What did you mod today?

Yeah, and what is that piece that was removed? Was that part of the phosphor or is that the “window” part that I’ve heard being spoken about in some other threads? I’ve been out of the flashlight world for quite a long time and only recently came back and I was only familiar with domes. Now I’ve heard about “windows” as well. What are they, what are they for and what are the effects? If I know that, then I’ll know why people remove them. Is it similar to de-doming in terms of the performance benefits? (that being more throw at the expense of lumen output most times).

That “window” on my picture is how the dome came of. I placed it there just to show what it looks like after removal. Luminus SBT90 has a window in front of it. I think it is just to protect the phosphor. That’s just my guess.

Hmm, interesting. I took a few pics earlier tonight of my new Nitecore TM39 and I took some pics of the emitter. Handheld and in terrible, dim lighting in my room late at night so not the best shot but you can clearly see the SBT-90.2 and mine doesn’t seem to have anything on it covering the phosphor. Maybe they made the 2nd gen without the window? Lemme turn my laptop on real quick to upload the pic to Imgur… hope the compression doesn’t kill the quality so much as I’ve already compressed it from Raw into JPEG plus further compression from uploading to Imgur etc…. Meh, should be enough to see everything clearly.

Convoy S21B, 6V boost driver @4A and Nichia B35AM 5000K R9080.

how is the beam? any artifacts?

@Neurotoxin, I’m pretty sure I see the glass window, the picture shows no reflections to tell it is there, but it does show the glued edges.

Perfect, not a single artifact!

But i might go with 3A driver cause this one gets hot fast at 100%

That is a lens over die...

I agree that all Luminus leds come stock standard with a dome or glass lens. Have you got a better pic Neurotoxin

Ok now I think I get exactly what you’re referring to, I was just looking for the wrong thing. Whenever I heard the term window here, I thought they just covered the LED just like the silicone/epoxy “bead” that just covers the phosphor, and many if not all of the domed LEDs just cover the phosphor and leave the rest of the die clean . Instead, it’s a square, glass “pane” that covers the whole LED, the leads on both sides, and a large part of the surrounding area. Any idea what it’s for? Perhaps for the purpose of sealing the diode and protecting it from contamination and perhaps also to keep it flat and in place?

More like to protect those tiny conntact wires which onece delensed can be easily destroyed and then no more light

That makes sense as well. They look like they’re gold in this case, would be pretty easy to break them if you so much as looked at em wrong lol.

I mean, I don’t know what else you want, you can see all the details pretty clearly as it is :stuck_out_tongue: you can even see the brushed texture on the metal where the + and - leads are connected to.

I’m trying to prove that your sbt-90 has a window. I was hoping to find a pic on the net showing light being reflected in the glass panel but i found something better…

Compare Kawiboy’s pic to yours and you’ll notice your’s still has the square frame that holds the lens.

Agreed, have used both over the years ans xylene really does worry me more.

If you check post #10293, you’ll see that I admit to noticing the window. I just hadn’t looked at it right, but after it was mentioned, I knew exactly which part he meant. You can see the window frame on my picture where it contrasts with the green plastic it’s on. If you look at the top part of my window, it has some metal on it, whether that’s solder or thermal paste idk, but I can definitely see the window you guys are talking about. You can see the glue that’s underneath and around it, and also some pieces of what seem to be bits of clear silicone near the bottom? It’s definitely not moisture cuz it hasn’t moved. Either way, thanks for more pictures on it :+1:

By the way, now that we’re in the topic of the windows on the SBT-90.2, how much of a gain in output or throw is there to be had by removing it? There’s this dude that opened up his TM39 and removed the window on it, plus used Sony VTC6’s with the short tube (so only 4 cells instead of the 8 that comes in Nitecore’s sealed battery pack) and it was literally out-throwing an original BLF GT cool white version. He got over a million candela on his BLF GT and just under a mill on the TM39, but when he actually took em out at night to shine it on objects, the TM39 was clearly out-throwing it. Since he removed the window AND used those high amp cells, I can’t really know which of the two caused such a massive gain, or which one had greater effect in the end.

TLDR: What’s the consensus on de-windowing SBT-90.2? How much of an increase in output or throw are we talkin’ about here?

Oh sorry. I misunderstood :person_facepalming:

As far as increased throw I don’t know

Hey, it’s all good man, don’t sweat it :+1: I’m sure someone here must know of the benefits of removing that window, I mean, this IS a thread full of modders :stuck_out_tongue:

Yes, about a 5-10% bump in kcd by removing the window, it's been reported here. I've done the mod on a few SBT90.2's and appeared to be under 5%, but can't be sure.

Today I put SFT-40 in BLF A6 and in WildTrail D80v2. Both have stock drivers.

I measured almost 27kcd throw from BLF A6 with SFT-40. 116kcd from D80v2.

Let’s start with A6. Beam is a little ringy (sorry for the white balance):

I was afraid that it will be very green, but it’s not bad. Behaves like SST-40/SST-70, green on 1x7135, more neutral on FET. I’d say that more green I can see in W2.2 beam (right one in the first picture, second from the left in the second picture):

Then I thought why not install it also in D80v2. So here it goes :wink: Beam is awesome, less green than A6, there is very slight ring, but nothing near A6 (which also is quite decent).

Here it is compared with other throwers:

Here are other measurements, I know that some are missing but it is what it is :wink: I don’t have professional equipment, so numbers are just to compare different flashlights. I tried to use the same battery for each test.

Modded my On The Road M9!
More details here: “REVIEW”: On The Road M9 – 1x18650 – 1100 lumens – USB-C Charging – 3 UI Groups - #12 by MascaratumB