Even though Iām not very good at it, I can say it isnāt that hard. Get a board, pre-mounted, and some thermal paste. It is only two wires that way. Maybe practice a little on something else first.
Okay, I see what what you mean now. There should already be thermal compound under the mcpcb. Just reuse what is there. You only need a super thin layer to fill the microscopic gaps.
If you want to be on the safe side and have plenty for future use, Iād buy this tiny size Arctic Silver 5 from MTN E for $6. That should last you forever, plus itās top on the line and reusable.
Personally, I will be using brand spanking new Thermal Paste (Arctic Silver 5 to be exact ); especially after reading THIS & seeing the associated pictures.
Iāll be doing that with any change of MCPCB & may do it on the ones left stock to just be sure.
Cleaning off all the old thermal paste & applying new just makes sense to meā¦. ymmv
Okay, it looks like Lumintop is using some not so great paste that dries out quickly. I donāt like that kind of paste. Replacing it with something better is a good move. :+1:
Has anyone else run into the issue where holding the switch just produces a low level fast strobe? ToyKeeper said itās probably a short causing the driver to continuously reboot, or something to that effect. One of my FW3As does it on and off, and bmengineer and vinh (skylumen) have both had the same problem.
I think itās from the inner tube not making good contact. Clean all the tube ends and contacts, then tighten up the tail first, snugly, then tighten the head. The tolerances on this light design are quite tight.
When will these manufacturers learn? This seems to be a very common āshortcutā that seems to happen over and over again from a lot of companies. Not like itās a half hour job or would cost any more, and if it did I think itās safe to say weād all be happy to pay $0.50 more to have it done properly so we donāt have to.
You would think they know by now there would be backlash, particularly when it has been designed by enthusiasts - itās kind of a given that the first thing a good portion of these people will do is strip it down! :person_facepalming:
I just think it makes them look sloppy, when there is zero need for it really - bad press for the sake of it.
Yeah, itās not that much more expensive to do it properly. At least Lumintop applied that paste in a āgood enoughā way, covering a decent area.
I recently opened my S2+ SST-20 and Convoy had used thermal paste that looked good but it covered only maybe 30% of the area.
Iām splitting hairs here but in my opinion āa dab + press it inā is not good enough. Surely you could just spend the couple of seconds it would take to twist the MCPCB back and forth a couple of times to spread the paste. These are not some CPU/GPU coolers with a decent amount of mounting pressure that actually spread the paste when you screw them down.
And adding a teeny weeny bit more to make sure there is enough to fully take advantage of the surface area doesnāt hurt and wonāt cost that much moreā¦
P.S. I personally use Arctic MX-2 for everything as itās cheap, available in large tubes, offers good performance and itās lower viscosity makes it easy to work with and spread easily without needing to warm it up.
My understanding is thermal paste should never be reused. To get best thermal contact you should always clean off the old thermal paste and apply a fresh layer anytime you remove the star.
@ GOOSE ā¦ Yeah, I know what you mean. If it wasnāt so sad it would be almost funny. Why not just do it 100%ā¦ or at least 99%.
There is a knife company very close to where ai liveā¦ they do the same thing. They build a very decent knife but the fit nā finish is most often 90% - 95%. My buddy & I just look at each other & shake our heads.
All it would take is just a very, very tiny bit of extra effort or attention and it would make all the difference in the worldā¦ā¦ instead of being ājust good enoughā.
Seems easy on the paper but this is the difference between a big name and a random inferior brand. The hardest is to achieve this last percentage closer to perfection. But not anyone can do it or can afford to do it.
Yepā¦ as far as performance these knive are not inferior, they preform well. Itās just the last little bit of fitment of handle slabs, one more tap on a pin to close a tiny gap, etc., etc.
But like you said, that seperates the men from the boys. And it also seperates price points.
Maybe they are where they want to be in the market place???
Yeah lol, or maybe we are just fussy moaning old gits! :disguised_face: But I donāt think so really, itās not a big ask to have it done properly, I would expect it on a $10 light for the masses, but a $35 for enthusiastsā¦ well maybe not.
/\ ā¦ I am a somewhat picky old fart, but I donāt even think things like this is being picky. Itās just like you saidā¦ do it right. The first timeā¦