Built my first p60

[Mr. Nobody]

Ordered a guppy driver a 3amp
XPG2 R4 5A2 Noctigon.
Excuse my not so perfect solder job, used a little too much thermal paste ended up with some micro blotches.on the clear dome used a small blade to.wipe it off. The hardest part was soldering the driver to the pill.
My process was insert driver, solder leads to MCPCB, add thermal Arctic silver to MCPCB press to fit, than twist driver and solder the edges.
anyone have advice as far as soldering a driver like this to the copper pill ?
Pics:

Left to right: XPG2 P60, Nitecore p12 (Ew! ugly purple color).

Overall I am very happy with my choice, I wish it were a Tad brighter and warmer. I am waiting for the XML2 to restock in this tint it'll be even brighter and will be going in a C8 host.

 

[Str8stroke]

Next time you order from MTN, ask them to dedome it! You will like the results! I built a bunch using their dedomed leds. Love them!

Looks good.

 

[DellSuperman]

If you are talking about a normal P60 pill, it should be brass not copper...

My way of doing up a P60 is
1) solder lead to driver.
2) slot lead through holes & press fit driver into the pill. My drivers are usually tight fit & require bare minimum solder.
3) apply thermal paste & place MCPCB.
4) trim lead to correct length & solder lead to MCPCB.

For soldering on the pill, u will need to make the pill hot enough in order for the solder to stick on it. Some flux will help as well..

 

[DellSuperman]

Anyway, keep this up.
This is very addictive & soon u will have more hosts and drop ins. Hahaha..

Well, thats what happened to me.

 

[Mr. Nobody]

Just ordered a high CRI xpg and another driver

 

[DrafterDan]

I've done a bunch of builds, but always felt that soldering the LED to the mpcb was out of my ability. Too scared that I would not get it centered. Bravo!
These days, I'm happier with a nice warm tint than full-house lumens

 

[vestureofblood]

Anyway, keep this up.
This is very addictive & soon u will have more hosts and drop ins. Hahaha..

Well, thats what happened to me.

+1

Mr. Nobody, if you thought flashlights were addictive before, you aint seen nothin' yet! Great job.

 

[DellSuperman]

I've done a bunch of builds, but always felt that soldering the LED to the mpcb was out of my ability. Too scared that I would not get it centered. Bravo!
These days, I'm happier with a nice warm tint than full-house lumens

Reflowing of the LED to the MCPCB doesn't require you to center it, somehow it will align on its own when the solder are melted. I will usually just tap the dome of the emitter gently one to push out any excessive solder before letting it cool & harden.

 

[Mr. Nobody]

Playing with my homemade floody reflector:

 

[m4a1usr]

I've done a bunch of builds, but always felt that soldering the LED to the mpcb was out of my ability. Too scared that I would not get it centered. Bravo!
These days, I'm happier with a nice warm tint than full-house lumens

It is a learned method but honestly you are more than able to it Dan. I'm aware of some of your work and you sell yourself short. The way I learned was to take some "disposable" parts, meaning I didn't care how it turned out, but to just understand the setup and process to center the LED + MCPCB. Really all you need to do is tin the pill well, chuck the pill in a leveled holder (that can be anything that can tolerate the heat), decide on your heat source (I like to use my heat shrink gun) and get to figuring it out.

The only thing I don't like about direct bonding is my personal preference in builds is to solder fill all of my pills. Adds mass and conducts heat away faster but on the other hand a copper MCPCB does the job fairly well. I just happen to like both in my builds and you cant do both very well combined.

Give it try Dan. If you can reflow, you can direct bond.

 

[DellSuperman]

The only thing I don't like about direct bonding is my personal preference in builds is to solder fill all of my pills. Adds mass and conducts heat away faster but on the other hand a copper MCPCB does the job fairly well. I just happen to like both in my builds and you cant do both very well combined..

You can try buying those cheap copper MCPCB from FastTech, remove the top layer by sanding or heating them before peeling the layer off.
Stack a few of them in the driver side of the pill & use some thermal glue to hold them in place.
It can create some extra thermal mass for your P60 pills as well.

 

[Mr. Nobody]

The highest CRI led in this photo (q2 7c4) actually glows orange in the dark after being on for a second the longer the light is on the brighter it glows...is it the phospher heating up ?
Right to left:
Q2 7C4 | R4 5A2 | T6 (7000k) Fugly

 

[recDNA]

Middle one nice