Simple Luxeon III Circuit Question

Hi

Putting together a straight forward bike light. Im using 3x Luxeon IIIs and 1x fatman driver. It will be powered from a a 10-11v source and the luxeons are connected in series.

I will have about 30cm from the fatman to the first luxeon.

A while back I was reading up on bike light design, and I remember some one adding an inline capacitor to the first luxeon to improve their design.

So
Will adding what I assume is a voltage/current smoothing capacitor help?
If so what size capacitor do I need?

Brett

You'd probably be far better off locating the FatMan close to the LEDs, as drivers don't work as efficiently when having to push current through a lot of wire. Ideally you'll want everything in a single package and maybe remote-mount the pot if need be, as compared to remoting the LEDs with respect to the driver.

Plus, the more wire you have between driver and load for step-up drivers like FatMan, the greater the chances of something coming unhooked somehow, and this tends to be fatal for step-up drivers. If one of your leads breaks or what have you while it's turned on, the FatMan's output capacitor will blow in two (or more) as it tries to drive into an open circuit and the voltage ramps up past its safe limit.

oO