NOOB Question: Heat Sink Hacks?

shintashi · Sep 7, 2020

When building lasers, we used heat sinks for the higher mW beams like 445nm/405nm and burning greens.

I'm wondering if people have thought of and implemented copper heat sinks or similar cylinders of metal into existing market flashlight brands?

I've never done this with a flashlight, but it seems like you could successfully increase the duration of your brightest settings before the chip downsteps it.

Off the top of my head, a Sacajawea coin sized sink might give you a couple extra seconds, while a multi ounce pill bottle/flashlight head sized blob might get you 2+ extra minutes.

Sambob · Sep 8, 2020

I'm curious....were you using water cooled heat sinks with lasers?

peter yetman · Sep 8, 2020

shintashi said:
I'm wondering if people have thought of and implemented copper heat sinks or similar cylinders of metal into existing market flashlight brands?

This is the forum for you...
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?140-Vinhnguyen54
He has a shop at skylumen.com

Vinh's been doing it for years commercially, and many of us do the same thing on the kitchen table.

Have fun.
P

staticx57 · Sep 8, 2020

The reality is that sticking a large chunk of copper inside a light really only matters for that initial burst. If the heat is trapped with a poor thermal path then heatsinking really isn't all that important. A well designed light has both mass and surface area to dissipate heat. Taking it to the logical conclusion you can hurt long term performance by adding mass without improving cooling because you will start with a larger deficit of heat to get rid of so you will throttle down more for longer.

badtziscool · Sep 8, 2020

Oh for sure! Copper has been used for a long time from a hobbyist standpoint and has even been incorporated into "cheap" quality lights the past few years already. But like staticx57 said, it's only one piece of the puzzle in extracting maximum performance from a flashlight.

shintashi said:
When building lasers, we used heat sinks for the higher mW beams like 445nm/405nm and burning greens.

I'm wondering if people have thought of and implemented copper heat sinks or similar cylinders of metal into existing market flashlight brands?

I've never done this with a flashlight, but it seems like you could successfully increase the duration of your brightest settings before the chip downsteps it.

Off the top of my head, a Sacajawea coin sized sink might give you a couple extra seconds, while a multi ounce pill bottle/flashlight head sized blob might get you 2+ extra minutes.

NOOB Question: Heat Sink Hacks?

shintashi

Newly Enlightened

Sambob

Newly Enlightened

peter yetman

Flashlight Enthusiast

staticx57

Flashlight Enthusiast

badtziscool

Flashlight Enthusiast

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