Want to build a flashlight...a BIG flashlight!!!

[styropyro]

So there are 500W LED arrays available on ebay.

500W High Power LED Ultra Bright White Light 500 Watts 60000LM 6000 6500K | eBay

Obviously, I'd like to put two of them into some portable casing so I can carry around essentially a light bazooka.

I am no expert on cheap LEDs tough, and don't want to throw my time/money away. Are these LEDs actually a legit 500W array, or will they burn out quickly? Also, as far as efficiency is concerned, what kind of lumen/watt ratio should I expect out of one of these, as opposed to say some nicer "brand name" large arrays?

I haven't tackled the driving issue of these things yet, but that's further down the list of things to do...

Thanks for any help!!

 

[crazyspaz]

I would be more amazed if they weren't burned out when you got them. Those LED's use a ton of individual chips in series, and most of the time a fair number of them will be burnt out from the get go. This video may give you a better idea.

 

[diachi]

You'll want a rather beefy heatsink for those (I'd probably go for water cooling...) - I've used the 100W versions and they dump a lot of heat. Can't comment on quality but the 100W I had didn't have any dead chips when it arrived, granted there wouldn't have been as many chips but I expect you'd have similar results.

Providing ~65VDC at 8.5A in something portable is going to be fun!

 

[styropyro]

Thanks for the replies! I do have one of those cheap 100W chips from eBay and all of the dies are good. Man does that thing spit out light...but a lot of heat too.

 

[Cyparagon]

It's been my experience that these 1W grids have a very poor thermal resistance to the case, given their supposed rating. I was getting a temp rise of 65C (from die to case) when running at half capacity, and that's with the 100W model. Your 500W LED may be running at >300C, no matter the cooling you use.

Get one and test the thermals on it before you plan anything else.

 

[KrowBar]

Providing ~65VDC at 8.5A in something portable is going to be fun!

18 26650 IMR's in series makes for a nice ~ 4lb battery pack - completely doable. I don't however have any suggestions for a constant current driver that will handle that.


I do really want to see this flashlight bazooka done. Keep us updated.

 

[RedCowboy]

So there are 500W LED arrays available on ebay.

500W High Power LED Ultra Bright White Light 500 Watts 60000LM 6000 6500K | eBay

Obviously, I'd like to put two of them into some portable casing so I can carry around essentially a light bazooka.

I am no expert on cheap LEDs tough, and don't want to throw my time/money away. Are these LEDs actually a legit 500W array, or will they burn out quickly? Also, as far as efficiency is concerned, what kind of lumen/watt ratio should I expect out of one of these, as opposed to say some nicer "brand name" large arrays?

I haven't tackled the driving issue of these things yet, but that's further down the list of things to do...

Thanks for any help!!

Go to Walmart and buy some LED fog lights, like 4 sets of 2, they already run on 12-14 volts all you need to do is remount them in a circle of 7, 1 in the middle with 6 around it. Add batteries and a handle. It wont cost much either. Or you could order 7 sst-90 leds and drivers and build your own reflector and housing. Or what I have wanted to do is make a long range laser flashlight with 50% blue lasers 35% red lasers and 15% green lasers. It would look so cool as they merged together and looked white in the clouds.
p.s. I have one of the 100w grids and it works just fine, I also bought the reflector and lens for it.

 

[Mattronium]

Maybe you could build something similar to this? It's got some good ideas anyway. : Make a 1000w equiv. LED flashlight - aka DIY Sun-Blaster!

 

[Cyparagon]

That project just uses a 100W LED. The claim of 1000W equivalent is false anyway. A 500W halogen lamp has between 8000 and 10500 lumens depending on the manufacturer. So it's more like 450W equivalent.

 

[Mattronium]

Right, that project uses the 100W LED not the 500W one. I'm not saying he should copy it exactly, I'm just saying that it has some good ideas (like the frame, switch locations and handle etc.) that can be used, modified and/or upgraded for his project if he wants to. I think it's an interesting design because it does away with a "flashlight" body that would be a restriction for such a high power light.
It's all just ideas at this point, it's up to Styro to actually make it a reality (if it's possible).


The claim of 1000W equivalent must be rated in chines watts.


EDIT: It looks like this person used a 500W LED to make "flashlight", https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pi-LKf0hXI
Quite cheap construction though. certainly not very sturdy either.

 

[dubious speculation]

I wouldn't bother yourself with those LED's. That one in particular is way overpriced anyway. Here are a few examples that would require a fair bit of work but will invariably yield much better results.

Mod: My latest super bright light 15000 LUMEN and 200+ kcd

The Beast - Flood+Throw 960Kcd 7850 Lumens

Triple XHP 70 Build

 

[gearboxtech]

I was going to type something but this dude will explain it better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wR_mFWeI6Y

That said, maybe it's genuine. Probably a bunch of poorly binned chips.

That aside, trust me, a true 100W led with a glass 5-10 degree lens a highly polished spotlight housing is ridiculously fun. I've modified quite a few vehicle mounted halogen setups over the years for hunting, works bloody well. The key to it is dumping the heat into a good block of copper, then into a large aluminium finned heatsink. Keeps the LED's much cooler.

I've also had fairly good success using peltiers and large cpu heatsinks (TRUE120) for shits and giggles but its nowhere near as durable.

 

[Benm]

I think Clive has a point in his video. There are quite some crap products sold on ebay and ohter places. In terms of light output it doesn't even matter -that- much, if 20% of the emitters are basically duds you'd still get far more light from such and LED compared to say a halogen lamp. In terms of reliability it may be a problem though, especially if some dies fail closed circuit overloading the other dies in that same string. If they fail open circuit you'd obviously be out the whole string, but that might not be as bad in the long run.

 

[autonomousperson]

Try a cree cob array, digkey sells them. h
ttp://www.cree.com/LED-Components-and-Modules/Products/XLamp/Arrays-NonDirectional/XLamp-CXB3590
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cree-XLamp-...3cf092b&pid=100009&rk=1&rkt=1&sd=371207043189

18000 lumens....

I built a ring light a while back that was 200w... we used boost converters to get the voltages.
http://www.amazon.com/DROK-Transfor...id=1442171034&sr=1-8&keywords=boost+converter
Two of those in series should get you there. 4 amps at 36v

 

[Mattronium]

Styro, are you still planning on doing this or has it got moved to the back burner for the time being?