Yes, Convoys with thermal regulation do run hot. That’s normal, and not really an issue in normal use (I usually run them on 35%)
Be aware that the older 8*7135 drivers have no thermal regulation, and will get very hot to touch if left on 100%, but have been tested on this forum to not exceed temperatures that are dangerous to li-ion batteries.
Yes it is normal, depending on the driver and battery of course.
For example, the S2+ that Simon is selling in his AliX store, some come with his 5 amp drivers (your choice of 4 mode or 12 mode-groups), but in either case it's the 5 amps that matters concerning heat. As he mentions repeatedly these drivers have temperature control of 55 degrees C (131 degrees F). As you have found out 55 degrees C is to hot to hold. This should not be surprising?
So, 55 degrees C is HOT in my opinion, so your post asking the question if a little puzzling to me. At this temperature it's too hot to touch, in my experience anything over about 45 degrees C (113 degrees F) is to hot to touch w/o experiencing burns.
In my very recent experience, the temperature control is not perfect and I've seen 71 degrees C (160 degrees F) measured at the light's head. This was after running only running 10 minutes. And the more time you let it remain at 100% the temperature migrates to the body and tail of the light so I had to use gloves to pick up the light and switch it off. Also, even the 2.8 amp drivers (7135*8) will drive an S2+ to be too hot to hold after 30 minutes.
So please explain to me why you are asking about the S2+ and thermal regulation and you not thinking why this would be too hot to hold? Did you think the thermal regulation was set at a much lower temp than 55 degrees?
All of my S2+es are 2.8A or less, no “hot” (haha) rods.
Used one via ceiling-bounce to light up a dark room for 5-10min. Got so hot I literally couldn’t even grab it long enough to shut it off, had to use a teeshirt as a pot-holder of sorts to just grab it and poke at the tailswitch to shut it down.
Even so, I had to wait a rather long time for it to cool down enough to even pick it up.
Yah, they get hot and in a hurry. Great thermal path, gotta admit.
It’s not a problem for me, I didn’t know what temperature they were set to so was just curious. It’s easy enough to kick it down to 30% when it starts getting hot. I actually prefer this over the aggressive temperature throttling of my Fenix because you can run on max output for longer. Would be really interested to see the output curve.
Although these run hot just as the come from Simon, I quite often buy these and do the sense resistor mod and up the output to 6.6 to 6.8 amps.... now they run hot within only a couple of minutes and that's fine with me. I then step-down to 30%. But bright as heck for the first two minutes! BTW, i measure tail cap amps and in these hot-rod lights the 30% level is around 3 amps. If i need a light that needs to stay on for 30 minutes or more than i use one of my other dozens of lights (I'm a flashlight-aholic).... i have lots to choose from.
Output and regulation depends on the LED and driver used, but usually sits around 35% mode. Fenix usually uses both timed and temperature step down, so the flashlight only gets hot if you activate turbo repeatedly. Another difference is that buck driver is more efficient, generating less heat, mainly with full battery.