What kind of battery to built for MCE light ?

I am needing to built a battery pack for this light, I am using 3 luxdrive to drive 3 MCE in parallel .... the luxdrive will only handle an input voltage of 32 volts.... I want an hour burn time for the light and was thinking of useing 8ea Sanyo Li-Ion 14650 Cylindrical Cell 3.7V 940mAh (7/5 AA size)
Will this work or is there a better battery with soldering tabs and more punch..?
Looking to squeeze the batteries into a 3 inch Pvc tube canister for a hunting light

I don't have an answer for you on what the best battery pack will be for your application, but I can tell you lion cells can easily come off the charger at 4.2V, hence your 8 cell pack could charge to 33.6V or possibly even a little higher depending on your charger. Granted, voltage may sag some under load, but I wouldn't risk it.

I would possibly recomend AW C cell, but they are currently out of stock. 2 in series should meet your requirements.
http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=169872

The kaidomain D size li-on (32600) on paper should also do it, but I recomend you search around here for discussion on it first. I know there has been some concerns with quality of the protection circuit.

I would think 2 cells would be enough, I suppose you could always add a third.


From what I see on the luxdrive data sheet, you need only to keep your voltage at 2V over your led VF, and at 1A on a parallel wired MCE that should be relatively low. (3.2V maybe??)

But I don't see why you need 3 buckpucks to do this? Couldn't you do the 3 MCE in series with one driver and 3 or 4 cells? Or am I misunderstanding your sketch and you aren't wiring the dies in parallel?

If that's the case, forget everything I just said

Oh, PS don't solder directly to Li-ion cells, that would be bad, and I suggest you get batteries with a built in protection circuit. I don't think the lux drive drivers have any sort of low voltage cut off and you don't want to run those cells too low. NIMH could possibly be a better alternative, I will let the experts weigh in.

You did not give enough info to help.

are the ME-C wired in parallel or in series?
what BuckPuck will You use?

but in short. the battery is too small
(also it is not too good to use such "small" cells for such a high current drain)

assumption:
MC-Es each are wired in series
8 Li-Ion cells (940 mAh) in series = nominal 28.8 V
BuckPuck model 1000 can stand the pack
each led --> 1 A / 16 V
... means 0.5 A per Puck = 1,5 A from the pack --> 30 mins, maybe a bit more
how do You plan to balance this pack?

imho better and cheaper: BP 945 CamCorder pack from E-Bay. 6600 mAh / 7,2 V + Step up drivers.
6 A draw at batt, 1 hour possible.
easier maintainance, higher security

PS: if each led i smeant to be wired in parallel --> single Cree @ 1 A would give You better brightness and much better focusing
PPS: I do not even want to consider how much aluminium is necessary to have a three MC-E @ 1 A light not overheat within a few secs.

each Led has its own driver.... and yes they are Parallel.. You can not run 3 mce in series.. You can run 2 mce inseries on a 1000ma driver and then use another single driver for the third led...
Yes its almost 16 volts per led, I caculated abot 14 volts for each MCE... So this battery has to be a monster..

What we are asking is are the dies of each led wired series or parallel. If each of the 4 dies was parallel then it would have been a much lower voltage, which is why I suggested the batteries I did.

This changes things quite a bit. Now you are talking serious current and also serious heat.

Due to the potential danger of this light, I think I am in over my head helping you on this one. The spec sheet I have read recomends 700mA drive current, though I see in this thread it has been done at 1 amp before.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/211262

Hopefully others will help you, but in the mean time, please be aware of how to safely use li-ion batteries. They do have pretty strict current limits.

Sorry the Mce chip Dies are all in series..so the chip is pulling about 14 volts.. So does that mean I need a 16 volt battery with a 4800 amp HOUR. ?

So the answer to this question is that I had to research and figure it out on my own... And here it is... 3 MCE being drivin at 1000 Ma need a constant supply of 15 volts per my drawing above.. I can use 8 EA. 3.7 volts 2400 batteries to give me an hour burn ..

how about wiring the mc-e's in series and running a shark off a sla?

Well hello from down under mate.. Thanks for post.. I will blind a deer or an elk in the pacific northwest for Ya