I’m looking around and not sure if they’re custom pieces or I don’t know the right word.
So instead of a shiny reflector cup there’s a shallow white plastic cup around the LED/LEDs and maybe there’s a zoom lens in front or maybe that white cup is all the optics there is.
Many zoomies have a white plastic washer or shallow cup on top of the star. This can accomplish a few things:
On some cheaper zoomies this washer has a fairly tight fit to the surrounding pill. It presses the star down into the pill, preventing it from falling out of position and giving better heat transfer. This is an inferior method of retaining a star than using screws, but is extremely cheap.
It also covers the top of the star except the LED making the front of the light look prettier when the light is off.
In covering the top of the star, it may reduce or even out reflections from objects on top of the star such as screws and bondwires. This may reduce artifacts outside the edges the beam in spot mode.
The white cup or washer is NOT a reflector
LEDs emit light in a wide cone out the front of the LED. In most zoomies, the shallow white washer or cup is actually flat enough that it sits below the angle of this cone.
In a reflector, the cone directly hits the sides of the reflector which then bounces the light forward. Since the white cup or washer sits below this angle, it is not actually a reflector. A very minimal amount of indirect light is reflected off it out the front of the light. It does not affect the main part of the beam in flood or spot mode.
As far as I know these plastic washers aren’t patented.
Perhaps they are too specific to the flashlight to be sold as a generic part.
Was thinking of a very floody light but I guess a literal white plastic washer would fit the majority of the bill of having a LED hole and tidying up the background.
More along the lines of barely more than a LED behind a plain lens so I reckon a nylon penny washer (large OD compared to ID) is the easiest and cleanest way to do it.
I own the 16340 size version of the Romisen RC-29. It’s not a reflector. The angle of the cup is below the angle of the emission cone from the LED. As such, it doesn’t really “reflect” much light.
If you take the cup out the output will look almost exactly the same. Neither the flood nor the spot will be any brighter. However, without it, in flood mode there may be slightly less diffuse light outside of the floodbeam’s circle. And in spot mode, you may get artifacts outside the spot beam caused by reflections off the bondwires.
