I am looking for a cheap zoomy flashlight with a copper pill. I want the zoom operation to be sliding motion NOT a twisting motion. If none is available then a slider zoomy with interchangeable part where I can replace the aluminum pill with a known copper pill. Any suggestions?
No cheap light is going to have a copper pill. Just about all copper pills are custom made. Don’t know if anyone makes a copper pill for a zommie.
This.
Copper pills are VERY rare. They’re pretty much unheard of in stock lights… even very high-end non-zoomies never come with copper pills.
Copper pills tend to be completely custom made. Occasionally someone will do a limited run of copper pills for a popular flashlight model, but those runs are few and fare between. I’m not aware of any that have been made for zoom flashlights.
I have a Jax-Z1 and UF-T20 flashlight, both are zoomies (not slide able though) and both come with copper pills. The second one is also cheap.
Why does it need to be copper? Didn’t BLF’s own internal research show how little copper pills affected light’s performance?
I don’t have either but I think those are brass.
You are right, I double checked the specs and they are brass not copper. I was confused by the non-silver color and I thought they were copper pills.
Lights these days have either aluminum or brass pills. (Lights with pills that is… some non-zoomies don’t have a pill. Instead the head is the pill).
Aluminum pills have better thermal properties, but are a royal pain to solder to. Brass pills don’t conduct heat as well but are easy to solder.
I have dozens of lights, but only two have true copper pills: My all-copper Sinner Cypreus Tri-EDC 18650, and my Titanium Sinner Cypreus Tri-EDC mini 18350.
I picked up a cheap 3-pack of Guidsman zoomies at Menards. No copper, no pill, just a shelf kinda. ( Not sure about posting a link, but discontinued model # 5757148 if you want to look)
I disassembled them, drilled the shelf part with a 3/4” bit, and pressed in a chunk of 3/4” copper w/ wire slots dremeled in the sides before I pressed it in.
Add KD 8x7135 - 50ma low driver, xpg2 on Noctigon, a dab of AA adhesive, and a 18500 with some wire-loom I had for a battery sleeve = my favorite modded light so far.
So about $9 + battery, it warms up quick on high, but never gets very hot, so I think its doing pretty good.
Point being, there might be other ways to get your copper in there without paying for one with a copper pill.
Jim
When a Chinese source describes something as “brass”
黄铜 huáng tóng
they always translate that to English as “copper”
铜 Tóng
If you feel up for a project and have the tools it’s possible to modify a stock pill to incorporate copper.
Have a look at these
Thermal conductivity thru a material isn’t the only thing to consider. The specific heat for brass is about half that of aluminum so you could say brass “absorbs” the heat faster. With enough mass, I would expect brass to perform better. With a larger star (more surface contact), aluminum might be better.