Lowering DC resistance improves performance

HenryE

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
157
This may have been beaten to death, but it's new to me so I'm sharing it.

I just received a used HID and was disappointed by its relatively poor output. After disassembling it and cleaning all contacts, then treating them with Cramolin (an old standby from my audiophile days), light output and color were improved so much that I went from disappointed to delighted!

The difference was so significant that I went through the place and did the same thing to other flashlights, and on some of them the result was outstanding. It makes sense. At the low voltages of a typical flashlight power supply, even a fraction of an ohm can be important, and it adds up quickly with series cells. Of course, after the ballast of an HID the voltages are such as to blow through minor connector resistances.

It's really worth the effort. Surely there's something better than Cramolin after all these decades - that bottle is ~40 years old.

Henry
 

bfg9000

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jan 7, 2005
Messages
1,119
The current substitute for Cramolin Red is Deoxit by the former US importer of Cramolin, Caig Laboratories. Cramolin in Germany now makes a Freon-free version of Cramolin Red called Contaclean which some audiophiles claim is superior to Deoxit, but it is flammable and shipped as hazardous cargo.
 

HenryE

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Mar 8, 2005
Messages
157
Thanks!

In some engineering applications we used malleable pellets (forget the material) to ensure very low contact resistance when there was frequent make-break events. Has anyone come up with a material or technique for lowering resistance between cells, at the spring, etc. in flashlights?
 
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