I'm posting this question here (to Milky and Leef) as oposed to e-mail or PM so others may benefit as well.
It's evident the Gotham design offers a decided balance of features--runtime, max bright, UI, heat management, etc. There has been mention of the inevitable mod here and there ("this is CPF" as Milky puts it).
It's obvious that pushing the max brightness from its optimum design of 867+/- ma to say 1000ma(1amp) will reduce runtime a bit but by how much?? -- A rough percentage maybe?
And, more importantly in my opinion, how might this affect the stability of its design (or) the circuits ability to regulate output if at all? A lessor concern, when does heat management become an issue with the Gotham design?
Lyte-speede, Milky has done the Gotham at 1.0 Amp and it seems to work well -- in fact, at least one purchaser specified this (he bought one of the very few that Milky sold directly). I can't say much since I'm not the elctronics guy, but 1.0A. is workable. Maybe the Milkster will opine...:thinking:
It's obvious that pushing the max brightness from its optimum design of 867+/- ma to say 1000ma(1amp) will reduce runtime a bit but by how much?? -- A rough percentage maybe?
Runtime at 1A will be perhaps 80-90% that of the 867mA output.
And, more importantly in my opinion, how might this affect the stability of its design (or) the circuits ability to regulate output if at all? A lessor concern, when does heat management become an issue with the Gotham design?
The circuit will handle the higher drive level nicely... in fact, in custom builds (of other lights but using the same Acorn driver as used in the Gotham) I've driven the output as high as 2000mA without problems.
Regulation at 1000mA in the Gotham will start out fine... the output will begin gradual dimming at some point partway through battery discharge, though the rate of dimming will initially be so gradual that the human eye won't notice it... later in the curve the rate of dimming will increase. This differs from the 867mA regulation curve in that 867mA tends to stay flatter for longer before starting to dim.
Not sure when heat becomes an issue. A 1000mA setting will run fine so long as the emitter has been optimally mounted to the heatsinking surface... 867mA will function with a somewhat marginal emitter-to-heatsink interface whereas 1000mA is less forgiving in this regard. Note I'm talking about extended runs here... for very short runs, the difference isn't all that significant.
As far as max output current the system can accommodate in terms of thermal management, that remains an open issue, but it does seem to be somewhere in excess of 1000mA.
Stability on 1x18650 (LiON) or 2x123 (primary) is not an issue at 1000mA.
