Well I know I need surface area, but I also need thermal mass. If I use a solid slug thats significantly thicker than the adjustable one you make for the lower wattage leds it will contact more of the inner wall of the flashlight, thereby it will be able to transfer more heat faster as well as heat up slower due to thermal mass.
I read overdog's thread already. Pretty sweet setup, But I'm going for the most wattage out of one led assembly, and that 40 watt 2000 lumen beast from ledengin seems to be the best bet. I want to keep the light source centered in the maglight, so having 3 or more leds isn't what I'm trying to do. I love how it says "street lighting" in the applications section of the description.... Thats just full of awesomeness. Imagine... A HANDHELD STREETLIGHT....
I'm going to put this in a 6 D maglight, and I have some 12V 10Ah D NiMh battery packs I bought last year that I never used for the intended purpose. I disassembled one to make a 6 cell 7.2v 10ah pack for my project.
oh, if anyone is looking for D size NiMh cells I have either 2 12v packs, or 24 individual cells if I rip them apart.. they were a hundred bucks per 12v 10ah pack when i bought them, so if anyone needs some shoot me a pm with an offer..
but anyways..... thats what I'm going for... A handheld streetlight... I paid $20 for the 6D maglight, I'm going to stuff $80 worth of D size NiMh cells in the back, $60 for the 40 watt led, another $40 for the controller board, and whatever the custom heatsink is going to cost... so $200 so far into a $20 flashlight.... Hmm... maybe I need a different hobby lol.....
lovecpf