I know how to take them with my phone, will uploading to imgur or something like that work for it, or do they require something specific?
Imgur might work. They may not hassle you about a video, but since they would have to send another $90 light to you, they usually will hassle you. Lol
Well that’s gonna add to the confusion
Yes, research needs to be done.
Thanks for the helpful info. Will adding a bit of thermal paste help with the overall run time on turbo?
I wrote them that I need one asap to get comparable numbers
Doesn’t lifting the LED PCB and screwing it back without cleaning and reapplying the thermal paste create air bubbles?
Yes.
Ideally you’d clean and re-paste properly. If you clamp it down from one side first, it should do a semi reasonable job of avoiding bubbles. Clamping straight down would be the worst, other than crazy stuff like no thermal paste or not clamping down well.
Received mine just now. It had thermal paste. Lifted the PCB and checked this. Did not clean or add anything. Clamped it back down from other side first and then the other too. Heat transfers nicely to the body and no doughnut hole on mine. Stepdown from turbo seems to be a bit over 20 seconds though. Tried with a liitokala 26650 and a molicel 21700. With Molicel was visibly a bit brighter.
No, thermal paste helps keep the led from overheating and dying.
I think it is a non-worry issue. Pressure from the reflector should create good metal to metal contact. I see no need to clean and reapply. Just having paste is good. LEDs are pretty robust. Computer CPU’s are not so robust.
PS, the screws are for anti-rotation, not clamping down. The reflector is what applies downward pressure.
Just ran it for 8 mins at max ramp. External temp was 53°C (room 22.6°C). Internal was 61°C. There’s definitely some kinda issue with the driver cause on turbo I’m only getting 20 seconds it doesn’t even get warm.
On the above 8 min test, what did you set the thermal limit to? Did it function like it should?
There are ways to trick the thermal settings to make the exterior get hotter if that’s what you want.
As far as Turbo, that generates a lot of heat quickly, so time plays a factor. There is always going to be a time lag between the inside of the light heating up to when than heat gets to the exterior. Toykeeper generally sets up Anduril to read the rate of heat increase so as to anticipate when it needs to start ramping down. I dont know if Astrolux asked her to do a Anduril build just for this light or if they just grabbed a version from a different light and flashed it to the FT03S.
Let’s hypothetically say they grabbed the Anduril build from the S43 (similar 3 channel design) and used that on the FT03S. That build was probably set up to reduce power sooner when the temp rise is fast due to the light being so small. It heats up quick.
So if they used that build for a bigger light, we might be seeing the software reacting too soon as far as reducing output.
The thermal stepdown software is never going to be all that accurate in the first place since it thermistor is built into the MCU. So we just have to accept this. Maybe in the future we will have remote temp probes we can put on the mcpcb or the body of the light.
I sent Toykeeper a PM to see what she knows about this lights Anduril build.
We did just have a situation with the Astrolux MF01 mini where the temp sensor reduced output way too soon only when at the top of the ramp. On that driver the MCU was directly on the other side of the board from a 7135 chip. Top of the ramp activates these chips and they get pretty hot so the heat was transferring to the MCU. It was a small design flaw in the driver layout. To fix this a user machined a heatsink to soak up the heat from the 7135 chips.
In the FT03S, we are having a different issue, but maybe the FET is on the opposite side of the board as the MCU? I can’t find any driver pictures although I swore someone posted some.
The thermal limit was set to 75 and it didn’t step down which is good cause it hadn’t reached that temp yet. Turbo steps down fast but if the batteries voltage a bit low so the output is under about 75% I can run if for about 4 minutes without any problems. Seems like it’s a similar problem to the MF01 mini. Hopefully there’s an easy way to fix it even if it involves but another part like with the MF01 mini.
Would setting the ambient temp falsely to trick the light into thinking it’s colder work? Would this be risky for the led?
Here’s a screenshot at 16:32 from ZozzV6’s video SBT90.2 hype train. Is the Astrolux FT03S worth triple price than FT03? - YouTube
It’s easy to do this. To avoid risk, hold the light and turn off if it starts to get too hot. The led should be able to handle it.
The FET and MCU are a good ways apart. For there to be a heat path from one to the other we would need to look at the electrical traces. Assuming there is a heat path from the FET which is causing the MCU to heat up prematurely, there might be a couple ways to reduce the effect.
Like with the MF01 mini, you could add extra mass to the FET. You could take a cube of copper and attach it to the FET with thermal adhesive. What it does is make the FET heat up at a slower rate. Adhesive will make it hard to remove the FET in the future if you ever need to, but it’s the only way I can think to keep it attached.
Another option might be to just swap in a FT03 driver. You can run NarsilM or adapt Anduril to it. I don’t think the FT03 has these step down issues. I kind of prefer NarsilM because you set the stepdown temp by turning on Turbo and then holding the light. When it feels hot enough, you click the button. Whatever that temp is gets memorized. Or you can use a timer or turn it off completely.
Another option might be to try a less powerful battery. The P42A is really strong and probably pulls a huge amount of amps. Switching to 50E or similar (30Q) might solve the problem. Have you tried a different cell? The high amperage might be pushing whatever FET they used to run hotter than it should. Backing off the amps a little (not enough to really notice) might make a big difference. This is what your seeing when the P42A is not fully charged. It pulls less amps.
@ Th558:
I was getting similar results, on turbo my light would drop from 5100 lm (at startup) to 2200 in 10 sec. Had set the thermal limit to 75ºC. Tested against other batteries (iJoy, Molicell, Efest and Sony VTC5A) and would still drop like a fly. Then it occured to me that I had placed a metal ring between the driver and retainer (to align the body tube flats). Thinking it was brass (had cleaned with fine sandpaper) only to realize it was electroplated aluminium with some clear coat.
Changed to a stainless ring and the numbers are back up. After some 2 minutes, 4200 lumens and head at 50ºC.
The led is drawing much amperage, any small resistance in the electrical path throttles the output. I’ve dedicated the iJoy 26650 / 4200mAh cell for this light as can handle the 20 to 25 amps for some 5 / 4 minutes (by HKJ’s tables).
Tighten the retaining ring and check if other contact points are clean.