I just got Convoy S3 host from fasttech, and spent some time trying to unscrew the pill from the body. But it seems that there is no pill to be removed, and that it is integrated with the body. The width of the aluminum sheet which is serving as the heat conduct is quite thin, I estimate 0.5mm.
its not as easy to solder the wires to the star, and the wires must be longer than it is necessary. Heat conduction might also be worse since it’s quite a thin sheet of aluminum.
I was lucky (IMO at least), today I also received a Convoy S3 host from Fasttech, and it is the old model, with brass pill (ordered it 16 days ago).
I really think that these new Convoys are not an improvement, it is way easier to work with a loose pill and I am not sure that you would notice the theoretically better heat transfer of the one-piece design. And brass allows soldering the led-board.
It would be easy for the gurus to make a compare between the 2 different pill design.
I strongly believe that if you remove the paint from the upper base of the intergrated and reflow a copper pcb, you have the best heat management for budget light.
I might be wrong too.
Worse comes to worse…bond the star to the shelf w/ wires soldered, flip over and run some potting (epoxy w/ silicon carbide in the little cup behind the emitter shelf)
Anodizing has near enough to zero impact on the thermal characteristics that getting rid of it won't change a thing. Similarly, there's really no measurable (much less significant) difference between a threaded pill with relatively poor surface contact with the rest of the body and an integral shelf.
The no-pill design makes it harder to use components with a different stack height than the stock parts. Do not like. Harder to tinker with for no real benefit.
Interesting comfy - wasn't sure of your take on this migration to pill-less designs. I'm sort of coming to the same conclusion, though some pill-less designs like the Y3 have a super thick LED shelf which you just can't find in stock pills. Only exception I've found is the cheap ZeusRay zoomie pill, but that was done only because lj and others requested they make that change.
I feel your stated opinions are really based on hard earned experiences and observations, so I know there's always more behind the curtain in what you make claims to.
Take a light like the UniqueFire UF-M6 (aliexpress-UniqueFire-UF-M6). It's a classy mid size classic design, little higher in budget level because of the better finish, SS bezel, brass pill, nice tail assembly etc. So how does it compare head to head with the pill-less X6? Would be interesting... I recently picked up my 2nd on an eBay auction, new, unchallenged bid for $15.
Some people use thermal grease on their pills, which could add electrical resistance at high currents, so I like the idea of reducing the number of points that can add resistance, but I don't like how hard it would be to work with that light and how thin the shelf is.
At least changing this to a triple XP light would raise the mcpcb for easier soldering, but I'd want to add some sort of putty around the sides of the spacer to aid thermal transfer. I don't see this change being a big deal for me as long as Richard's spacers are still the right size for a triple conversion.
I mean if it made a real difference somewhere, like 7-10% higher initial output, hell, even 5%, with less heat sag over time, then it'd be a debate about improved performance vs. less convenient to work on/less adaptable to other components. But it's trading away flexibility in exchange for... nothing. :(
They offered the partial refund, I’m gonna take it, but I’d really like to have the one with the brass pill, its a hassle to solder the emitter this way.
The connection between the emitter and the shelf is pretty good, the reflector presses it strongly against the shelf, I used some high end thermal grease (gelid gc extreme) and the whole body gets warm very quickly on turbo mode.
I setup the modes as
2.4mA (moon, I would have it even lower but the emitter doesnt even lit up if I use lower pwm setting, this is 5/255)
24mA
240mA
1A
2.8A (turbo)
That mode-spacing is almost ideal :-) . Over time I found the factor 10 the best between modes. Personally I would even leave out the 1A mode, although I see why it is there (good output that can run continuously).
Human vision is logarythmic so you need a 10x intensity difference to feel it as half/double intensity change, which is exactly how this feels like when using it. I think I’m gonna lower the low (24mA) and medium (240mA) modes, they feel too bright. It is a bit too many modes for convenient usage, but I want the turbo mode to ramp down, and I want the turbo mode with the step down timer. moon mode.