Reducing glare from a LED lantern

I have a Cree XLamp warm white led lantern which I bought to hang off the bimini top of my boat, for a little cockpit light while out on the anchor at night. The warm white led is fantastic, easy on the eyes and very bright. The lamp uses an inverted cone type reflector, which while effective, produces a hell of a lot of glare. So much so that at night, it will be uncomfortable to have that pinpoint of light in your eyes.

So what I am trying to do is figure out some way to diffuse the light. I was thinking about finding a frosted plastic tube which I could slip over the emitter, hopefully eliminating the hotspot. Other ideas was to hit the inside of the globe with sandpaper, or finding some frosting spray...

Has anyone come up with a better idea?

Thanks.

mchad, check out the lanterns sub-forum: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?90-Lanterns

also, using the google search within cpf with the term "annoying glare" should come up with my thread regarding the same subject. i used frosted glass rustoleum with good results, but there were other sound recommendations from what i recall.

welcome to cpf!

I have lined the inside of the globe on several of my lanterns with parchment paper. It takes the artifacts out of the beam and produces a nice glow.

Of course it reduces the output some but, its also completely reversible.

I haven't beadblasted the inside of my lantern globe, but it's a possibility. However the easiest fix would probably be the spray-can frosted glass paint as suggested above. Alternately you could cut and apply one of the diffused glass coverings sold at Home Depot for privacy windows, or use the widely-ballyhooed DC Fix advertised various places here.

Bolster said:

I haven't beadblasted the inside of my lantern globe, but it's a possibility. However the easiest fix would probably be the spray-can frosted glass paint as suggested above. Alternately you could cut and apply one of the diffused glass coverings sold at Home Depot for privacy windows, or use the widely-ballyhooed DC Fix advertised various places here.

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Stopped at home depot on the way home and bought a can of rustolium frost spray. After the hours i spent trying to find a solution, this was done in 10 min and as good as I could expect. Nice and easy. Thanks much.

Though you have your solution, another that has worked very well for me is Glad Press-n-seal wrap. It has enough tackiness to stick pretty well to smooth plastic and the texture does a good job of cleaning up the light output. Plus its removable if you ever need to.

mchad said:

Stopped at home depot on the way home and bought a can of rustolium frost spray. After the hours i spent trying to find a solution, this was done in 10 min and as good as I could expect. Nice and easy. Thanks much.

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I've done this with several lanterns, and it's a great effect. I highly recommend it.

lantern shots. all three are favourlight knockoff's.


stock emitter, stock globe-lense


seoul high cri emitter, stock globe-lense


stock emitter, frosted globe-lense w/rustoleum

i used frosted glass rustoleum also, worked great, easy, cheap, and from a spray can.

I am happy!

dwestonh said:

i used frosted glass rustoleum also, worked great, easy, cheap, and from a spray can.

I am happy!

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How many coats did you guys apply? I think I applied too much, as I got a little crazing on one side, nothing that would bother or even be noticed by a normal human being, but naturally, i see it... Just some ever so slight cracking in the otherwise uniform frosting on the rest of the globe. The instructions said to make it "wet" but i may have drowned it.

Naturally I didnt try it out on a plastic cup or anything, but immediatly applied it to the lantern straightaway...

Anyway, I'm wondering if a second coat may correct it, or make it worse?

gotta practice a bit on any object prior to get a feel for the flow. keep your distance from the lantern a bit. I think you'd make it worse, once applied.

I have had so much difficulty painting round objects over the course of my life (which oddly entailed painting lots of round objects) that I would try to have the globe spinning on a horizontal axis if I were to paint mine. But I will probably bead-blast the inside of the globe instead.

For the record, I don't think the Favourlight is high CRI, I think it's just warm tint.

yup, they're not available in high cri that i know of. the posted pic is of one i modded to high cri.

Cool! I mean, Warm! Uh, excellent! Did you write up the procedure anywhere by chance?

Bolster said:

Cool! I mean, Warm! Uh, excellent! Did you write up the procedure anywhere by chance?

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no procedure as it is simply de-soldering the original, and then soldering the high cri led to the same 20 mm round pcb.

yesterday i glass beaded the inside of the favourlight knockoff lantern globe. i'm very happy with the result. i'd call it lite diffusion, vs. heavy diffusion with the frosted glass spray. i assume with the glass beading more light makes it through but can't test this to be sure.

I have no idea about removing a heavy coat of paint.
I gave about five very fine coats.
Brought it indoors to check glare in the bathroom and it was much better
Than I had hoped for so I stopped right there.
I would try the soft sanding blocks and go slow.
Keep repeating until you are happy.