Sounds definitive to me.
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Do you recall the percentage of increase?
Regarding heat reduction, potentially. To many factors to be sure. One thing is for sure, there is less heat in the tailcap end which increases the chances of that energy being dissipated by the emitter.
good info. phenomenal pics. nice job.
Brian
Well it all depends on the light and the build, I believe, ex: 3.5A vs. 4.5A for example - greater loss in the 4.5A build. In a SS T13, I saw no loss, but that could be because how the buck driver works - I didn't do the copper braid because I saw no benefit, but maybe it would increase the battery runtime.
Update 06/25: Last night I saw just under 1,100 lumens with a suspect broken copper braid tailcap (didn't confirm yet), replaced with a good wired tailcap and got 1,234 lumens, so on this C8 heavily modded light, it was about 12%.
Thanks for this. I tried it for the first time today, and I let the solder creep too far along the wick, which resulted in the spring being much less springy.
I liked using nail clippers to trim the wick. It cut the wick without fraying and cleanly trimmed the wick flush with the top of the spring.
Nail cutters work, but I recommend these very low cost side cutters.
https://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10003258/1243300-plato-170-flush-cutter
I’ve had them for about three months now and still like new. I’ve even trimmed sinkPADS with them.
Use only on copper, not steel or brass.
I've got a couple of broken solder braids, but think it's always because of solder creeping up the braid, leaving a small length of flexible section, then it easily tears apart with compression of the spring. I've been soaking the braid pieces in acetone now to fully remove the flux, then isopropyl to clean, then don't keep the iron on the braid ends too long.
That’s good. It’s something I would like to try soon.
The GootWick I have is flux-free, which is perfect for this use.
In the light I just built for O-L’s challenge the Q-Lite 3.04A driver I used had the short hard spring. I replaced it with a steel spring, upside down. When my AW IMR14500 came in I was surprised at the low amp reading I got, so I soldered a 22ga copper wire inside the spring and found another 670mA of power! So now it’s running 2.82A and all is well!
I usually go through the center of the spring and solder the wire to the contact board right in the middle, inside the circle of the spring. Then I solder the top of the wire inside the top hoop, so that no wire is above the coil. Not really necessary to leave any slack in the wire/braid as the spring is as long as it’s going to get, it will only compress. That being said, I do like to add a bit of a coil to the copper wire just in case. 
Thanks for the pics relic, whether or not we do it the same way the end result is more Powah!! 
Edit: It’s not necessary to rush out and buy wick braid material. The copper braid around a television cable that works as a ground will work just fine, or a thin copper wire with or without the insulation. Probably the determining factor is figuring out just how much compression is on that particular spring when the light is assembled. If the spring isn’t getting squashed down very far, a simple wire works just fine.
Silicone wire is very flexible.
+1, will have to try that. More stiff than braid, but might be more durable.
Great write-up, relic. It's amazing what this can do to some lights, even with just wire looped around a few times. Every Solarforce host I've done this to measures a few more mA.
Foy needs to do it the right way. (as seen above)
speakerwiresFoy
Nice how-to and awesome pictures!
I prefer using silicone wire instead of copper braid though, since the braids that I previously did started tearing apart…I might’ve done something wrong :bigsmile:
thx that’s damn good results. Are those results only expected when running higher currents say 3.5A and above? And what would you attribute the gain to? Copper being a better conductor? the flat braid being the best pathway, and also bypassing the spring which might behave like a coil? or combination of both?
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There are so many to choose from, do you have a link to that one?
I’d recommend 2.0mm wide.
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1004/10002730/1202500
From the pictures, it looks like it has no flux. I got mine with my hot air reflow station kit.
PyTech - thx that’s damn good results. Are those results only expected when running higher currents say 3.5A and above? And what would you attribute the gain to? Copper being a better conductor? the flat braid being the best pathway, and also bypassing the spring which might behave like a coil? or combination of both?
Well, this is all about the high Vf of an XM-L2 on copper, so, all resistances are bad with this setup, and yes, probably only a big issue like this at high amps. Springs are typically steel coated with something (hopefully), maybe silver. Steel is not an ideal conductor and depends on the quality of the spring, and in budget lights, you're not gonna find quality springs with a good amt of silver.
I was fiddling around with a light today. I didn't feel like doing much, so I figured I'd add some braid to the tailcap for something to do. When I took it apart, it wasn't much of a switch. A loose spring resting on an aluminum contact all held together by the brass cap torqued down with a nylon washer. Non of my extra switches would fit in the setup, although my McClicky was just a hair away from threading in perfectly.
Since it was apart, I added braid to the spring. I know relic didn't find those brass spring caps to cause any real impedance, but I thought, copper must be better than brass.
I drilled a hole through the brass cap and stuck a piece of 20AWG wire through the hole. Next I separated and splayed out the wire strands so they would mash up flat against the inside of the cap, added flux and heated up the cap. I let the solder bubble and pool evenly and then get sucked up the wire through the hole.
Looks good. Snipped off the excess, ground it flush with the dremel and used the buffing wheel with some knife stropping compound.
i know it really won't have any effect on this particular light, but I like the idea af having the battery contacting copper, which contacts with the braiding on the spring. I'll try this with my builds where I'm trying to tweak things max and mininamalize resistance. I guess you could also take off the brass cap and throw it away. Next time I'll try it with 14 or 16 AWG wire. It can't hurt, and gives me something to putter with.
That is a good idea! Thanks for sharing it!
Tom are you saying soak in acetone then alcohol to prep braid prior to soldering?