Plans for an SSC P7 LED in a bike and flashlight

[Bordermeister]

Hi,
I have ordered some SSC P7 LEDs for use in a flshlight. I am planning on a couple of applications.

One is as a bike light, most likely direct driven off an 18650 (probably an Ultrafire C2 as a host).

The other as a hand held flashlight for walking at night in darkness (think forest situation) with an SSC P7 but driven at a lower current draw to maintain battery life and reduce heat load.

For this application I was looking at either driving the LED at 1400ma using an AM 7135 1400ma driver (simple solution) or building up a 2400ma driver such as StefanFS has used which is a 1400ma 7135 board with a 1000ma as a slave (delivering 2400ma). This looks like a great solution but will require a fair bit of skill to manufacture, plus I am unsure as to the long term heat impacts on the driver boards.

I was trying to find the specifications of the SSC P7 to find what the output would be driven at 1400ma. This may actually end up as a great light for walking at night as it is low current draw on the battery, less heat etc.. but only if the output at 1400ma is adequate to drive the LED.

Any help/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Mark

 

[StefanFS]

Heat is not a problem for that driver solution (1A+1.4A) as long as you keep the voltage in below 5 Volt, it works well with one LiION cell or three (bigger than AA) or four (AA is ok) NiMH cells.

At 1.4A you will get roughly half the max output, with an emitter giving 700-900 lumen @ 2.8A you might get 400-600 lumen @ 1.4A (I already know you are buying C-bin). That's a bit much for walking. Go for a drive level that shows what this fine emitter can deliver, 2.4A and up.
Stefan

 

[Bordermeister]

Hi Stefan,
I have seen the pictures of the 1000ma and 1400ma driver board sandwich you made. Do you have more photos of how it all went together, including how it is sitting in the A8.

I have ordered some 1400ma boards, I have some 1000ma ones already so just need to start figuring out how it all goes together.

do you think there would be any heat issues for the driver boards running for 30-40 minutes at a time.

Cheers
Mark

 

[StefanFS]

Hi Stefan,
I have seen the pictures of the 1000ma and 1400ma driver board sandwich you made. Do you have more photos of how it all went together, including how it is sitting in the A8.

I have ordered some 1400ma boards, I have some 1000ma ones already so just need to start figuring out how it all goes together.

do you think there would be any heat issues for the driver boards running for 30-40 minutes at a time.

Cheers
Mark

Sorry, no more pics of the A8. But I have pics in a new thread about how to make your own SSC P7 Maglite:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=195358
It's the same design, only flip the slave board and shorten the leads. I dremeled the slave board edges a bit to get it ~1-2 mm smaller in diameter, I'm not sure that's necessary for it to fit in the A8.

Heat should be no problem unless you use 5 Volt or more to drive it. These drivers don't get hot when driven below 5 Volt.
Stefan