Is it worth it for most let’s say 18650 lights regardless of driver limitations?
For example, what’s been your general experience performance-wise when ya went from let’s say 26AWG to 22AWG or even bigger wire from driver through LED?
I know ya prolly get more current, but is that a good thing vs original design specs taking into consideration all components working in harmony factoring in optimal resistance.
Broad general answer - no. it's not worth it.
Broad general explanation:
Considering how short the run from the driver to emitter is, there's very little resistance drop to worry about. One exception would be a high current (3+amps) application.
Some other things to consider:
- 7135 based drivers and other current controlled drivers will not benefit from heavier gauge wire unless the wire is already a bottleneck.
- DD drivers such as those found in HD2010 and MF UF 3mode XML drop-in may see an increase in current delivered to the led. In this case, the lower resistance may be a bad thing if it delivers too many amps to the led.
That's all I can give you without a more specific question. Hope it helps though.
-Match
Btw, I forgot to mention that bigger gauge wire could act like a more efficient heat sink in a way I suppose. Of course there are always tradeoffs - like transfering more heat to the driver. H) 8) I mean if one would use for instance copper braid instead of insulated wire - not that I would recommend this 
- theoretically knowing how braid wicks away heat really well.
We got lots of not the most exactly efficient at heat sinking hollow pills around that could be filled some with coiled braid which congruently work as the + & -. Ya know killing two boids in the void with one stone. :bigsmile:
………
I’m going to swap the wire of this manafont UF 3mode drop-in with 22AWG silicon wire to feed my copper U3 led. I expect over 7Amps on high. Have to finish my diy copper heatsink with 26mm ledil optics.
