2xTrinity
Flashlight Enthusiast
What exactly do you mean by "brightness" -- total lumens out of the emitter (luminous flux) or peak lux on the target (related to luminance of your LED as seen by your reflector or aspheric lens)?I am referring to hotspot lux only
Remember Ra & Dr. June's threads & experimental proof? In aspehrical set-up, Adding secondary lens infront of led does not change throw. Removing the dome, which is a secondary lens, does not change throw if the led remains unchanged. But in this case, after de-dome, the led lose about 30% brightness , thus lose throw.
My expectation is that you'd lose about 30-40% of the lumens and gain ~10+% in lux. Removing the dome causes more light to totally interally reflect (TIR) and is therefore trapped inside the substrate. At the same time, some of this light which is trapped will make a second pass through the phosphor, get absorbed by the phosphor, and be re-emitted. This will result in the LED taking on a greenish hue.
Because the die is apparently smaller (no more magnification from the dome) the light generated by the second pass through the phosphor will result in a slight increase in the surface brightness (lumens/apparent die size) which will produce a modest gain in throw (peak lux incident on the target).
However, efficiency of the system (in lumens out of the light / watts from the battery) will drop significantly. Throw (peak lux on the target) will improve marginally.
RE: adding a secondary lens not affecting throw (lux on target)
This is true. Adding an additional lens has the effect of both increasing the acceptance angle of the aspheric lens and magnifying the image of the LED die.
This means lumens that would otherwise be absorbed by the bezel of the flashlight end up being collected by the lens. Peak lux at the center the target will be the same, but because this secondary lens will magnify the LED die, a larger area will be illuminated. Total efficiency of the system will be improved, but throw will be unchanged.
luminater said:I have many dome , dedomed , reflector , aspheric lenses flashlights, and tested.
LED domes = narrow beam = good for aspheric lens.
LED dedomed = wide beam almost 180 degree = reflect to reflector, increase throw = good for Throwking Reflcetor.
The explanation I have for this is that for LEDs like the Cree XR-E in particular, the emission pattern with the dome is not intended to be lambertian (LED surface appears equally "bright" in all directions), but focused into a somwhat narrower range of angles. By removing the dome, the LED becomes is emitted into a greater angles. The problem is much of this light is emitted into an angle that is so great that is greater than the critical angle in the silicone medium, causing it to totally internally reflect.
A better way to achieve more throw from a reflector-based light is to use an emitter which is designed to be lambertian in the first place (like the XM-L or XP-E packages) -- this will give you the benefit of wider beam angle without the inefficiency/TIR-losses associated with de-doming.
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