Recommend amps for P60 quad, solid copper pill?

I know the typical P60 pill/reflector/spring doesn’t have great heat dissipation, but how about with a solid copper pill - it has a lot more mass (and is obviously copper, not brass).

How would a FET+1 setup do OK, if used responsibly?

It’s really the contact between the host and pill that counts. I have about 15A going through the one i made but the host is a huge chunk of thick aluminium.
What host? You should be fine, there are always lower modes.

Also contact between reflector and head counts, since the reflector screws onto the pill and you clamp the MCPCB between reflector and pill.
I have some Kaidomain MCPCBs and the DTP slug is slightly raised, so that would be ideal.

True but there will be no reflector with a quad setup will there? Tell us more about what you’re planning.

I have two MTN quads and a kiribu-ru quad build that I have pressed against the side of the body with aluminum foil and the body gets HOT with the quad in turbo. I can only guess the heat transfer is adequate.

:person_facepalming:

:slight_smile: Happens to the best of us.

It depends on the quad

:wink:

Although to be fair, there is a rubber piece that the copper hits, other wise it would hit the glass which would be of no help at all.

Optics, not reflectors.

Of course there is no reflector. But the MTN pill does have a copper contact point in the same general area.

Yes, and it’s the contact between the host and the…

:innocent:

Oh no doubt the point of contact between the host and the sides of the pill are the most important.

Yes, there will be no reflector, just large pill and optics.

I’m considering two different hosts: Solarforce L2P and Solarforce P1.

The head on the P1 is plastic, not metal - so it is not as good at heat transfer. But for my use the non-metal P1 would actually be better. The inner diameter of both heads (L2 and P1) are the same, and accept the same drop-in, but I think the P1 uses a slightly larger lens? Not sure if that is true or will impact its ability to be a quad light… I need to go measure.

If I did use the P1 that has plastic head (it does have aluminum body to wick a little bit of heat), what kind of amps would you run? Is the solid copper pill by itself enough to run turbo/DD for short periods?

I would certainly use copper foil and maybe even a smear of thermal compound to get good conduction between pill and head.

Personally, i like overdriving small lights made out of fairly non heat conductive materials, it suits me and is great to have maximum output even if it is just for short periods, there is the option of lower modes when things start getting too hot.
A solid copper P60 is vastly superior to the brass/ alu reflector types but it is still just a heat tank and once full must be emptied to the external environment in some way. A big part of this hobby is experimenting and finding out for yourself what happens and what works for you.
Would be interesting to see what happens to that plastic covered host though :wink:

With plastic host 3amps max and even then for only 2-3 mins at a time. But I would love to see an experiment :wink: