SST-50 MUCH brighter without the dome.

I lost the dome on my Lumapower VX Ultra, and Lux went from 7900 to 11700. A bit more ringy than before but boy what a huge difference in throw. Anybody know if it's OK to run it without the dome in place?

ohhh no dont make me tinker with mine(sst50)
ill wait til i hear its safe-ish first!

this might be the new trend tho if it is "safe"

My Cree KL4 mod lost the dome, and it got crazy tight throwy.

The magic smoke comes out once it's been running for a minute or so.

beamshots?


subscribed.

Throw should improve without the dome, but you will lose some lumens...

jirik_cz said:

Throw should improve without the dome, but you will lose some lumens...

Click to expand...

+1

Its calculated that total lumen output will drop about 30% with a dombless emitter. However it does allow the beam to shape into a tighter spot which improves throw (in other words it will give a higher lux reading)

easilyled said:

+1

Its calculated that total lumen output will drop about 30% with a dombless emitter. However it does allow the beam to shape into a tighter spot which improves throw (in other words it will give a higher lux reading)

Click to expand...

Please tell me more.....

How or why does the lumen output increase when the dome is removed. At first glance this doesn't seem logical to me but perhaps there's an explanation.

I'm putting on my flame suite, I keep it handy since I'm still pretty new:

I have 3 questions that I think are relevent.

Why does a domeless emitter's total lumen output become reduced vs one with a dome?

Does the dome just focus light or does it also protect the emitter?

Can you glue a dome back on?

Patriot said:

Please tell me more.....

How or why does the lumen output increase when the dome is removed. At first glance this doesn't seem logical to me but perhaps there's an explanation.

Click to expand...

I think they are saying the total lumens decrease not increase when the dome is removed.

:naughty:

I took a closer look at it, and it does have a clear covering over the emitter surface. The dome seems to be a glued on lens of some type.

CPF'er saabluster has experimented in emitters without domes in this thread

You can see in post no. #4 that he says that the total lumens will drop by about 30% when the dome is removed.

The throw is often increased though.

For those that are curious as to reasons for this, read through the entire thread thoroughly

easilyled said:

CPF'er saabluster has experimented in emitters without domes in this thread

You can see in post no. #4 that he says that the total lumens will drop by about 30% when the dome is removed.

The throw is often increased though.

For those that are curious as to reasons for this, read through the entire thread thoroughly

Click to expand...

Thanks, will do......

easilyled said:

CPF'er saabluster has experimented in emitters without domes in this thread

You can see in post no. #4 that he says that the total lumens will drop by about 30% when the dome is removed.

The throw is often increased though.

For those that are curious as to reasons for this, read through the entire thread thoroughly

Click to expand...

Nice thread, I read it too. It seems odd that today's leds are built in such a way as to need the dome. Hopefully that will change with time.

kingofwylietx said:

Can you glue a dome back on?

Click to expand...

I asked about that in this thread about when the dome fell off of my Cree XR-E:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/251476

It also was covered in this older thread:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/219489

well...I did much comparison testing and have concluded now it is not a good mod. It does increase throw but it still will not match an XR-E R2. And you lose so much overall output as to lose the SST-50's advantage in spread and sidespill. You get the same sidespill and less throw that an R2 with just a slightly larger hotspot. Not worth it.

kengps said:

well...I did much comparison testing and have concluded now it is not a good mod. It does increase throw but it still will not match an XR-E R2. And you lose so much overall output as to lose the SST-50's advantage in spread and sidespill. You get the same sidespill and less throw that an R2 with just a slightly larger hotspot. Not worth it.

Click to expand...

You should also state in your other thread about the Tiablo SST-50 that you lose overall output.

At the moment you seem to be implying that you increase overall output in that thread. This is misleading and may encourage others to remove the domes and then to regret it.

I was referring to output compared to an XR-E. I fixed it to make it more clear.

I had a RCN3 laying around with a bad driver so I decided to mess with the dome on the Cree Q5 emitter. After I was able to remove the dome, the output dropped by about 40 to 50 percent. The hotspot was smaller but since the output dropped by so much I don't think throw was increased at all. From the looks of it I think the throw was less. I was able to just push the dome back on and it stayed on. After the putting the dome back on the output returned to normal. I am not sure how well the dome is secured though, I tried to shake it off but it didn't move. I think this mod is not worth it at all. I can't believe that the dome would help output so much.