Question for a 5600+ lumen spotlight project...

Hi all!

I decided to start a 5600+ lumen spotlight project, details to come, but need your help on how to power this monster bulb.

How much amps does 15 volt running at 150 watt draw? I am assuming 10-11 amps. Is this correct?

If I were to use nimh cells to power this bulb, Would 14 nimh cells (Sub C or better ) equaling 16.8 volts at rest sag enough to drive this bulb at spec voltage?

Can you say 5600 lumens for 30-40 minutes....!!!

Thanks!

AlexGT

Your calculations are correct.

Amps = Watts / Voltage

Get Sub-Cs rated for 20 amps at least. Good luck with your quest!

And we want pictures!

Thanks Kevin!

And what about the voltage? Will 16.8 volts drop to 15.xx volts under a 10-11 amp load using sub C's? and how about those 10000mah D cells?

Thanks

AlexGT

This is looking pretty good!!! 5600Lumen for 30-50 minutes for under $100 Interested? Help me out!

AlexGT

If you are using good Sub-C's, apparently they can hold voltage of as much as 1.185 to 1.19 under heavy load.

If they do not sag much, then you will be overdriving your bulb, but Amps should more or less remain at around 10-11 or so as power goes up too. If your bulb has a long rated life, then overdriving it shouldn't be a problem.

If it is a 20-50 hr bulb, it might not last too long or might vaporise, I think.

AlexGT said:

I decided to start a 5600+ lumen spotlight project, details to come, but need your help on how to power this monster bulb.

Click to expand...

What kind of bulb? HID or hotwire?

Hotwire!!!

AlexGT

How about just using battery packs and a charger from a cordless power tool?

How good is the capacity, I am thinking to power it with 4 x 8.4V RC packs(2 series, 2 parallel), totaling about 8+ Ah at 16.8V, it should be lighter than the original SLA and give more runtime.

What powertools do you know that have such high mah ratings? Cordless drills come to mind but not sure about their capacity or even voltage (14.4, 18v)

AlexGT

I highly recomand the Osram 64623. Long life, very forgiving, runs brilliantly white and bright with my 12-cell sub-c cell pack. Its longitutional filiment shouldn't be a problem in a large reflector.

Nick

Current cutting edge Sub - C's are able to sustain massive current drain whilst holding good voltage as 'LEDcandle' mentions earlier in the thread.
Amazng capacity too...

Check this link Click Here ....... For some reason I can't get this to link directly to the part of the site that I want it to....Check Loose cells in column on left hand side.

Cells are the heart of any good re-chargeable flashlight - and its worth using good ones IMHO.


Tim.

The Osram 64623 bulb is rated at 2800 lumens when running at spec, how many lumens would I get if I run it at 14 cell output (16.8Volts)? What would the life of the bulb be if it states 2000 hours at spec?

By the way here is the Osram bulb catalog in case someone is needing it, its an adobe acrobat file.

http://www.osram.fr/downloads/catalogue/200410271358010.LightingProgram-PO.pdf

Let's unveil the bulb I plan to use, it's the 64633 HLX, it runs at 15 volts, 150 watt G6.35 bipin base, 5600 lumens for 50 hours, The filament has just about the same height and size as the 12 volt 64625 HLX (Aurora's bulb) which I am currently using but with 2000 more lumens to play with.

Would the 12v 64623 HLX bulb overdriven by 14 cells outshine the 15v 64633 HLX running at spec? Am I nuts for trying this?

Thanks! I appreciate your input.

AlexGT

I'm not an expert but I think the 64625 (12v, 100w, 3600 lumens, 50 hrs) that Andrewwynn uses in his Mag625 is the limit on 12v-100w bulbs. A 64623 overdriven is unlikely to exceed even that, what more a 64633.

A 64633 overdriven might have a really short life and be finicky like the 64625 without a regulation circuit.

