Dumb idea for luxeon rebel based flashlight!

I'm pretty sure someone has thought of this already but I thought this would be a cool idea for a light engine based on the tiny Luxeon rebel.

Have a rectangular post that has a luxeon rebel on each side of it at the top. The four rebels would be side firing on each side for 360 degrees into a reflector. The post would be a heat pipe that would lead to a socket or other base. The post would also have the electrical connections for the LED's. To take it further you could have two white LED's coupled with a red and a green LED to provide better color balance...

thoughts?

All in the name of lumens!!!!


I wonder how many can be crammed into a KL3?

I am working on just that idea. I should get some metal and a heatpipe next week.

BTW does anyone know where you can get heatpipe fairly cheap? I got one from Enertron but it was $20. They should be WAY cheaper than that shouldn't they?

You would need a four-lobed reflector to make up for the fact that the emitters are so far from the reflector's focus.

that would make a real nice lantern

chesterqw said:

that would make a real nice lantern

Click to expand...

With a diffuser, it'd be great. In fact, I'm working on just such a light, of sorts.

Something like this except with 4 Rebel LEDs?

Yes, exactly! I was thinking of four on a post because of the tiny size of the rebels but a triangular post would work great as well.

So, when can I buy one! LOL!

I was going to suggest that you try and make your own heat pipe... Just take a small copper pipe, seal one end, add some wicking material (like a hollow cotton shoe lace with screening to hold it to the pipe wall), add a bit of distilled water, boil the water to create steam, and solder/crimp the other end shut...

But from reading this article, it may not be as easy as I thought to make a good one.

Perhaps something like this book (unavailable) would be a good place to start.

-Bill

My heatpipe understanding is - the homemade versions have poor wicking. They work fine when used vertically with the heat source at the bottom, but work poorly with random orientation. A flashlight needs to have random orientation. The sintered metal wick seems to work best for this.