I agree with what you said, but it’s not all about heat. Now that I’ve done this, I have a L2x and the C8, both with the exact same drop-in, and comparing them, the C8 with the same drop-in throws much, much better than the L2x+drop-in.
You mentioned the SF M3, but that’s like almost $50 (~$45), so the price delta between my C8+dropin vs. L2x+M3 is about $30 ($45 - price of dropin, since the M3 comes with the dropin).
So, overall, between the thermal management and price, it still seems like there could be an argument for being able to use P60 drop-ins with C8s.
I wouldn’t see it as a good argument. The whole point of a c8 over a p60 is being able to sink away the heat generated by the well driven emitter, making a screw in adapter that allows an emitter to be an interference fit is imo pointless.
I would suggest buying a convoy c8 and a few of the pills, cnqg has various c8 reflectors which I assume will suit the convoy too.
There are not that many c8 reflector options though to be honest and some give a really poor ringy beam with an xm-l, I’m still using the q5 smooth reflector with the xm-l pill I built for my c8. The hardest bit seems to be finding a body that fits the available pills, hence my suggestion of using a convoy c8. I think the fasttech c8 pills are meant for the convoy c8.
I have a supposedly C8 pill (“pillar”) coming in from FastTech, plus some drivers and emitters, but that’s going to take awhile to get here.
In the meantime, I was out tonight, with a bunch of my lights including my modified C8 with the P60 drop-in, a Defiant Super Thrower, and that other “pure” SolarForce L2x/P60 drop-in.
As far as both throw and brightness, the L2x/P60 drop-in was literally no match for the modified C8 and the Defiant, and, to my eyes, the modified C8 was close with the Defiant.
A builder is building a new bunch of houses next to our home, so the area they’re building is cleared for what we’ve been told is about 150 - 200 yards, and then there’s a wooded area, i.e., I have a clear line-of-sight for about 150-200 yards to a line of trees.
The L2x/P60 drop-in can light those trees, but just barely, whereas, with both the Defiant and the modified C8, the trees are lit much more brightly. The spot from the C8 is quite a bit smaller than the one from the Defiant at that distance though :(…
The Defiant off the shelf is going to be hobbled by the batteries, resistance points, driver, and possibly the T5 emitter. It becomes a beast with good mods.
A well heat sinked light will get hot on the outside rapidly on high. There are several possible reasons your light doesn’t get hot including:
The aluminum foil is creating resistance and lowering current flow to the driver.
The aluminum foil is not conducting the heat well. This will cause the emitter to get hot and lower light output and emitter life.
Your P60 drop in may be underdriven for a C8
You want as few connections between the emitter and body of the flashlight. I think Gords has a great thread on building a light for beginners. The host in that case has the emitter connected directly to the flashlight body.
if it’s not all about heat/lumens, you can begin to see the difficulty of explaining it to the majority of modders already
it’s particularly interesting to consider the SF M3 because not only does it fit p60 pills but also p60 hosts - it is a part produced by a company which places value in the reuse of modular components. the general market would rather spread products out as thinly as possible to maximise bulk number of sales, and incompatibility of parts/threads is endemic of this trend.
modding is great but modular is even better imho. which do you prefer: buying yet the latest value light for friends every christmas, offer to maintain an eternal ‘fixing’ service, or point them to a range of interoperable products which allowing them to nuture their interest at their own pace?
furthermore, what do you think is the reason why manufacturers won’t dedome, overdrive or otherwise support well known techniques which may enhance applications? no one studies the data on the long term effect of these mods on a particular emitter, because by the time the testing has finished it will be already obsolete. therefore manufacturers have no choice but to guarantee lifetimes on the basis of stock factory configuration, or run the risk of selling customers a defective product. however, it is not like customers have never had dealt with such a scenario before (how many does it take to change a (incan) light bulb?). educate the market so they know the risk of purchasing a ‘hot’ module part they can inexpensively replace themself, and there would be no complaints - across the entire sea, including us i imagine.
in the end building one light for one person plays only a specific role in how the future is distributed. by specialising the knowledge, we serve to only further isolate ourselves from benefitting from the economics of mass production. more widely, updates in technology and their offers of better performance face a battle against market saturation. focus on interoperability over marketing would allow technology to update its past problems more efficiently than the sale of dispensable goods at the mainstream level. how do you encourage this, and who do you think are the right position to do it? it’s tough to engineer well and just as tough to communicate