KevinL
Flashlight Enthusiast
I'm doing some calculations about the maximum thermal design power (TDP) of P60 modules and Mag heads for my future builds. Unfortunately, I just cooked one of my lights to death so I think this is... kinda necessary.
I noticed along the road to an early failure that there is such a thing as thermal runaway. Simply, once a light is unable to dissipate the heat faster than it builds up, it just gets hotter and hotter. I've never actually managed to hit thermal runaway before so to actually experience it in person was, well....
:sigh:
How many watts of heat are you comfortable with in a P60 module and a Mag head? I have arrived at rough answers of 10 watts and 30 watts respectively but would like to hear from your experience. Assume 30degC/90F operating environments (let's plan worse case). BTW, those temps are accurate reflections of my environments - it may be worse case for some of you but it's not for me
Also, we're not talking about stuff you can light up for 30 seconds at one go. I'm thinking, 10-15 minutes of runtime would be comfortable. If power levels need to be sacrificed then so be it, we'll do that rather than cook LEDs.
I noticed along the road to an early failure that there is such a thing as thermal runaway. Simply, once a light is unable to dissipate the heat faster than it builds up, it just gets hotter and hotter. I've never actually managed to hit thermal runaway before so to actually experience it in person was, well....
:sigh:How many watts of heat are you comfortable with in a P60 module and a Mag head? I have arrived at rough answers of 10 watts and 30 watts respectively but would like to hear from your experience. Assume 30degC/90F operating environments (let's plan worse case). BTW, those temps are accurate reflections of my environments - it may be worse case for some of you but it's not for me
Also, we're not talking about stuff you can light up for 30 seconds at one go. I'm thinking, 10-15 minutes of runtime would be comfortable. If power levels need to be sacrificed then so be it, we'll do that rather than cook LEDs.
