And something tells me this thing will make an awesome puke light J)
When I was setting up the constant current mod, I had the current level set at around 2A. That is below the minimum level that the circuit wants to work at. The thing started flickering some. I went to crank up the drive level, but turned the pot the wrong way. Then it REALLY started flickering. The effect was rather awesome, even though it was only doing 5000 lumens at the time and the LED was shining into my sphere.
Now this will be really a lot of light! 
I'm curious how it will perform with SST-90 reflector.
How about a quick write-up on the conversions you made to the DC-DC converter?
My Bridgelux RS array arrived today. Only around 6600lm max so it’s just a baby compared to your C9000. Waiting for the power components to arrive…
It makes the sun squint… 8)
wow, would buy custom made with this inside :o
Search Ebay for “600W DC-DC” There are some $20 DC-DC converter modules that are already constant current capable. They can output up to 80V (drive two C9000’s in series?) and they claim to by 95% efficient. I have a couple on order… http://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-DC-600W-10-60V-to-12-80V-Boost-Converter-Step-up-Module-Power-Supply-/170893208817?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ca076cf1
:heart_eyes:
I kludged up an external PWM dimmer onto the constant current driver… it failed miserably. Any dimming caused the LED to go into puke-flicker mode. Turns out that the stock program in the dimmer is PWMing at 100 Hz… way too slow to maintain a stable output. The constant current driver has a 1000 uF output cap, which 5A of current significantly drains between 10 millisecond PWM pulses.
I need to reprogram that dimmer chip for something like 10 kHz PWM…
I think that spec is only for an SST-90. Perhaps if you could get 15k lumens from an SST-90 sized emitter you’d be able to get that kind of throw, but the array is freaking huge. I expect closer to 100kcd, given that the bare emitter already gives off 15kcd.
I tweaked the dimmer firmware to do 32 kHz PWM. The driver behaves a bit better, but still messes up below around 35%. I tried adding a bigger cap (another 1000 uF) across the driver output… it just made things worse. I need to see what happens if I shorten and clean up all the external wiring… and maybe reduce the output cap on the driver.
I did manage to blow the switching FET in the driver by pulling around 220 watts out of it (maybe 19,250 lumens). I replaced it with an IRF3036 (2 milliohm, 190 amp rating, the original FET was 10 milliohm, 75 amp). I was expecting to see some decent improvement in the driver efficiency, but it was minimal.
Wowzers! That is sweet!
The BHR’s (Big Honkin’ Reflectors) should be in tomorrow…
I’m experiencing a similar problem with a AL8805 1A buck driver chip. PWM below 25-30 and it goes irregular blinky on me. I upped the PWM and still about the same deal. I might try a DAC output of my PIC, and see if that helps.
Maybe my problem is that it goes into a discontinuous mode? The inductor is only a 10uH one, so next up will be to try a higher value inductor. That, or my data sheet interpretation is messed up, it wouldn’t be the first time 
.
EDIT:Heh, discontinuous mode not discontinuance
Just warn me when you turn this thing on and start aiming it at things. I want to pull the shades down and put on sunglasses. Ought to be able to see it here in Tyler, when you fire it up, LOL.
I figure you will have about 5 minutes before the chopper arrives with their little spotlight, to search for you.
Chuck Norris’s edc! :bigsmile:
Meh, mine’s brighter than theirs… 8) The beam has enough photon force to push them away…
:bigsmile: Just don’t turn it on within 20 miles of an airport. The helicopter that comes for you will have Bruce Willis as well as Chuck Norris in it.
I got in the Big Honkin’ Reflectors (ok, 90mm is not that big) from Illumination Machines. Whacked 5mm of the bottom of one to get a 34mm hole. It cranks out 70,000 lux at 1 meter (around 10 degree beam width). The beam is as smooth as a baby’s behind. I’ll try and get some pics up soon.
Old-Lumens 1.3 mile SST-90 Aspheric Potato Masher Thrower does 39,000 lux at 1 meter. A Jacob A60 does around 35,000 lux at 1 meter. These lights have a considerably tighter beam.
Holy mother. This is very badass.
What kind of portable power source is used to power a light of this magnitude?
It can run on 12V to 30V DC. At 12V it pulls around 15 amps. I was going to (and still might) power it with a 4S A123 20Ah LiFePO4 pack, but A123 is in a bit of a financial meltdown at the moment and their cells may no be viable in the long term. Or any 4S-6S LiPo pack. Or a car.