POOF! said the wizard...

Well I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I have a 3X123 tail that I hooked up to a McLux head using a 1 ohm resistor and a 5W U3U I didnt like it becouse of the heat and the short run time (overdriven 1.1 amps /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif) so I decieded to go with the wizard 400 and underdrive it for a much longer run time. Everything was going great I actualy liked the beam even with the NX05 the brightness was reduced but it was still MUCH brighter than my Q3,s running at 400 MA. Much larger and brighter hot spot and a lot more useful side spill of light I didnt even mind the artifacts mainly the grill pattern with the NX05 it seemed to smooth out at about 9 or 10 feet. Actualy underdriving the 5W was not as much of a sin as I thought it would be ( bite my tongue ). Much brighter than I thought and with the increased run time... OK OK dont hit me.
But anyway then it happened I thought I would try my McFlood and when I turned it on POOF and after double checking I noticed my big blob of solder on the anode side of the LED was hitting the reflector /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twak.gif.
OH well the sun will still come up tomorrow, the birds will sing and I'll order another wizard 400 because I like this combo and think it will be very useful. Life is good and life goes on.

Thank you. What blew, the wizard or the luxeon. I am considering this with direct drive. Got the McLux 3X123 and waiting on my new 5W luxeon. Wondering how to get the 30mm reflector involved.

The LED is fine I tested it direct drive for a couple of seconds and it survived ok. What happened is the anode connection or the LED positive connection was shorted directly to ground by touching the reflector ( My mistake) the wizard board or any regulation board for that matter cant handle that and POOF! The wizard has spoken his last words.
Believe me on the next one I wont be making this mistake. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thinking.gif

I'd bet it was the Wizard.
I had a MadMax burn up like that. The POS lead touched the side of the Mini-Mag case, straight short to ground. It smoked, it stank, there was no dancing in the aisles. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rant.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif


But, the luxeon still works. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

*EDIT* Oops, looks like we were posting at the same time, but the times are so far apart. Hmm.