P60: Difference between revisions

'''Heat Sinking''' One problem with P60 drop-ins is they do not usually allow good heat transfer from the LED and driver to the host which can cause the LED to overheat, reducing output and the life of the LED. Some people will stuff aluminum foil around the drop-in to provide a better heat path between the drop-in and the head of the light. Aluminum strips cut from a beverage can or copper strips as well as copper tape can be used. While heavy duty kitchen foil is about 1 mil (0.001 inch) thick, an aluminum beverage can is more like 4 mils thick (about 0.1 mm). Copper sheets can be purchased in varying thickness and cut to size. A typical P60 reflector is 22mm where you would wrap the light, so strips can be cut about 2.7 inches (69 mm) long, longer if it will wrap around the reflector more than once. The width of the strips will vary depending on the host, but are typically 0.5 inch to 0.75 inch. The reflector should fit very snugly if properly wrapped. Anodizing on the inside of the light will also reduce heat transfer. You could use thermal compound, but this would make it much more difficult to swap drop-ins. Even with these measures in place, it may not be advisable to use higher power LED's (like the [[Cree]] MC-E or [[Luminus]] SST 50) in a P60 host, though there are certainly plenty of people using Cree XM-L drop-ins driven to 3 amps, which is about 10 watts of power, almost all of which is converted to heat.