You might have seen my MagDDL thread before, but here it is again anyway :-
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/110551&highlight=magddl

When I was choosing a 150w bulb, I chose the DDL bulb (150w, 20v) due to its 500 hrs life and because it was an MR-16 (didn't need to mess with enlarging holes on reflectors etc.; Although I did finally transplant the bulb into another 10º MR-16 reflector) . I planned to run it in a Mag, so I needed to use NiMh AAs, and 7+ Amps was about the max I was willing to go with.

I saw the 64633, but I wa guessing 10A might fry my stock switch. Already, I suspect the 7A *might* have done something to my light; sometimes it doesn't turn on. But it could be other contact issues.

My mod is unlikely to really be 10k lumens (that figure was stated using my milk-carton type lightbox to measure), but 5-6k is very likely, and the 64633 rated at 5600 seems to indicate this is possible too.

AlexGT said:

Hotwire!!!

Click to expand...

HID is way more efficient at this kind of power. If you're up for the design challenge, a 150W HID HTI bulb will give you about 9,500 lumens. 200W will get you 16,000 lumens or more.

I think Ginseng tested the 64623 to be good to around 16 volts before blowing sp 16.8V will blow it. 13 high current cells DDing the 64623 would be doable. Currently i have 12 GP2000s DDing the 64623, very nice...about 3200 output lumens.

Alex GT I think you're talking about the Oasram 64633 15v/150w/5600L/50hr

this bulb will not handle much overdrive, if you use high current Sub C's like IB4200 which are the highest capacity going at the moment and give good run time they will barely sag at all and probably flash the bulb.

My 2 cents (because I was working on something very similar before giving up) is that you should run either 13 cells in direct drive (15.6v) or 14 cells with a regulator and try for about 16v neat and work your way down or up from there.
You can also look at A cells - I found that I could better package 4/3 A cells (17x67mm I think) which also handle very high current without sag and can go from 4000mah - 4500mah so even longer run time, very slight albeit.
Every one has done the 12v 100w bulbs so in my opinion big deal - go for the 15v 150w and do something different.
This bulb puts out a huge amount of heat and will be too hot for a MAG host, you'll need a lantern with a big reflector and metal housing.

Battery drill packs usually have low capacity cells in them - 3000mah or so that can hit unnecessarily high amperage like 80AMPs.

Hi all

Enlightenment, the cost of HID is very high, I already have some SubC's at hand (Cost about $45 for all) and $4 for the bulb, so its about $50 since I have the Spotlight, and base.

A Hid would cost hundreds, not want to spend that much since all I will be investing in this project is $10 to make.

Delvace, 64633 would be brighter then, I have used the 64625 for a good time now and no problems, it's not that flimsy if properly fed.

Misionaryman, you are exactly right, as I posted earlier that is the bulb I will be using, guess all agree that 13 cells will be about right, I will go with 13 then, I was considering RC packs because they are already soldered just need to hook up in series and paralel to get the voltage and capacity I need, so I will use 1 7 cell series with 1 6 cell times 2. that would be about 8300 mah in all, a good 30-40 minutes of 5600 lumen goodness.

The host is going to be the 3.5 mcp Thor that I modded for the 64625, let's see how it goes.

Thanks!
AlexGT

What I'm thinking is how to charge it, maybe I will make it light as 15.6V and charge at 7.2v and 8.4v

AlexGT

there are a few chargers that will do it - I think the Supernova 250S will do up to 20 cells & the Swallow Advance will do up to 14: http://www.batterieswholesale.com/battery_chargers/swallow_battery_charger.htmfor $100

I have a MRC Superbrain 969 pro that may be able to charge them as long as I give a higher input voltage. maybe it will work, I only have gone up to 15 volts with it. Right now I just also started an HID project, got the ballast and lamp from RalphRusell here on CPF and will order another spotlight just for it. The northern tools light with CCFL and Leds looks promising, since it's really big, but that's another story.

So it may take a bit longer since I now have 2 bright light projects goin on.

Thanks!
AlexGT