COULD SOMEONE HELP !!!!

I finally got access to a lathe and am going to attempt to make my first mod.The closest thing I know about electronics is how to use a remote.
My question is this for the experts:
If I run six 9600 mcd 5mm leds directly off one cr123 battery. What size resistor would I need for max. brightness
and how long of a run tiime can I expect.Do I ned a resistor for each led or can I put them all on one.Is there anywhere I can find wiring diagrams for this.
Thank's for any help
Trent /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Best resistance for maximum brightness is none at all. Assuming that you are talking about white LEDs, even with new batteries the LEDs will likely be underdriven. This arrangement will be reasonably bright for the first few % of battery discharge and then will settle into a very long plateau of fairly dim output. Total runtime will be very dependent on the Vf of the particular LEDs you have but runtimes in the 10's of hours are likely.

Do not overdrive LEDs, you will affect their life

A LED is not a constant voltage device, its forward voltage will change with current

Get a current meter, and adjust the dropping resistor so that the current is approx 20-25ma per LED

There isn't anyway to connect up a headsink to a T1-3/4, or 5mm LED

Ok so if I get the led's and wire them parallel to a cr123 and cheak between the + termial of the battery and the led's should I have 20 to 25 ma per led for a total of about 138 ma?

mike and i have had this discussion before, but i don't think it's too bad if you overdrive a little bit /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
5mm type leds aren't as capable of being greatly overdriven as luxeons are, but with the extremely long life, a few hours taken away isn't that big of a deal.

as far as heatsinking, there is no way to do it really well, like in a luxeon star, but adding a blob of solder, or soldering on a small piece of copper, or soldering onto the groundpath of the light will offer a slight amount of heatsinking. i seem to recall a thread where somone drove a nicia at very high currents with a penny attached.