I have been folding and tearing my brain trying to figure out how to use air or water for cooling a light to extend the period the light can run in its brightest mode. The short run time at max brightness is kind of the lame part of flashlights. More than kind of.
I don’t want to hurt your feelings, because I think the arrangement you put together is awesome, but I think the implementation needs some tidying up to make this a practical mass produced light. I am thinking you probably thought of that.
When epoxy is available, you should never use tape. Science has proven every doubling of the epoxy yields an eightfold increase in awesomeness of the final product. Not even duct tape can match that performance.
In all seriousness, THIS SHOULD BE A REAL PROJECT. The Giggle team is going to be wrapping up shortly. I’d say now is the time to start getting the interest list going for this one and a more serious model of how this can built for reals.
I did not notice a much heat sinking except the water flowing against the back of the emitter plate. I had been thinking you would need the whole head with pipes running through to have a shot at keeping that thing cool. Prototype I, your work, proves that is not necessary.
The production model is going to need a much smaller reservoir and fins somewhere for losing the heat.
Regarding the coolant. Maybe air, water, glycerine. I don’t know why everyone thinks glycerine is such a great idea. Basically the big decision is air vs. liquid. The most exotic possibility would be a liquid that boils at the target temperature for the emitter, then condenses as it flows through the system for dumping heat out of the coolant. The advantage of a liquid like that is boiling it consumes the most heat providing the most efficient possible system (least amount of fluid required for a given amount of heat pumped away from the emitter). I don’t think we should aim for that, because it would work only within narrow conditions.
Air is simplest but water is much better coolant.
The challenges will be making the unit compact and not too noisy for the pump or fan. Dealing with noise is best done with tuned pipes that dampen the sound. Ever hear an RC gas car with and without its tuned pipe? Without the pipe it sounds like a chainsaw. With the pipe, it is really quiet. Whether we use air or water, we need to tune out the sound.
Running cold water against the plate with the emitter mounted on it a great approach. We need a way to monitor the temperature of the spots that fail from heat.
I think your humor might mask the serious potential and intelligent innovation you put into this. Nice work.
s. Your video where you first had a GT for testing is what got me interested and that is how I got into the group buy for the GT. You are a good video man.
s. Nice work with the ice tray. Skipping away like that was a perfect way to avoid attention.