I know the goal for heat sinking is to remove the heat from the electronics, primarily the LED area and bring it to the surface of the light, the outside.
If a light was modded and now has more heat sinking material, wouldn’t that lights exterior get hotter than it was when it was a stock light, simply because it is removing MORE heat and bringing it to the surface?
OR……Since the heat sinking in the modded light is now better, it removes the heat faster, therefore the light is NOT heating up as much?
Which is true?
I might get 1.5 more ounces of copper heat sinking for my X65 MINI.Not sure if it is worth it and would be noticeably improved.
Last I heard, better heat sinking means more mass added adjacent to the heat source to absorb to remove more heat from the source. That happens first.
Second, that added mass that is adjacent to the source of the heat has to be able to conduct the heat that it has, to the surface of the flashlight.
After that, the heat needs to be dissipated/removed from the surface of the flashlight to the ambient air.
When I buy a stock light, I have to trust that heat absorption, conduction, convection and removal are ok/fine. When I have a light modded, I have to trust that the modder will make all or some of that even better.
Btw, in the summer/when the ambient air is warmer/hotter, the heat sinking and removal will be not very efficient. Bbtw, another modality of heat removal is radiation, which is proportional to the fourth power of the absolute temperature of the heat body.
If you just added mass then all it will do is slow down the time to warm up or cool down.
If the added mass increases the contact area between the LED and the outside of the body then it will improve heat flow which means the LED will be cooler and the outside hotter.
To make it run cooler given a certain amount of heat to get rid of is to add more mass that the heat spreads through or more surface area which creates more area for the heat to shed from the air or add more air flow or water cooling.
If you create a better thermal path from led to heatsink obviously there will be more heat absorbed in the heatsink that needs to be dissipated.
That’s exctly what a copper mcpcb does over a aluminum mcpcb. It absorbs the heat quicker to be dissipated in the heatsink.
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It be hard to say if it will be hotter or colder. You have added a better thermal path but you have added more mass and guessing more surface area.
Thanks for the input. It does not seem worth it to me. It Is expensive and seems to have a good chance of making the handle hotter which is the opposite of what I want.
I made, and fitted a copper heatsink in a triple yesterday. I think the question should start with ‘what is the current heatsinking like’ - if it’s already ok, then if left standard and ‘as is’ then I doubt heatsinking will have much effect. Especially if it’s already a quality light.
However, if like my crappy pill (in a brass light) was what you’d had (i know you don’t lol), then yes replace it lol! mine was like 2p’s worth of ally, with a 1mm shelf and a HUGE hole in the middle - the led literally sat on a washer which gave it next to no heatsinking - it HAD to be done, even for standard - i put a triple in mine and a new driver, the copper heatsink made a massive difference. It takes a while to feel any heat on highest, and stays on high for a bit longer. The handle did not get ‘hot’ at all really, not in the FW3a sense of hot anyway. that gets roasting in comparison.
Here is what I made.
I think my X65 MINI’s heat sinking must be sufficient. If it were not, Skylumen would of offered that additional mod on his website. I have seen him do that before will less quality lights.
He told me it was expensive[$40] and that he could add 1.5 oz of copper.He also said he is not sure how much more heat it would remove but it would help.
I have a way of posing questions and many times people do not answer the question the way that it was posed. They answer it their own way.
Here was my question: Would additional heat sinking make a “Noticeable” difference?
I know the answer is YES.
The heat will come to the handle slower with ally possibly - but the heat is still there, and the light wasn’t designed to be modded, by that I mean the ‘pill’ it was designed for stock use not hot rodded.
Therefore the scenario has changed - the extra heat is being kept back by the ally which cannot shed it so efficiently, and could lead to premature damage. Didn’t you have that problem already with overheating after a mod?
‘It certainly appears that this newish QUAD LED can NOT handle heat/high current.I never used the light on MAX for more than 2 minutes at a time, then resting for 5 minutes.’
THAT is where the copper will help you out, and why it is a definite YES from me. A modded light is going to get hotter than stock, even more so on turbo - it NEEDS to escape through the body.
If you don’t want to risk a hot body, maybe don’t have your lights modded.
It is not so simple to just say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to such a question, there are a lot of other factors. I’m not trying to start an argument - that is my personal opinion, feel free to entirely ignore it :+1:
Aluminium - or Aluminum as you guys say I think
I know, I don’t want to confuse, sorry.
In my case it made a huge difference, I modded it, it was hotter because of this, if I hadn’t put copper in mine it would have melted the led’s.
I don’t know the extent to your mod, so I am unqualified to comment. It’s not so much contradictory, ‘as different horses for different courses’ I hope you understand that saying.
I’m sure if Vinh has told you it will be fine, then it will be - if it isn’t you now have the luxury of being able to complain/get support. If you don’t mod, which I don’t think you do (yet ) the it’s always safest to buy from such a person.
From my end though - I would have coppered it lol! but mainly because I can myself.
Don’t forget to show us when the beast arrives!
Just a brief mention that when Vinh mods the X 65 and/or the X 65 mini: most of the modification is replace the driver. When Vinh mods these two lights, there’s only a very small tiny boost, almost none, if any. This, because the stock output is just about at maximum already.
Exactly. I am getting driver VNX2 and carrier mod. That is it. The manufacturers have caught up to modders in the last 2 years or so.
I should have used common sense. If he felt this light needed more heat sinking he would of done it[included] OR had that choice[at cost] in one of his options like he did with lights from the past.
TN42-Spec 6-7 Gets 1oz extra copper heat sink
K60vn-All light gets extra thick copper + Carrier Springs upgrade
extra charge option:
X60vn
C) +$50 1.5oz internal copper HS, New Arctic Silver, LED copper base sand smooth
I look at heat sinking as a way to remove heat away from the LED so it doesn’t get too hot and burn out. There are many aspects to this - different alloys, flashlight shelves, pills, thermal compound, etc. One of the improvements was the creation of the direct thermal path MCPCB. That was a huge improvement of taking heat away from the LED. Copper is great at absorbing heat, but it’s heavy. Aluminum is good too, but not as good as copper. As long as your flashlight can handle the heat (meaning the LED doesn’t die), it’s up to you if you want to try to improve it.
All things considered, the same amount of heat will be produced by the LED regardless of the heat sinking. If you add more heat sinking, like what Enderman stated above, it will slow down how long it takes for the heat to get to the flashlight body since it’s being absorbed by the heat sinking material. But eventually the same amount of heat will be felt. It will also take more time for the heat to dissipate.
that gets roasting in comparison.
) the it’s always safest to buy from such a person.