Hi all, I am new to the interest of modifying some older lights that I own: various mags and the one in question here. I have a Bosch flashlight, model fl36, and I'm interested in converting it to a bright led. I've spent hours online yet it didn't produce any meaningful information. Due to a lack of experience and knowledge, I'm hoping that some here are willing to offer suggestions. The Bosch light runs off a 36 volt, 4 amp battery, with a 10 watt bi-pin bulb. I'd like to learn about my options... It seems the most basic modification would be to just find an led bulb and switch it out. Is it really that simple? And what is a good resource to find halogen to led conversion? If this is possible, what limits will I have with a 36 volt battery? Can I convert from the 36 volt battery to a 24 volt battery? How will that affect my options with respect to bulbs and brightness? Thank you in advance for your consideration.
Halogen to led, where to begin?
- Thread starter jv_atc
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1. As far as I know, there are no 36V LEDs except for large COBs. For those COBs, you would need a massive amount of heatsinking, which is unlikely in an old halogen light. But you can use a DC-DC stepdown converter to get to a usable voltage.
2. If it is a really common light bulb, you might be able to find a retrofit bulb, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you can fit in a decent driver and a LED, you should get a higher lumen output, but this also depends on your heatsinking.
If you have no heatsinks and no airflow in the light, it will get harder, but you could put in a large piece of copper, brass or aluminium as heatsink. Until this piece of metal is hot, you can run your LED on turbo, after that, you have to lower your power, or your emitter will burn out.
It would help, if you could post pictures of the light you want to mod. It would also be helpful, if you could specify what exaclty you mean by "converting it to a bright led".
I hope, I was able, to at least give you some ideas. If you have questions, just ask them, we all started somewhere
2. If it is a really common light bulb, you might be able to find a retrofit bulb, but I wouldn't recommend it. If you can fit in a decent driver and a LED, you should get a higher lumen output, but this also depends on your heatsinking.
If you have no heatsinks and no airflow in the light, it will get harder, but you could put in a large piece of copper, brass or aluminium as heatsink. Until this piece of metal is hot, you can run your LED on turbo, after that, you have to lower your power, or your emitter will burn out.
It would help, if you could post pictures of the light you want to mod. It would also be helpful, if you could specify what exaclty you mean by "converting it to a bright led".
I hope, I was able, to at least give you some ideas. If you have questions, just ask them, we all started somewhere
lightfooted
Flashlight Enthusiast
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- May 6, 2010
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- 1,017
Maybe you could try running three Cree XHP-35s in series to soak up the voltage. A diode or resistor to bring it down a volt or so per LED since the spec sheet says 11.9V max for the XHP-35. But unless you plan on fabricating a heat sink or reflector for it yourself I don't think it would be cost effective to try to upgrade it to an LED when there are other LED work lights already out there.
Many thanks to devryd and lightfooted for providing some insight to this potential modification. After following up on a couple of the options you suggested, I decided to shelve this project for now. Thank you for your input. Sincerely, Jay
