Possible to get this in a 1.8 or flangeless 3mm? Would love to use a high CRI 3000-4000K through hole for a dactyl manuform.
That tool light mod is a pretty cool idea. I have one similar.
Was it very difficult to swap them all? Worth the swap?
The manufacturer I’ve been dealing with are not regularly making those. Chances are I will have to pay them for the quantity I cannot comfortably handle if I want to get one.
I have planned out the development for 4500k tint, but it now requires large MOQ. Check out this thread if you are interested in joining early.
Sure, I vastly prefer these over the stock cool white leds.
After a lot of practice, It was straight forward to swap the the 5mm leds. The disassembly is a bit trickier.
The logo can be unscrewed counter-clockwise. The head is glued and crunchy but it also can be unscrewed counter-clockwise. Disconnect the wire and push the mpcb upwards where the spring is located. (I soldered the spring for better contact)
That’s pretty sweet thanks! 
My stash us getting low on these little gems and I don’t ever want to run out! so I’m ordering 100 each of the 3400 and 2300K. These have become my most used LED’s. The 2300K are perfect for anything close to candle light or night lights. The 3400K are perfect for button cell keychain or any other 5mm LED upgrades. Hi CRI goodness 7 lumen at a time.
They are also quite tolerant of the over-current abuse BLFer’s like to use!
A must have for any hi CRI modder’s toolbox.
Thanks so much for offering these to the community.
A few years ago I did a similar mod as that Black and Decker tool light to a Defiant tube light using Yuji 5600K units from when they still had a 100pc MOQ. A lot of 5mm LED containing lights are relatively easy to emitter swap which is nice.
With these 2300K LEDs though I just upgraded a 35 light Edison style string light set with almost a foot socket spacing and with flicker free filtered circuit purchased from a large blue department store. The stock LEDs look pretty nice out of the box… Until you put these Sophia LEDs in. Then the originals look absolutely terrible, particularly their color rendering when lighting a surface. The Sophias also shine more light downward, whereas the stock inverted cone 3mm units shine a lot more to the sides and not so much downward.
I will be modding a lot of light strings with these LEDs, as the manufacturer’s idea of warm white is always very inadequate when I expect the light strings to contribute to lighting my space!
Time to order more!!
Are those string lights still available, or seasonal? How hard were they to disassemble?
I’ve hit 4 of the big blue and yellow department stores in my area in the past week and only found the one string I stumbled on at the first store which looked like it may have been a return. Two of the stores didn’t even have a place on the shelf for them anymore. I think this product has been around for months and I just didn’t notice them until recently.
They seem to have been one of those springtime seasonal products, but some stores stock those items for many months each year. I’m hoping they’ll restock. I checked their online store and they’re sold out too unfortunately so I signed up for email alerts.
A lot of those stores still have white and brown filtered 100-light strings that have a round G25 covering and unfortunately much closer bulb spacing. I bought one of those as well but haven’t started modding yet.
They’re both easy. The cover pops off with a gentle prying pull, and the lamp base pulls straight out like the usual Christmas lights. Fingernails or a diagonal cutters used as a prying tool work for that task. The M5 internal LED cover pops off similarly (grabbing the base with pliers helps!). The bases are even coded for polarity, following the lengths of the LED leads! Also just like the Sophia and indeed almost all 3 and 5mm LEDs, the larger part of the lead frame is cathode.
So from what you’re saying, do the strings you found even need soldering to swap the LED’s?
I think I misunderstood which blue-branded store you were talking about. It sounds like you mean Ikea. I was thinking Lowes (I’m not sure there’s any rules here against discussing retailers by name, as long as it doesn’t seem like we’re trying to shill).
Whoops, I’m sorry I actually meant WalMart! I guess I’m still trained in being super cautious due to my beginnings on another forum!
The LEDs aren’t soldered, it’s just a pressure contact formed by the leads in the socket, just like the legacy incandescent mini strings they’re based on. You just fold the leads over against the plastic base and typically cut off the excess with a diagonal cutters. The lamp base lets you know where to cut the leads as there’s usually some kind of step where the lead is intended to stop.
Just a bump to say that I received my package yesterday. 20 days total to Sunny, hot and drought dry California. There was even tape from “Homeland Security” indicating they had opened the package!
It’s been a while, so it’s time for a little teaser:
A new sub-2000k CCT is currently under development & testing. It won’t come cheap.
Today I'm excited to announce a new 1900k for sale. I know some of you are secretly wanting somting warmer than 2300k in 5mm format and here we are. This is made by a different supplier than Sophia's (but the same as high-power 3200k).
On the same note: 2300k is out of stock at Sophia's the last time I checked, and my stock is only good for two packs, so consider this the last chance to stock up.
The price for the new 1900k is $9.7 for a pack of 50, or $39 for a pack of 250.
Here're the pics below, and you can see the full story here: https://imgur.com/a/VrY7qG6
Any news about the 4500K-EX?
Interested in the 1900K, but need to wait for a larger order to justify the new fee for tax handling through DHL (likely 6 EUR extra in Germany).
The interest is still pretty far from the goal (currently at only about ~15% of the goal achieved), so it will be quite some time until it become a reality.
I’m well aware of the new tax situation in EU, so if you want run the group buy locally, then be my guest.
I’m very interested in these LEDs (a few of each color temperature, have a (small) box full of C01). But due to the new import regulation in the EU it got quite complicated and expensive. Maybe someone can organize a group buy at taschenlampen-forum.de.
No, I meant my own order. Postage is a problem when importing for the fellow EU BLF members. Quite expensive in Germany, otherwise it would be a nice idea.
Thanks for offering this service!
