Wanting to build a 36 volt light....

**EDIT** Since this is being moved to the Custom lights section, I'm looking to build an LED light.

Hey all. I have a Bosch worklight with a hi capacity 36v battery. The light sucks. Now, Not knowing the AH of the battery, What can be done with 36v that is bright and would run awhile? A few specs.

If you know Bosch, Its a FatPak Battery.

The light head is about the size of your fist, bulbs and electronics muct fit in there.

Thats about it. I'll bring the light to work tomarrow for some pics and sizes. BUt baised on voltage and pretty good amount of ah behind it, What can be done??? Thanks!

I think your thread will do better in Homemade & Modified, so I'll move it there for you.

I am trying to build a triple Osram ostar, the only problem I have is that the driver solution is complicated and is lots o $$$. You have the right voltage it seems to run 3 osrams, it would get hot, but wow would it be bright. I know its not the most viable solution, but if you did do it it would be cool. :rock:

That is a lot of voltage but I think there is some way to run multi P7 leds.

9-10 XR-Es and an LM317 would be an easy and reasonably efficient solution, depending on the exact setup.

Brought the light in today. Total area including reflecting area is 2.5x2.375x4.250l . I noticed while taking it apart for measurements that it only has a 36v by 10 watt bulb. Prolly why it sucks. The lens size is also 2.5x2.375 and has chamfers in the corners with a 1/2 inch chamfer length. The battery, nor documentation specs the capacity of the battery. Maby I'll take one abart and get the cell info???

Is this your light? :

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004SUPK/?tag=cpf0b6-20

No, but thats pretty neat! This is mine

scott011422 said:

No, but thats pretty neat! This is mine

Click to expand...

OK, you have an advantage in that you have plenty of power and lots of room to put things in. (I'm assuming the battery goes down at the end of the handle, not up in the head) You have a disadvantage in that the plastic housing will not double as a radiator. High power LEDs do generate heat, and they can't be left to bake in it. I'm guessing that the original is set up to be a spot rather than a flood. Do you prefer spot, flood, or both? Are you OK with drilling holes and generally changing the appearance of the unit?

You are going to need a way to get heat out of the chips and off into the air. This suggests to me either removing the lens cover and putting in a heatsink,( which would eliminate the reflector and thus the spot) or adding copper flashing around the outside with conductive paths to the inside, which would mean holes and a different appearance, and possible loss of waterproofing.

Well right now, by P3D puts it to shame. Its pretty much worthless at the moment. I have no problem whatsoever in altering the light. As long as it looks decient. As far as light goes, prolly 50-50. It would still be a work light. so would need enough spill that I can work within 2 feet of something and still had plenty of light, but still have enough throw that I can set it on the ground or a table and point it up at a fan, light fixture or garage opener and have good light.

Dunno if this matters at all, But as far as my skills go, I'm an engineer at a cnc job shop, So building anything out of pretty much any material isn't a problem. I also have above average electronics skills, But no led experance other than standard 5mm leds. So basicly, it you can teach me the ways of hi power led's.....It will be built!!

So what about it? What am I looking for? I'm not looking for someone to design it for me, JUst recommend some leds, drivers and whatnot.

I don't know of any drivers that work up to 36V (really ~40 when fully charged I would guess). So I would guess your stuck with direct drive. I would try and fit 10 Q5s in there with no reflectors for all flood.

One reason to use Q5s is because they pull less current that other brighter options, so you get more runtime.

The only problem would be that instead of pulling 10W it would pull more like 40W, so your runtime would be cut roughly to 1/4 of what it was.

Unless someone knows of a good buck driver to use, that is about all that I can see.

I've been looking around at parts and such and was playing around with the possibility of running the leds regulated. Where can I find multy P5 regulators if they exist? Don't really like the Idea of running 5+ drivers.

There is no P5 LED. You might mean the 4-die P7.

If you go with a P7, you should use fewer LEDs than with XR-Es or P4s, like two or three at most, and a buck driver (I think there's one on KD or DX or something). More power than that would be unsuited to the plastic host.

Damn, No I ment the Q5 XR-E's Sorry. My Bad

That's much easier, as there are many regulators for multiple single-die emitters (in series). Check out the Shoppe, DX/KD, and probably CPFM. The LM317 I mentioned in my first reply to this thread would also work (constant current, linear regulator).

I just got off the phone with Bosch. They rate the 36v FatPak battery at 2.0 Amp Hours. So if my math is right, and I drive each led at 1000 I should roughly get 10 p5's at 2 hours and 20 at 1 hour. Yes? About the only downfall I can see is that the LM317 will only drive one led at 40 volts at the current rating I want. Sooooo...... 10 Cree XR-E Q5's in 1 quad housing with a tri on each side. Each with their own LM317 driver. I'm also toying with ordering 10 housings from a Fenix P3d and Making a custom mount for those. Any Ideas or comments?

scott011422 said:

I just got off the phone with Bosch. They rate the 36v FatPak battery at 2.0 Amp Hours. So if my math is right, and I drive each led at 1000 I should roughly get 10 p5's at 20 hours and 20 at 10 hours. Yes? About the only downfall I can see is that the LM317 will only drive one led at 40 volts at the current rating I want. Sooooo...... 10 Cree XR-E Q5's in 1 quad housing with a tri on each side. Each with their own LM317 driver. I'm also toying with ordering 10 housings from a Fenix P3d and Making a custom mount for those. Any Ideas or comments?

Click to expand...

Okay, I can see you're a bit lost. Instead of launching into a lengthy explanation here, try looking over the Welcome Mat first. If there's anything you want cleared up, I'll be happy to help.

Could you throw me a bone on what you think I need to take a look at? I've been through your FAQ and didn't see anything that threw up a red flag. I did notice however that I mistakenly added a zero on to the end of my expected runtimes. I did my figuring based on one led and forgot to reduce by a factor of 10 when I scaled it up. So If this isn't what you were refering to, Please drop me a hint. Thanks.

TigerhawkT3 said:

There is no P5 LED. You might mean the 4-die P7.

Click to expand...

uh...there is actually, but its an RGB module featuring three dies spaced out too far for any reflector or collimator to set it in focus
http://www.seoulsemicon.com/en/product/prd/zpowerLEDp5-II.asp

They rate the 36v FatPak battery at 2.0 Amp Hours. So if my math is right, and I drive each led at 1000 I should roughly get 10 p5's at 2 hours and 20 at 1 hour. Yes? About the only downfall I can see is that the LM317 will only drive one led at 40 volts at the current rating I want. Sooooo...... 10 Cree XR-E Q5's in 1 quad housing with a tri on each side. Each with their own LM317 driver. I'm also toying with ordering 10 housings from a Fenix P3d and Making a custom mount for those. Any Ideas or comments?

Click to expand...

I think you meant to write Q5 instead of p5. Also you are confusing series and parallel circuits. You would only need one LM317, if you decide to go that route. Personally I wouldn't, but then again I build my own switching drivers.

Well I certainly am looking forward to seeing what you come up with in terms of a housing for the LEDs though. Since you have access to CNC are you thinking of milling the whole thing out of one piece?