Snow LED's...narrow angle?

Just got some snows. They are quite white...but, I notice they have a kind of moonbeam pattern, with little spill.

Anyone else notice this?

Also, anyone know how I can give it a more Nichia-type beam?
I may try grinding one down a bit...

Bob

"moonbeam pattern"?
You can diffuse LED's a bit by lightly sanding the case.

Yes, it has a relatively defined central spot, with very dim spill, then a brighter spill/corona at the periphery.

Quite an odd beam.

Bob

Yeah, they seem to have their own hotspot. I've seen narrower LED patterns but I think it's maybe more obvious on the Snows because of the general smoothness of light that it puts out. The LED is larger in diameter and it looks like they are a bit longer than most 5mm LEDs.

I did my usual thing and sanded gently all over the foward 30% or so of the LED and put it in a sputtered reflector. VERY wide and smooth hotspot... literally 80% of the beam is a very consistantly white and even hotspot with 20% sidespill at the very edges. And I run it on a single 14500 LiON cell and a dummy cell.

Personally, I love this setup for a mostly indoor light.

Hmm...that sounds like a good idea.

Thanks for the info!

Bob

Update:

As suggested above, I used ultra-fine sandpaper to sand the "lens", and the result is excellent.
Nice and smooth beam, "weighted" toward center. You can even fine tune the beam: if it is too floody, you can polish the lens little by little until you find your "sweet spot". Pun!

MUCH nicer than the defined spot.

Bob

The sanding thing actually works even BETTER on LEDs with distinctly ringy beams or beams with inconsistant color such as the otherwise excellent Nichia CSs.