Lumintop tool aa 2.0 dedomed (before/after)

[kfxguy]

Hopefully this is the right place to post this. And maybe no one cares. But hey, why not. I searched and could not find but one person who mentioned he dedomed his lumintop tool, but really didn't say much about it or post pics. So I decided to try it and post before and after pics. And my thoughts.
First my thoughts. I wanted a tighter beam pattern and a little more throw, so reading up on that led me to dedoming. Light is cheap enough, so why not? It actually did exactly what I wanted. Tightened up the pattern and noticeably further throw with good spill like it had. Nice.
I let the light run on turbo for about a minute and quickly unscrewed the head. I used two steel picks in the holes. Threads are reverse. Then plucked the dome off. Put back together. No fuss.


Here's before. I did my best to stand at the same spot, I marked it.

And after. If anything I might have been a couple feet further back on the after. No matter. The difference is apparent.

 

[M@elstrom]

Hotspot is definitely "tighter" but could you please include some greater distance shots using the new setup? 🤔

 

[kfxguy]

Hotspot is definitely "tighter" but could you please include some greater distance shots using the new setup? 🤔

Yea, no problem.

 

[kfxguy]

I have a bunch on convoy s2+ lights with different emitters, I'm going to dedome the weakest one I have. Then I may do a few others, I have two lumintop prince and a prince mini, I may do the lumintop prince full size and see what it does. It's a shame mu lumintop edc18 and my fw3a have optics. I hate the throw on those two. I'll post what I do with before and after and this time I'll get some longer distance pics too. I think I have about a 50-75 yard stretch in my yard I can use.

 

[kerneldrop]

Not all LED domes just pop off like the 519a dome did. Just slice the ones that don't push off.

 

[kfxguy]

Not all LED domes just pop off like the 519a dome did. Just slice the ones that don't push off.

I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip! It really didn't pop off honestly. It crumbled more than anything.

 

[kfxguy]

Ok, got a few shots of the tool. I also went to a party tonight and it was pitch dark on the property where my vehicle was parked. I've got to admit, this light is EXTREMELY impressive. Now instead of a bunch of scatted light, I have more concentrated useable light but with really impressive spill.

This is 70 yards to that tree straight ahead

Here's the same shot with a convoy s2+ with the brightest and most throwy emitter I have

 

[kfxguy]

I took a few other pictures. To this tree it's probably 50 yards

And this is across the street. It's at least 75-80+ yards.

 

[kfxguy]

I ordered another tool. They still on sale for $16.99 so why not. May order another one. Can never have too many. Think I'm gonna swap it in my bob with my thrunite I have in the bag.
I defined a convoy last night and messed it up. I had it good but kept trying to scrape the rest of the dome off, my mistake was using a little flat blade screwdriver instead of a tooth pick. O well. I'm gonna order a few extra mcpcb's. Any recommendations? What bulb? Where to order from? I found a place called mtn electronics. Are they reputable?

 

[kfxguy]

Well I got my order from kaidomain in. Surprisingly fast. I thought they were in China so I ordered the same thing from mtn also. And then a couple other different things. I threw the osram mcpcb in the convoy. But let me just say, instead of being thrown in little baggies like I got from (I can't remember, they went out of business…most of you know the place I'm referring to) they came in little micro containers and on nice brass boards instead of aluminum. Anyhow, the convoy is really throwy now with some decent spill. Has a perfect hot spot after I spaced it correctly. It's not real bright, I'd say 600-800 lumens but it'll reach out it looks like. Im only judging by what I saw just now in my shop with the lights out. I'll post some beam shots of the before and after tonight.
Now im off to swap the emitter in the convoy t2 14500 light.

O btw, when I swapped the led in the s2+, I lost the strobe feature. Thank goodness. I hated it.

 

[kfxguy]

Aww yea! The convoy t2 14500 is AWESOME. it has some throw. Which is what I really wanted with this light. Let me back up though. The t2 will not fit a 16mm board. It was probably more like 14mm. See there's a little step on the bottom. The the beginning of the hole is perfectly 16mm. So I had to make a tiny boring bit for my lathe and machine the step out of it.

After boring it. And don't worry, I'm not an amateur electronics tinkerer. I cleaned off the conductive grease and put back some Artic silver

 

[kfxguy]

I'm gonna post this stuff in another thread. Kinda got off base from the tool. Lol

 

[this_is_nascar]

If someone could hack the Tool firmware to get rid of memory and lessen the brightness of the lowest mode by 50%, the Tool would be a real winner.