Have you ever actually tried holding a copper version of a light side-by-side with an aluminum version of the same light?
The copper feels much, MUCH hotter in the hand. This is because the copper is more efficient at pulling the heat away from the LEDs to the exterior of the light. Also, aluminum anodizing tends to insulate a bit more than bare aluminum or copper.
I can hold an aluminum Emisar D4 at full power for probably twice as long as I can hold my much heavier and dimmer Sinner Cypreus copper triple.
The thing about long signatures is ā- people quit seeing them after a while.
The brain filters out pointless repetition. Like hearing the same ad over and over.
Fortunately, thereās also software available here for that filtering http://budgetlightforum.com/comment/1300106
You know the two rules for civilization: donāt annoy people, and donāt be too easily annoyed.
I only have one copper light, an S43S, so I canāt directly compare anything.
Have you considered swapping the driver in your Sinner for one with Bistro or Guppydrv, etcā¦ so that you can manually set the temperature step down? That might make it nicer to use on Turbo.
Itās wierd that the Sinner is dimmer, yet heats up quicker. Does the Sinner draw less or more amps from the battery than the D4? Iām not very familiar with either of these lights.
This is why I put some CF on this, stops most of the copper smell transfering to hands, less tarnishing & buffers the heat a little on high output. (Plus I like the look)
My off the napkin and not necessarily correct calculations agree with Firelight2.
Copper gives better sustained performance but shorter turbos. Unless turbo is actually quite long, so better heat shedding helps.
The CRX way with carefully chosen insulation thickness (I think it should be quite thinā¦and too thin is better than too thick) can get the same thermal path from LED to skin as alu - and so the same LED temperature. However it will spread heat around the host better leading to higher sustained performance. Also turbo times should be much better than either alu or copper alone. More than 50% for sure.
I have 1 copper light and I EDC it nowadays.
Astrolux A1.
With a light this small the extra weight doesnāt matter every day. I also EDC Lumintop GT Mini (with a shorty tube). If that light was copper - no way I would carry it around.
I would love to have some larger copper host just for the sake of it but I wouldnāt use it very much.
In other news, still no newsā¦ sorry. CNY takes a while.
The FW3A proto4 is still working nicely, except for the issue already noted. I get occasional short+reboot errors when A) the parts go out of alignment, B) Iām holding the button, and C) itās using more than 1x7135 worth of power. Loosen/tighten the tube though, and itās happy again for another day or two.
So Iām hoping thatāll be taken care of. My proto2 unit doesnāt do this. Even with that issue though, I still find it nicer overall than most of my other lights.
It is 27mm x 25mm (1mm wall) 3K roll wrapped matt tube bonded to the copper with a very thin layer of JB Weld, something like 5-7 in plane, .5-.8 transverse for CF/ resin if that helps, I just know it takes the edge off
Ish. Not very well though. One can only do so much with a dremel. And to make things fit a little better I filed down the edges of the driver as far as they can go without making it not work any more, so thereās only a hair width of ground ring left. Itās not ideal.
In any case, my proto4 is now modified and no longer represents what to expect from a stock light. After CNY, I hope Lumintop will have some good news for us.
Maybe the formulas arenāt the best way to judge it then.
When I first made the light I had a copper core & titanium outer shell but felt it was too much power not getting distributed through the metal, head area around the pill was scorching hot on turbo & rapid stepdown but the light was relatively cool elsewhere.
So I changed the shell to all copper but then the whole thing got too hot to handle while having a decent temp threshold (60Ā°)
Then I tried the additional CF sleeve which made holding the light bearable though it still gets very hot.
Yes, lots of people looking forward to this one becoming available.
Remember you can send any of these protos to me to try to fix if you like :innocent: