ultra-lightweight drone led

Kenilworth

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Feb 1, 2016
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I'm a caver and am attempting to find/create a lightweight led to attach to a drone. My intention is to use a drone to look for ongoing passages high above the cave floor, a task that is traditionally accomplished by slow and laborious and expensive bolt-climbs. Obviously weight is a real issue here. I need to stay under 1.5oz. More than 100 lumens would be nice but I don't know if this is realistic. Runtimes are not important. I envision an exposed LED/reflector powered by a single AAA. Can this happen? Any tips or advice for a deeply ignorant boy? Manufactured lights for as-is use or cannibalization could also be suggested.

Thanks!
-J
 

EasyB

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Joined
Jul 8, 2010
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This light would fit your requirements pretty well. It is 19g. It probably outputs 200-300 lumens. I have this model and it has a nice beam.
http://www.surveilzone.com/3W-High-...uminator-for-FPV-MultirotorPenetration-g-1286

Your best bet for a battery would probably be 3 ~200mAh LiPo cells in series. Single cells of this size are inexpensive and weigh about 5g each. You would need to wire them up in series. This configuration would have around 2.2Wh, so it should power the 3W light for almost 45 minutes.

Depending on the battery you use for your drone, you could also just power the light from your flight battery.
 
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