Phlatlight 12w red LED flashlight!

..So I got this neat red LED from Daguin some time ago. The red one from a projector.
Staring at me, teasing me.. I hid it away, it started to haunt me in my dreams!
"But", I said, "I cant feed you 8 Amps! Thats ridiculous! Such drivers dont even exist!"
Yesterday the LED finally won.

Thats the one: PT54. 2.3v, 8.1A constant, for 2.3w 624nm output!
And.. its beautiful! The die is 5.4mm², reflects in all colors of the rainbow, has dozens of shiny golden wires, AR coated glass top, and shines just lovely when probed with a multimeter. Of course it will instantly blind you for minutes if you give it any decent current! But, oh so lovely..

Thats the one how I received it, without optics or heatsink. The glass cover is 12x12mm. The host I will use has space for a 16mm holder. So I cut out a ring with the two diameters for centering and cutting away the LED-board.



A few details I had to deal with:
The "board" is just a slab of massive copper. "Copper?" you ask? Yep, no brass that is, but gold-plated copper! The whole thing is ground-positive. All accessible electrical contacts are positive, except one. It was covered by the capton tape which you see now on the connector.
The LED die is directly soldered/welded onto the copper base. So no chance to desolder the LED or similar..
To have the light "case-negative", with the regular orientation of the battery, I decided to isolate the board from the host and access the LED via two wires. Here the accessible contacts:



Mark the 16mm circle, cut it out (Dremel), see if it fits the host:



Yay, that sucker LIVES!!1!



Here you see the electronic details of that project. Skip if you are easily offended..



Almost done..
I got these (or silimar) DX SKU 13903 acrylic lenses, which fit in the host nicely, and have the right focal length too!



Heere we go!
My favorite host, DX TR-801, in all its blurry glory! You may know it from other projects on this channel..



Fortunately, by now it was night. Lets see what this LED has lured me to create. Calibrated internationally recognized ikea lamp included for reference:



Without optics:



With said lens (no reflector):



Hellow my dear:



Coincidence, accident, photonic weapon test, attentionwhoring, or brave sacrifice for science?



############

So.. whats the result?
The carefully optimized electronics, optimized for low resistance, supply a steady 5.5A current. Steady until the battery gets drained, warm, the LED warms up, I replace the multimeter with the tailswitch or anything else happens. 5.5A is impressive.. For such a small host, a single 18650 DX cell and a tiny switch!
It gets warm quick, but a few minutes is ok. At least nothing exploded until it got too warm, which is enough "security" for me.
12w electrical input is a lot, and definitely far from reasonable for many reasons. It should yield 1.6w optical output! Sounds great? Looks impressive! Still, that is "just" around 300 Lumen, and just around 14% efficiency..

I like it. Its silly, offensive, just totally-not-reasonable.
Now, with so many harvested projectors out there: beat me!

Manuel

..uploading the rest of the images..

It's not silly, it's an awesome LED and I've gotta get me one.

That said, do be careful pointing it at people. I have a permanent blind spot from a Nichia blue LED. ("it's just an LED!.." i said. Right. Nope. ) Just because it's not a laser doesn't mean it won't cause eye damage. It totally can. Photons is photons is photons, and the output from that beast is still beefier than your average 100mW laser, if you're talking lumens per mm. Especially if focused.

(Think about it this way; would you want to look into a defocused 1.6mW 445nm laser, defocused to about the footprint of the 'square' thats being emitted in those pictures?)

If it's really defocused its *probably* okay. But if you collimate that sunovab*tch, you'll be setting stuff on fire in no time....

Hell of a build though. Filing down the board to fit in the host - great. I'd love to see that thing in action.

thank you!

yes, indeed, I have great respect for photons and eyesight. 1.6w is a lot! In this case, the 1.6w spread on guessed 50x50cm, = 2500cm², which would be 0.64mw per cm². with eyes open and tiny pupils (guaranteed!) that would be highly uncomfortable, but still eye-safe. This light has a large aperture, compared to a laser, and diverging, non-parallel output. So, with eyes closed, "safe" by any means.
Thank you for your warning, though! Its all about energy density, LEDs can definitely be dangerous!

