Nuwai TM115X 3w Getting Very Hot...

Hello,

I am testing the Nuwai TM115X as a possible LED Spot Light that I want to mount in the Soffit of my house to provide exterior down lighting.

I want to make sure this flashlight can stay on full power (i.e. second click on the switch) for 8 hours continously once a day, every day.

So far after about 1 hour of running it is very hot - the whole thing (i.e. the body) is so hot you can only hold it for no more than 10 seconds.

Will this amount of on time shorten its life? Should I make an aluminum finned heat sink for it?

Is this normal for a 3w Luxeon flashlight?

Thanks in advance!!!
Steve

Anyone?

a better heatsink sounds like a smart move.

The output depends on the regulation (if any) in the light. Some those Nuwais have only a resistor as the regulator. As a result the output can be very high, thus hot.

Have you tested the mAh on high? is it steady or does it drop over time?

The TM-115X uses two resistors, one for high and a second one for low-mode. The heatsinking of the TM-115X is not bad. The problem is the continous operation and the absence of "blood-cooling" (hand of the operator )

You could reduce the heat with a lower input voltage, but the output will decrease too. BTW, if it´s mounted at your house for long operation, how do you power it? Feeding every 1.5 hours a new set of CR123A?

Many Thanks for the replys....

I plan on powering them (6 of them) with a PC type power supply - 5vDC constant output.

It my testing, I used a HP Jornada (similar to a Palm Pilot) power supply - 5.25v DC (measured a constant 5.5v output) 2.5 A.

I want to connect the 6 lights in Parallel to get the maximum brightness....

In terms of a heat sink - I was thinking of trying to find an aluminum finned heat sink that I could screw to the body.....

Thanks,
Steve

Looking inside my TM115 when I got it, I was not impressed by the heat sinking. There is only a star that doesn't seem to be in very good contact with the body. Kind of like a Q3. I've seen better heat sinking (VB-16, Striker VG, Surefires). I'm sometimes surprised the exterior gets warm (mine has never gotten hot), which is at least telling you it is transferring some heat to the body. When I use it I don't keep it on high for very long. It is one of my car carry lights because it's cheap and it has a decent spotlight beam.
I would pull out the insides and mount the star on a nice big finned PC heat sink and make sure there is some area for airflow around it if possible. Also, you could replace the high resistor with a bigger one to underdrive it a little. That would help a lot, but remember that the resistor will then get hot, so up the wattage capacity of the resistor (2 watts maybe).
Or, supply it with less voltage from it's power supply in the first place.

If it is like the QIII, then it needs more surface area on the heat sink (two-penny soultion) and add some thermal paste to the back of the star.

You could also remove the resistor and drop a downboy in it to get a constant regulation.

Uh, I just took my TM115 apart and I must have been thinking of another light earlier because there is a nice size heat sink bonded to the lux star in the TM115. It is waaay better than the Q3. Ignore what I said earlier..

Blindasabat said:

Uh, I just took my TM115 apart and I must have been thinking of another light earlier because there is a nice size heat sink bonded to the lux star in the TM115. It is waaay better than the Q3. Ignore what I said earlier..

Click to expand...

True,... but if you push the switch forward from the bottom or twist the sink out (careful, there's some glue there and it might make an alarming sound when the bond is broken) you'll find a circle of chrome plated spring wire that the heatsink sits against. The bottom of the heat sink doesn't make the greatest contact with the battery tube. If you remove the chrome wire and clamp the heatsink/star back down with the screw-down retaining ring there is a much larger contact area between the heatsink and the battery tube.