After replacing XP-L with 219B, I have one artifact:
You see that the beam diverges, leaving a hole:
The eye is much, much more sensitive to this than the camera, and it overemphazises the hole.
Question: Is the 219B below (to tail) or above (to front) focal point? I’d say it needs to be raised somehow, but would like to get your analysis of the pictures.
Edit: Taking away the gasket makes things worser and leads to many new artifacts (no pictures made). Leaving it away was possible since the base diameter is smaller than the distance between solder joints.
Edit2: Maybe a view on LED and reflector might be useful.
Hi Jon, this is again the D25A we talked about somewhere else. It was off-topic there, so I thought I’d write a new thread in which beam artifacts in general could be discussed.
I had reopened the head and noticed I made a mistake. After reassembling it, most problems were gone excpet for this hole. I think I should make some shims to succesively raising the reflector. What is needed then is a thicker o-ring. The glass is loose with everything thinner than the original spacer.
I also think about modeling LED-reflector assemblies in blender. I’m unfortunately no longer fluent in it, so this will take some time. But could be worthwile.
I could arrange with the beam as it is, but if there’s a way to make it perfect, I need to know it.
I do not know how to source better reflectors… I use whatever comes with the light and make the best of it
When I can, I prefer to buy lights with xpg instead of xpl and xml
because I want the smaller hole reflector to use with 219b size
but I dont always have a choice.
this is my next mod, it has a large base hole
this is the beam it currently has…
far from perfect, there is a shadow in the spill… but I dont usually notice in actual use, when Im focused on what is being illuminated by the hotspot
When I put 219b into a light with a large base hole in the reflector such as originally equipped with xml or xpl, I focus on getting the MCPCB to be the same distance from the bottom of the reflcctor as stock spacing. The rest of the beam qualities, I cannot change without a replacement reflector….
I think you are doing everything right, given the imperfect circumstances… of a reflector with a large base hole, paired with an LED that is smaller than the original
this is where some people might try an LH351d… it is possible the wider dye will produce a beam that is more to your liking…
Yes, it has turned out the better choice in some lights. Biggest failure was a 219B in a BLF A6 host. I did everything including shaving the LED to no avail. In the end, I gave it a honeycomb TIR optics to safe the project. Nice flood light now, limited to 3 Ampere.
OTOH, the 219B in a Jetbeam-II Pro Anni edition makes an excellent beam. I’ll upload pictures in a moment.
Probably the most beautiful beam of all my lights.
I have also seen a suprisingly good beam from the relatively short reflector, that has large hole, like your Jetbeam photo…
Thrunite T10t comes with xpl originally, same as your Jetbeam
I had no complaints about the modded beam
(the beam looks worse in a photo, than to my eye)
I have only used thermal tape. It lets me change my mind and remove the mcpcb if things dont seem right
another option is thermal epoxy, I have not learned to work with it, but was inside a light modded by vinh that had a very clean install using thermal epoxy…
In your first post, there is only a hole in the beam close to the flashlight. This is from the center area where there is no reflecting surface and is normal for a properly focused light. In your beamshots on the wall there is actually no hole as evidenced by your own intensity vs pixel plot.
It’s off-center and not very pronounced, but it’s there.
Usually, the beam converges, i.e. spreads to either center and outside area. Here, it clearly diverges. This is what I see. Of course, I might be wrong.
