It works. Just finished it a little bit ago. I will post pics soon. One question, does that articsilver 5 ever dry?
Thermal paste doesn’t harden, it may become thicker over a few years but doesn’t harden. Thermal glue or epoxy does harden and is meant to actually secure the two parts together.
I like to use a pencil mark to bridge the stars to ground, makes it easy to change mode groups. Of course, if you're sure you want one permanently, solder it.
Is this a different build than referenced in my quote? For a typical white emitter you'll probably want more current.
Oh, so I bought the wrong stuff then?
So you solder each individual star to the ground ring? One thing I did notice is when you turn it off, then back on, it doesn’t turn back on to the setting you left off at?
Depends on what you use it for. If your working with a led PCB and want to fasten it to the pill without any other device holding it down you will need the glue. If you intend to fasten the led pcb down with screws in the pill the paste will work.
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Also I have seen a lot of cheap lights that actually use the reflector compression (when the bezel is screwed down tight) to hold the led PCB down with thermal paste. I don’t think that’s the best way to do it, but it does work. The thinner the paste or glue between the two parts and the flatter the union, the better the thermal conductivity. I read somewhere in a test, that was more important than the thermal paste or glue brand itself.
Grounding a star pulls the connected MCU pin low. This tells the how to behave, depending of course on the driver's programming. Some drivers don't use the stars at all, you need to see the specs for your driver. You can make a solder bridge to the ground ring but usually I prefer a pencil mark to make it easy to change the configuration. If you're sure you want a certain setup permanently, soldering is probably more reliable but I haven't had a problem with a pencil mark yet.
It sounds like your driver has next-mode memory. Usually a pencil mark on the appropriate capacitor will shorten the reset time to a few seconds so it always starts in the 'first' mode of the driver's sequence.
Different star, different program sometimes. Change modes a few times, then try waiting several seconds between turning it off and then back on. If it always comes on in the next mode then you unfortunately have the “next mode memory” type and have my deepest condolences. Welcome to modding, all who enter here acquire many parts that weren’t quite what they expected to get. Be proud of yourself that you got it to work and now get on with the pursuit of perfection.
. Wow that’s a lot to take in for a newbie. Will doing any of this potentially make the light brighter?