Hi, I won a sk68 clone in a Tinydeal thread a few months ago, and their deal was that I had to write a review in return. I ignored that a little because a review is quite an effort in return for such a cheap light, especially because it would be boring: just about everything has been said about the sk68 already. And again, and again, and.... And all possible mods have been done and documented (some by me). And then last week I got a polite PM from Jane to remind me of the promise .
So I have to come up with something that has not been done to the sk68, and so here is my version of the sk68 clone review, courtesy my band saw:
The other half, not quite tidied up:
(There's one piece missing: I lost the tiny spring in the switch :-( )
With the cutaway, I can now show people the method I use by filling the hole behind the emitter w/ epoxy to facilitate pulling heat to the sides (I guess the potting method would actually be better)
Great pics man!!!
(this needs to be stickied)
and of course MORE lights need to be sectionalized
The main design problem, aside from the hollow pill, appears to be the thin section between the bottom of the pill and the finned part of the body. This may keep it from becoming too hot to hold, but it reduces the cooling of the led. A way for a clone maker to avoid that may be to make the light slightly longer and overlap the pill with the thick finned section. Or one could make the head thinner and the front of the body thicker. In practice, the finned section heats up about as much as the head does, so it may not be a serious problem. The overall thickness and the well shaped fins imply importance of thermal management, so these problems threaten its right to dominate it class.
An aftermarket fix for the hollow pill is to use a thicker star.
(The one I am working on with an XM-L2 on a Noctigon draws two amps. from an IRM, so I want to braid the tail spring/switch.)