Modding spotlight with P7. Any ideas?

[killforfood]

Has anybody tried modding a hand held spotlight with a P7 for night hunting?
Typically these come with H3 bulbs from 55watts to 135 watts.
The host is only $17.95 from Brightguys.

My problem is that I'm not allowed to cast a light from a motor vehicle and will have to carry some huge batteries (translation, expensive) if I expect decent run times with H3 bulbs.
I already have some 8.4V 3800mah Ni-Mh battery packs that I can borrow from my sons airsoft rifles that will last plenty long enough with the P7 if I can just figure out a good heat sink, driver and how to mount the emitter in the sweet spot of the spotlight reflector.

Any ideas?

 

[ahorton]

Everytime I try to upgrade a light, I find that it was easier to start from scratch.

I'm going to make a spotlight soon from an MC-E and Polymer Optic # 225 (and of course a great bit chunk of aluminium). I think that 2 of these should be equivalent to a 55W H3 bulb (~1500 lm) when run at 700ma to each die.

One of the wonderful things about LEDs is that you don't need such a big reflector so it'd be a shame to put one inside the one you've pictured.

 

[lightforce2]

I'm collecting bits & pieces to develop a long range red LED spotlight.
I have an old Lightforce Predator spotlight, I'll replace its 120mm reflector & 30w 12v Xenophot bulb with 4 Tiablo A8/A9 reflectors, 3 Red Cree XR emitters & 1 Cree XR-E R2 emitter, the 3 red's will be over-driven to 1 amp each from a buckpuck & be dimmable with a pot, the R2 will be drived from a 1 amp single mode driver.

I havent worked out the heatsink yet, this will be important as it will be contained inside the housing & not getting airflow

 

[killforfood]

Your choice of led's sounds interesting to me. Do you think the red led's will be more efficient than filtering a P7 through a red lens?
You bring up a good point about heat sinking through a sealed plastic case. You may have to open air vents but unfortunately that will open up your electronics to the elements.
Please be sure to post your results once the project is completed.