I’ll iterate what has already been said just so it’s clear. Your emitters died because they were not flowed onto DTP stars. It’s that essential. Some have stated this already but I don’t want you to lose another emitter at the tune of bypassing suggestions.
Anyway, your getting your feet wet:)
Well, i prefer constant current drivers too.
Sure, it’s fun when a freshly charged VTC5 blasts the heck out of my S41S, and it get’s very hot very fast until the step down, but the current is still limited by the resistance of the springs, switch, PCB traces and LED wires.
If it wasn’t, i doubt if it would be really safe to use…
Not so with stacked 7135s of course.
Sure, you need more than 24 of them to reach 10 Amperes, and you reach the limits of the PCB traces too, but at least you can do everything to minimize resistance without risking too high currents from a freshly charged high drain cell.
And it will stay at the maximum current longer, unlike FET DD drivers.
Meanwhile i have a couple of lights with FET+1 drivers (all Astrolux by the way), but i think i will be replacing all of them with constant current drivers eventually.
The use of aluminum stars wouldn’t have collapsed springs. There was a direct short in the positive line somewhere.