Wouldn’t the heat transfer / management be better if the current were controlled away from the LED?
I know I must be missing something but I don’t know what.
Wade
Just saying that the driver consumes area close to the LED that could be used for heat transfer. The driver is what controls the amount of current reaching the LED to produce the heat. Couldn’t the driver be moved to the switch portion of the light and do the same thing at a point where it’s surface area wouldn’t have the effect on heat transfer.
Having 1-2 wires all the way from the back and to the LED in the front would not be the best thing either.
Also, most people unscrew the tailcap. Wires would not be a good solution. It could be fixed without wires, but the design would be more complicated.
If you put the driver in the back you would get more space for a larger pill yes. But you would also make the flashlight longer/larger.
If you could live with a longer/larger flashlight for better heat transfer you could have just bought one that have a longer/larger pill in the front.
Some drivers have thermal management which allows them to lower led current when overheated. This wouldn’t work if the driver were too far away. But you raise a good point and I’ve actually done some mods that put the driver at the other end of the light. Royal pita.
One big heatsink or two smaller ones with wires running between. Same amount of total watts to dissipate to the same ambient temperature.
BTW, 42C or less will never burn you if you have normal blood circulation in your hand. I wonder how many lights have cases that eventually heat up hotter than this.
the fit40s ( 7 * xm-l) got the head up to 60ºc in about 30 minutes but maintained that untill the cells ran down.
I’ve not pushed my edc lights but my t2 once turned on in my pocket, I only noticed when my leg got hot. through overalls and contractors pants. I guess that got quite warm, bad news on the motorway too, trying to get the cell out was interesting to say the least.
Even a long copper wire will head up because of the current. Longer wire from driver to led means extra resistance that limits the current to the led. May work for low current (<0.5A). Not suitable for todays > 3A drivers.
The Shriner’s publish burn info: how many seconds at what temp to get what level of burn. IIRC 70C burns you badly and quickly and 50C can’t be held very long.