6 cree tripod light - help

[aljsk8]

i currently have a homemade tripod light
it is 2 x 50w (12v) halogen globes run off a sla 12v 12a battery

im looking at making a similar one for a friend

he says it dosnt have to be as bright but he wants leds
so if i was to use the same battery

could i power 6 x cree - 2 sets of 3 (3 in series - 2 sets run in parallel - 4volts each)

would this work with no electronics

the sla is not charged by a car its just a stand alone battery and the leds can be massivly heatsinked if needed

i want to avoid electronics to keep the cost down

let me know

thanks

Alex

 

[Meduza]

You may be able to run it just from a 12V SLA if you have massive heatsinking,
but to play safe i would put a .5 or .2 ohm power resistor in series with the LEDs, like eBay item 250110732757 or 250148636125.

 

[DonShock]

When I ran 4 Crees off a driver at the rated max of 1A, the total Vf was 12.6V so you may find 12V across only 3 Crees may be overloading them a bit. Also, you may find a freshly charged SLA to be even higher than 12V. After blowing a LuxV and a driver, I now make sure to take actual measurements and slowly work up to the limits.