What paint to warm up the light from a very bluish white LED?

[jdcolombo]

Hi folks.

I bought 100 SMT 603-package LED's to use in my sound decoder installs, and found after wiring one up that they have a VERY bluish-white light.  I'd like to warm up the color of the light a bit without having it turn to that horrid yellow we used to deal with in early LED lighting installations.  I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that a light coat of an acrylic yellow paint on the LED lens will do what I want, but does anyone have a specific recommendation (and please don't recommend a Floquil or Pollyscale paint that is no longer available!).

Thanks!

John C.

[wcfn100]

Orange Sharpie.

Jason

[jagged ben]

Whatever you use, don't use an orange Sharpie.  I tried that and the color came out pretty purple.  EDIT:  I started typing my response before Jason posted his.

A lot of people recommend Tamiya translucent orange.

If the original color is too bluish it may be a lot harder to get a satisfying result.  If it's just slightly off from white it probably comes out better.

[wcfn100]

Maybe it depends on the type of LED.  My experience is with standard T1 LEDs.  The Sharpie worked good on those.

Jason

[peteski]

I also was not happy with using Sharpies (tried yellow and orange)..

This is my secret Warm White LED Tint formula.


Those are the Tamiya acrylic paints which are sold in small glass jars.

Be mindful that since "warming up" the color removes a large portion of the blue light (which is the majority of light emitted by a cool white LED) the LED will look quite a bit dimmer.

[jdcolombo]

Thanks Peteski.

The LEDs are very bright, even using a 1k dropping resistor, so losing some brightness is fine!

John C.

[peteski]

Thanks Peteski.

The LEDs are very bright, even using a 1k dropping resistor, so losing some brightness is fine!

John C.

I was actually thinking of doing more experimenting with my formula because it I apply it a bit too heavily (which is easy to do on small SMD LEDs)  I might add even more clear paint to further dilute the tint.

[cbroughton67]

I dip the LED in Tamiya X-26 Clear Orange. It does a nice job of turning a bluish-white LED into more of a "warm-white" LED.

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[peteski]

I dip the LED in Tamiya X-26 Clear Orange. It does a nice job of turning a bluish-white LED into more of a "warm-white" LED.

If you noticed my custom mix few posts earlier, a large portion of that is the clear orange paint. But with just orange I found that the color was not quite right. That is why I messed around with it until I found even better tinting color.  But I guess we all see things differently and just using orange works for some modelers. It also depends on the original color of the LED itself.  The amount of paint applied also makes a big difference.  You put on too much paint and a white LED simply becomes orange LED. That is what I added clear to my mix - to dilute the tinting color.

[cbroughton67]

If you noticed my custom mix few posts earlier, a large portion of that is the clear orange paint. But with just orange I found that the color was not quite right. That is why I messed around with it until I found even better tinting color.  But I guess we all see things differently and just using orange works for some modelers. It also depends on the original color of the LED itself.  The amount of paint applied also makes a big difference.  You put on too much paint and a white LED simply becomes orange LED. That is what I added clear to my mix - to dilute the tinting color.

You have a better eye for mixing colors than I ever will. That's a talent that I admire - I'm rather challenged in that area! The orange does a decent job, but I won't even pretend to know what colors to mix to filter out the blue and get a more incandescent color.


Is it just me, or does the Tamiya Clear Orange smell a bit like iodine?

[peteski]

Is it just me, or does the Tamiya Clear Orange smell a bit like iodine?

To me all the Tamiya acrylic paints in those little glass jars have a slightly sweet smell of alcohol (they use isopropyl alcohol as solvent).  I haven't smelled iodine for years (and I don't even have any at home), but it probably also uses isopropyl alcohol as solvent.