Potting a sportac

I really like my triple nichia sportac drop in. I don't run it much however because I have heard reports of failure when dropped. This leads me to believe it is not potted.

I would like to pot it. Has anyone done this?

I pulled the optic and it looks like I could fill some potting compound through the hole the emitter wires come through. What do you think?

Any suggestions on application methods or how to find/make and inject a suitable compound?

The sandwich shoppe still sells powder you can mix with epoxy to make potting compound. It's runny stuff. You might be able to inject it with a syringe.

Ladd said:

The sandwich shoppe still sells powder you can mix with epoxy to make potting compound. It's runny stuff. You might be able to inject it with a syringe.

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The Alumina oxide powder would probably be a good choice and I bet it would mix well with the Artic Alumina thermal epoxy but you would need to get it all injected pretty darn fast. It begins to get pretty thick in just a few minutes which might not give you enough time to force all of it down that wire feed thru hole. Any other epoxy to be considered would need to be free of any electrical properties like capacitance or conductivity.

You could try Fujik thermal adhesive which would give you a much longer time window and it stays a little flexible even after hardening so shock absorption would be pretty decent. The problem might be figuring out if you filled the void inside enough to get the job done properly. Your not going to get to all the empty area inside by going thru that little center hole. But it is highly likely you will get enough of the driver board covered do accomplish what you are seeking. Attaching the drop in to something that vibrates or shakes while drying might not be a bad idea if you have something available? But I don't think using an ultrasonic cleaner or similar might be a good idea. Lower frequency with minimal deflection would be my choice.

I have three sportacs and one of them gets dropped all the time, about 4-ft up, no far so good, this ones a mule [I run it without the optics]. I'll keep this in mind.

I can only go off my sportacs and I have dropped mine at least once a day.....most days in the week. Some days no drops, others 2 or 3.

I am sure my record is 5 in the same morning as I strarted to count as I was getting more annoyed!!!! It's turned off a couple of times after the drop....the reason was simple , it landed on the tail cap switch. Other than that mainly bezel down drops or side on, never less than 3ft, don't think more than 5ft!! Side and bezel drops not even a flicker, the host a P1D (is like a tank but that's not always a good thing for shock absorbing! Like a P1 would give by bouncing )

The drops are usually rolls from a surface which is always higher than 3ft, if I had to rate my experience of the sportacs on toughness out of 10, it would have to be a 10.

To add to Ven's comment, mine(2) have been in everything from 6P to a titanium Seraph and have been dropped from up to 6', and one rolled off the Jeep to a gravel road at 10-15mph-still works every time. Until I saw your photos I was under the impression they were potted. I have always treated mine like my Malkoff's drop-ins, perhaps I have been lucky but so far so good. Will follow this thread with interest.

Can add 3 drops more this morning (unbelievable ) one was a catch on the head whilst holding that spun it out of my hand! against a frame then into the floor from about 4ft......poor light and a clumsy me!

Still working........:laughing:

I would be gutted if it stopped , have to be replaced immediately , no ifs no buts .

This is good info. I feel better about running it stock. I have loaded it into an old 6p and will start carrying it. I may try to pot it but I am not as concerned.

My sportacs are for beaters mainly , used to have a CQvn(quad off vinh) for a good while but that's back home in a cooly host . So the sportacs get tested! By that I mean left on for the odd hour here and there at a time, dropped daily pretty much and some days several times( you know when you have extra clumsy days :laughing: )
All my drops tend to be onto unforgiving industrial floors, from height too(even if I am lying down and it falls from a foot height , it makes a thud). So can imagine 3ft-5ft.... To put it another way, if one failed me tomorrow I would get a replacement still due to the life they have had!

Full confidence in the drop in

You may be able to use a gasket making compound and pot it with that. I have heard of people using something like rtv to pot drivers so that it gives better shock absorption. I can't say it sounds like a good idea for any type of additional heat sinking though. Based on other comments though, sounds like they are pretty reliable in stock form though.

Good to know Sportac can take impacts.

Man, can't imagine myself dropping my lights/dropins like ven!

Before you pot it, I wonder if there's a way to open it and see what it looks like circuit-wise. It appears to be press fit

It's press fit but with two solder joins inside.

I modded one with triple nichia 219c and a BLF 17DD driver.

difficulty 2/10 and now it goes from 0.5 lm two +2000

and considering you can find single mode for around 25 bucks, 5 bucks for the driver and 10 for the leds, 20 min of work, it's a quite good ratio money/difficulty/output