Nice one! :+1:
I think it's maybe not so small - looks really good!
Today I swapped the three secondary red 5mm LEDs in my SF A2 Aviator with some warm white high CRI LEDs from Ebay (Sophia?).
I filed off the lip on the bottom of the LEDs so they would fit properly in the reflector holes.
I didn’t want to try to remove the leaf spring contact ring from the bottom of the LED board to properly desolder the red LEDs so I opted to just snip them off and solder the new ones right on top. This worked out great.
The LEDs in this light are powered directly by the cells with just a resistor in series. I left the original resistors for the red LEDs (100ohm I believe) since I’m going to use 16340 cells with this light rather than CR123 primaries. That’s a perfect value for the white LEDs with the higher voltage cells.
The incandescent lamp is actually driven by a buck converter (4.5v I believe?) with a “soft start” feature to extend lamp life. Pretty advanced for a light of its time.
CCT of the LEDs matches perfectly with the incandescent lamp. The LED beam is a bit weird when you shine it on a white wall but it’s so wide it isn’t really noticeable in actual use. Here it is next to the incandescent beam which has a very tight hotspot.
And here’s some measurements of the LEDs along with the incandescent lamp just for fun.
Those wanting to do this mod I recommend Convoy S21B. I just found out, not in a nice way, that it takes 22mm driver. So Convoys 22mm boost driver is direct match. With 21A I had to do all kinds of tricks to get it to fit.
1 Thank
First time tried to dedome a Led dipped for entire night on petroleum 1268(naptha for cigarette lighters).
part of the dome was almost detached,tried to removed it by lifting with a blade then half was broke.
The residual remained attached on the bond wire with result of a bizarre difference tint shift and artifacts between the two parts .
Does I used wrong solvent or had to wait longer to melt dome completely?
I would also find a method to remove the residuals dome.
Yeah,before tint was better,just slight cool/purple and now it’s greenish
Lesson learn with old Cree Leds.
Now need magnifier and patience for remove residuals,what about use compressed air?
Next I would try dedome a greenish SST-20 4K to improve tint and throw
but I’m hesitating,considering these results…
Now that half part is uncovered, there is a risk that the phosphors will be damaged when on contact with the solvent?
Thanks for support.
Hit it with electronic contact spray. You’re not gonna hurt anything. The force of the spray will tend to knock off the remaining already weakened/crumbly silicone. If that doesn’t work right off the bat soak it in “Goof Off!” for 4 hours.
Then spray it again. Let dry which will be pretty fast. You should end up with just a pristine phosphor pad and its wires.
Home Depot sells CRC QD Contact Cleaner and “Goof Off!” at a good price.
Some folks use gasoline. Comparable to Goof Off! essentially. Just a lot more vapor-flammable.
The stuff ya mention could be too harsh.
Ya know I’ve never tried kerosene which is relatively mild. I’ll give it a shot someday.
The contact cleaner should be fast drying and leaves zero residue. Essential in the process.
I use brake cleaner when cleaning dirty emitters and flashlight parts. Contact cleaner works also. Brake cleaner is effective when removing excess soldering residues from pcb’s.
It may work butt it can also harm certain plastic finishes and coatings. It’s a gamble. That’s why they use it on not so delicate brakes and not delicate electronic components. Contact spray is safest, less toxic, and much easier to deal with if it gets on ya or yer clothing - stink wise.
I think brake cleaner to clean dirty emitters and associated parts is kinda well, plain
overkill. :laughing: :confounded: 
Well, that might be. I think they are chemically quite close. They even smell the same and both evaporate very fast.
I checked from my spray bottles, so that I don’t spread false information. Brake cleaner and Electric cleaner both have kerosene as a base component. Brake cleaner also has small amount of acetone and benzol. Less than 1%.
Regarding break cleaner… be aware in the US there are green and red cans. The green, if I remember correctly, is non-chlorinated and the red is chlorinated. The red is the one that you need to worry about around plastics, but it is a much better solvent. I use both on firearms and only green on lights and electronics. I have see the red make plastic gummy and change colors.
Bottom line is that if the spray yer using doesn’t say, “Safe for Plastics”, yer gambling. High quality electronic contact sprays will typically say that. And I don’t care watt anybody sez, electronic contact sprays tend to evaporate faster and leave no residues. Evaporating faster means ya also have less of a chance shorting something out cuz ya got impatient to fire things up.
I’d have to be pretty dam hard up to use brake cleaner on an emitter or PCB that’ s fer sure. :laughing:
Have contact spray From CRC but don’t evaporate.Maybe not right for dedoming
I use it on switchs and contact points to avoid oxidation and increase cross current,it work well.
For this Led I’ll try again petroleum for lighters.
For dedome SSt-20 what about Acetone? Should be more aggressive,so maybe less time to wait.
No problem. I just told my own experience. No one has to do as I do.
Huh? CRC QD Contact Cleaner doesn’t evaporate? News to me. :person_facepalming:
It evaporates. Maybe not the absolute fastest butt it evaporates plenty fast enuff.
The fastest evaporative contact cleaner I almost exclusively use is, Puretronics Contact Cleaner. Stock No. 3500. Relatively cheap yet absolutely fantastic stuff. :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :+1: :student:
One other tip: Take a can of compressed air, hold the can only horizontally, and after ya spray the contact cleaner over your partially dedomed led, give it a blast or two of air.
This will clear out tiny particles of dome material from the phosphor and any remaining contact spray will get blown out too. :+1: :student:
My CRC it’s another old product called “electro”.Not a specific contact cleaner as you said and guarented doesn’t evaporate,infact he still where I had applied
But I”ll try also your method
Some contact cleaners have a light oil in it to a) act as a lube and b) lightly coat the contacts to prevent corrosion/oxidation.
Dunno from that particular brand.