help a new flashlight guy add driver board maybe led to rayovac 4w

[John Redcorn]

ok so a week ago I was fine with having a $3 walmart big-battery floating lantern in my car and some old 2aa 1w luxeon light at the house. just from reading this place (came here to read about lasers) I've now got the rayovac 4w and have a fenix-clone from dx on the way too. I just got the ROV and already want to make it better.

this driver board from DX says it will take up to 4.5v input and output 1000ma (I guess at the correct voltage?)
http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6190

my emitter star says "wpg tech cree xlamp 7090b" would that be the correct board for that light?

is 1000ma right?

the output voltage is not stated on the dx page, I'm guessing the output voltage is something that's just a standard that anyone buying this should know so they dont need to show it? am I correct?

how does that thing hook up? just the red wire goes to the positive from the switch and the black wire goes to positive on the LED? that simple? I guess it has to ground somewhere too.

The rayovac 4 watt light according to the people in the thread about it has a resistor, (I'm guessing on the little board I can see by the switch) I suppose I need to solder a little wire around it to bypass it? or will that driver board compensate for the resistor somehow? I will want to run this thing on nimhs eventually.


Also I saw people in the thread talking about upgrading the led to a q5.
I found this q5 on DX (backordered right now) http://dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.2394

but it looks the same and has all the same words and numbers on it as mine already in my light. Does my light have a q5 already? or is 7090b the size or part number of the little star-board the led is on or something?

 

[JamisonM]

I think upgrading your 4 watt rayovac is definitely doable. I see no reason why it can't be done; just look at the people that use the maglite bodies as hosts for their mods.
From what I've read, there's a hole under the star and I think it would be best if that was patched/covered in some way with a copper or aluminum plate. This would give you a solid base and help keep things cool. If there isn't apply some thermal grease or epoxy. Just a very thin, scotch tape thickness, layer will be sufficient. As to how to install the driver; my guess would be to just replace the resistor. Make sure you have enough wire and you might want to find some way to heatsink to some out of the way place in the body of the light. As for the emitter; I'd leave it alone. It'll produce more then enough light at 1A and won't give you but a few hours at that. The negative led is, from what I remember, soldered directly to the body of the light. I can't tell you exactly though; just study how your light is wired and that should give you answer.

 

[John Redcorn]

As to how to install the driver; my guess would be to just replace the resistor. Make sure you have enough wire and you might want to find some way to heatsink to some out of the way place in the body of the light.

so the driver board itself needs to be heatsinked?

and if you say replace the resistor with the driver board, that means the driver just hooks up like I thought, just inline on the +? and maybe having its own ground/heatsink too?

 

[clg0159]

Some folks have tested the heatsinking of the led and found it to be doing the job pretty well (that Al is solid and contacting the body), but improving couldn't hurt. I added AS under my new star.
As for the led itself, I hated the color emitted from mine so I switched to the Q5. The color rendition is now excellent outdoors and I can see an increase in throw so I can tell you they are not using a Q5, but it is still pretty bright as is.
I will soon remove the guts, so If there is no one that has posted the mod yet I will post it. It looked very simple when I opened it so I do not believe you will get in over your head as long as you can solder.

 

[JamisonM]

so the driver board itself needs to be heatsinked?

and if you say replace the resistor with the driver board, that means the driver just hooks up like I thought, just inline on the +? and maybe having its own ground/heatsink too?

Heatsinking the driver is more of a precaution. I can't explain too much as I've never soldered in my life, but I like to think I've got a very (VERY) basic understanding. DELETED. Instead of trying to explain it; here are a few links. I'm betting you'll be doing the same thing. First the fatman driver. Look at the connection on it. The driver you're looking at will have the same connections (for the LED and battereis), but possibly by a different labeling. The second is more for reference. Almost half way down on the first page; there are pictures of the driver installed with all connection soldered on. I hope this helps.