Side effect: you are going to be really careful not making any wrong movements.
Any suggestions for a 20-30A buck driver that can take 3s?
It has always been that way, when removing the dome from a normal die the bond wires are exposed and easily broken. The difference here is that a normal LED has 2 bond wires, these have 24! I have crashed the bond wires on a $70 SBT-70 before and wanted to cry, it takes just one small slip.
So yes, once that thin window is gone and the surrounding plate is removed, the bond wires are out there in the open and easily damaged. djozz has a good idea in cutting the reflector to seat around the plate (the frame the window sits on), as it really helps to focus the beam profile in most reflectors. But again, it requires some care not to twist the glued assembly off and still arrive at the same result, damaged bond wires. But this level of care is always necessary, whether it’s your first mod or your thousandth….
So I did do the mod, a D80V2 was the host, and as Dale predicted, the reflector sitting around that frame got me the correct focus, it makes a very pretty beam now.
No…not at 3volts…
I asked Lexel, for a 4S or 2S2P High current (20-25amp) 3v driver. He is working on a 2S2P 20-25amp 3v driver, he said 2S2P would be easier/better……
Anyone know if the ~10% bump is about right for de-windowing?
I did my first - modded a Luxstone X30 with a SBT90.2 de-windowed. almost sliced thru a bond wire or 2, but they appeared to be bent not broken. Wow! It's tricky. What happened to me was I used a surgical knife and seemed to be making progress, then it just gave way on a corner - should have supported the blade better - it was unexpected.
The X30 is supposedly 10 amps to the LED - had an original luminus LED in it, not sure what model. Was an easy mod, keeping the stock 2 mm thick rectangular MCPCB.
Lumens is about 3800 at start. The driver had a bank of 4 R025 1206 resistors in parallel just before the LED- wire. I added one R030 resistor, but probably didn't do all that much. Think'n of just jumping them out.
The X30 has a 2S3P battery pack using Samsung 2600 cells, so it's a buck driver. The LED wires are a nice 16 AWG. Was think'n of upgrading to 14 AWG, but not sure it will make a difference. The X30 is built like a tank, over built actually, here on Amazon, Robo819 review here. It was $600 originally!
My #'s before:
Hi: 2,632 @start, 2,560 @30 secs, throw: 152 kcd (780 meters) taken at 5 meters
Lo: 228 lumens
My #'s after:
Hi: 3,820 @start, 3,650 @30 secs, throw: 530 kcd (1456 meters) taken at 5 meters
Lo: 340 lumens
Not bad but could be much better at full power for a 94 mm head diameter light. It's a big reflector for sure.
Yep 10% or better seems about right. I de-lensed 2 of them… FT03 and a TM36 seen gains in both out put and throw… but was told I was full of it by a couple German Experts.
But then I never really gave a shit what the experts say or think, I do this for fun… 
Experts have fun too 
From what is measured before, glass and quartz lenses of flashlights, 10% loss from adding a non-AR coated window sounds a bit much, 5% is more what I would expect. But this situation is a bit different from a flashlight lens, so maybe a special window that needs to endure fast temperature changes is less transparent? Anyway, it is what it is. 
Vinh claims it gives +5%.
I'm working on a before/after now with my 1504 pill. I got the before #'s, working on the cut but it's a difficult one. Need a better, sharper blade. Will get back to it tonight, hopefully.
The higher lumens ouptut indicates, that the lens probably doesn't touch the phosphor. This is different from de-doming.
djozz Thank you very much for your efforts, again please don’t stop 
, we should pay you for this
Correct it dose not. Now factor in the tolerances, emitting area to top of glass has a larger tolerance then the Datum B to top of glass has? So it’s the phosphorous pad that varies also.
Is Neal still the best place to get the SBT90.2? I blew my BLF GT90 LED.... added the wrong battery carriers (of the original BLF GT). When I noticed the mistake it was too late.
Neal still has them listed, dunno if he really has them. I ordered one Friday, and he's trying to text me - not sure if it's about the LED, something else in the order, or unrelated. Conversation is like this:
Neal -> hello tom
12 hrs later:
Tom -> Hi!
...
That was my response 2 hrs ago - it's probably like 4 AM there now... :FACEPALM:
If he has them, I'll have to order one.
Neal has them in stock, just ordered 1
what MCPCB does this LED need from Kaidoman?.
looking for the best one.
for s21a host.
thanks.
kind thanks