Sliced a LH351D. First time for a slicing, dedoming, etc. Well, it didn’t go as expected as the beam is actually less focused than some 519A domed emitters, all in S21As. Oh well.
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I’ve never sliced a LH351D, but have with SST-20s, 519As, and 219Bs.
With SST-20 and 519A, the tint became noticeably rosier along with more throw. With 219B, the tint seemed to be the same, but the throw increased.
Did you notice any change in the tint with the LH351D?
I was looking at that but it doesn’t seem so. Something I do notice is the hotspot isa little less defined in the original S21A reflector. I tried a narrow pebbled TIR but prefer the reflector.
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Slicing can change the focus. You may need to sand down the gasket.
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About 2 weeks ago, when I swapped the high CRI XH-P50 into a bigger host, I put the original buck driver (not used in a long while) that came with my L2 in an S21A. It’s barely a 3A driver but I held on to it just for some setup like this. And I can use the 21700s, 18350s and 18650s with the added efficiency benefits of a buck driver. It runs an SST40 with a sanded Carclo TIR.
A short while ago, I tried a lume1 driver transplant into my FW3S, but managed to damage the pads on the driver for connecting to an AUX board, so that the light had a new driver, but no AUX.
I wasn’t happy, though, as my plan had been to upgrade the light with AUX, so I sourced another FW3X for the lume1 driver and had another go.
I don’t know how many hours and how many failed attempts I’ve spent on this. If I had any hair, I’d have torn it out. One time I thought I was done, the AUX lights were on and working, but as soon as I screwed down the bezel, the contacts were broken and the only colour I had was green - the wires I had used were too thick, it seems, and the pressure from the optic broke the solder joints. Many times I’d think I had things in place, only for one wire to come loose and then all the others to come off while trying to fix the first, then the tinning would come off, the wires would splay, short and make a complete mess. Thin, solid core wire for the AUX connections turns out to be the secret…
Every failure meant taking the driver back out, removing the wires I’d wrecked, cleaning up the driver and starting from scratch again.
Finally, this evening, I am done and I have a FW3S with a lume1 driver and AUX. It’s not up there with some of you people’s masterpieces, but after all of that, I’m quite proud of myself. I swear I won’t put myself through that again, however I’m also thinking about my next mod…
Some pics:
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Nice work! Those aux wires can be a pain.
That is the understatement of the century 
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In the ass…
There’s worse😬
I decided to play around with some of those 4 x 3535 mcpcbs from AliExpress. I Paired it with some 5000K 519A, 25° TIR and a Convoy 6V 8A driver. I put it in my M21B that had already been modded with a TIR.
It actually ended up being surprisingly decent. I didn’t take any beamshots, just a pic against the wall a few feet away. I still may dedome the leds or put the XHP70.3 back in since there’s practically no throw at all. That tint though is so much better than the XHP.
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Wow! So the beam isn’t all weird looking? I’m sure the pebbled TIR helps with that. I bought some of those boards on a whim but haven’t tried them yet. I thought about trying what you did but I assumed the beam would probably be ugly. I’ll definitely try that out now since I’m not a fan of mules (the only other way I can think of using those boards). Thanks for sharing!
The only little thing with the beam is the hotspot is kinda square shaped, and it’s so large you can’t even really notice it Other than that the beam is surprisingly nice. I’ll get some beamshots tomorrow night. I didn’t even expect it to really even be usable, I was basically just messing around. I actually think it might even be better in my M21A with the Ledil Iris TIR, since the opening on the back is even bigger. I think I’ll try that tomorrow too.
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Awesome. I have a variety of TIRs and might be able to do some trials this weekend. I love the idea of this. I’ve acquired some decently-tinted XHP LEDs but nothing as nice as 519A.
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Same her, the nice 5000K XHP70.3 HD I just got is no longer nice. For whatever reason after slicing it, the duv went all the way from -0.0016 to 0.0072. I thought slicing was supposed to lower the CCT and duv.
These boards seem to have been around forever but they don’t appear in many mods, probably because its a challenge to get a good beam.
I did same with a convoy L6, smooth reflector gives a bit of a doughnut beam, looks like the board works well with a TIR though.
I wonder how narrow the beam can go before you get artifacts, perhaps more throwy than a typical quad set-up?
The only builds I remember seeing use these boards have been mules.
I can only imagine the donut hole it would have. Considering SFT-70 and XHP70 can even have a donut hole with smoth reflectors, and their dies are much closer together. The the 25° pebbled TIR looks a lot better than the 5° clear one I tried.
I’m curious to see how throwy the frosted 10° TIR in my M21A will be, and if it’s worth dedomimg the leds.
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Curious where you and others got/made their spacers from?
I just used a chunk of 1/4" aluminum stock I had got off ebay a while back. I used a hacksaw to cut it into a rough circle shape. Then I used a belt sander to refine the shape. Finally, I used needle files to make the four notches for the wires and screws.
I just bought a new piece of 5mm thick 25mm x 100mm aluminum from AliExpress. It was like $3.50 with shipping and tax. Cheaper than I could have got a piece from ebay.
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