Cree replacement for Custom Luxeon headlamp

[KillerJupe]

Hi,
I study insects and often collect them at night.
A good headlamp is vital to my work.
After screwing around w/ off the shelf lamps i was always disatisfied w/ limited battery life, brightness or color choice.

I decided to make my own headlamp and used this 7 up luxeon as the primary light. http://www.luxeonstar.com/white-5028k-7-led-40mm-round-coolbase-assembly-1400lm
I used a 700mah dimmable led driver: http://www.luxeonstar.com/700ma-external-dimming-flexblock-driver

I enclosed it all in a small project bock which i clip to my hip and power it off a 3cell 3000mah LiPo.
This way I have the power to run all night while getting the color and light output i need.


The down side to my LED choice is, its HOT and my little chipset heatsink needs a fan.


I've head Cree LED's are a lot cooler per lumen.

I am having trouble finding a sutible Cree LED setup.

I need about ~1500lm in neutral to cool white.

I would prefer to make a swap as cheap as possible.

Thanks,
D

 

[KillerJupe]

Is there a better form to ask this?
I'm new to this site.
Thx

 

[KillerJupe]

I emailed LED Supply for advice they suggested:
"Thanks for emailing. The wattage of an LED is really what determines the running temperature of an LED. So you need to find an LED that will produce around the same light output with a lower forward voltage (because wattage is calculated as the forward voltage times the drive current (in amps). I would start by looking at the 3-Up Cree XP-L LED (http://www.ledsupply.com/leds/cree-xlamp-xp-l-high-density-led-star). At 700mA, the 3-Up Neutral-White XP-L will produce approximately 945 lumen, the Cool-White version would be 1035 lumen.

At 700mA, each 3-Up LED star has a forward voltage of 8.55V, which means the wattage would be rooughly 6-Watts (8.55V x 0.7A = 5.9W). The forward voltage of the 7 luxeon LEDs should be somewhere around 22V, which means the total wattage is about 15-Watts. So, you could technically run 2 of the 3-Up XP-L stars and still be below the wattage of the 7-up Luxeon Star."