The big problem with making a Luxeon headlamp is the power to weight ratio. You can either build a lightweight unit that is not very powerful or you can build a full powered device that is relatively heavy. If you make a light weight unit, it better be underpowered because driving a Luxeon at full power without full heatsinking is bad business. Either the LED is going to overheat and fail unpredictably or you are going to inadvertantly use your customer's noggins as heatsinks. While some businesses may think that an appropriate use for their customer's body parts, we at InReTech value our customers more!
At InReTech we know that many of our customers are attractive, hardworking, intelligent, and have their tort lawyer's number on speeddial. Consequently, we make it a key design principle to never invite that call by causing smoking holes in customer's foreheads.
What I am saying is this, you should either prepare to carry a professional grade, heavy duty housing for a Luxeon headlamp or underdrive the Luxeon substantially. The heavy duty model may be uncomfortable, expensive, and inconvenient, but it will not fail and it will not harm you. If you try running a Luxeon at anything near full power without proper heatsinking next to vital portions of your anatomy, you risk parts failure and pain.
We would like to produce a headlamp using a high power LED solution, but we do not feel that we have the capacity to do so well right now. Of course, we may solve that problem soon...
