Duster1671
Enlightened
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2017
- Messages
- 239
There is some interesting discussion going on in the recent Mountain Electronics thread about E-series and P60 drop-in mods with the 519a LED. In the interest of not continuing to bump a thread with the name of the business and "SCAM" in the title (spoiler: it's not a scam, OP got resolution), I thought I would start a new thread on the topic. Maybe not necessary, but we're not exactly flooded with new threads here 
Here are a few photos of builds I did recently using Lumens Factory modules:
On the left is the E-series module from a teardrop head. On the right is a P60 drop-in (LF uses 'D26') These have been through a few mods so the pills are a little rough, but both accept a 17mm driver nicely. I'm using H17Fx in these.
The LED is the Nichia 519a 5000K with the dome removed. I tried 5700K, 5000K, and 4500K domed and dedomed in S2+ builds first and found that I have a strong preference for 5000K dedomed. To my eye, it's similar in tint to the 219b 4000K. 5700K dedomed was nice too, but (disappointingly) not on par with the 219b 4500K. That's still the nicest neutral-to-cool LED I've seen. 4500K dedomed is nice too (similar to 219b 3500K) but a little warm for me.
Here's the LED in the P60 reflector:
As you can see there is no centering ring, and therein lies a non-trivial issue with modding these Lumens Factory modules. In their stock form, the MCPCB is glued down to the pill with the LED centered and a thin plastic washer sits over the top of the emitter and +/- solder joints. The hole is just large enough to fit around a Nichia dome, so the washer stays centered as the reflector is tightened down.
With a dedomed emitter (and I've run into the same issue using XP-L HI in these too), the original plastic washer doesn't stay centered and generally doesn't interact well with the LED. So Instead, I cut a piece of thin polyimide (Kapton) film to fit over the +/- solder joints. This prevents the reflector from shorting when it's tightened down. And with regular thermal paste under the MCPCB (instead of thermal epoxy), the reflector MUST be tight. It provides the pressure between the MCPCB and the pill that's needed for good heat transfer.
Anyway, I thought this might be interesting to some folks. I also have some of the P60 reflector/pill kits coming in from Mountain, so we'll see how well those work with the 519a.
Here are a few photos of builds I did recently using Lumens Factory modules:
On the left is the E-series module from a teardrop head. On the right is a P60 drop-in (LF uses 'D26') These have been through a few mods so the pills are a little rough, but both accept a 17mm driver nicely. I'm using H17Fx in these.
The LED is the Nichia 519a 5000K with the dome removed. I tried 5700K, 5000K, and 4500K domed and dedomed in S2+ builds first and found that I have a strong preference for 5000K dedomed. To my eye, it's similar in tint to the 219b 4000K. 5700K dedomed was nice too, but (disappointingly) not on par with the 219b 4500K. That's still the nicest neutral-to-cool LED I've seen. 4500K dedomed is nice too (similar to 219b 3500K) but a little warm for me.
Here's the LED in the P60 reflector:
As you can see there is no centering ring, and therein lies a non-trivial issue with modding these Lumens Factory modules. In their stock form, the MCPCB is glued down to the pill with the LED centered and a thin plastic washer sits over the top of the emitter and +/- solder joints. The hole is just large enough to fit around a Nichia dome, so the washer stays centered as the reflector is tightened down.
With a dedomed emitter (and I've run into the same issue using XP-L HI in these too), the original plastic washer doesn't stay centered and generally doesn't interact well with the LED. So Instead, I cut a piece of thin polyimide (Kapton) film to fit over the +/- solder joints. This prevents the reflector from shorting when it's tightened down. And with regular thermal paste under the MCPCB (instead of thermal epoxy), the reflector MUST be tight. It provides the pressure between the MCPCB and the pill that's needed for good heat transfer.
Anyway, I thought this might be interesting to some folks. I also have some of the P60 reflector/pill kits coming in from Mountain, so we'll see how well those work with the 519a.
