Heat resistant driver/star connection wire

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Final modding question for the day. Anyone know of any heat resistant smallish-gauge wire for connecting stars to drivers?

I have many spools of project wire kicking around here and always use the thickest wire that will fit through the various holes, BUT I’m concerned that “ordinary” wire may not have the needed heat resistance to be cooking touching the pill or the star.

I try to solder the wires so the insulation isn’t resting too much on the star, but still that wire must get MUCHO HOTTO (technical jargon) a couple mms from that star, which has to be hot enough to brand cattle. :wink:

It scares me thinking that the insulation may eventually melt. Then I get a hard short in a flashlight in my pocket. Kapow. Didn’t need that chunk of leg anyway. :wink:

2

Silver plated teflon wire.

Try that search on ebay

Or just Teflon Wire on ebay.

seller "navships" is a good seller

3

I purchased some silicone wire on Ebay. I haven't used mine yet.

-Garry

4

I have a bunch of teflon wire. I could use that. No prob. PIA to strip because it’s so slippery though, but you do what you gotta do. :wink:

So teflon wire universally stands up better to heat?

5

Yes, it's what a lot of us use. High temperature stuff.

6

I’ve been using silicone wire, cheap, easy to work with and hasn’t melted yet.

7

>>>>>I purchased some silicone wire on Ebay. I haven’t used mine yet.

Well, the specs look good. 150 c ain’t shabby. Sure is expensive though. A buck a foot with postage, unless I’m reading it wrong. Still, I guess I better try some. Thanks!!!

8

Sil wire from HobbyKing. About a buck per meter. And they will send you the gauge you actually ordered. The last time I ordered from a "top rated" ebay seller, they sent me the wrong gauge.

9

The last order I placed for wire was from EP Buddy for silicone wire - http://www.epbuddy.com. Super cheap and fast shipping.

The wire stands up to the heat of soldering, is very flexible, but it should only be used when there will be no friction against the wire as it tears/cuts very easily.

10

illumination supply also has silver plated teflon wire.fast reliable shipping. not always the cheapest. when stripping insulation, i hold the wire with needle nose pliers in one hand and strip with the other. the teflon insulation is tough stuff and doesn’t melt when soldering.

11

That’s scary, but not likely to happen. IFF you use a clicky switch, your scenario will probably do no more than render your light into a single-mode High-only model. The Good News is, this will disable the stupid blinking!!! The bad news is, … well, I can’t think of any, but I confess I despise the blinking enough to insult the thought of it with my Username… Losing the dimming might not make most of us happy, but IMNERHO the torch will be dim enough soon enough, as the wee battery dwindles its short life away.

When I have had this happen (in two hosts so far) that’s all I get. E.g. on my last F20 XM-L upgrade, the reflector stuck to the O-ring as I was tightening the pill, which caused the LED PCB (thermal paste, not adhesive) to turn enough to push the (+) wire into the PCB & create a “short”. One-mode, full bright. YIPPEEEE!!! Until I dropped it (not on purpose!!) from ~7’, apparently released some tension in the head & the “normal” modes returned. Oh, well… On the P60 host where that “mode delete” happened, I repaired it, which is how I saw the “short”.

It gets better: If you’ll upgrade your emitter to an XM-L or SST-50, these will handle pretty-much all your battery can produce without failing. They will get plenty hot, plenty soon enough you’ll deal with the problem before you lose any body parts!! Still no biga-badda-boom.

IAC, the guy who sells me miles of data cable assures me that “Plenum Rated” wire of the appropriate gauge will have a high(er) temperature teflon coating. I asked him if I could buy a foot (cost=pennies) & he just cut as much off & handed it to me. If there’s a “cable and connectors” wholesale vendor near you (look for “bulk ethernet data cable”), that would be a good place to look.

One last thought: IFF you use wire where the insulation fits the hole very closely, the worst you’d get from any melting wouldn’t let the wires touch. The plastic would center the wire & prevent it moving, and should “puddle” in the hole when melted & not allow the wire to move much, assuming it’s screwed down inside the head. By the time your human hands could touch it again, the plastic would be set & you could handle it at your convenience.

You must be signaling space aliens with that kind of power!! 8)