A mate of mine got some DX 3.6v-9v 800mA regulators in the 4 pack. I have wired my setup in series with 2 x SSC P4's also from DX. Using a 6xAA pack will give you 7.2v @ 1.2v or off the charger at 8.64v @ ~1.44.
I will have photos shortly. In the mean time you can check out some of my photos
here. Here are some tips.
1. 10.4-10.8v gave a little sparkle firework display before smoking up. A friend of mine thought the regulator could handle it and it did but for a short time. ~3hrs run time before the burn out. I timed this the first time I had the light go for extended run times and I clocked ~1hr runtime with the dual LED's. The other 2 hours I figured was ~5-10mins at a time and this was not timed. So yah in short bursts the higher out of spec. battery voltage will work but in the end it may fry out.
2. I had the dual LED lights wired in parallel before when the second regulator fried. Thankfully this time it was just a smoke up and no fireworks. I was using a 6xAA NIMH 2500 Energizers off the charger so I was well within the 9v spec. range. My mate said that it fried because it's in parallel but also wondered if ... ...
3. .. ... if the LED was 'isolated'. I did the test he told me to by keeping the red wire on a single LED (the other was desoldered) and unsolder the black wire on the regulator, hook up the battery, then touch the black wire to the heatsink. If the light lights up then it's not isolated. In my case the light did not light up so I was ok and he narrowed it down to it being wired in parallel that blew the regulator. The regulator did not blow right away. I was able to use the dual LED setup for ~2hrs.
I'm on my third regulator right now being a total noob in electronics. The books make me fall asleep reading it. I'm a hands on do-it person or do-it side by side with someone then I can learn. After building the item and using a few times then I will start to understand what I did slowly then getting hit with a ton of books quick I won't have any reference to then.
So far my 3rd regulator is working well. I clocked 18mins on the bike ride outside with my dual LED now wired in series. I have about ~30mins non-continuious on time so I'm not going into the dead of thw woods anytime soon till this unit is reliable enough. I'm using a driled out m*g 2xAA reflector and used a
MEC Shark 1W reflector which fits the LED perfectly with ~1mm play room to move around. The m*g reflector is drilled to the right hole but it's thickness needs to be sanded down more so the LED can raise up and rest inside the reflector. Right now the top of the LED is just showing up at the base of the inside of the m*g reflector so the m*g reflector is only catching whatever scattered light below and funneling it wide forwards. Right now I have a wide WIDE flood with a spot-flood setup with those two reflectors. Definately need some optics here to improve the focus and useability of the lights. Riding right now is only good as a front light at ~1-1.5m for good light. At about 3m it loses it's light because of the flood. I have a 1W helmet light to suppliment the long range while I test more.
Hope this helps someone.
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