That’s the main reason I don’t like using BeCu C17500 45% IACS: while it does have better conductivity than BeCu C17530 38% IACS, its worse mechanical properties show up quite rapidly.
I tried to test a NCR18650GA button top and it crushed the springs further.
Now w/ P26A, it measures 5,820 lumens
Now w/ Samsung 30T 21700, it measures 5,840 lumens
This is significant considering the 30T used to measure 7,570 lumens when the springs were brand new. Lesson learned, be very careful what batteries you put in and twist the threads in slowly to make sure you are not forcing in a battery that is too long.
I would highly recommend to anyone with soldering skills to swap out the thermal paste in the Fireflies E07. I had 6500K SST20 inside and swapped them for Luxeon V2 4000K. I removed all the old thermal paste and replaced it with 10W/mk new paste. You have to unsolder all the wires because they are too short to be pulled out.
Before, the E07 got hot only slowly even if it was running on full turbo. It was barely warm at the outside and the heat would not transfer to the head as known from other hot-rods like the Emisar D4.
Now you can feel the heat at the outside already after a few seconds and it moves along the light until it is hot all along. That’s much better because if the heat is stored in the MCPCB the leds are more likely to fail. This leads me to the conclusion that Fireflies is using a much worse thermal paste than for example Emisar or Astrolux.
@Skylight Really? That’s the complete opposite for me, but I do have the V2 in which it has HY880 thermal paste.
The E07 gets hot insanely fast, even faster than my PL47, taking into account of course that the PL47 has a direct connection to the battery tube, so it doesn’t get as hot as fast, but the battery tube does get hot faster.
@SKV89, I would also agree. I advise anyone using any of Fireflies lights to not use protected/very long cells.
Like with Emisar/Amutorch lights, they use BeCu C17500 springs, so while they have some superb conductivity, their mechanical properties and resistance to plastic deformation(permanent) are bad.
I’m hesitant to say this because i dont want to start a thermal pastegate again but even on my Ti+Cu model only ~half of the MCPCB makes good contact with the shelf (FWIW my Emisar D18 was more or less the same). I added good thermal paste and it seems to transfer heat ok but obviously it could still be better.
I wasn’t used protected cell, just standard length button top NCR18650GA with their 18650 adapter tube. Seems like it is only compatible with flat top 18650. I hope FF will increase the length of the tube slightly to avoid these issues and use the same springs you are using. That would result in the ultimate premium flashlight that should not degrade in performance over time.
It’s all about the flux bin. I’ve measured warmer temps brighter than cooler temps. If both of the lights are the same flux bin (V3), then their brightness should be the same. Though some lux meters seem to be more sensitive to cooler temps so they measure higher output with CW than WW even if the brightness should be the same.
I’m having trouble getting my aux lights to come on. I click 7 times from off and the switch lights change from 2 dots to 4 dots but my blue aux lights don’t come on. I click 7 times again and the switch changes from 4 dots to 2 dots. What am I doing wrong? How do I get my aux lights to come on? They used to work but I turned them off and haven’t used the light in quite in a while. Now I want to turn them back on.
Make sure your battery is charged? It could have drained it enough to allow the button/main LEDs to come on dimly but the aux board has its own low voltage protection so it will stay off.
Good idea, I’ll charge up the battery tonight. The light itself does come on and ramps up and down brightnesses as expected so I didn’t think about the battery since the light worked.