99 cent store 2000k 95 CRI lantern mod
7 years ago I bought a few cheap bottom of the barrel plastic lanterns at 99 cent store. My attempt to swap the cool white leds to warm white (yellow, low cri, above bbl) leds at the time failed in a spectacular fashion. which ended in a burnt unusable pcb, lifted soldering pads and disintegrating iron tip. I put it away and forget about it.
After digging around my junk door I decided to come back to it. I could have used the great rngwn / sophia led high cri 5mm leds that need a home but instead I took the potentially dumber route and used these 2835 2000k 95 cri emitters. They seem to have a pretty good tint. they are rosier than rgwn 2300k leds.
Left to right: dedomed nichia 3000k, 2835 95 CRI, rgnwn 2300k, FFL1800K
2835 emitters can fit on 3535 pads relatively easy but getting them precisely centered is trickier. they are fitted on 3535 12mm alumnum mcpcb.
My original goal was to use convoys AA driver with a single battery because 2835 can handle higher current but I really like the rotary dial brightness because it gets really low. I may add dc-fix milky to clean up the beam. anyways 7 year mod finally completed.
