Didnt really see a good place to put this, so here it is…
Im really tired of breaking bulbs in my cord reel/trouble light and Ive been meaning to get started with some other LED builds, so what better way to get my feet wet than a fairly straigtforward 1 or 2 emmitter worklight?
The idea started when I saw one of these cheap LED screw in module thingies at Menards. Its 30 5mm leds and is advertised at 110 lumens. Needless to say, its totally useless. It does however offer what appears to be a decent host for my own build. Or so Im hoping.
I was hoping to see some sort of DC converter I could pull power off of and use a simple, cheap buck driver. Sadly, this puppy is PWM all the way. I dont think I can use anything here.
So basically I have nothing at the moment. I need to find an appropriate driver, optics, heatsink and possibly DC converter. I want to spend as little as possible on this thing. Even now I can think of better ways to go about this, such as a wireless solution for one. Im not seeing much in the way of 120VAC input drivers, and theyre all pretty big. Since this is such a critical element, Im probably going to focus on this driver hunt first.
Im thinking a pretty wide beam will be best, since most of the use this will see will be up close anyway, so a super tight spot isnt needed. I have quite a lot of area available on the face, so I wonder if some sort of diffuser would be appropriate. Im also considering one LED with narrow and one with wider optics switched seperately. Dimmind would also be nice. I have a few XMLs sitting around and heatsinks are easy to make, so thats covered. I cant see a need to drive two XMLs any more than maybe 1400mA for this, likely much less. Much, much less.
If anyone has any input on this, especially in the driver department, Id like to hear it. Sorry if my thoughts are a little scattered, the ADHD really goes into overdrive on Sundays.