedomed XPL V6.

I will report my findings when my emitters arrive in a week or two.

I’ll look forward to your report. I think djozz hadn’t done a full de-dome but maybe he did and I didn’t read it correctly? I know that the “close shave” method doesn’t produce the numbers that a perfect de-dome done with gas does. I’ll do some testing myself and see what’s what but I have gotten to where I don’t like posting numbers because I simply don’t trust my equipment to give an accurate enough reading and I hate the inevitable arguments over it.

My dedome was messy, with small bits of silicone still remaining on the led. I’m sure that the throw was less than optimal, the question is how much less?

I’ll let people with better testing equipment than me report on the exact numbers. I know I’m very impressed with them when they are running at very high amps and that’s mostly what I’m after. Just a guess but I have a “feeling” that unless they are run at 6amps and above that they won’t out-throw the XPL-Hi’s. Just guessing though so it will be nice when someone does find out for sure.

Thanks again for your testing, that was what led me to buy some and try them out.

Luminus also released the CFT90 which looks pretty insane.
6k lumens from a 9mm^2 die, and with no dome or even a window.
Much better efficiency than the CBT90.

I have used a couple of similar emitters from them, the different colored ones. Hard to work with but not impossible. They produce a lot of heat and the bases need to be electrically isolated. But they are impressive when you do them right.

So who will be the first to get one of these into a BLF GT? })

The SST-40 would be interesting in the GT i.m.o.
It can do 2000 Lumen on 20 Watts, comparable to XHP35 but with a considerably smaller die.

I would want a warmer tint though than the 6500K