Dear Mr. FlashPilot,
I’m certainly not going to discount such a heap of well thought out suggestions. I don’t have the time to respond to every detail right now but I’ll do my best. Here are my thoughts on your thoughts…
…huge thermal bottlenecks in the head …prevent heat from traveling from the floor plate through the entire head to disperse the heat into the air… trapped heat at the base of the head, which also heats the batteries
I can’t argue with any of that. I see what Simon was going for with more reflector/head contact area where the reflector but you’re right. Because it’s not at the bottom which is the only place I see it as beneficial, it’s a bottleneck/heat trap.
Check
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!
I agree to about following the contours but thickness needs to be kept within reason for both build cost and shipping cost otherwise this becomes a $100 light.
Its a CNC product and the difference in price of material to manufacture will be negligible.
Have you checked out the TrustFire TR-J20 I linked in my original post? The name brand, number of complex machining operations, number of parts, quality of anno and amount of skilled hand labor to assemble that light put it between $90-100. Simons light with my suggestions should easily come in under $65 if mass produced.
Trim all that wasted aluminum from the fat mid portion of the reflector so the head can be built thicker to help conduct heat.
Agreed but again within reason for cost effectiveness.
Chose the correct reflector to begin with, without the large wasted mass in the center. Most large reflectors are thin walled from top to bottom and relatively inexpensive.
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! Sick Its time to get serious and offer a light that works as good as it looks!
I cannot agree with you 100% here. Simon has always been about building good looking lights so aesthetic value will always matter to him. My influence is just that. He makes the calls, but he has always listened to reason whenever I’ve presented it. The examples I’ve seen of lights with perfect cooling are on the ugly side IMHO. I think most things in life come down to finding the proper balance and this is no exception. Perfect cooling means an UGLY light. Perfect looks means poor cooling. Find the balance is my thinking. That said I agree that more can be done to better cool the L6.
The Acebeam and Lumintop lights equipped with XHP-70 emitters driven to around 5A probably offer 3-4 times the cooling capacity of the proposed L6, and both those lights still overheat in relatively short order. Given the facts, why would anyone want to buy a light that would likely overheat 3-4 times more quickly?
Something like a scaled up C12 (only much better)
U-G-L-Y it aint got no alibi it’s UGLY!
LOL! Its a blank sheet of paper where a tiny bit of imagination could change the appearance without sacrificing the cooling function. Put a few scalloped tapered cooling fins on the cell side of the floor plate around the head with a recess for the button, then it will have the usual tapered look we are used to seeing while still maintaining the longest deep fins in the floor plate area where they are desperately needed.
Much better would be 3 × 32650…
Not a very common cell and you’re adding almost the cost of the light in batteries to power it. I for one just can’t afford that.
The Trustfire TF32650 is available almost everywhere online, far cheaper than the best 26650 cells and offers higher performance with less sag than any other cell produced in its size or smaller. If only the protected versions can be found, the PC is easy enough to remove from the cell. The unprotected version of these cells sag very little, even at 13 amps draw. There were a few threads showing discharge graphs reposted to BLF a while back to prove it. The protected version of the cell suffered greatly becasue of the crappy PC, so ignore HKJ’s post. He refused to remove the PC so his remains unworthy and underutilized. But as I mentioned, the PC is easily removed from the cell to provide amazing performance.
How about 100-120mm reflector?
No disrespect but dude that’s a satellite dish
Not true. Its in the same ballpark as other large lights. The X60 is close to 110mm. BTU Shocker and TK70 come in at around 100mm. Pick any and they are large. Besides, the large reflector is what is required to maximize the potential of the XHP-70. The 32650 is the same diameter as a D cell so its quite comfortable to carry and balances the light in longer configurations. Anyone who has handled a TK70 will know the huge benefits when carrying it single handed, especially for any length of time. Far easier and more comfortable than fat battery tube lights with a battery carrier. I personally dont find much difference between handling large 26650 lights versus large 32650 lights, so the choice is far more than obvious from a performance and cost perspective
extension tubes for 4 cell mod configurations…
He’s not going to make it if he’s going to sell it to 50 people worldwide. Once the light is released maybe we could do a poll on who would buy a 4 cell tube
Really? He will easily sell several thousand of them and already has in prior versions. Build the initial version from a 2 cell tube and the others by stacking 1 cell threaded extension tubes. Then sell each version under a unique SKU, just has Simon has already done for years with other lights. Mass produce them and they will be extremely cheap. Then each light can be fully modular. The Fenix TK70 has the same form factor with a removable extension tube and sold in the thousands at over $220. I modded mine for 4 x 32650 and it remains the most easily manageable large light of any I have ever handled.
Copper DTP MCPCB…
Fairly certain that was addressed at the outset but I’ve asked Simon to verify.
Quality dual sided AR lens… absolutely mandatory.
Absolutely agreed. Simon is working on creating a high quality lens, AR coated on both sides.
offer as a host kit with the ability to purchase all the parts…
Host will be offered. All the parts individually is a lofty goal but a good one.
Simon already offers spares for other lights, so it makes sense that if the light went into high volume production that it would follow suit. Nothing new there
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.
Agreed
The one guy that could pull this off while maintaining a quality product is Simon.
Agreed
Well… that took a long time to respond to but thank you for such well thought feedback. Respect.