I really like this light, but I’ve had a chance now to run 3 different batteries through it and the runtime doesn’t seem to be that long. After about 2 or so minutes of being on high, it seems I am noticing serious heat or voltage sag. At first, the battery wasn’t charged up. But the second time, it was. After a 20 minute walk, I was at just over half brightness I know. Is this a common problem? It is amazing what this light can do, but it sure doesn’t seem to last long.
How about measuring tail-cap current?
did you check if there is any Thermal Compound under the emitter? maybe it just got too hot, and start shutting off?
Current is 2.1 amps. I think there is some thermal paste.
Just checking mine and its pulling 1.2A.....
are you using the original driver?
When I get home, I’ll check again. That may not be accurate. The meter is screwy.
Some versions of the A60 were found to have a paper disk underneath the pcb. It seems to have been put there to place the emitter at the proper focal point in reflector. If your copy has this paper disk your emitter is probably experiencing thermal sag, causing output to drop noticeably.
Guess what…yep, mine has that. Maybe that is the issue indeed.
I have an A60 in the mail. I’ll have to look into this.
It’s still a great light of the “pencil beam” persuasion, but you will notice the drop off after a few minutes of use, I’m thinking. At the 15 minute mark of a walk, I noticed quite a bit.
Can anyone tell me how the beam on this would be using a hard running XP-G2?
I like it with an XP-E2, over 100 kcd, and de-domed. It can get over 200 kcd - luminarium iaculator has done this. I had trouble with a XP-G2 - difficulty focusing it.
Hey, thanks for the tip. Didn’t notice any heat/dimming issue with mine, but checked anyway. Had a dab of gooey CPU thermal compound (as opposed to the fujik hardening glue-paste type).
Anything like paper between the star and the pill would create a huge thermal brightness sag. I have seen that in many lights where the star was either dangling in the air or otherwise not attached to the pill. Some of my first sk98 stars were so far off the pill, that they used to produce puffs of smoke when you zoomed in and out. Can’t believe the emitters didn’t toast, but they’re still fine many months later.
I already had a Jacob, but got one of the sale ones a couple days ago. That’s the one I checked. The new on-sale Jacob — BTW — is about 10% brighter by lux meter than my first one from back in the old days, probably close to a year ago.
This thread might help as it addresses the “paper disk” problem.
There is also a heap of correspondence following two seperate A60 reviews in the following threads and which refer to heat management issues,variations in tail current draw etc, most of which is beyond my very limited knowledge of such things, but which may be of some help to you.
The only reason I know this, is because I also have an A60 in the mailbag and previously skimmed through the reviews!