Not at all, you might make something revolutionary, but, more likely, just get a sore head trying
Iāve played around with QTC a fair bit and never got it performing 100% to my liking but it can be useful for smaller builds. I might have another go.
Yeah I cant see how the velostat sheet would work for us being so thin, not compressible?
Didnāt look into it.
I tried some QTC and then gave it away because afaict it only works in single mode lights that are battery crushers (no spring above or below the battery).
I do not own any battery crusher lightsā¦
All my lights have a spring, so the QTC would not work.
Iāve tried qtc before. I prefer the reliability and feel of infinitely variable control rings but those lights are bigger than qtc lights. I would like to try making a non-battery crush qtc host one day, just for the challenge of it
I did that with a cooyoo 10180 light.
Separate battery compartment, the head twisted to compress the QTC pill onto a fixed stationary contact not the cell itself.
Yeah, I mean the light was stripped & heavily modified, just remembered it with pinks comment.
A slightly better way to implement QTC.
So you could have a sprung cell compartment and just the head or tail unit doing the variable thing without crushing the cell.
they have a 2 mode switch in the head, that is based on a domed metal disc that gets compressed to access the 2nd mode.
That defeated the QTC, which I wanted to use to get a moonlight modeā¦ Instead the QTC would trigger the high mode. iow, the QTC needed more pressure to work, than the 2 mode switch, which is based on a springy piece of metal that would move with less pressure than the QTC neededā¦
waste of time
That is not to say that a heavily modified light could not be madeā¦ but the QTC definitely did not work for my intended purpose with a 10180 lightā¦ They come in many brands, they all work the same 2 mode spring switchā¦
I also tried it in a Fenix E01 and a Maratac, again hoping to create a sublument modeā¦ Total Fail
Yeah, i replaced the springy triangular(ish) disc in mine for a tiny strip of metal.
Works much better, because that springy disc couldnāt be soldered properly to the PCB, causing problemsā¦
And so the tiny strip will have to be removed again if i want to try a pressure sensitive resistor in stead.
I think itās wise to sandwich the pressure sensitive medium between thin brass sheet discs or between the PCB and a thin disc, so it wonāt deform or damage.
If the QTC is in the head then there is a compression and twisting motion being applied.
If itās in the tail then itās mostly just compression from the flat cell negative.
The cell positive is taking all the twisting force.
There have been various methods to protect the QTC like placing it between conductive plates, tape etc in head twisty applications.
Iāve found that method to give more flickering output, especially on lower pressures, the conductive surfaces oxidize etc.
QTC is fairly fragile and will split or wear out faster due to friction if you have it just making contact on the cell & head contact being compressed and twisted.
Thatās what I think anyway.
You can see here how Fritz used three QTC pills between two brass plates to try to overcome some of these problems. I donāt know how successful it was as other parts were too damaged when I received this light.
This might be worth a shot for me at some point. Great resource here for QTC. I have gotten oddly fond of the 10180 lights, and they seem perfect for this.
I remember that shipping from mindsetsonline used to be $20+. Iāve had the idea of a GB in my head since then.
I have a feeling that the current price is not prohibitive - but still ordering more gives a nice per-item discount.
I could order more and resell if thereās interest in saving several bucks (note: untracked shipping is a little under $1.5 from my place). But there must be more people, for just one itās more hassle than itās worth.
Soā¦should we create a new feeler thread or would it be OK to continue here?