Thanks for all those supportive comments above
In my opinion, pure copper (I used 99,95% copper) is not the best material for RRT01 for below reasons:
- too soft, dent easily
- copper thread tend to be weaker than 2024 aluminum or any brass thread.
- hard to machine
- expensive
- too heavy for EDC. Stock brass pill weights 17,08gr, modified brass (high copper) 23,26gr, copper (99,95%) 23,92gr
also, aesthetically non visible
For RRT01, modified pill made from 2024 aluminum weights approximately only 7,42gr. More than half stock pill with thicker LED base and more material overall. Although copper has roughly triple the thermal conductivity of stock brass pill, with aluminum its already doubled. What do you guys think?
I had already been thinking why Jetbeam chose brass for the pill. One reason could be that the pill is the guidance for the ball bearing, the metals on both sides of the ball, SS (the ring) and brass (the pill) are slippery and wear resistant, while aluminium (and copper) is non-slipping and wears easy.
The question is if this is relevant for a simple low-tolerance magnetic ring construction or would greased aluminium work just as well, even over time ?
For all other reasons, I fully vote for aluminium, the best flashlight material in the world.
Brass = the golden standard for metal machining. Any hard/easy to machine standards always compared to brass.
Brass has the best dry lubricity for metal to metal contact, superior galling resistant. Even against it own
Aluminum can be anodized or greased for better wear resistance. But seriously, a true 20xx aluminum is very strong. I don’t think all those manufacturers with “aerospace aluminum material” really use 20xx or 70xx aluminum. These aero grade aluminum can also heat treated for even better strength. I will check local supply for used 7068 scraps. IMO, 7068 Al is the ultimate flashlight material.
I have a box full of damaged Vertex dirt bike cast racing pistons, they have very high silicone content (some as high as 20% for 2000 model). The Si content is so high they are brittle yet very hard, perfect for high revving low torque 2 strokes. Tried to cast them but unusable other than for their specific purpose. Tapping a thread on it was useless.
I heard Oveready use superior ultra strong aluminum billet alloy for their lights. It’s doesn’t really requires anodization.
I like copper mcpcb and aluminum pills. Uses the superior thermal properties of copper where its most important. Moves the heat quickly to the aluminum and keeps the flashlight nice and light.
I predict synthetic diamond is the future for extreme high power. DCPCB has been used in military and space equipment, mainly for laser and CPU. The cost of synthetic diamond keeps dropping as the technology advanced.
This far, the nearest concept to DCPCB at mass production rate is AlN direct metallisation copper board.
Soon there will be copper based nano ceramic insulated MCPCB very similar to my previous board. The factory introduced it to me but the whooping $10.000 commitment cost held me back from even read the spec any further.
I really want to if I have the skill. Need more time to learn building my own driver. I have long overdue programming lesson to begin with. As for now, simple mechanical fix to make it accept protected 18350 is the easiest solution
I won’t worry about the overheating problem since I will use heavier resistor to limit the output to about 300lm ish
Far better would be for Jetbeam to update their circa-2012 driver design. They should be able to not only add at least a thermal stepdown and low voltage protection, but also achieve better efficiency and better regulation.
Although the new design looks a little bit nicer aesthetically than the old one, I’m unclear what functional improvements were made relative to the old version.
However, if you want a rotary and an HDS is out of the budget, this is apparently the best game in town despite the shortcomings. I’m looking forward to seeing what Clemence is able to come up with for a mod kit.