Typical of nearly every large high powered flashlight, there are huge thermal bottlenecks in the head (observe the pinched areas of aluminum while following the yellow lines from the floor plate to the bezel). This will prevent heat from traveling from the floor plate through the entire head to disperse the heat into the air. The results are trapped heat at the base of the head, which also heats the batteries to high temperatures during extended use (especially the 1st cell). Using your lithium batteries to absorb heat is not good! And once they are hot, they take a long time to cool down inside the battery tube (2X not good!). :Sp
Id like to offer a few suggestions which could transform this light from just another large Convoy into one of industry renowned stellar performance that will smoke its competition in price, functionality, performance and mod friendliness:
- Bolster the wall thickness inside the head to closely follow the contours of the reflector. Keep the walls as thick as possible. There should be very little space anywhere between the reflector and the inside of the head (less than 2mm). All that dead air we now see between the reflector and head should be solid aluminum!
- Trim all that wasted aluminum from the fat mid portion of the reflector so the head can be built thicker to help conduct heat.
- Make ALL the cooling fins the same diameter as the bezel to add surface area to exchange heat with the air. While we have grown used to seeing lights with useless small tapered cooling fins, they are ineffective and only there for aesthetics. The highest concentration of heat is generated at the floor plate where the largest/deepest cooling fins are needed to conduct heat… not those silly worthless little girly fins! :Sp Its time to get serious and offer a light that works as good as it looks!
Something like a scaled up C12 (only much better):
- Keep the floor plate at least as thick as it appears to be in the rendering. It looks like a chunky 8mm. VERY NICE! The thicker the better.
- 2 x 26650 cells will get sucked dry in no time at all. Much better would be 3 x 32650 so the famous high capacity/low sag (yet inexpensive) TF32650 cells could be used. The unprotected version of those cells remain the highest capacity of all that have been tested to date (6,700mah) and dont even break a sweat at +10A. Without them, the TrustFire TR-J20 would never be able to reach its fullest, long running mod potential.
- Is the reflector really only 65mm? Again, the light would get heat soaked very quickly becasue it seriously lacks the surface area necessary to transfer the heat from a +40 watt emitter. Also, the smallish reflector would hamper the efficiency of the large XHP70. How about 100-120mm reflector? This would provide a much larger head surface area to transfer heat while putting out more lumens and throwing them much much farther for the same amount of power. :bigsmile: Its time to stop choking the potential of the incredible XHP-70 and unleash its full capability.
- Offer separate battery extension tubes for 4 cell mod configurations. Higher voltage/less amps if far less picky with power requirements than low voltage/high amps, while realizing far greater run times. Again, hopefully for 32650 cells. We can always use plastic sleeve adapters to drop down to 26650 cells for those who prefer the smaller cells (Such is the case for the TrustFire TR-J20)
- Rather a no-brainier, but a Copper DTP MCPCB should be mandatory for any flashlight that creates this much heat.
- Quality dual sided AR lens… absolutely mandatory.
- Obviously, also offer as a host kit with the ability to purchase all the parts separately (including orange peal and smooth reflectors), drivers, battery tubes, switches, etc. Id buy a ton of them in bulk quantity if the specs were changed and proven effective!
- With different battery tube, reflector finish and driver options, this could be a modular system offered from 2 - 4 cell configurations to handle the XHP-50, XHP-70 and XHP-35 while properly dispensing with the enormous amount of heat these emitters generate. A modular system would also keep manufacturing costs down while offering several different configurations… rather than just one mediocre, hot running, inefficient flashlight.
The one guy that could pull this off while maintaining a quality product is Simon. Then we could ditch all those other overpriced poorly designed XHP based flashlights and base our large single emitter flashlight mods in mostly one host. The stock offerings as well as the mod potential could be endless.
So far, the only “out of the box” large flashlight I am aware of that offers proper heat sinking, a great mod host, quality and a fair price is the TrustFire TR-J20, although it could stand to have had larger cooling fins at the base. Simon could do much better while providing the best “beast” light to date.
Im not holding my breath, but it would sure tear down all the other overpriced failures that have been based on XHP emitters so far. The changes would completely transform the light posted in the OP, but would also make it worthy for the XHP-70. Otherwise, its just another 65mm XHP (but with legendary Convoy budget quality).
Maybe offer both!!! :bigsmile: :bigsmile:
What do others think?