as i mentioned… i already modded one of the DST heads to beat down on my Olight SR90. J)
How about trying to take heat away from those bond wires? Put some non conductive adhesive on it, then a flattened solid copper wire that can wick the heat away. The fragility of those wires and limited space would make that a daunting task though.
so thats the whole point of this project, to beat a DST?
You should be able to do that without unlimited money, right?
true, if only CREE had used thicker Bond wires on the XM-L2 emitters.
well its already beating a stock DST, ( the modded test with one of the four DST heads.)
A project to savour :bigsmile: love out the box thinking and with definite aim 0:) at the end is a bonus.
Quick thought, if you are already designing a custom cooler plate/pad why not make one with a pedestal and mount the emitter directly to it. the noctigon would just add another interface between the led and the coolant.
I have been trying to consider all the various active cooling solutions myself, so I will watching this project with relish.
That reminds me, the gold/nickel base of the noctigon will reduce heat transfer slightly, as will soldering or reflowing a star to a heatsink, something to keep in mind, you may consider grinding it down to copper for this application
You may also want to do your own reflowing onto bare noctigons, making sure to press on the LED while reflowing to have the thinnest solder layer possible
Thoughts? Are you going for an XM-L2 record? Because the record is with smaller die leds, such as the XP-G2 used by the Deft-X, which claims at 1,000Kcd, four would be 4,000Kcd. I don't think a large die like the XM-L2 will ever get to that point, but you can probably easily hit an XM-L2 record if you are using aspheric lenses.
So thicken them. Electroplate them until they reach the desired thickness. Simple! 
I don't have any thoughts on the cooling. I've been wanting to do a build with an acetone-based heat pipe, but don't have any practical knowledge to share.
I do think you will have to go at least 2S on the cells to achieve the current you desire.
I though you were going to do 7 DST heads? Or was that somebody else? Oh, and screw the SRK battery holders, just use an RC lipo pack. I’d go with a multi-cell pack and buck driver(s).
Like ImA4wheelr said. Parallel cells with not get you where you want to go. Unless you use a good bunch of cells LG D1 cells to power each emitter you will not see the emitter amps you desire. Even with those cells you will not see 6A+++ for that long (assuming you use lots of them)
Basically, you need to go with a buck driver.
Some useful threads:
High current drivers for single XM-L2
At what current do you kill LEDs - which driver was used?
The HX-1175B (Some know it as the Lustefire triple etc) seems to be one of the drivers that can do very high amps without issues. I might be doing a build using 3 of these at more than the 6,4A I down adjusted one to drive an XM-L2. Time will tell If I can pull it off and when emitters will die..
Like djozz said. Your main worry is probably the bond wires. Im skeptical that you will able to run it at higher than 9A even with your cooling. But I hope that you prove me wrong. J) Even 8A may not be reliable in the long rung.. who knows..
Another potential issue are current spikes from the driver circuit or whatever it is. The MF TR-3T6 driver seems to be killing emitters in the 6,5-7A range. Hopefully the HX-1175B will not have any signs of such behavior that might limit the peak amps where you kill emitters.
Lots of variables when going for the extreme. Be prepared to kill some emitters and find the limits of your own setup.. Maybe start with some cheaper XM-L2 T6 1A when finding the limits.. ;)
Either way, with low emitter temperatures you should see nicer figures than anyone else.
I ended up using a couple of the DSTs for other projects. I thought about a RC pac, but i have a fiew SRK parts and a ton of 18650s alredy.
Dale had some success repairing bond wires - maybe the same technique could be used to bridge the connections, eliminating (or at least reducing) the weak link.
I did a cheap quick test of liquid cooling and showed that it does help. I also was inspired by computer cooling methods.
There should be liquid, not air, cooling the bond wires. That would be much easier and more efficient than taking the heat away with copper. I agree to putting solder blobs on them.
If it is de-domed, and the space in front of the led filled with a clear liquid, it will cool both the diode itself and its bond wires. Forced circulation isn’t necessary there, as the heat will cause convection, with or without boiling.
With a mirror reflector, a clear liquid won’t effect the optics, except to reduce reflection, probably more help than problem. With a double convex lens, it will increase the focal length, which needs to be corrected for in the design. But aspherics I have seen have flat back sides, so the effect will be small and in the opposite direction.
I didn’t catch the limitation of the optics. The bigger the lens or mirror, the brighter (and smaller) the spot.
The optics are the large Defiant Super Thrower heads with deep reflectors. im not sure how LEDs would react over time and how they run though submerged in a liquid. it woudl have to be an oil-based so its non-conductive.
I used 91% alcohol. It didn’t conduct significantly but it softened the epoxy I used to hold things together. There are commercial indoor lights filled with silicone oil. I see that you don’t want to take chances with long term degradation, but I really think that is part of the way to get the most current through an led without its burning up. Dedomeing would then be to enhance cooling, because the optical effect of the dome immersed in silicone would be small.
I got extremely good throw relative to the total light with a stage lighting Fresnel lens, but the chromatic aberration is pretty bad. There is a lot of blue and orange around the edges of the spot. It could have been reduced some if I focused it better. The lens has such a large diameter to focal length ratio that it focuses most of the light from the led. There is much more light in the spot than with usual aspherics.