Luxeon using lantern battery? Done? Possible?

[milkyspit]

(I posted this in the LED forum as well, but maybe this is a better place.)

I'm seeing the various Luxeon 5W mods to Mag, etc., and while these all look appealing, for me personally they stretch my preferred form factor. What about putting a 5W (or if not possible, perhaps a few 1W) into an "old school" lantern housing (you know, the rectangular ones with handle molded into the top and a large reflector up front), possibly powered by one of those big ol' 6V lantern batteries? It seems like such a light could achieve ridiculous brightness along with fairly long battery life. Also, one could probably swap a similarly-sized rechargable (I know some are made) for the 6V lantern battery and achieve what I would imagine to be a really compelling lantern. Anyone done this already, or have one in the works? Or am I overlooking some fundamental design limitation that might preclude such a design?

 

[zmoz]

Yeah...that would be possible. The reason you allways hear about mags and things is because they look very nice when you are finished...most lanterns are just cheap peices of plastic, nobody wants to stick a $30 light bulb in there.

 

[McGizmo]

[ QUOTE ]
zmoz said:
.........most lanterns are just cheap peices of plastic, nobody wants to stick a $30 light bulb in there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, so true. That's why I stuck a $60 one *on* it instead. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

You can use a bad boy to drive a couple of the 1 watters in series on 6 volts; might even be able to go for 3 in series. I don't recall where the limitations are. It would be wise to check with Wayne first. You can also use the bad boys to boost the voltage for 5W's. You will need some exposed Al or other thermally conductive metal for heat dissipation though.
Of course a good heat sink is required.

- Don

 

[Zelandeth]

Battery type is actually 4R25 as I remember.

Not sure what the actual Ah rating on those batts is, but I get a fair old runtime on the one I use now and then, and that's running at 750mA. So we could be looking at some pretty impressive runtimes here, especially using 1W LS's.

As I remember, the shelf life of these batteries isn't bad either (Mine haven't been anyway), and I can't speak for the US, but they're cheap enough here, (Local shop here has them for £1.25 a time - that's about US $1.75 I think.)

 

[milkyspit]

[ QUOTE ]
MrBulk said:
Although I have found that really low Vf 5's will be quite bright on 6V, and likely last forever.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pardon my ignorance, but what does low Vf mean -- is it the minimum activation voltage? -- and does it refer to a particularly good or particularly poor Luxeon? (Guessing it means particularly good?)

BTW, the LGI you made me a couple months ago is great! It's my most-used light. If it were regulated or could run on lithiums, it would probably be absolutely perfect... as it is, though, it's already at 98% as-is. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[star882]

"Pardon my ignorance, but what does low Vf mean -- is it the minimum activation voltage?"
Vf is just the voltage drop across the LED at the rated current.

 

[lambda]

You got it right.

"Vf is just the voltage drop across the LED at the rated current (350ma for 1W and 700ma for 5W)".