First post! I’ve lurked in the flashlight world for years, but I’m starting to feel confident in trying to modify some of my lights, and I already need some help. I’ve been reading about de-doming lights, and wanted to try it with the SST40 in my Sofirn SC31, and it didnt go well… I tried to just be a caveman and rip it off with a pair of pliers and I completely ruined it. Not only did I damage the phosphorus, but also the connecting wires. So I have two questions:
Where are your guys’ favorite places to buy LEDs and PCBs right now.
And, any suggestions on different LEDs that I could swap in without having to modify the driver? Will any similar sized LED pretty much work? Historically I’ve bought lights focused more on maximum output or maximum throw, I’m wanting to try out some of the high CRI lights for a change.
The only emitters that you can just pop the domes off are 519A, others can be sliced though.
My favorite place to buy emitters already on mcpcb is from Simon at “Convoy Flashlight Store” or Kaidomain.com, and for bare emitters I prefer Digikey.com or Mouser.com.
For high CRI, 519A is pretty much the best around imho. It’s a smaller footprint(3535) than an SST-40(5050) that you have. Unfortunately, there really aren’t many 5050 high CRI emitters to choose from. XHP50.3 come in high CRI but they’re 6V/12V and need a boost driver
That is great info, thank you! I’ve seen Simon’s name pop up a few times, I always wondered who he was.
Sounds like the XHP50 would need a whole new driver then. So as long as the voltage is the same for a replacement LED, any driver should still work ok? I see the 519A come up a lot, maybe it’s time to try one.
Definitely get a pre-mounted LED on a 16mm MCPCB if you’re a beginner. I believe that screw in the shelf is just to prevent rotation when screwing down the bezel. It’s a nice touch but not necessary. I would just remove it and not bother trying to notch out the new MCPCB (notching it can cause a short).
I recommend getting a couple different CCTs of the 519a, say 5700k amd 3500k. By slicing or dedoming those two you can get a pretty broad range of CCT.
You should also order some TIRs in case the beam isn’t to your liking with the stock reflector. I believe 20mm width TIRs fit but the SC31 has a pretty shallow depth in the head. You can sand down TIRs to an extent but it can mess up the focus, especially on clear TIRs (beaded aren’t as bad and frosted are the most forgiving). Measure your reflector and see what you can find for TIRs.
As you slice progressively more or fully dedome the color temp gets warmer and the tint gets rosier. To a relatively minor extent the throw increases but the output decreases.
Here’s a very useful thread. It’s all worth a read but especially look at the color spectrum graph a ways through the thread.
TIRs also “blend” the light in different ways, not only the shape but also the tint. So it can be fun to play around with different options there as well.
See also my post about modifying the SC31pro, in case you want to try TIRs:
Addition to that: I recently tried the frosted TIRs from Convoy and I am not too keen on those, too much loss of light as i feel when using them but also you can see how much goes backwards (towards the housing) from using the light without the front ring on. I would recommend the pebbled TIRs from 10-45 degrees, I haven’t tried the flat clear ones yet.
