*Updated* Tri P7 Area Light

I had some P7's lying around waiting to go into maglites, and I figured why not put them to mild use. By mild, I dont mean being run constantly, just when some good light is needed. They have ran maybe 5 hours, so no real life loss, and 90% of that time they were being under-driven. So, i was tinkering around as I always do and was like, lets DD them with a 12v supply I had been using in conjunction with a 3.9 ohm resistor. (I know its too much resistance, but its all I had on hand, aside from a 2.4k ohm) Wow do they put out some serious light from 12v. Just from a mildly educated guess, Id say 3000 lumens, maybe more.

I dont want to resize the images, so these are just direct links.

Reference shot. Note that in the window its not sunlight, its a 40w florescent tube.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P4041908.jpg

Now keep in mind its an older point n shoot, so i have almost no adjust-ability with it. Its over exposed by maybe 10%, but its pretty close.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P4041907.jpg

Unsteady hand Its pulling ~48 watts. It climbs to around 4.12A and sits right around that.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P4041909.jpg

This sink is out of an old 5.1 stereo that had a board go bad in it. It was rated for something like 400 watts total rms, so all that heat has to be dissipated.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P4041910.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P4041911.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P4041912.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P4041913.jpg

With no fan on the sink it gets warm to almost hot to the touch in about 20 mins. With a slow moving fan, it BARELY warms up at all.

I had it outside, where its 40 degrees F out, and it barely got warm at all. Illuminated a 20x40 ft pool quite well. Ive also got a bunch of spare nimh sub-c packs sitting around that i use for mobile lighting. Now all I need to do is get my hands on a tripod and Ill have a powerful, portable work light. Tell me whatcha think!

Re: Tri P7 Area Light

Good homemade project. Simple, "cheap", durable and effective. I may suggest you to use a clear epoxi to protect the LEDs to make it really rugged and weatherproof. That is all you need for a great work light.


Javier

Re: Tri P7 Area Light

I'm looking to build an outdoor floodlight with multiple P7's to light up the yard.

Seeing this thread allows me to think I'm going in the right direction.

Only issue I have is it needs to be weatherproof. So, I'm going to retrofit a cheap incan regular rectangular outdoor light for homelowesdepot.

Still haven't figured out the 'heatsinking' yet. But, will probably use a square block of aluminum bolted to fence pole. The entire fence pole could possibly be the heatsink. If I mount it on a wooden utility pole, I'll have to source a waterproof fan.

And, I'll need to know how to drive the P7's off a 12v deep-cycle battery. Not sure if I should just put 6 of them in series, if I'll need separate drivers for each one, or resistors..... The battery fluctuates between 11-13.6v depending on I much I abuse it.

I purposely want to run them under their power rating so they last a long time. Rather have 6 LED's at 5 watts then 3 of them at 10 watts.

CPF doesn't seem to be too friendly to new posters and to anyone that doesn't care for a flashlight with a mile long bazillion lumen spot beam.

Re: Tri P7 Area Light

Barbarin said:

Good homemade project. Simple, "cheap", durable and effective. I may suggest you to use a clear epoxi to protect the LEDs to make it really rugged and weatherproof. That is all you need for a great work light.


Javier

Click to expand...

thanks. not sure about weatherproofing it as they might come off for use in maglites.

heres an update. went to the thrift store unwillingly, and just happened to find this.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P6011959.jpg

for 15 bucks, its perfect. (the tripod that is, lol)

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P6011960.jpg

the small sink is a 3.9 ohm resistor. too much resistance for me, so i went and got a 10w 1 ohm resistor, which is covered by the goldish sinks.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P6011961.jpg

kinda trying to show how tall it is. im 5'9", and i shot it from eye level. the LED's are roughly 6 ft off the ground.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b380/blackdragonx1186/lighting/P6011962.jpg

just some cheap ebay "4500" mah sub-c cells. its an 11 cell pack, so 13.2 nominal. charged its 15+ volts. with the 1 ohm resistor, it pulls 2.9 amps, and settles down to about 2.7ish after about 5 mins. the pack also has not been charged in over a month, and is still pumping out power.

dont mind the MUDD bag. its all i could find in my gf's room.