GB: Copper C8 head for 25mm Khatod Quad optic, 24mm Carclo's

The L2 comes or came with a single cell tube to begin with. I much prefer it in that more compact package. With the tube and tail cap all set, a proper head could be attached for the smaller quad optics and it’d be compact and powerful without costing a fortune. Simon could surely set you up with the short tube and tail cap, I would think. I don’t know how many you’re talking about, but with all the machining and anodizing already done, that’d be a quick and cheap way to build it.

Perhaps I got confused about your “extension tubes” and “2 x 26650” reference.

I like the 2x26650 extended tubes, which are already sold individually, because they are long enough that I can center the knurl segments and re-thread the tube for my own components as necessary. I am not borrowing any other L2 components, just the tube. It’ll be a shorty light, and scratch built except for the tube. The Khatod optic fits inside of the body so it wont need a separate head, just a threaded copper pill inside and a bezel.

I’m interested in these tube lights. Count me in.

So when your done with the build it’ll be like a 1.5x26650 tube, with a really bright end. Should be a blast!

Sounds interesting, I’m in.

The main problem with tube light design is getting the pill and head to dissipate heat without transferring it down the body tube and cooking the cells.

Body tube is 4mm’s thick, lots of mass.

Do you intend to use the same threading as the stock L2 tube? Could be a good idea that would allow for easier future modding. Regardless, I like where this is going. I’ve been in for a while now; still am.

Still in hoop

Heheh, you guys are a riot. I love it! :smiley:

It’s good the heat transfers down the body efficiently. The heat only has a few places to go in a flashlight: the mass, exposure to the air, and to your “meat sink.” (your hand) People give tiny fins way more credit than they are worth and underestimate the dissipation power of the “meat sink.” As far as cooking the cells, the cells are fine to the temperature where you won’t want to hold the light anymore, (60c) so as long as you don’t use it with a leather glove everything is A OK in that regard. Bistro and other drivers and firmware with temperature monitoring are available.

I received the tubes yesterday. These suckers are beefy. Now comes the tricky part of making them into a nice toober.

I agree, copper fins just add more cool factor than a solid exposed chunk. I add them for the aesthetic as much as the heat sinking although for micro mags it’s a two-bird effect.

There are fins, and there are fins. A lot of fins are mostly superficial, but deep, thin fins really can dissipate a lot of heat.

If air is continuously forced past them but without that it’s only slightly improved over a similar total mass of the same metal without them. Fans and fins go together since one without the other is usually insufficient if they are needed to begin with.

The passive fins on the Olight X6 Marauder probably do the trick pretty well, of course those are massive.

…if only they could wiggle like a fish?

Quad emitter, 22650 tube light?

YES PLEASE!

I’ve made some progress on the toober. At this point the light is CAD modeled and I’m messing around with the fitment of the optic and bezel and heatsink and such. It’s a little tricky being a one piece body and without a lot of clearance around the optic. With the current concept, the heatsink is installed from the front until it bottoms out due to there being no more thread, then the mostly flat and flush bezel is tightened on using a silicone pad, and then the heatsink is finish tightened from the back with a custom tool, sandwhiching the optic.

I’m considering the issue that sometimes happens with quads and triples and such, where the torsion of tightening the heatsink and bezel causes the optic to shear the LED domes. With the Khatod optic the fit to the LED domes is pretty close so the less twisting of the optics legs, the better. I don’t think there’s enough room to build struts to reinforce the optic legs but there are a couple of other things to try. The glass UCL lens in front of the optic may help to alleviate the issue by itself, but Teflon O-rings on either side of the glass lens may help. The optic would contact teflon, contacting the glass, and the glass would contact teflon, contacting the bezel. Another thing to try is a quad threaded heatsink. This would allow the heatsink to move four times the distance axially for a given amount of rotation compared to a regular single start thread. Testing will be done to see what works, starting with regular O-rings, the glass lens, and a standard thread, then trying a quad threaded heatsink with regular o-rings, then finally adding the teflon if the issue persists.

What about instead of a threaded pill a slip fit one with an axial groove and matching rib in the head to keep it from twisting. Same as before with loading from the front and tightening the bezel but squeezed against the lens from the back with the driver retainer ring that threads into the head rather than the pill.

When I make a quad spacer/sink for an X5 I make the copper fill the head such that it has a rim around the optic. The optic sits flush inside this rim and as such, the lens or bezel can’t tweak it… it’s fully supported by the copper sink.

On X6’s where it’s a simple spacer, I like to use the CUTE-3 with longer legs and countersink the legs into the heat sink below the mcpcb, locking it in.

CVT fish fins on a copper head, brilliant Ouchy! (constant variable timing, for cooling in conjunction with the heat being produced, a ripple fin that spins, creating it’s own airflow. :wink: ) :smiley: