Yeah, but those copper pills don’t fit in this HD2010 from Tmart … -> NEW !! See last post on Driver Issue: Response from T-Mart HD2010..The Good & The Bad.
Ryansohs pill fits like a bought one.
Would kapton tape over the solder joints and on the back side of the reflector offer sufficient insulation against shorts?
I always do that and as long as they are not tear-up they work well. I have insulation disks but they are always too thick for the reflector positioning.
The problem is that to get a clean beam, the reflector has to sit flush with the LED MCPCB. There would be no space left for the wires in between the bottom of the reflector and the MCPCB.
The plastic spacer in my light is 1.8mm thick, with a ledge at 1.4mm, so the reflector sits 1.4mm above the MCPCB. I’m thinking of making a teeny tiny 1.2mm shim to go between the MCPCB and the LED. I have some copper shims on order to play with.
I think I just used my crappy drill press and gradually upped the drill bit size, drilling from the back side obviously. Then I just used compressed air to blow out any shavings. Didn't come out perfect but it worked for me.
Nice JonnyC. What did it do to your light's beam?
TexasToasted, from what I see in your picture though the one with plastic spacer has worse beam pattern but the center spot is slightly more intense compare to the one without plastic spacer. What do you see in real life?
I had a really hard time trying to capture what I see with the camera. The beam with the spacer installed is out of focus and ringy. There are brighter and darker spots within the hotspot.
Here’s another way to compare the beam with, and without, the spacer.
I have the test LED sitting on my workbench face up, towards the ceiling. The distance from my workbench to the ceiling is 6’6” (about 200cm).
With the reflector sitting directly on the MCPCM, the width of the hotspot is about 5” (13cm).
With the spacer ring installed, the width of the hotspot is about 10” (26cm).
It just corrected the out of focus issue. For me it's a lot nicer beam.
Did it decrease the throw any?
Ah, here's a post about it from a while back before I swapped in a dedomed XM-L2 - https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/8279?page=7#comment-203568
Still waiting on my HD2010, but I’ll check the focusing too.
I’m wondering if the focus is actually better? The beam is nicer but maybe there is less light in the hotspot. Anyway to get some KCD readings to verify a good focus with the mod?
My testing was at low power, 2ma through the LED. Just aiming the reflector across my room onto my light meter, the out of focus hotspot reads about 70Lux, the in focus hotspot reads about 85 Lux.
You don’t need a meter to see the difference- it’s pretty obvious.
Typically, I don't see many inexpensive lights that are focused for the tightest hot spot. From a manufacturing viewpoint, it would make sense to have the light more "generic", so that more people might want it for overall use, instead of it being a total thrower, or a total flooder. I would say that most of the lights I have done for throwers need to have the reflector height adjusted for the tightest hot spot. Also, you will find that different leds have different needs for focusing. That's all part and parcel of modding. Stock lights are usually done with a larger hot spot and a smoother spill.
Also, part of it would be due to the height needed to clear the wires and that has to be some of the reason a stock light is set up the way it is.
Modding is making something how you want it to be, not how it comes stock.
I seems pretty cool, if uses cooper pill , will get better effect? anyway, nice experiment