I was making a convoy s2+ triple with some SST-20-DR's with Mtn triple mcpcb soldered to one of kiribaru's copper spacer and pill combos. After relflow, I was soldering the leads from the Convoy 5A driver, (this one: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32989372464.html) and accidentally touched one of the SST-20 domes with my iron apparently because 2/3 of it was hazy. It was the top center one in the picture below.
Well, when I touched the dome with an alcohol covered q-tip just to see if it would "buff out" somehow, the dome came right off cleanly. This is unlike what I've heard happens with hot dedoming white sst-20's, which need to be sliced instead of de-domed. I tested with multimeter and it lit up just like the two still left with domes intact, so I heated up the pill again slightly, not enough to flow solder, and then the other two domes just came off easily with tweezers.
Anyway, I tested all the LEDs with the multimeter again, finished building the pill, cleaned everything etc, and the de-domed red sst-20's worked fine. I don't have a domed version to compare to in terms of beam or increased throw/decreased lumens. It's still very floody with carclo narrow spot optics as a small triple. But, FYI, I found out by accident that red SST-20's can be completely de-domed with heat apparently.
I had to remove tiny bits of dome around the sides of the emitter surface with tweezers, toothpicks and compressed air after I took this picture being careful not go near the bond wires:
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But, it was relatively simple once I realized my accident turned out to be non-fatal to the leds and potentially (?) increased throw a little. I mean, it has to since the surface of the led is smaller, right? I compared to a couple photo red xp-e2 lights I built and the red color was exactly the same to the eye, so I don't think it messed with that.
Also, at the tail on a rested but fully charged cell with that convoy driver, I got around 7.5A draw, so definitely pushing it to the limit on turbo.
I have one click set at 1%, second mode around 1.5 A, and third mode is full out 7.5, but I won't push it on third mode often because I know that's a lot of amps for red leds in a small light, and it's kind of overkill.
Nice thing about that driver is you can ramp it up to whatever you want, so I'll probably make the third and highest level something like 5A eventually or 60-70% of max because 7.5A is probably passed the point of diminishing returns. Also, I tried the hot de-dome a white sst-20 shortly after for a t20 zoomie, and the dome wouldn't budge at all like the red ones did so easily. So, I sliced it with a razor lubed with silicone and a washer:
Also good to know, the Sofirn 19mm mcpcb fits the T20 pill almost perfectly so you don't have to use a 16mm or sand down a 20mm.
Pill after soldering in driver and coloring everything black with sharpie as best I could for now, still purple where sharpie hadn't dried yet. Might go back and do matte thermal paint because the beam still has small artifacts or sand the surface of the led with 5000 grit. Any suggestions on perfecting an aspheric beam would be appreciated:
