Dear Mr. FlashPilot,
I’m certainly not going to discount such a heap of well thought out suggestions. I don’t have the time to respond to every detail right now but I’ll do my best. Here are my thoughts on your thoughts…
…huge thermal bottlenecks in the head …prevent heat from traveling from the floor plate through the entire head to disperse the heat into the air… trapped heat at the base of the head, which also heats the batteries
I can’t argue with any of that. I see what Simon was going for with more reflector/head contact area where the reflector but you’re right. Because it’s not at the bottom which is the only place I see it as beneficial, it’s a bottleneck/heat trap.
Bolster the wall thickness inside the head to closely follow the contours of the reflector. Keep the walls as thick as possible. There should be very little space anywhere between the reflector and the inside of the head (less than 2mm). All that dead air we now see between the reflector and head should be solid aluminum!
I agree to about following the contours but thickness needs to be kept within reason for both build cost and shipping cost otherwise this becomes a $100 light.
Trim all that wasted aluminum from the fat mid portion of the reflector so the head can be built thicker to help conduct heat.
Agreed but again within reason for cost effectiveness.
Make ALL the cooling fins the same diameter as the bezel to add surface area to exchange heat with the air. While we have grown used to seeing lights with useless small tapered cooling fins, they are ineffective and only there for aesthetics. The highest concentration of heat is generated at the floor plate where the largest/deepest cooling fins are needed to conduct heat… not those silly worthless little girly fins! Sick Its time to get serious and offer a light that works as good as it looks!
I cannot agree with you 100% here. Simon has always been about building good looking lights so aesthetic value will always matter to him. My influence is just that. He makes the calls, but he has always listened to reason whenever I’ve presented it. The examples I’ve seen of lights with perfect cooling are on the ugly side IMHO. I think most things in life come down to finding the proper balance and this is no exception. Perfect cooling means an UGLY light. Perfect looks means poor cooling. Find the balance is my thinking. That said I agree that more can be done to better cool the L6.
Something like a scaled up C12 (only much better)
U-G-L-Y it aint got no alibi it’s UGLY!
Much better would be 3 × 32650…
Not a very common cell and you’re adding almost the cost of the light in batteries to power it. I for one just can’t afford that.
How about 100-120mm reflector?
No disrespect but dude that’s a satellite dish
extension tubes for 4 cell mod configurations…
He’s not going to make it if he’s going to sell it to 50 people worldwide. Once the light is released maybe we could do a poll on who would buy a 4 cell tube
Copper DTP MCPCB…
Fairly certain that was addressed at the outset but I’ve asked Simon to verify.
Quality dual sided AR lens… absolutely mandatory.
Absolutely agreed. Simon is working on creating a high quality lens, AR coated on both sides.
offer as a host kit with the ability to purchase all the parts…
Host will be offered. All the parts individually is a lofty goal but a good one.
With different battery tube, reflector finish and driver options, this could be a modular system offered from 2 – 4 cell configurations to handle the XHP-50, XHP-70 and XHP-35 while properly dispensing with the enormous amount of heat these emitters generate. A modular system would also keep manufacturing costs down while offering several different configurations… rather than just one mediocre, hot running, inefficient flashlight.
Agreed
The one guy that could pull this off while maintaining a quality product is Simon.
Agreed
Well… that took a long time to respond to but thank you for such well thought feedback. Respect.