Yeah, I’m not claiming originality, I’m sure I ripped that off from somewhere.
Also @Sofirn and everybody else, would it still feasible to include some of those little silicone rings to use 18650 cells instead of 26650? I suspect I’m not the only one that has an extensive assortment of 18650 cells but only about one or two 26650s cells.
Unless the design and CNC programing has already been finalized, anything we do to increase heat dissipation without significantly increasing cost is a good thing.
Don’t we all just want to be able to blast as much light as possible for as long as safely possible before stepping down?
My stock L6 gets too hot to be comfortable to hold in a relatively short time. If we’re bumping up the output significantly without making a way for the heat to be released, this will just exacerbate the issue.
This is already NOT a small light. Let’s not be afraid to add a few extra ounces of aluminum that could make a difference in performance.
If you want I have an stock domed XHP70.2 Astrolux MF02 with TA driver and Andúril. 84mm head and 71mm reflector. I can set andúril ramping max to a specified lumen output and measure intensity and throw. That way we can estimate what we can get with the SP70.
I have an L6 XHP70.2 and it suffer heat transfer to upper fins. The hottest part around the side switch.
For firmware I really want Andúril but I’m ok with Narsil too
Okay, I’m going to submit my official list of brightness levels for the SP70 to Sofirn.
I looked at the S70s spacing and L6 spacing.
I then used the Narsil in my L6 and my TA Lumen Tube to record it’s 4 level mode, 5 level mode and 6 level mode. I tried them all out seeing how useful they are and where the gap in brightness is too big or too small. I then tested out some custom levels.
I came up with a total of 6 levels which includes a hidden moonlight. I’m not sure how helpful moonlight would be on a light this size, but I figure it should be easy enough to add it as a hidden level. So we end up with 5 normal levels.
Turbo could be anywhere from 5000 lumen on up. For now I’ll say 5000+.
This level of turbo gets you into the issue of extreme heat which really limits run time. On my light I would have it stepping down after 50 to 60 seconds* as it’s just too hot to hold. So I think of it as a “not so practical” burst mode for when you need the max. It also rips through your battery life.
*I imagine a bit more runtime with a bigger head and maybe more mass.
So for a more practical and longer run time “high” mode, I would suggest 2000 to 2500 lumen
1-2 Moonlight
40-50 Low
250-300 Med 1
800-1000 Med 2
2000-2500 High
5000+ Turbo
My recommendation is to cycle through the 4 middle modes and have turbo on a double click.
That’s also what I deciphered… SP models have side switch, while SF are only tail-switch.
Some SP models have both side & tail switch (eg. SP30A, SP31).
Sofirn has an official website, but it doesn’t seem to be that well known (a Google search for “Sofirn” will more likely than not link first to their Sofirn AliExpress Store rather than the “official” Sofirn website).
There are more series listed in the Sofirn product list (SP, SF, SD, etc). Thorfire’s “TK” series is also on the list, although no models are listed there yet (many of the other series also don’t have any models yet, apart from the well populated SP and SF series).
Jason:
Like the levels
About turbo:
If unlimited fet driven madness like with a TA driver heat is an issue. But I played with the MF02 XHP70.2 yesterday and from 4000 to 9000 lumen the output bump with naked eye is not much but with 4k it can handle the power without heating up for 10 minutes. But with 9k it gets hot about one and a half minute. I’m trying to say that 6-7k lumens is about enough for turbo because above that most power will be turn in to heat and not light. For real world use it is better longer turbo runs without much heat.
Here is a rough concept drawing. It’s is somewhat based on the L6 as I like that shape more than the S70.
You can have the same external appearance with both a single emitter and a triple emitter. With the triple emitter you get much more mass under the shelf, plus deeper fins. It’s a win win.
Note that I used the L6 75mm head diameter by mistake. The 90mm SP70 will be bigger in relation to the battery tube.
Also note that I’m a skilled photoshop user, but I only had paper and my phone for the above.
I don’t know if memory limits the number of modes or not, but if I had to sacrifice a mode I’d say the moonlight would be the least useful for this style of light. If we can keep it, great, but I think it might be more useful to have an additional “High” mode that can still be usable for a while. Something like:
1-2 Moonlight (If possible)
40-50 Low
250-300 Med 1
800-1000 Med 2
2000-2500 High
3500-4000 Highest
5000+ Turbo
Double-click to Turbo sounds good to me too.
(I also would still like to save a little bit of memory space for a hidden strobe and at least one beacon too, as discussed earlier in this thread.)
I would like to see much thicker walls behind the fins.
The fins on the right side will be virtually useless as there is no path for the heat to travel.
Same for the upper fins on the left side.
You want the body of the light to hug the reflector outline as close as possible and make the fin depth such that you give the heat a good path to move up.
Note that my L6 with fully charged Liitokala’s typically does about 6000 lumen (P2 1A bin, 17A at tail). Since I use it at my work I have to be a bit more practical with it so I usually ramp it down just a little from max. This is like the 80% ramp we have in the GT. In my case it tends to be about 2500 lumen. I think that making it a bit higher would be okay. We just need to try it first hand.
If the prototype SP70 can do 9000 lumen, then that would be great, but I don’t think it will. It may end up around the 6k to 7k range. If it can handle 4000 lumen for 10 minutes then I would be fine with that. It’s a matter of finding that sweet spot where the output only seems to drop a little, but the amp draw drops a lot. I know what you mean. Plus I only know the L6’s mass and heat characteristics. The SP70 might be quite a bit different.
So maybe:
1-2 Moonlight
40-50 Low
250-300 Med 1
800-1000 Med 2
2500-4000 High (whatever is practical)
5000+ Turbo
Worse case scenario, set your own “High” level in ramping mode.