Hi all! I just got my first 519a’s in the mail, a 4000k in an s21e and a 4500k in an S2+. I must say that i was a little… underwhelmed at first. even the 4000k just felt… sterile. I had received an m21f with XHP70.3 r9050 in 4000k a few weeks ago that i had fallen in love with, and the 519a’s just werent doing it for me.
So i Popped the domes off. And wow, now im in love! I would say it brought them to life. I love the gentle rosy warmth they have now. (i had wanted to do before and after pictures, but i got impatient and just went for it.)
Somewhat sadly, now when i compare the xhp70.3 HI next to the dedomed 519a, it is much less appealing.
Some curiosities:
If i swap the XHP70.3 4000k out for a 3000k will it help me to love it again? (i know thats a highly subjective question) I know that cct and duv dont really hold hands. I still love the output and the beam profile of the 70.3, and want to love the temp/tint again after getting to know the DD 519a.
On Convoy’s site, in the components section it has the XHP70.3 listed with these options: (actually, i dont know if they are “options”, it just has this info listed)
BIN (R9050)
XHP70D-H-1D0-M40-D0-U-01
XHP70D-H-2A0-M20-D0-U-01
XHP70D-H-50G-M20-D0-U-01
XHP70D-H-40G-K40-D0-U-01
XHP70D-H-30G-K20-D0-U-01
i havent been able to find a Binning chart that I can understand. can someone help me to understand what all these numbers mean? are these different bins available? Is it possible to get a 70.3 that is perhaps below BBL?
This would be my first “modding” exploration, so I would love some help understanding the best way to proceed.
Ha, but then i start to think, if im going to replace the emitter, can i replace the driver too with something else? I dont mind the stock UI…the long press for low is essential, but then being stuck there is killing me. I want to be able to reset to low (and be able to ramp up) without having to go all the way through the highs. Maybe i could even get some Anduril on my m21f? (or is that just silly? I dont even really know whats possible/feasible) But then i guess i could just get an emisar d1k and be done with it…
I plan on ordering a da1k soon, with the lume x1 driver (woohoo!) that may just make this whole m21f business “obsolete”, but it would still be fun to explore and tinker.
I think that if a slightly rosy 70.3 HI existed, that would be my dream emitter at this point, but maybe a warmer 3000k will be good enough.
My recommendation is, to use your light outdoor, in the wild, for a while. Before making your conclusion of the tint and CCT. Some lights look good on a white wall, but less appealing in real world outdoors.
I find a neutral on the dot DUV more appealing in real world since it makes all colors pop equally. A severe negative DUV makes greens seem worse. It’s just my personal opinion though. The main thing I realize is that raw output matters more than slight tint improvement when I actually use the light.
I dedomed some 519A lights and regretted immediately. I had to swap in a domed emitter for the lights to restore their output and neutral tint. I guess dedomed and very low CCT is just not my thing.
Good advice 
Another consideration: possibly swapping the 70.3 for an FFL707A… would that be a possibility? Maybe as “simple” as reflowing it on to the same board the 70.3 was on?
The X1S may just be the answer to my dreams, If it comes back in stock… I just ordered A P02 to get a taste of an FFL emitter.
I dedomed my nichia 519a 4000k now they not only look rosy but more importantly the color rendering looks considerably worse than my sft40 3000k 95 cri
All the colors on stuff like potato chip bags, etc .look horrible
Does dedoming also screw up the cri?
Yes. Dedoming lowers CRI since it skews the color output towards more red and less green.
If you’re new to this sort of thing I’d start with getting an LED that’s already on an MCPCB. Doing the swap that way is pretty easy for a novice. I don’t know if you can get those FFL emitters already on boards, though.
I think it’s the XHP R70 that have the more neutral/rosy tint. I havent tried an R70 70.3, but I have several 50.3 hi 4000K R70 because the tint is great.
I’m a tint snob. Take it from me, be careful about how far you’ll go to find the “perfect” LED, driver, host, etc.
The XHP70.3 datasheet explains what the numbers mean.
I have the XHP70.3 HI R70 4000k. I can attest that tint is indeed beautiful, rosy. BUT, it only happens on a white wall or grey objects. As soon as you shine in on real world objects, especially ones with red, orange or pink tones. the color is pale and lose badly against a 519A beam.
Well, i spent quite a while looking through this, and yes, looked through the WHOLE thing… and it didnt help me to understand those numbers any better… I guess ill bring it with me to my electrical engineering class…
Ha, duly noted!
I have considered myself a tint snob for many years, and now that im diving back down the rabbit hole after just being happy with my ZL sc62w for the past decade, everything is changing! Theres so many things i just havent experienced.
Ill take high CRI and pleasing neutral/warm over max power any day. Ive always been vehemently opposed to green tints, but i only just learned about DUV and BBL, so now i understand things a little better. Rosiness is a whole new thing for me to explore. It seems like rosiness and high cri go well together… Hence the FFL707a idea.
