I ask since this would be a one-way action for the OTR i3 due to the design of the pill (a reflector is screwed onto the pill, and the assembly can only be removed by grasping the reflector, which would unscrew from the main part, leaving it in the body).
Background: My i3 got a new driver, currently drawing 2.7A from a Nitecore NL166, but I plan to use a higher discharge, higher capacity Vapcell, so likely current will increase.
Theory pro thermal paste: There should be lots of air cushions between body and pill that could be filled.
Theory contra thermal paste: There’s enough surface left which makes good contact.
So, an experiment is needed, and maybe some of you already did this and know if heat dissipation can be improved.
I've applied some thermal paste a few times just for the sake of it. Can't provide measurements. There should be some improvement, but I think it's going to be quite small, and I mean rather quite small.
Some investigation would be of help, but needs some careful set-up, though.
You’re right, the middle of the threads wil make good contact.
But because of tolerances there will be air gaps at the top and bottom of the threads.
I don’t know if you gain a lot, but I think it won’t hurt to apply some thermal paste.
Downside, if that hardens (cures) it will be more work to get the pill out again.
So use thermal paste that stays soft and mushy.
PS, I don’t use thermal paste but I clean the threads very thorough after removing the pill.
That way I hope radiation will compensate for part of the missing contact area.
When assembling the light I re-apply some lubricant on the (outside) threads of the tube.
I tried it once and it was too messy. Would not do it again personally.
If you ever have to adjust or remove the pill paste will get places you don’t want, even places where ground contact might be made. Nightmare to clean and requires a ton to “fill gaps” in something like threads. Dont bother.
The 502b had a poor heat dissipation design. You might look there to find a few different ways people tried to improve it.
From some of the test on here I have seen about adding thermal paste, it seems when to much is added it doesn’t help that much.
A thin layer was tested as the best, in this situation for fill it should help but I would guess to say not alot.
The result looks fine to be honest, you can black out some stuff to clean up the artifacts and call it a day. On the much larger Z821 I was not able to break 7x kcd so your result looks good on paper. I tried a 1mm2 NM1 and the result was single digit throw increase, for sure not worth it and ultimately went back to 2mm2 LED.
Sorry if there’s an obvious answer: Any way to switch off temperature regulation except just adjusting temperature in Crescendo (where it gets as hot as possible)?
And one remark on the performance in the wilderness ( ): Breathtakening. Never thought a zoomie could be that impressive.
It is a nice light! I’ve been carrying it (after modded) in my night walks. I also alternate with the OTR i5 (just with high mode configured and after putting a Luxeon V 4000K instead of the CW XML2 U3-1A).
BTW, can you show us a beamshot with that gasket latter, please? I am curious to see how it looks like once it seems “tighter” (between led and the metal “reflector”, or whatever it is called )
Thanks in advance
I may take pictures later, but the corona is still not as even as I would wish. No wonder, there are two threads, the retainer and imperfections of the lens as potential contributors to a tilted optical system. I’m still happy since I know I did everything I could.
): Breathtakening. Never thought a zoomie could be that impressive.
