Caving with a 100 Watt LED

[Barbarin]

One of the consecuentes of my last attempt to make dive lights frustrated by a sneaky chinese who decided to go arround me to sell my designs (Archon dive lights), is that I was left stuck with some prototypes of 100 Watt LED dive light. Yesterday we drove to a nearby cave, and took with me one of those monsters to light our way into.I must say that I have been on that cave a dozen times or so, but never saw really the cave untill yesterday. The forms, colors... Everything seemed new and fascinating. Was like having ten carbide lamps in my head, so nice that I though that I wouldn't mind to carry a 2 kg battery to be able to enjoy a cave in such a way. Of course, as the masochistic I am, now I am squeezing my brain to turn this into a reality, I mean a useable design. Of course, not all the time on high output, but being able to have it when entering a big room, taking pics, videos...


Sin título por Barboman, en Flickr

 

[Barbarin]

Of course, as always, all the input is welcome.

Javier

 

[AnAppleSnail]

That looks amazing! What did your group think of the sun following you in?

 

[Barbarin]

They hated me... But they are thinking too that it could be a great thing to have such a light. They were all experienced cavers, and had the same feelings as me revisiting the cave.

 

[Barbarin]

One more pic. It was taken without flash, or tripod.

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[tam17]

Barbarin, I hope you don't mind me asking how does the light itself look like? I'm especially interested in power source... I also promise that I'd refrain myself from reverse-engineering your brainchild...

Just joking, your light is surely a beast and the beam looks awesome :thumbsup:

Cheers

 

[Bigpapi13]

Wow....looks awesome. Any more cave and light pics?

 

[Papa Bear]

I'm sure the heat sinking makes the unit too heavy to wear while running, but the masochist in me has to ask: How much does the lamp head weigh?

 

[Barbarin]

Sorry to tell you that it is a dive handheld light, not a helmet one, you can find it on this forums.

But the experience was so great that I'm dreaming with the idea of adapting it, and according to my calculations the lightest weight for a constant 30 Watt (near 6000 lm if using an underdriven array of the latest Cree MKR) and capable of short burts (2-3 minutes) of 50 watts (9000 lm), would be arround 140-170 gr. To get this weight is needed active cooling, but the average temp on caves help a lot, and nowadays we have extremely reliable systems, such as the Nuventix. With this configuration it would be possible to have a "low level" with 5 Watts (near 1000 lm) with no need to activate the air jet, and absolutely silent.

Of course we would need a separate battery pack, but to get a very decent runtime it would be ligher and smaller than the good old smelly carbide generator. According to my calculations, and using a good quality driver, with a 14,4V 7800 mAh li-ion pack, (800 gr including waterproof bag) we should be getting more than 5 hours at médium level (diminishing output from 6000 to 4000 lm), and arround 30 hours at low level (from 1000 to 650 lm). Hundred hours if we plan to be well over a carbide lamp, at 1,5 watts.

 

[Barbarin]

Let me share some thoughts about this with you.

A 6x XML2 array configuration driven at 700 mA each should be well over 2000 lm, and under 13 watts. When driven at full specs (short burst for video, big rooms, pictures...) no less than 6000 lm, which should be pretty close to the 100 Watt LED displayed.

Using a 600 gr batt pack (11,1 V, 10,8 Ah) , this would mean:

.Ultralow: 0,5 watts, 80 lm; more than 300 hours

.Low: 1,5 watts, 200 lm; more than 100 hours

.Med: 13 watts, 2000 lm; more than 8 hours

.High constant: 20 watts, 3000 lm; more than 5 hours

.High momentary: 60 watts; 1,5 hours.


*Notes:
1.The runtimes are calculated on a 70% over initial output basis (roughly 50% current), and not as a resut of tests perfomed.
2. The new Cree MK-R should improve the light figures as a result of its better efficiency.


Of course a helmet light like this is just interesting for the hardcore caver who is into photography, video... And could not be cheap ever, as just the bare basic materials needed would be over 400 US$ if using quality batteries, chargers, housings, switches... Not to mention assembly, and other costs related if it were going to be made professionally. IMO we are talking about a no less than 1400 US$ if made by a company, backed by a CS, warranty and so on... but dreaming is free.

Javier

 

[Papa Bear]

I am starting work on a low power/high efficiency cooling solution. I am hoping to produce a prototype version w/in the next year. If it as effective as I predict, extended high power operation should be feasible w/out massive heat sinking/fins.

 

[Barbarin]

I am starting work on a low power/high efficiency cooling solution. I am hoping to produce a prototype version w/in the next year. If it as effective as I predict, extended high power operation should be feasible w/out massive heat sinking/fins.

By now the best option would be a Nuventix Mr16 solution, 120 gr, 20 watt constant on 45ºC air... But it would be very interesting to see your solution.

 

[tam17]

Thanks for info, Barbarin! This stuff is mind-blowing. Keep us updated on your future projects and explorations :goodjob:

Cheers

 

[LED_Thrift]

Thanks for those great cave pictures.

 

[electrothump]

Yeah, those images are nice. More????

 

[diggy64]

This would be amazing for surveying trips.

 

[degarb]

I would use a backpack to carry a large battery.

 

[Barbarin]

Will try to upload more pics this weekend. Any interest on a no compromise caving headlamp? Maybe 100 Watts is too much, and at the end with nowadays top end LEDs we should be getting same flux with half the power, 50 Watts. For the battery pack it should not be bigger than a assault rifle magazine pouch, of course using full power during short periods, most of the time 10 Watt, arround 1500 lm, which is a fantastic amount of light.

Javier