Leds in Series or Paralell

[girdles]

Hi All

Looking at ways to upgrade my current Maglite canlight, at present it has a piezo switch and 14.8volt Li-Ion battery.
I like Packhorses 4XQ5 conversion,can I run 4 x Q5s in series so my battery is used, will I get the full power from the leds.

Can I use R2 leds which are brighter ? and aspherics to the same effect as the Q5s

Cheers

 

[Packhorse]

Depending on the driver I doubt it.

Even if you direct drive them they would not run at full power for at least the last half of the charge.

 

[girdles]

If I ran them 2s2p as said in another post, I will need to regulate the Volts to 8volts for a KD 2.8 driver which will create more heat, is this correct ?
At full charge the battery is 16 volt how do I limit this.

Cheers

 

[gav6280]

With that battery pack you could run 5 - 7 R2 leds in series with a blue shark driver. But i dobt you would get 5 in a mag head?

So how about just change the battery for a 3 cell one and run 4 Led's with a blue shark driver? Thats what im now working on with a mr11 culminating optic and matching pcb from led-tec.de also cutter electronics do all the same parts.

 

[Packhorse]

...But i dobt you would get 5 in a mag head?.....

Better not tell the guy who built this

OK so its not 5 (its 7) and they are not all R2s ( 5 MC-Es 2 R2) And they are not aspherics but reflectors. But they fit. :nana:

 

[Bullzeyebill]

Where did you get your 14.8 battery pack? What is the mAh rating? Is there enough resistance in the long cord to reduce voltage somewhat?

Bill

 

[girdles]

The battery came from Ebay a coupkle of years ago, its 7.2 amps when new but over time this has fallen but still runs a 50w halogen for me without issues.

Putting 5-7 leds in a mag is beyond me, doing the 4 Q5s is presenting issues already. I was looking at the led genie and waiting to here if its what its cracked up to be, as the lamp could then be fitted and piezo switch retained.
The other option is start a fresh build produce a new can and mod another mag and use Packhorses design for the Q5s with aspherics.

Does the 7x mc-e produce a beam or flood ?

Cheers

 

[H20doctor]

id sell the light to another dive friend Or put it on ebay ... and look at building a new Led light useing XRE or MCE led chips .... just my 2 psi

 

[Packhorse]

id sell the light to another dive friend Or put it on ebay ... and look at building a new Led light useing XRE or MCE led chips .... just my 2 psi

Why is that?

 

[b-bassett]

depending on the battery pack it might be possible to split it in the middle to give a 7.4 V pack with double the amp hours.

with a double pole switch it could even be switched back to origional setup for charging.

might be a bit crude though and im not sure if the KD driver will work with that voltage, ( mines on 6 NiMh and dosent seem to be running the q5's at full current)

http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo/full?photo_id=245954742
hope this helps

 

[Bullzeyebill]

depending on the battery pack it might be possible to split it in the middle to give a 7.4 V pack with double the amp hours.

with a double pole switch it could even be switched back to origional setup for charging.

might be a bit crude though and im not sure if the KD driver will work with that voltage, ( mines on 6 NiMh and dosent seem to be running the q5's at full current)

hope this helps

Would you fix you diagram so we can click on it for enlargement?

Bill

 

[b-bassett]

sorry was away diving hopefuly the link will work

 

[girdles]

Hi All

OK, I got the leds working very well on the heatsink being driven by a KD P7 driver all thanks to Packhorse, big thanks to you sir.
Machined the Maglite head to get the heatsink, spacer lenses inside the head.

The battery is a 8 cell 9.6 volt nimh and seems to work perfect in all three settings. So apart from still waiting on lenses from DX (over a month now) and Switching with the Piezo switch its nearly finished.

Any one know of a simple circuit board or driver so I can keep my existing Piezo which is mounted on the Maglite handle, see picture in first post.

Cheers

 

[b-bassett]

hi dean

i found a simple circuit online for my piezo just had 4 resistors, a capacitor, a 555 timer and a transistor.

worked well for me in scapa, and switches quikly

i altered the origional diagram to remove un-nessesary parts and i up rated the switching transistor to a 10A one, although a 3A one should be ok.

hopefully this link will work, but im useless at posting pics or links

http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/photo/full?photo_id=1933730071

 

[Packhorse]

Link does not work. Only takes you to the front page of photobox.

Will this circuit work with a momentary reed as well?
Will it draw much current when powered off?

 

[girdles]

I agree with you, YOU ARE USELESS AT POSTING PICTURES.
The link only goes to front page of photo box.
Will give you a call.

Cheers

 

[b-bassett]

oh well ill just type the web address instead

http://www.bowdenshobbycircuits.info/page9.htm#toggle3.gif

its the 4th circuit down, just swap the relay and diode for the led driver, also the 100 ohm resistor and 100 micro farad capacitor can be removed as they are only for noisy systems.

ohh and the transistor needs upgrading to handle the current

if i remember rightly it pulled about 8 milliamps when off and will work with any momentary switch.

unfortunatly i cant test mine at moment as water got in the battery and cooked them.

 

[girdles]

John

I also flooded the canister on my halogen and destroyed the Li-ion battery,I got the leds and driver sorted, got some new salvo glands on there way.
Just got to get the switching and lenses sorted.
Are you diving the wrecks with Rob, Beaver on 17/10/09 ?

 

[b-bassett]

no i wont be back from egypt until the 17th

anyways the electronics i used worked fine in scapa

unfortunatly i didnt tighten my canister lid properly the otherday and got a bit of water in. worked fine during the dive, but had a pressure build up on the way home, the first i knew about it was when the pressure got into he head and blew the mag lense out!
got a bit hot after that and put a burn in my passenger seat.

going to maching a better canister lid now with better orings, and maby a bc hose rather then a cable, last cable got a bit scuffed on the wrecks in scapa.

 

[girdles]

This guy is using a circuit to power the piezo switch http://http://www.divematrix.com/showthread.php?t=3668
he states that it gets extremly hot under use any thoughts on this one using it with a 9,6v battery