I looked at those but they are a bit expensive for my taste. I went with a bunch of copper fittings that I filled the extra space with solder and aluminium rod.
Scaru, congrats on winning. is there a step by step build using these heatsink somewhere or will you make one as you are building yours? I am interested in this setup but I am not very familiar with maglite stuff but would like to be!
Thanks
I'm not quite sure what to do. This afternoon I will be going to the hardware store to look for copper fittings which I am going to attempt to fill with aluminum rod of some kind. I'll post up a build log later today and I will update it as I make progress.
Ok thanks
Pilot, I am seriously impressed.
I have started modelling a housing in Solidworks going off the .pdf you so kindly provided.
Are we still able to control the light by means of a low current mom switch? This will mean I can keep the housing as small as the heat will allow.
3A latching switches are big!
Any idea when these will be available to purchase?
Thanks 
Thanks! I'm glad you like it! If you're modeling in Solidworks, what on earth are you using the PDF for? Import the IGES or STEP and you'll have the true 3d solid.
Yep, sure can. A simple momentary contact switch that can handle half of a milliamp is all that you need. And, in fact, the firmware for a momentary contact switch is a bit more feature filled; Hidden mode groups, long presses and such.
Very soon. Measured in days from now.
Haha! I only used it for the dimensions. I am a self taught user of SW, I doubt I use it very efficiently! Currently my pc is chugging away trying to do a thermal model of my housing. Seems to be working, but I am getting very high temperatures.
Thats great news on the extra features that go with using a tactile switch. Will they be available on your UI that you created. I must admit, thats such a clever way of setting up the board. I have been using taskLED drivers for a while, they can be a PITA to set up via a single mom switch.
Ah, I see. Import the IGES file (just file-open) - you'll like what you see. You can then place extrudes and sketches around/on/in reference to the module. It's a way more efficient way to work.
In terms of thermal modeling, very high temperatures mean one of two things.. 1) you're enclosure is way too small and it really will get very hot or 2) you messed up the parameters of the thermal model. After years of doing thermal simulations, I can assure you, both options are equally likely. What I usually do in those situations is to increase the size of the enclosure to the point that I 'know' it would be able to handle the 30 watts without any significant temperature rise, run the simulation and make sure it agrees. If it still gets 'really' hot, then you know something is wrong with your sim.
Yep, the UI will support momentary/tac switch as well. It's not quite finished yet (the software) but it's really close. Should be available within the next few days.
PPtk
Thank you for the tips!
I have get good results using Simulation and a transfer co-efficient of 25 W / (m^2.K). The model stays reletively cool. I know that figure will change with regards to airflow. Then I got brave and tried out Flow Simulation with moving fliud (air). I have a feeling my error is somewhere in the set up as the housing reaches 115*C. I have lowered the heat source from 30W to 5W to see if that has any effect. Then I'll increase the surface area for the 30W. What I hope to achieve it seeing the best design with regards to heat loss vs riding speed. Hopefully this will save hours in front of my lathe. I am not going to give up!
Thanks again
Andrew
A good rule of thumb for proper passive cooling of LED heatsinks is 10 square inches of surface area for each watt of power. See:
http://bridgelux.com/assets/files/AN10_Thermal_Management_of_LED_Arrays.pdf
So we need 300 square inches? :P
At the very least... those numbers assume that the LED is mounted directly on the main heat sink. This module (and any "drop-in") does not allow that configuration. This one is pretty good in that there is rather little between the LEDs and the potential heat-sink.
Those recommendations are for proper cooling that will allow the emitter to perform to spec for its full rated lifetime. Very few (if any) high power flashlights implement anything near proper cooling!
I have built quite a few mountain bike lights using the MC-E, XP-E/G and now the XM-L leds. So far I have used the 2 sq inch per Watt. However, this is only good enough when the light is moving through the air. If it is stationary, the thermal sensor trips in a matter of minutes. May not be suitable for torches...
Thats what I am trying to do on Solidworks. So far, with 30W in 8mph wind at 20*C the housing is stabilizing at 114*C. Far too hot. However, I still need to see if that figure is realistic, not an error on my part. Its now running the same calculations but with a 5W load. When its done, I'll pull out the surface area for the exposed metal.
The exposed SA is 31.4 inches sq
Interesting. That is what low is for though. :P
I've built 7 watt headlights with a housing that has 14 square inches of surface area, and a 15 watt unit with a housing surface area of 20.5 square inches. In moving air, neither of them get particularly hot. In still air, the low powered one gets up to about 80C; the brighter one gets insanely hot and throttles down after a while. So the "2 square inches per watt" rule-of-thumb isn't a bad starting point, as far as it goes; you just have to keep in mind the end use.
Keep in mind also that as long as you can keep your fingers/hands away from the light, 115C is not particularly unsafe for the module or the LEDs.
PPtk
When positioning the housing into the airflow so the glass from it head on to the airflow, it stabilises at 114*C. Pointing the light 'up', so the air can flow through the cooling fins, it stabilises at 67*C!
Still, I have to carry on fiddling with it to get better results but I thing 1 sq inch per Watt may be enough if the light is moving!
Over on the MTBR forum, one of the guys lookedHowe dramatically the lumens drop off as the LED gets about about 80*C. At least we can be rest assured that the components will be safe if it starts to get warm.
Yep, airflow makes all the difference in the world… And I wasn’t suggesting you should target 115C 
lookedHowe is quite correct, efficiency takes quite a hit at those high temperatures. I just wanted you to know that it was ‘safe’ for the electronics. They won’t in any way be damaged or degraded by 115C. It’s not where you want to run all the time, but short excursions to temperatures such as those aren’t dangerous.
PPtk
I should probably take this moment to remind everyone thinking of custom hosts for this module that although it’s very efficient and extremely capable in terms of thermal transfer - the end result is still 30 watts of heat! This is not insignificant, and no matter the driver/module, 30 watts is 30 watts! You’ve got to get rid of that heat, or else the thermal transfer characteristics of the module become quickly irrelevant. Small thermal mass lights will only be able to tolerate short runs at full blast - but keep in mind, even at low power settings, this thing kicks out a tremendous amount of light.
I pump 150 watts into a Bridgelux array (15,000 lumens) mounted on a 3x3 inch heat sink and keep it under 70C with an 80mm fan (which is thermostatically controlled and never runs at full bore).
But for real cooling comfort… water/fluid cooling rules. The 540,000 lumen array is water cooled (but for other considerations, fans would work just fine).