Found this spotlight at a garage sale for $5, thinking of modding it to LED...

Found this puppy for $5 at a garage sale... glass lens, aluminum reflector... 12V sealed lead acid battery from the looks of it... Thinking about gutting it and putting in some kind of monster LED/array and using some of that enormous space to put a huge heat sink and battery pack into it.

Solarforce L2 for size comparison:




Now I just need to figure out what to cram into there... Since I don't imagine heat would be a problem (even thinking of using a fan for active cooling), I just need a real monster of an LED and preferably a cheap one... or would an array of say, XM-Ls be better?

Well, I think I found the LED, but it's prohibitively expensive... Luminus CSM-360 Series... 6000 Lumens @ 12V + 6.3A!!! I could stick it on a CPU heatsink and jam a low RPM 120mm fan blowing on it... If anyone has an extra CSM-360 and a driver for it lying around and want to contribute, PM me...


Well... it was worth a try at least....

Shao

Big reflector more suitable to HID I reckon?

Well, with a reflector that big, I would for sure put an HID in it. Or at least have a good time trying!

:thumbsup:

i got 1 like it and tring to figure out how much it would cost to mod it to 75 or 100 watt hid

A straight "hotwire" mod is another possibility that might be easier than trying to do an LED build. Maybe get something like a drill-pack battery that can source a lot of power, then throw a high wattage 12V halogen and overdrive it .

2xTrinity said:

A straight "hotwire" mod is another possibility that might be easier than trying to do an LED build. Maybe get something like a drill-pack battery that can source a lot of power, then throw a high wattage 12V halogen and overdrive it .

Click to expand...

if its like the thor which it looks like a clone of, it should start off with a 100W halogen bulb. Any hotwire shens will definitely have to be in "big boy" territory :naughty: A 6465x bulb + 28v dewalt lithium battery would be interesting, I bet it would fit into the battery compartment fairly well. Its an 8S A123 26650 pack, so ~ 24.8-25.6v under load.

I have 95% that same thing except it says 10 million candle power.

it has 12v 7A SLA 100w/70w? halogen. Other mode is 100w, i think other was 70w, thats why i put ?. It charges through a charger or car charger. I paid something 90 euro for mine some years ago.


My SLA died because I didnt use it for 2 years. But, I resurrected it by opening it and filling it up with battery water.

Im modifiying my version to 35w or 55w xenon hid.

This thing can fit something 30x 18650 batteries if needed.

In theory, you could have 2-3 hours runtime with 100w hid. Ebay has 100w hids. But, you would need a lot of batteries and preferably good quality and that would be expensive.

@ shao.fu.tzer

Do you have the charger for this light? If so could you give me the model number. I've been attempting to charge mine up for some time but haven't been completely sure what it requires so i don't ruin it.

2xTrinity said:

A straight "hotwire" mod is another possibility that might be easier than trying to do an LED build. Maybe get something like a drill-pack battery that can source a lot of power, then throw a high wattage 12V halogen and overdrive it .

Click to expand...

Hmmmm... Always been an LED man... never thought to mod something with a bulb... with another bulb...

CKOD said:

if its like the thor which it looks like a clone of, it should start off with a 100W halogen bulb. Any hotwire shens will definitely have to be in "big boy" territory :naughty: A 6465x bulb + 28v dewalt lithium battery would be interesting, I bet it would fit into the battery compartment fairly well. Its an 8S A123 26650 pack, so ~ 24.8-25.6v under load.

Click to expand...

The thing is just ridiculously huge. It looks as though I could cram a small pony into it. That's why I was trying to come up with a crazy LED mod, since heat and power would no longer be a consideration. You've got me thinking about that 28V battery pack though...

tbone1993 said:

@ shao.fu.tzer

Do you have the charger for this light? If so could you give me the model number. I've been attempting to charge mine up for some time but haven't been completely sure what it requires so i don't ruin it.

Click to expand...

No... I think that's why it was $5 - I tried contacting the company but have had no luck so far. I have about 7 different 12V AC wallworts that I've tried plugging into it, and while many fit (and quite well at that), nothing seems to be giving me a charge indicator light. Unfortunately, my el cheapo DC power supply died about a year back, so it looks I'm going to have to just tear it down and start checking connections. I did check the battery and it read a paltry .11V so I'm thinking that while it looks new, it's probably dead as a doornail. I used to have a little motorcycle battery charger, but for the life of me I can't find it... Any bulb mod would be far cheaper than any decent LED mod, so I'm now considering my first incan mod EVER.... Thanks for the advice guys.. and still open to suggestions...

Shao

If I had the cash, I would love to stick an array of SST-90s in there - Like 12-16 of 'em, on little heat-piped towers leading to a massive copper and aluminum heatsink with a 120cm fan or two for active cooling... Every day I see it staring at me in my shop and I have an overwhelming urge to make something ridiculous out of it...

If the SLA is reading that low, don't even bother trying to charge it, like you said it is deader than a doornail. Actually anything less than 10v is dead, between 10 and 11.5 you may be able to revive it, but probably not.

I vote for HID or monster hotwire. JimmyM has some lantern regulators that he is selling. Should allow you to overdrive a really insane bulb from a drill pack quite nicely.

Cheers,
Nova

I know it would be cheaper... so therefore more plausible... I just like LEDs... Maybe to make it somewhat affordable I could run 16 XM-Ls @ 2.8 apiece for ~14,400 lumens and run it off of 16 18650s... I would get a whopping ~1 hour runtime! Hehe... That would still be an expensive build... If only I had the money to goof off like that...

.11V is completely dead.

One thing you should keep in mind is that SLA cell capacity drops significantly with current draw of the application. (Just like Li-Io, I suppose... but SLA cells are supposed to be more dramatic). So an SLA cell may be rated at 10AH, but under heavy draw (greater than ~1C) its capacity is not to be that much. Many SLA cell manufacturers quote their AH capacty spec at a very low current draw (low C).

Most people mod these big plastic beasts with HIDs... a multi-LED array would definitely be interesting.