QIII experts! Ok to run HOT?

I'm loving my new QIII on 1 rcr123, but until tonight only used it for brief 5-15 second blips. Tonight, I used it on my ball cap brim as an impromptu headlamp, and when I turned it off only 4-5 minutes later it was really warm, approaching hot... Is this a) normal? and b) ok for the light? It's got great short/medium range flood with the rcr, especially for it's size, but I don't want to bake it to death!

Yes it is normal and it means that the heat is being drawn away from the LED as it is supposed to. If it wasn't getting hot then it would be time to worry.

if you are gonna be using your light a lot with R123, try to find a copper heatsink from Viren. The Q3's stock heat sink is pretty sad.

Nick

remember, when using the r123, the driver will let the battery direct drive the led for awhile, until the voltage that it can regulate the light at.

From the "well, D'uh" files, . . . . .

Just make sure you don't turn it on for a long time when it's still inside the pouch. It happened to me once, . . . . . caused a small "mutation" of the phosphor. Still works though. I changed the LED out for another one though. A TWOH.

270winchester said it best, the stock aluminum ring is more of a spacer if anything because of the way it makes contact with the star. Heat is the enemy of your LED!

pbs357, you can add a hi/lo two stage switch from goldserve or milkyspit. This gives you a lower brightness setting, reducing heat buildup and also increasing runtime. The Q3 size FLuPIC board is another excellent option, it'll give you 20 brightness settings + burst mode and is R123 friendly.

ViReN's heatsink is what I wanted too, too bad he was sold out last I checked (so I made my own).

Happy modding!

Derek

The QIII needs a either a replacement heats sink or the two penny mod to run it hot (with a low Vf / RCR123).

I run mine all the time with protected rcr123 batteries. It gets hot, but if you upgrade the heat sinks, your better off.
-bobby

You can easily remove the "pill" and re-install it with some heat sink compound to aid heat transfer. Dunno if it helps, but it sure cant hurt. I did it to mine.

Or even better, rework the whole LED module just like this one:
http://homepage3.nifty.com/katokichi/page041.html

Anyone tried this BTW?

Nice find yazkaz, I remember seeing H22A selling similar machined convertor adaptors to fit threaded bore Q3's in custom + mod B/S/T recently.