5mm LED's on Black Diamond Icon. Too blue.

Hi, I just bought my first headlight today, a Black Diamond Icon, from REI.

The Cree LED in the main light is good. Nice tint. The 5mm LED's on the sides are VERY blue though. I've never seen anything like this. I'm not looking for perfection, but these LED's are too blue to be happy with.

I assume they can be swapped out. Where can I find some neutral white ones? I've never bought any of these before.

I thought that maybe some of the guys in this forum had already scienced this out and could offer some advice.

Thanks. :thumbsup:

Anyone mod their headlight with Nichia NSPW500GS-K1 5mm LED's?

Does Amilite have prompt shipping?

Anyone in the U.S. have these?

Sorry for all the ?'s.

Greg G said:

Anyone mod their headlight with Nichia NSPW500GS-K1 5mm LED's?

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Yes, I've modded a couple of BD headlamps with these. More light, better color, pretty easy mod. I go mine from a seller in the marketplace; not sure about other sources.

I bought some in the swap section and tried it but lost all of my flood! I wasn't impressed.

Maybe they look blue because your main light is nice white (or warm?)

my guess is that they used cheap hongkong led (like the ones sold on ebay) that look greenish bluish white. But these are ok if you only using them by themselves. When you start comparing, then thats the problem.

shiftd said:

Maybe they look blue because your main light is nice white (or warm?)

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:laughing: I don't think you understand. The 5mm LED's on this light are blue blue blue. No comparison needed.

I won't use them much, but when I do I want them to have a useable tint.

Edit: The main LED is a Cree P4 and has 300ma running through it.

Greg G said:

...
Where can I find some neutral white ones? I've never bought any of these before.
...

Click to expand...

Try searching for my "White LED Rating Thread" in the headlamp forum.

Toshi

Thanks for the lead. Nice thread.

I got some keychain lights in the mail today that are *supposed* to have Nichia GS LED's in them, but they look exactly like what I already have in my headlamp. They have an *angry blue* hotspot and a dark orangish corona. They sound like the description of the Nichia CS LED's in your rating thread. I don't think the LED's in these keychain lights are genuine. They are originally from DX if that means anything.

I found another keychain light I got in an order from Lighthound recently. It's a really nice LED. Bright and nice tint. Much better than what's in the headlamp of the "just bought" keychain lights. I just wish I knew what it was. I guess I'll get some more of those little lights from Lighhound and rob them of their LED's if worse comes to worse.

Update on the 5mm LED's. It *appears* that this light has Nichia GS CO tint LED's in it already? I've bought GS Nichias from several members recently and they all match what's in the light already. The ones I tried tonight were labeled Nichia W rank CO tint. I swapped out two on one side and I could tell NO difference between those two and the originals on the other side of the light with regards to tint or brightness.

I dug out the keychain lights I bought from Lighhound recently that have a nice cool tint, but not too blue, and no weird orangeish/brown corona. They are not as bright. I soldered two in on one side first, and compared the two different LED's, covering one side then the other and looking at the beams. The tint is so much better with the LED's from the Lighthound keychain lights I put them in all four slots. It still has enought light to walk around in a dark house. If I need more I can switch to the Seoul P4 in the main light.

I've always found Nichia 5mm LEDs to be blue, especially in the center of the hotspot. I know sometimes 5mms go blue because they're being overdriven a bit. But other times it is just a lousy tint/ color bin due to manufacturers not really caring about quality in mass produced lights and headlamps.