What happened???

[kfarrar]

I have been lurking here long enough to validate the idea I had for a homemade headlamp. I plan to use the light for night skiing.

I bought a utility light (goes on the back by the trailer hookup)for a truck. I rewired it to a switch and connected it to a 12V Ryobi battery. The lamp was a 50 watt hallogen. On a full battery charge the light lasted around 10 minutes before becoming too weak to cast any meaningful light.

I connected it too another Ryobi 12v battery and the light didn't work at all. I pulled the hallogen bulb out and one of the prongs broke off. All I can think of it that it over heated.

What am I missing? I'd like to get at least 1.5 hrs of bright light out of the battery.

 

[kfarrar]

I am trying to build my own headlamp. I am using http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000OOMQDG/?tag=cpf0b6-20 as the light and the battery source is a rechargable Ryobi 12V. When I connected everything and ran it only ran 10 minutes before dimming considerably. Then I connected a new battery and the light failed. When I pulled the bulp one of the prongs broke off.

What's happening? Is the battery too strong for the bulb or vice versa?

Is there a better way of making a light using my Ryobi batteries?

I appreciate any help you can offer.

 

[Oznog]

50W for 1.5hrs (75W-hrs) is a large battery indeed!

Tool batteries are typically designed with high current and general toughness rather than capacity. If those are like 2AH cells that's 24W-hrs total. 50W is more than 4 amps which probably counts as a "high rate discharge" which may limit battery runtime to less than the AH suggest. Or they may just be old.

You would be wise to look into more efficient LED or HID technology. Which is what most of the forums here talk about.

50W makes a lot of heat, more than you'd want in a headlamp. They use high temp, thermally insulating ceramic bases so they don't burn up the fixture. If it burned off, well, something broke it's just a freak thing and has nothing to do with the battery.

 

[Oznog]

Oh wait I see that pic is kinda funky... eh, the bulb may have burned out because they mounted it funky or something.

Anyhow, I think this solution will never be able to do what you want even if the bulb did work.

 

[kfarrar]

Thanks for the reply. My batteries are over eight years old, but have been used very little.

I chose the light I linked to because I like the housing. I am not experienced with LED's and HID's. Is it possible to use the same housing. What else would I need if I used LED's or HID's.

Am I just in over my head?

 

[kfarrar]

Hmmm. Well I am not sure it's worth trouble shooting.

Maybe I can start in a different direction.

My goal - Looking for a rechargable light, as bright as possible but don't want to spend more than 50. I have already invested about $80 for a light, wire, soldering kit, switch.

I do have an http://www.inovalight.com/x.html. Can this be modified?