How do these two light handle thermal stepdown?
We know they have thermal regulation. I did a comparison of the PWM characteristics of both lights to see how the driver acts during stepdown.
So, if you have 4.5 minutes of your life to waste, here’s what I found.
At about 18 seconds the Sofirn SP36 steps down from a constant current/voltage to a very high duty cycle. The PWM Frequency is 16KHz.
As time goes on the duty cycle increases and drops the light output.
The Thor Fire BLF Q8 stays in turbo at a constant level longer.
A little over 3 minutes the Q8 drops to a 25% duty cycle. The Q8 has a 15.8KHz PWM.
At the 3.5 minute time I sped the video up 10X to keep things moving along.
At around 6.5 minutes the SP36 has dropped to a 25% duty cycle – the same as the Q8.
The SP36 duty cycle keeps dropping below the Q8s and eventually ends up at a very dim constant voltage.
Both lights can be ramped up and down after the thermal cycle as seen at the very end.
Both lights are about the same at the start of things. The Q8 remains in turbo longer but when it drops out of turbo the SP36 has a higher duty cycle until the 6.5 minute mark. After this the Q8 is ahead again.
What’s this prove? - Other than I shouldn’t be left unsupervised with test equipment!?
Different philosophies in programing?
Do you have a preference?
All the Best,
Jeff