xevious
Flashlight Enthusiast
Viability of QTC -- is it "over" or is there still some way to make it work reliably?
QTC (Quantum Tunneling Composite) seemed like a phenomenal "free lunch" opportunity to achieve a ramping brightness control of a flashlight without the complexity of circuitry. PEAK LED Solutions jumped into using QTC quite a bit, but from all I've been reading it hasn't worked out all that well. All kinds of reliability issues. I had seen some DIY QTC flashlight topics from back around 2011, but they went nowhere...
So what's the upshot on QTC for flashlight use? Was there a "roadblock" reached whereby it was deemed as not a practical device for use in flashlights? I had wondered if there might be some inescapable wear factor... the frequent compressing and decompressing of the QTC material can cause deformation, and perhaps degradation. Is there some other consideration that makes it nonviable? Or is there the potential for a different sort of design that might be able to leverage QTC effectively and reliably for longer periods?
QTC (Quantum Tunneling Composite) seemed like a phenomenal "free lunch" opportunity to achieve a ramping brightness control of a flashlight without the complexity of circuitry. PEAK LED Solutions jumped into using QTC quite a bit, but from all I've been reading it hasn't worked out all that well. All kinds of reliability issues. I had seen some DIY QTC flashlight topics from back around 2011, but they went nowhere...
So what's the upshot on QTC for flashlight use? Was there a "roadblock" reached whereby it was deemed as not a practical device for use in flashlights? I had wondered if there might be some inescapable wear factor... the frequent compressing and decompressing of the QTC material can cause deformation, and perhaps degradation. Is there some other consideration that makes it nonviable? Or is there the potential for a different sort of design that might be able to leverage QTC effectively and reliably for longer periods?
Last edited: