flounder help

i cannot find the info i'm searching for to build a flounder light. what's inside those PVC flounder lights as far as the actual hardware used to drive & cool, etc...?

i can build it, i just don't know exactly how to wire it up. i am NOT concerned with how to make or waterproof the housing. i need help with the guts. need to know which parts to wire together & how to properly arrange them. i assume i need an emitter, connected to a heat sink, wired to a driver, wired to a battery as the basic idea, but that doesn't give me a whole lot in practice, lol

if possible, i'd love to use the same deep cycle marine 12v battery which cranks the boat, but if i need to add another deep cycle battery dedicated to the flounder lights then i can do that. ideally i'd want 2 batteries, but if i can make 3 lights that run at low enough amp draw to gig flounder for 2 hours off one battery then have juice enough to crank the boat, that would be awesome, then i can just alligator clip my contraption to the boat & hit the water.


hoping to buy the parts & make this myself, but i am not sure where to start. i can handle the pvc housing & mounting to the boat part. what can y'all recommend for the emitter, the driver, the heat sink, & how the heck do all those connect to each other? I can wire it up & solder it, i know to use high heat epoxy, etc..., just need a little guidance. white to warm white is the color of choice. if it can flood far & spill too that is going to be good i think? it needs to illuminate the bottom of the waterway 4+ feet from the boat, in 2-6' deep water aiming around the bow of the boat with about a 120 degreem beam. this means multiple lights are required. i plan for one aiming forward, and one or two aiming off the side. i will be running a bank, so i don't need to have 180 illumination around the bow of the boat on both sides, just forward & one side. the brighter the better. thanks in advance.

A DIY project like this is best done in two stages. Make a small one then a big one. Kind of like learning to fish, you'll have more fun if you mostly plan on emptying a few beers the first day rather than counting on catching something.

Most powerful LEDs have a place for your (+), a place for your (-), and a place for the heatsink. LEDs are small though. Even a powerful 10-watt LED is about the size of the 'o' on your screen. So we put them on quarter-sized "Stars" (20mm is a common diameter - About 4/5ths inch). This is a wafer of metal and circuit board to give you a bigger place to work. I suggest that you start with these things:

1. 1" copper pipe cap. You'll drill holes in the edge of the bottom of the pipe cap.
2. 'Medium' clear optic 20mm diameter. This is a clear plastic cone that shapes the LED beam.
3. An XM-L LED on a 20mm star. These have plenty of output for your project.
4. A 12v "Driver" circuit - Rated for 1 to 2 amps (1000-2000 mA) output. This is 12W to 24W power.

These parts will cost you about $30, and work pretty well with what you already have. If the LED light ever turns angry blue, turn it off by unplugging the driver. This will overheat if you use it above-water. Takes less metal that way.

First, make your LED housing: Drill the holes in the end cap, near the edge of the flat side. Test-fit the LED star in there. You need it to lay flat inside the end cap like a coin in a cup. You can very carefully sand down the edges of the star. Don't touch the clear dome on the LED. Don't sand down past the solder points on the star.

Next, solder wires on the LED. You'll need these wires to get out of the end cap while the LED sits flat. IF the LED doesn't sit flat, the heat can't get out and you'll toast your LED. Use your high-temperature epoxy ("Thermal" epoxy is a bit better) to stick the LED in the center of the end cap. Press in gently (Don't touch the dome - A ballpoint pen barrel is good for this) so tthe epoxy layer is very thin - This helps heat transfer. Now you have an LED inside a copper cap, with wires coming out.

Let the epoxy keep curing and prepare the driver. Find the LED outputs and label them. Find the power inputs and label them. Put your alligator clip ends on the power inputs, and add a switch ("Safety") to the power input wire. With this off, you can hook up your alligator clips, check things out, and flip the light on when you are ready. You should not power up the driver with nothing to run - That can hurt the driver or the LED.

Now that the epoxy is cured, put the clear optic on the LED, waterproof the LED
capsule, stick it on your boat (Or a stick), and try it out underwater.


Now your feet are wet with DIY LED lighting, and you can try more complex lighting. Good luck!

sounds good, I appreciate the info. i can google for the answers (and i will), but while i have your eye, anyone have any sources for these parts? specifically, i'm wondering where would i buy:

1) 20mm medium clear optic
2) XM-L on a 20 mm star
3) 12v driver circuit
4) thermal epoxy


also:

After "prepare the driver" i am a little lost. how do i "find the LED outputs" & how do i "find the power inputs"?...my routine method of finding polarity sometimes creates fireworks, lol

bump for anyone to who'd like to respond

You can get all but a medium optic at IlluminationSupply.com. They've done well for me. Craig (CSSIH on CPF) is one of the guys there. I've liked the selection at LEDGroupBuy lately, but haven't bought from them yet. Here is a "Parts List," but mods may take my links out.

WWW.LEDGroupBuy.com is a site for Aquarium nuts - Lots of royal blue and UV ocean reef growing LEDs. They have good parts selection though.

The "Meanwell LDD-1000H driver" gives 1 amp to your LEDs. This is a small driver chip. It has pins at 4 corners marked: Vin +, Vin -, Vout+, Vout-. These are the 'Input' power (Vin + and -) and 'output' LED supply (Vout + and -). If you make a 'wiring harness' for this, it'll be two wires for the boat battery and two for the LED.

If you connect a DC voltage (2-52V DC) to the input pins, the driver will try to put 1 amp through the output pins, up to about Vin-2v. This lets you run 1 to 3 LEDs wired in series, on 12v power.

Their 'Optics' section has a Cree optic with a Medium option. You'll want that, and maybe an optic holder. That snaps onto a 20mm star to hold the optic just right. They have the Thermal epoxy too.

Thank you. I need one to three of these $8.77 emitters:

http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/cree-xm-l2-white/


and one of these $7.25 drivers:
http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/meanwell-ldd-1000h-led-driver/


and one of these $1.43 lenses:
http://www.ledgroupbuy.com/cree-led-optics-lens/




and i just connect the pluses & minuses then seal it up water tight?

You've got it. Building a bigger one is about the same, but the parts are more expensive and hurt more if you toast them.

I'm wanting to build a hand held flounder light using a single xm l2 cool white emitter that will be powered by a single li ion cell. I can't find a driver for this application. Do I need one? What about a resistor instead? As apparent, very unenlightened. Below is ledgroupbuy's answer.

Private communication removed. See this

Bill