Sky Ray Stl-V2 dedoming - before and after beamshots

Hello to everyone, this is my first post,

I’m Michael and I live in Poland; I’ve been reading BLF for about a year.

One month ago I’ve bought STL-V2 and after reading BLF I decided to dedome the LED :slight_smile:

I used iron to make the dome hot, and I used my fingernail!! (after trying tweezers) to peel it off. Luckily, everything went well.

I made beamshots (4 meters from the wall, same white balance, shutter time, iso and aperture) before and after dedoming.

In the real life, difference seems to be similar to what we can see at the photos. The tint is now more neutral (much nicer for me!) and the hotspot is really more intense. Unfortunately I’don’t have lux-meter.

I hope that the beamshots are somehow useful and can tell if it’s worth to dedome the xm-l in STL-v2

Before:

After:

ISO 160, 1/250 sec at f/5,6

Regards,
Michal

definitely whiter and tighter after dedoming.Nice work i have not modded anything as yet ,you jumped in at the deep end so to speak

What a difference in color! Thanks
What about exterior? Do you think it was worth it, or it does not make a big difference?

Last night Hannes and I decided to upgrade one of our other friend’s Skyray STL-V2. The STL-V2 is already a very nice thrower, but we wanted to give it some wow factor. We took some before and after measurement, so the numbers are purely there to give an indication of improvement, as we are unsure if the DX Lux meter is fully calibrated, and forgot to measure the distance from the wall (I blame it all on the red wine J) ) I think the distance was between 3 and 4 meters from the wall.

Before:
Ceiling bounce: 32 lux
Wallshot: 430 lux

As a reference, my Solarforce Masterpiece Pro-1 with 2x18650’s gave the following results:
Ceiling bounce: 12 lux
Wallshot: 505 lux

We started by taking a brand new XML2 U2 1A tint, and cut away 90% of the dome, about 0.5mm above the LED itself.
We then reflowed the de-domed LED on a sinkpad
Next we replaced the stock driver with a LD-29 1-2* Lithium 2.8A driver. We measured the stock current going through the LED, which was 2.78A. We decided this was too little and modified the sensing resistor on the LD-29 driver to supply 4.2A to the LED (measured in series on the LED side).
We put everything back together and put some Fujik in the pill as well.

After:
Ceiling bounce: 41 lux
Wallshot: 900 lux

All and all, we are happy with the light. The tint is a much nicer neutral white. It compares very closely to a 3D tint (5000K). The hotspot is very similar in size to my MPP-1, however the STL-V2 now smokes my MPP-1 in the hotspot, and even between 200-300m the hotspot of the STL-V2 is just as bright (to the eye) than my MPP-1, but the difference is the STL-V2 still has a quite useable corona and spill around the hotspot where the MPP-1 is a laser.

I’ll see if I can get some beamshots over the weekend.

yes love to see pics

Nice work michalgum. Definitely a good tint improvement.

Right guys, here are some beamshots (PS: how do you guys take those crystal clear thrower beamshots? :~ In my defense, the wind was pumping :stuck_out_tongue: )

I forgot to take a reference shot, but just image it is dark (apart from the streetlights). The distance according to Google is about 670ft or 200m:

First up we have my EDC Solarforce L2P with XM-L T6 3C running at 2.8A:

Next we have my Solarforce Masterpiece Pro-1 with stock XR-E:

And finally we have the Skyray STL-V2, featuring a XM-L2 U2, SinkPad and modified LD-29 driver feeding 4.2A to the LED:

Mouse-over: Mouse-Out: MPP-1, Mouse-In: STL-V2:

Thanks for the beamshots. The difference is quite noticeable . What mods did you make to the L29?

I would like to do something similar - can anyone guide a “noob” through modding a sense resistor?

Thx in advance

Impressive, michalgum :smiley:
That’s a real improvement, judging from your pics

Very nice, the STL-V2 is an awesome light for modding!

Impressive results, and nice pics too michalgum.

Suggest you search BLF for "resistor" and the model of light you want to do this to. It's been pretty well described in a number of threads for the Small Sun ZY-T13 and the SS ZY-T08 as well as others. The basic idea is that you add a resistor in parallel with the existing sense resistors. This reduces the total "sense resistance" and causes the driver to supply more current to the LED. If your light doesn't have sufficient thermal management to handle the increased current you may have problems. Doing this is usually easier with under driven/over built lights. If your light is already well driven you may want to consider trying it with different light.