But its all about balance and relationship and perpective. just like the rest of life… To my eye the DD 519a still has great color. when i compare with the high cri XHP70.3 HI, everything just looks “richer”. Greens still look plenty green, i guess its just how my brain processes it. Ill take some more time with “real world” usage before I make any more “for sure-nesses”
I’m a maker and am very capable in the workshop, so even though im new flashlight modding, im not afraid to try some of the more challenging techniques.
Learning about DUV and BBL was huge for me too. I had wasted a lot of money on SST 20 and LH351D chasing high CRI but it never really looking that good to me. Then I discovered I just hated green tints. Everybody is a little different, some people don’t seem to mind posotive DUV at all. Not me.
Have you tried using TIRs much? In simple terms, lots of LEDs emit ugly tint at extreme angles. Reflectors incorporate this into the beam, but generally TIRs don’t. So for the same exact LED, it can look much better in a TIR (not always though).
Also check out “slicing and dicing” XHP LEDs. Slicing only applies to domed versions, but dicing can work on both.
Reflows are definitely the way to go. Not hard once you get the hang of it.
The numbers are explained on page 33 of the datasheet.
You’re an electrical engineering student? …Start roofing houses.
I havent tried any TIR optics yet. I’ll have to pick a couple up with my next convoy order. I have seen some other rather cool ones. Particularly from “Ledil” like the “Olga” lens that loneoceans used in his kr1 lume x1 build…
My trusty old sc62w has an xm-l2 which i have now realized has a slight green tint in the center, which i had considered neutral and been happy with until i realized what else was possible…
That was meant to be a joke… because it seemed like it would require a background in electrical engineering to fully understand a lot of what’s in there… 
Ah, i do see how page 33 explains the numbers… thank you for that. The chromaticity group is what im interested in. I was trying to understand if it was possible to order individual emitters from different bins. But ill just order a 3000k and be happy about it.
If I recall correctly, Cree doesn’t list the order codes but it is possible to order individual bins (something like 3A, 5A).
From top to bottom, the tint bin is 1D, 2A, 50G, 40G, 30G, they are all 90CRI.
With that in mind, what have you found to be your “most ideal so far”? I’ve had the sc62w as my baseline for a host for so long, I haven’t really come across anything that comes close as far as size, and I actually really like the ZL ui. I can always get exactly the level I want with just a few clicks, and I’m constantly changing modes when out and about. I’m getting to know Anduril, and quite liking it, but for quickly and easily getting the mode I want, ZL still seems to take the cake.
I do like the dd519a, but I’m not crazy about how it gets hot so quick, and efficiency is quite important to me. I do really like the xhp70.3, but haven’t tried the 50.3. I imagine it would have the same qualities as 70.3, just not as bright? Maybe a bit more throw being smaller? Im thinking my next light will be the Emisar Da1k, and it’ll be a choice between XHP70.3 or 50.3…
Would this be the chart that relates to those bin numbers? I do see the 1D and 2A on there but not the other ones. At this point im just following through out of curiosity and the desire to learn, not so much the desire to chase my version of perfection…
It seems like those numbers for convoy are listing the bins for each of the CCT’s rather than having multiple bins to choosee from?
1D and 2A are ANSI white bins, 50G etc are easy white bins. In short ANSI white guarantees roseiness, easy white is tint lottery, since the bin represents a ellipse around the BBL. Can be above, can be below, or anything in between.
That’s hard to say. I have a ton of lights and their use cases vary. The lights that get the most use are a TS10 (modded with a 519A mix) that lives in my pocket constantly when I’m around the house, and a few different headlamps because they’re so practical when working on things. I have a Sofirn SC01, swapped to a 519A, that has been on my keychain for quite a while now.
No that it’s winter where I live, I’ll start to mix things up a bit with a jacket pocket carry. I want to do some kind of interesting mod to any number of a few projects lights I have and whatever I end up doing I’ll probably carry for a bit.
This is a nice explanation. Counterintuitively, dedoming simultaneously also skews the output toward blue–even though the overall height of the blue spike is reduced, the reduction is less than the reduction in near-blue wavelengths such as cyan and green, with the net result being a even more disproportionate amount of blue and thus a pink tint in combination with red. The increased amount of red alone does not fully account for the drop in duv (as red is a very dim color to the human eye), but the increase in blue is quite noticeable. Lots of blue objects (esp. sky blue) turn a pale purplish blue, and cyan objects are also thrown off.
I’ve had a dedomed 519A 4000K that looks very off. Out of curiosity, I shone the light through a pair of glasses with a very strong blue-reflecting AR coating, and the resulting beam was indistinguishable from an incandescent light to my eyes, under a side-by-side comparison. (For a sense of sensitivity, I find the difference between 519A 5700K and sunlight/SunLike obvious even if the comparison is sequential.) I wish someone would sell lenses with a strong blue AR coating to increase the CRI of blue-pumped LEDs.