Need some help with LED/reflector and optic selection

[Nine-Eight]

Hi! I have a flashlight I'm toying with, Had a few questions for you educated folk out there...

I'm looking for a LED thats above 500 lumens, that I can run with 6-9v, with a good color choice for use at night...

I used to be familliar with the cree options but it seems they've changed some model numbers around? I just spent some time on their website and I feel lost..

also, i've noticed there is a much larger amount of optic choices now! what kind of optic would I want if my goal is to have a useable long-throw spotlight AND a healthy amount of flood? is there some combination of optic and type of reflector I can use?

if this is too much to answer, can someone point me in the right direction to start learning about these things so I can make an educated decision?


if any background helps: I figure since I'm looking for 500 lumen and up I can get a pretty useable amount of light in both flood and spot. I plan on using a pulse width modulator circuit so that I can conserve battery life and dim the light when the brightness isn't needed. i'm shooting for something useable for exploring in the night hours... so a setup that throws out, say, 40-60% of the light in a long throw spotlight and the other 40-60% as a wide angle flood would be awesome! I'll be planning on using a buck/boost driver so that I can feed it anywhere between 6-9 volts depending on the battery setup.
I know this is a lot to ask about! thanks guys!

 

[SmurfTacular]

:welcome:

500 lumens is easily achievable with flashlights these days. A single P7 LED does 900 lumens!

A few things I gotta ask so I can narrow down your options. The first thing I gotta ask is what is your budget? I assume you don't want to spend $100 on a flashlight. Also, do you want to use LED's or an incandescent bulb?

Here is a great entry level flashlight. Its incandescent. Stock it does 500 lumens. And it throws very well, I dont know the ratio between flood and throw though. My favorite thing about this flashlight is that you can buy a "drop in" LED upgrade. You can buy it here or here for the 5 mode. The drop in does 1200 lumens and is also a great thrower. Very impressive flashlight.

strongly recommend this impressive torch.

 

[Nine-Eight]

Well, I'm actually looking to build my own if i can! I have access to a CNC machine shop and have some (minor!) mastercam skills. I'd like to build a few of these units, so the budget at this point is not really too big of a deal, I'm more focused on figuring out a LED/driver/power source combination that does what I want.

My priorites are:
good long-throw spotlight with useable close range flood
ability to dim the light when the intensity isn't needed
relatively efficient use of battery power, which means...
dimming circuit must conserve battery life rather than burn off excess current
and ideally, i'd like to be able to feed the driver anywhere from 6-12v so that I have a few battey combination choices


with that, I'm leaning toward a seoul P7 as you suggested, with this: http://ledsupply.com/03023-d-e-1000p.php as the driver. I have an assortment of optics on the way so I can figure out that part, but I've had a hard time finding many reflector choices to play with. I don't mind ordering an assortment of parts so I can figure out what works best. i'm really wanting this to be a 22.5 mm reflector/optic size, so itll be the same form factor as a surefire p60 clone.

i'm reading, researching quite a bit, learning lots as I go- glad to have this community here!:wave:

 

[SmurfTacular]

Allow me to guide you in the right direction when it comes to flashlight part shopping. Try Kaidomain.com and Dealextreme.com. You can find several different size refelctors, drivers, optics and other misc flashlight parts there.

You want to use a 22.5mm reflector? That is really small especially if you are leaning for throw. Also, flashlight that would appropriately accomidate such a small reflector would most likely be to small and wont sufficiently handle the heat that the P7 LED produces. In my opinion, go bigger, or use a less powerful LED.

Also, that driver is only pushing 1 amp. If you are planning on using a P7 LED, use a driver that delivers 2.8-3.0 amps.
CPF member Download sells some inexpensive P7 drivers. But they can only accept up to 6 volts. Der Witchel sells some really nice P7 drivers, but they're more expensive.