"Collimating": tried to at least converge the output with another lens. Fairly small point, maybe 1cm², I couldnt really feel anything on the tip of my finger.. Maybe too many losses internally, maybe the light travels too deep into the skin because of its color.. I didnt bother to try to melt chocolate after that..

Edit: Success!



Edit #2:
I used certified googles for this.
And, how could I forget this:
Dont even think about such a setup if you dont use protected batteries! Exploding Li cells in a metaltube, aka photon-generating pipebomb in your hand, are potentially lethal. no joke.


Manuel

Hahahah very beautiful flashlight dude. Try lighting up something with a short focal point
Or maybe more interesting.. Try a 7hz strobe driver :eg:

+1

dare you to try an IMR cell after you find a way to limit the current :eg:

Nice how you put that mother of a LED to good use!
I somehow seem to have missed the info on what you're using as a driver though.

Is it that green, round, electronic thinggy in one of the pictures? What circuit is that?

Or is it simply a contact for the battery?

Because I could imagine simply direct driving this LED for all the battery's worth.
Just look how much current the LED can take,
it's more than most batteries (except LiFePo) can provide.

Assuming direct drive from the battery, the voltage is too high.

A "name brand" 18650 will deliver 10 amps into that RED SUN.

Some current limiting will be required with a real battery cell.

Nice work on the trimming of the copper board.

Just remember to use a very short duty cycle,

since it has very little heatsinking.

LarryDFW

The led is 3 color as I heard, is it right? BRIGHT WHITE?

nope, no driver or current-limiting at all. just the **fire 18650 cell, the tailswitch, two wires and the LED. without the tailswitch and a multimeter in place I read 5.5Amp.

Yes, the excess voltage has to be transferred to heat somewhere, most likely in the internal resistance of the cell. after leaving the flashlight running for more than a minute, the host was too hot to hold comfortably any more. the cell, however, wasnt even handwarm..

no, I dont expect high battery-life, as in "battery will survive several cycles on this". But, so far, it curiously seems to work!

..IMR cell? I dare not, not knowing of any "Driver" limiting to 8A+ and capable of dissipating 10w heat, in small enough package.. heh

manuel

Leodahsan said:

The led is 3 color as I heard, is it right? BRIGHT WHITE?

Click to expand...

they, luminus, do all three colors and white, even in one package! they have a UV one too, says google..
have a look around: luminus

the sst-90 and similar are from them too. the highest output single die white LED there is, I think..

Manuel

Krutz said:

Thats the one: PT54. 2.3v, 8.1A constant, for 2.3w 624nm output!


The carefully optimized electronics, optimized for low resistance, supply a steady 5.5A current. Steady until the battery gets drained, warm, the LED warms up, I replace the multimeter with the tailswitch or anything else happens. 5.5A is impressive.. For such a small host, a single 18650 DX cell and a tiny switch!

Click to expand...

Looks like a direct drive setup...

LOL and uhh.. if you read what you typed, I'd be concerned. I'm very happy your 18650s are rubbish.. :na:

such a low Vf of LED would result in a much MUCH higher current draw off an 18650, but the internal resistance on your cells is ridiculously high. so you don't get a thermal runaway explosion of the sorts - though you are damaging that poor 18650 even more. :tinfoil:

with a LM337 it is doable.. isn't it?

Leodahsan said:

with a LM337 it is doable.. isn't it?

Click to expand...

Not really, they are 1 or 1.5A each and their output to case make them a bitch to heatsink.

I have a sst-90 build into a flashlight with direct drive pulling app. 3.5A from a 18650. The 3.5A only, was a bit of a disappointment until I until I reassessed my ambition level by noticing that that is where the sst-90 have it's highest efficiency.

ETA: http://www.national.com/mpf/LM/LM337.html

@Toke
Typo. I meant LM138.
Anyways, with 317 I think they can be paralled..

Toke said:

... and their output to case make them a bitch to heatsink.

Click to expand...

Thermal conductive silicon pad to the rescue:


Other than that I totally agree.
Why bother with a constant current source when the LED can take all the battery can give anyway?
Kipkay drive is the most efficient driver...