10W Luxeon Light Cannon

My first LED project is going well so far.

I have an awesome lantern for my 15.6V NiMH drill batteries ( panasonic drill )... need a drill get one.. you'll thank me.

anyhow... here is the lantern

I realized i had the perfect combo for a very powerful light... easy acess to a big volume for heatsink n electronics and a huge rechargable battery (57 Watt Hours).. charges in 55min.

Round 1: i got my luxeon 3 emitters from wayne at elektrolumens and a buck puck with variable output from 'led supply' (1A of course).. hooked it all up with some thermal grease just for testing...

the results so far:
the old: about 100 lumens with 8.75W consumption: 6.5H runtime (11.4 lumen/W).
the new: about 220 lumens with 11.25W consumption: 5.12H runtime (calculated)... 19.6 lumen/W) that is 70% more efficient.. go LED.

at the higher power levels... i'm getting 90% efficiency... gets below 85% efficiency at 50% or less power level.. but still pumping out 3.55W at the emitter and 14HOUR runtime. 1W runtime is 50 hours..

The buck puck lets me dial the power from 123% down to 8% (which has a runtime of 100+hrs and is still putting 50+ mA through (3) lux 3s so the brightness is QUITE usable.

I came up with this design around laborday last year.. i use this lantern for camping ... i made an awesome reflector out of crumpled aluminum foil, held by the handle in a frame of cardboard, bounced the beam and had the best flood light i've ever seen... one battery for each night of camping.. 6.5 hrs at a shot... but i wanted more of course.

I was going to build this as a total re-design, but am figuring out how to do it as a 'drop in' MOD, so looking to see if there would be any interested parties... you just need a drill lantern with a big enough head... need voltages 12V+ to run (3), but could use smaller and use only 2 luxes..

The original project was put 'on hold' since it was going to be built on hand-built driver from national.com (incredible resource) and 3 lux-Vs... but holy cow that got expensive... enter Lux3... 50% more lumens/$.. sign me up! enter buck-puck.. pre-fab constant-current drivers.. plug n play... life is good!

Pictures will be coming once i get the parts into the light vs on the desk (well those pics might be coming as well).

-awr

round 2: have the heat sink cut, wiring holes installed.. about to bond the emitters, can ya tell i'm excited? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

-awr

Are you thinking about running three 3watters?

Bill

hey bill, I am using (3) 3watters.. thinking of adding on a 4th. I just glued 'em on, can't wait to wire and put in the can. I had them running outside on the HOT sink /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif in 'breadboard' mode.. what a sight.

The heatsink i have is supposed to be good for close to 15W, so it should be able to deal with the L3s overdriven to 1A... however, i'm noticing that 700mA is pretty darn bright in comparison, so i might have the normal 'hi' be 700mA and a button for 'afterburner'.. not a huge difference in brightness and almost 2 more hours runtime. I also want the brightness to be maintained, so a little leary of always running at 1A.. even though i will have a dimmer so i can run it at as low as 50mA.

at max power, i'm getting
10.25W at the emitters.. 11.27W draw (91% efficient).. 5.12 hr...
at recommended power, i'm getting
7.2W at the emitters.. 8.00 W draw (90% efficient) 7.22 hr..
candle mode:
440mW at the emitters.. 580mW draw (75% efficient).. 100 hrs!

When i get it all up n running, i'm hoping to offer as a mod for anybody with a big light... PM if it sounds interesting... there are multiple levels possible, it could be as little as $60 or so.. mine is monster, raw cost is over $100 not including the time n effort. Fun for my first LED mod though!

10W Luxeon Light Cannon is operational

Update!
Holy smoke what a light... me=happy.

A few scary moments: one when I hit an emitter lead with a drill bit whilst expanding the hole for the power lead.... yiiikes!... I'll get back to that.

So put emitters on the sink.. wired it all up and blamo retina melter here i come.. it makes such a beautiful wash of light i couldn't be happier... so i go to put it in the actual lantern... which seems to have some electronics in it, because it reads about 1.5V when off... so... i get the wires connected what i was sure was the correct polarity.. and nothin, nadda, zip... yikes again!

So i pull the mod out of the lantern, and try direct-connect, figuring maybe the electronics in the lantern are in the way... but nothin' again.. now i'm scared i let out the magic smoke... back upstairs, take off the refelctors... and thankfully i have a little 3.6V computer batt with leads that is perfect for checkin' things..

i tested the emitters one at a time.. and 2 blinked on 3rd did not!... upon closer examination i realized it was the same emitter i whacked with the drill earlier and must have weakened the lead and it snapped off.. right at the plastic ... ooh nooo mr billl.....!

tip: if you EVER do that... do it to the ANODE SIDE... not the cathode side... the little tiny stubs happen to be a direct short with the leads... but trying to solder to the one that is cut in-half on the cathode is not for the faint of heart let me tell ya!

Well.. 20 min of monkeying around with soldering and i did get a solution to work PTL... put in a better strain relief so i touldn't happen again... and reassembled into the lantern..

This time.. BINGO... holy metal rocks batman... where's my bat shape so i can put a spot on the moon...

Seriously... This is the nicest light i've ever used, i'm ecstatic... whooo hooo.. I have to put in the ventilation and figure out how to attach the module into the lantern.

I have to do some more testing with current levels, and of course get the ventilation fixed, but it's 90% and it's awesome...wish i had a light meter.. i think i'll go make some beamshots now.

-awr

Re: 10W Luxeon Light Cannon is operational

Very nice Andrew.

Yes, us CPF'ers love to see beamshots... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

10W Luxeon Light Cannon Beamshots, etc

http://rouse.com/flash

check 'em out... great fun.

-awr

oh.. ps... seriously... anybody really want one, i would be interested in building them semi-pre-fab.. or send me your host light, and full-fab ;-)... the 'megalight' i set up isn't cheap, but there would be some decent 'almosts' that would also be awesome.