First of all, I’m a cold white snob. I always loved cold, clean white. 5000k, 5700k are my favorite CCTs. I like a dedomed 5700K in some of my lights for the added hotspot intensity but I’m not a fan of the 4200K. Just personal preference.
I was messing with the 519A 5700K dedomed in a S2+ and after running on 100% for a while, I noticed some black burn spots developed on the surface. It turned out to be charred two-part epoxy. Don’t ask me how it got there. I started cleaning it up but it’s very hard to get off. So, in a brain fart moment, I took a metal screwdriver and started scraping the char off… I heard some cracking sound and part of the glass cover on the LED broke off… along with some phosphor.
I was going to toss it away in my box of shame, but I decided to try it anyway. It gave this weird cold white hotspot with a hint of blue in the corona. Not liking what I saw, I decided to ‘patch it up’ the hole in the phosphor by cutting a tiny bit of phosphor off some supposed high CRI cob LED strip and silicone it into the hole on the LED surface.
After everything dried up, I chucked it back into the S2+ host with the frosted throwy TIR and fired it up. This is what I saw:
Left: TS10 4000K for reference. Right: cold white 519A dd. Camera WB 5200k. The TS10 is mildly green by me eyes and the 519A is not as pinkish as shown in the picture. It’s way below BBL but your eyes adjust to it when using it alone. When comparing side by side, any other light is green.
A ~6500K rosy high CRI throwy goodness!
This is the victim, with the holes in the phosphor layer in the corners clearly visible:
I totally dig the tint of this LED now LOL. With the narrow angle TIR in S2+ It gives a very throwy beam and wide spill with rosy, clean white and great red rendering… Everything I asked for in a S2+. I’m going to keep it there for the forseeable future. The only down side is the driver. It’s a 7135x8 driver. Hot and not very efficient. However that’s the maximum this modded LED can take. I tried to stick a 6A linear in there and the patched silicone layer started burning immediately and LED turned angry blue.
Overall I’d say it’s a happy accident. Don’t try this at home, unless you prepare to totally destroy a 519A.
If the 719A comes with 5700K or 6500K CCT, it would probably look like this.
