Here is a fast pic I took of the mod all lights were adjusted to have about the same brightness, the ones that appear brighter is because the hotspot is more intense, from left to right UF2100 U2 1C XML with regina reflector center up VB-16 with seoul SSC SXOH LED (Only stock and unmoded light I own) right P60 U2 1A XML dropin.
The UF 2100 with dedomed XML U2 on the Regina reflector throws better and has a more concentrated spot than the domed XML U2 P60 dropin but not as good as the VB-16 with a smaller seoul SSC die and bigger reflector, the Pic was taken with phone at about 8 ft from wall.
I compared tint to my other 1C tint XML led and I Can say that there is absolutely no change in tint in either the spot or the corona, then proceded to do a ceiling bounce test on both domed and de domed 1C XML leds driven at 2.8a and cannot percieve a loss of brightness between the domed and de domed light, I think the mod went extremely good and will not cut any further than the .8 mm from the phosphor layer.
I would also highly recommend using the thinnest, sharpest razor blade you can find, I broke open a new gillette razor to salvage a blade to do the mod, and cutted the dome in a single straight push cut, the remaining silicon looks very clear and shinny, no need to polish, I might try this on my other XML lights!
JaffoAZ, is that de-domed Z8 really brighter? from the pictures, it’s not obvious. The spot is smaller, but looks dimmer(hard to tell) and there appears to be more scatter around the spot. Are camera settings and distance all the same for both before & after? Thanks.
I found a good method to dedome the XML.
I take it with tweezers, set my cooktop to highest level and hold the Dome directly on the hotplate for some Seconds (~10).
The Heat makes it much easier to remove the Dome. I begin towards the 3 connections of the emitter and lift the Dome carefully with my fingernail.
XM-L U2 1T @ UltraLow in my X7: 182000Lux.
Oh, i forgot: before removing the complete Dome i dedomed another one with a very thin blade, the surface was very good, but i only get 116KLux.
+1. Thanks AlexGT, I couldn’t agree more on this advice. One straight clean cut with a sharp razor and no polish is required. Use something flat as a guide. (I used the lip of a p60 pill)
Camera phone settings were all the same. Yes, it does seem dimmer in the pics, and even after charging the 14500 up to 4.2v, it is still dimmer than it should be in real life as well. Not sure if it’s the de-doming job, or the low current of the Z8 itself. Never was the brightest performer in the first place.
There are more artifacts as well as the ugly ring. May have to adjust the focus a bit.
I may see if I can do anything else with it. I do have a spare XM-L emitter on a star that I can replace the de-domed one with if I have to.
Parallel with Andi and Matt’s conversation about completely removing the LED dome, I am still working on my Z8 LED…
I cleaned it up a bit by grinding it down a tad more, changing out my felt wheel and going at it still the frost was completely clear, and then reassembling and focusing a bit by adjusting the distance of the aspheric.
Ended up with this:
And with the sk68 on the right:
It’s a ton clearer, a hair smaller, and a little bit brighter than before. Almost resembles Andi’s shots of his completely de-domed pics above.
I don’t think I’m going to mess with the Z8 again for now. This second go was about fixing some imperfections and a seemingly dimmer beam, and it seemed to do so.
Why do you want to chance slicing up your LED’s? When its not neccessary?
AlexGT’s method ; heating up the adhesive and popping off the dome works.
Polishing and slicing an LED emitter is something you do not want to do. Heating up the LED
is at the very least an approach similar to the what LED’ is designed to release along with flux.
If your going to risk this process don’t use a blade or corkscrew
Jaffo just a tip. Put the lights further from the wall to reduce the brightness or the reflection. It makes it much easier to tell which one is brighter.
My impression was that using AlexGT’s method you risk peeling the phosphor layer off and/or damaging the bonding wires. If a clean removal of all the silicone dome is possible with heat…. I feel another 6 pages of silicone peeling coming on here….
Is there any problem with the phosphor layer degradation with it exposed to moisture etc?
I've followed this thread from the beginning, but surprised that some members actually use thick blade for the cut.
I highly recommend not to use anything other than the thin razor blade (e.g gillete) to do this. Use them straight from box (split in half so your hand don't get the sharp end).
No matter how sharp your other blades are, thickness plays a big hand in the smoothness and angle of the cut. Don't know about the price elsewhere but here a box of 5 cost $0.35. That's cheaper than an XM-L emitter. And MUCH cheaper than ILFL experiments
WTH? The double sided blades only? That's crazy dude.
By the way the $0.35 ones were not gillette's, but the indian made ones. Works pretty much just as good. Real Gillettes here cost about $1.5, still ok.
When you dedome and LED the traditional way you run the risk of tearing off some of the phosphor, yet this makes it warmer. Why is this? I thought LEDs were blue and the phosphor made them white/yellow.
