I got a free VG10S to review. Turns out I suck at reviews, but anyway I’m looking for advice/opinions on dedoming. I have two D4’s which are nice and floody. Now I would like a light with more throw. If I did the heat gun and razor method on the the domed XP-L2 how much more throw could I expect? Thanks in advance.
So I can expect less lumens but a more focused beam, so more throw. And from what I understand the tint shift comes from the petrol technique damaging the phospher coating. I really want to tinker with something since the srk knockoffs I bought on ebay were a bust/no show. Ended up getting a rfund. The seller did the refund within 30 minutes of filing a request so at least that part didn’t drag out.
In general, yes you can expect more throw and a narrower beam. With older LEDs with visible bond wires like the XPL and XPG2 you would get around a 1.9x increase in beam intensity. With some new LEDs like the XPL2 and XPG3 it’s a bit less at around 1.5x I think.
I think these new LEDs are harder to dedome using gas or hot-dedoming; some of the phosphor tends to come up with the silicone. I would just slice the dome off with a razor blade. Try to get as close as possible to the phosphor. It doesn’t have to be perfectly flat and smooth.
Few issues here the VG10S is using a XPL2 so it’s a bit harder to de-dome and doesn’t perform as well as a de-domed XPL. Other is the VG10S is using a NW emitter so when de-domed your led may appear fairly warm losing more output.
Thanks for the input EasyB and everydaysurvivalge. I think I will give it a shot. Worst case I end up replacing the emitter altogether.