cdw3423
Newly Enlightened
I would like to build my own MR16 using 3 Cree XP-G LEDs.
From what I can gather. It looks like the best place to buy the LEDs on a MCPCB is from cutter.com.au. Is there another supplier in the USA that will sell these?
Also what about the MR16 Bulb housing to put it all in. Should I just get a halogen bulb take it a part and go from there or is there a better plan?
I am looking for this to be more of a flood than a spot. Probably 60 degrees or more. I may even just use the bare LED with no optics at all. I think that is 120 degrees?
I don't think I will be driving this at more than 1 watt per led. I may go to 2 watts. With the new XP-G is it going to be hard to fit enough heat sink into that size? Where I am planing on putting this I could easily have a very low flow computer fan to keep it cool if I needed to.
To drive it I plan on having an external power supply so I can dim more than one bulb. I am thinking of just using a power supply with a voltage close to what 3 LEDs in series need to drive at full power and simply using resisters to limit the current with a variable resister to dim it.
This is probably a discussion for a thread by it's self. But it seems to me that if you have a good voltage regulated power supply that is set near the voltage you need for the LEDs, a simple resistor to limit the current isn't going to be much less efficient than more complex buck current regulators.
Any suggestions on where to start would be greatly appreciated.
Chris W
From what I can gather. It looks like the best place to buy the LEDs on a MCPCB is from cutter.com.au. Is there another supplier in the USA that will sell these?
Also what about the MR16 Bulb housing to put it all in. Should I just get a halogen bulb take it a part and go from there or is there a better plan?
I am looking for this to be more of a flood than a spot. Probably 60 degrees or more. I may even just use the bare LED with no optics at all. I think that is 120 degrees?
I don't think I will be driving this at more than 1 watt per led. I may go to 2 watts. With the new XP-G is it going to be hard to fit enough heat sink into that size? Where I am planing on putting this I could easily have a very low flow computer fan to keep it cool if I needed to.
To drive it I plan on having an external power supply so I can dim more than one bulb. I am thinking of just using a power supply with a voltage close to what 3 LEDs in series need to drive at full power and simply using resisters to limit the current with a variable resister to dim it.
This is probably a discussion for a thread by it's self. But it seems to me that if you have a good voltage regulated power supply that is set near the voltage you need for the LEDs, a simple resistor to limit the current isn't going to be much less efficient than more complex buck current regulators.
Any suggestions on where to start would be greatly appreciated.
Chris W
