Help modding a headlamp

OK i'm a newbie at this and i guess this ist a great project to start with but i want to try to mod this headlamp. Here
Its a great design with the red and white led's but i wanna replace the incandesent bulb with an luxeon 1w.

Now opening this thing up i see all the contents are driven off a single pcb. this pcb connects to the battery compartement by a strance connector that i could probbly bypass, then the led's are driven by resistors and the bulb is just hooked up in series. I guess for startes i'm gonna ask if there there is a small driver i could build that by varing which pin the input voltage came in on i could chage which led is powered and how much current it gets . (i hope that made sense). Here is a diagram of what i'm looking for http://www.geocities.com/da_woods/3LEDDRIVER.JPG. If anyone can give some sugestions that be great.

David

ps anyone know any stores (not online stores) where you can buy luxeon's in the toronto area?

pps i fixed the link /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

da guy2,

I'm not sure of any stores (not online) where you can luxeons that aren't already installed in a flashlight.
My apologies if you already know about these, but here are some links to get you started.

elektrolumens

sandwich shoppe

oversees vendor

cool lamp!

I would recommend using the SO17XZ reflector... does it use 3 or 4 batts? i had a helova time trying to figure out a 3-cell solution so i went to 4.. hopefully 4.. anyhow there are a lot of nice drivers like the Badboy etc... I was originally looking into using a selector switch that changed the reference voltage to vary the output level.

if you are going to use 3W emitter you'll certainly need some way to pipe the heat out to the outside.

most likely the switch is a 4-position single pole rotating switch... if that's the case... and it supplies power to one of the 3 lights based on position and rotates through... you can just put your LED driver downstream of the main light and leave the small led's operational... the main issue is what voltage does the batt pack supply? 4.5 is tricky, but you could run DD with a resistor or the new LED dynamics magic resistor...

It's a neat basis for a mod... keep us posted.

-awr

Hey thanks.
I did a litte more easearch. and yes it is 4.5v (grumble grumble) anyways plus the screws that hold the thing together are convienently located such that a most drivers that are about 1/2 inch in diameter wont fit. forutnatly i think i've found somthing that might solve BOTH problems. This nice little driver Click here. Its 4.5v!, and jsut the right size to slot between 2 of the screws. Even better there are already slots predriled in the inside for who knows what that i can use to feed the wires through.

I dont think i'm gonna go up to a 3w led. First of all cause your right, I'd need to get heat out which would be tricky and provid too many possibilities for leaks, oh and the chance i might melt it, and not to mention lower the battery life (its not gonna be that great as it is).

As for the reflector I was hoping to just use the reflector that came witht he unit, just widen the hole to fit the luxeon in. This thing has the ability to focus (like a mag light) and i'd prefer to keep that. You think thats gonna cause any problems? Also what type of luxeon should i go with ( batwing, side emitter, or lambertian)? I know the difference between them but i dont know what each best suited for.

Thanks

David

PS i'll try to get some pics of the insides of it soon