This was a thread I was somewhat hesitant to make at first—concerned about interest it would receive, but maybe some users will see this like I do; FLIR data tells a lot. So here goes.
A few MFGRs have claimed in the past that they have used some of “the best” or “special” potting compounds which help dissipate heat out into the light host/body. For example, I owned one of the 72Kcd DEFT-EDC (a special edition), and the driver was completely potted with an off-white compound that supposedly had great thermal ability. The compound? I do not know. I do know a tiny XR-C emitter at 1.5A (what’s in the ‘special edition’ DEFT EDC) doesn’t have much thermal loading on the driver to make much heat from 1S, but this still got me thinking about potting methods and the like.
The FLIR testing:
A cousin of mine recently got me in contact with a man who has new FLIR equipment. He is about 1.5hrs drive away from me, I had some conversations with him about flashlight testing, and I would be willing to drive to him to help evaluate new cooling solutions we could possibly use in current and future light designs. These would be setups primarily for use as DIY, (possibly) cheap, effective driver cooling in demanding scenarios.
My main question to others came to me like this: What are some of the best thermal potting compounds we know of that exist out there?
Then the thought I am curious to find the answer to is, how effective will they be when used to aid driver cooling in any given practical light design?
From my experience there seems to be preference to use very good thermal potting compounds to aid consistency of output. So this is going to revolve around thermal potting, or complete (or at least top-half) submersion of a driver in potting compound, which is sealed into the host itself. (It would seem a compound with a heavy metals content could work for this, without becoming conductive, since the metals are blended in a binder that is non-conductive.)
I’ve long been on a hunt to find a potting compound which isn’t just a potting compound, but something maybe a little “extra special”, that can really help some driver heat issues we might be going up against soon.
Do we know of any potting compounds that would do this much more effectively than standard potting methods?
With his help with IR devices I can analyze just how good a method works using a FLIR (infra-red imaging) system, and I think it’s a great opportunity to put the call out to the forum to potentially find something new and unique for driver cooling solutions.
Here is what I thought I could offer. If you feel you have a solution, and others are interested in seeing this solution work, I will offer to drive to his FLIR imaging lab and test the method out, if we can come to a conclusion on proper test setup, of course also using a control light in the experiment. I would take the experiment to him, run through the paces, and bring back the full imaging and numerical data to document the effectiveness of the method. All would be allowed to see how effective the method is, I would want to make the results public on BLF. If you do not want your suggested method to become public info, but are interested in setting up a test with FLIR imaging, PM me, and I will try to work something out with you to get the test set up and data to you. I would hope that is not the case, though. I really would like to bring this data to the forum to promote effective new DIY cooling solutions. Better cooling is likely the best thing we can have in our lights, and a FLIR picture comparison says a million words.
I’m open to hearing all and any opinions surrounding this idea and testing procedures. It doesn’t have to be potting-limited testing. If any ideas have possible merit to make it worth the drive to acquire new cooling-effective data, I will make the drive and obtain as much info as I can, so long as it seems logical enough and interest is there to make the experiment happen.
Thanks for reading.
-MEM