What LEDS to mod Peak n-cell with?

I've got a "high output" Brass peak N-cell light (that's actually for sale in mod bst) but due to it's lack of output and tight beam I don't find it all that useful.

I'm thinking of withdrawing the light and modding it to run DD with the li-ion sized N's that are now available. The issue is I haven't a clue as to what type of Leds to use for the mod. I'd prefer to use LEDS that will fit without drilling out the bezel, but I'm open to the possibilities.

What would ya'll recommend?:huh2:

Hi xochi,

Is one of the problems that its beam is too tight or that it isn't tight enough? Your wording is a bit confusing, so I apologize for not getting it off the bat.

If you are looking for more of a flood beam and want a higher output, you could use the much overlooked Luxeon Flash (LXCL-PWF1). The datasheet states that it can be run for a few milliseconds at 1A or continuously at 150mA. But Lumileds is basing those numbers on the expectation that the LED will be mounted on a standard PCB with little to no heatsinking.

In fact, the Lux-Flash has a lower thermal resistance than any of the Lux emitters, which means that with proper heatsinking, this LED can be pushed a lot harder. I have run this one at 1.5A for ~5mins with no problems. At 2A it got so hot that it melted itself off the solder joint within 5 seconds, but it still worked when hooked back up.

I'd bet that you could power it with up to 200mA or so with a decent heatsink and still have everything fit in the Peak-N head without having to drill out anything. And Future sells the Lux-Flashes pretty cheap.

Also, I found some NiCd N cells pretty cheap the other day. Only 180mAh, so runtime would be pretty bad, but it's still an option if you want to stick with rechargables.

pb

with Ncell LiON.. you could direct-drive with the likes of a UX1N.. possibly with like 1 ohm SMT resistor to limit the current.. you will only be able to push like 300-400 mA w/o over driving the batteries.. but that is hella bright.

-awr

Sorry, I didn't give enough info on this thing. This light consists of a 3 led array and the LEDs are seated in such a way as to block sidespill. I'm thinking that the best plan is to keep with the smaller high efficient LEDs and use the same driver (or would going DD/ resistor and li-ion run nichis CS's or whatever nicely?) but replace them with better more efficient LEDs. This is a nicely machined light but too large to get the wow factor of a Luxeon driven by li-ion n-cell in tiny package so I think non lux LEDs would make this a very useful light. Ultimately, the goal is to modify the light so that it will put out a useful amount of light for at least 45 min and if hours of light are possible even better.