First newbie post so sorry for any dumb questions I’m just starting out with this type of LED.
I have a basic knowledge in electrics, can solder pretty good and have good fabrication skills. I am a quick learner.
I would like to know the best method of driving multiple XHP70’s in an automotive environment. This is for off road use on an Army range with some of my nutter friends in 4X4’s.
I understand automotive juice is not very clean and that I would need the correct driver etc if I were to use the power off the battery.
I also thought about using a small 12v motorcycle battery that would give clean power/current to a driver that you all use in the flash lights maybe?
Split charging could be used I thought, maybe switched so that when in use it would just be equivalent to your batteries in the flash lights? For cooling I was thinking of going down the CPU heatsink route with small fan etc.
Sure I could just buy an LED lightbar, I like to make things so want to do my own thing.
I don’t expect all the answers, a basic pointer in the right direction would be very welcome!
If you get 12v XHP70’s you should be able to get a zener modded direct drive driver that uses PWM to get modes and a simple clicky switch in the dash. I would wire the small battery to charge off the main electrical system when the lights are off with a relay on a timer of about 10 seconds before it starts charging. Wire the LED’s in parallel and put them in reflectors or with aspheric lenses.
for not clean supply i think its will be fine
I use, original Buck Driver on my Solarforce K3 with little mod.
it’s run fine at my motorcycle electricity (its have about 1.4Vpp ripple at supply when 35 Ballast and led driver turned on)
All three run together ?
I think its bit difficult to find one driver for series/parallel configuration with lots of current
with boost driver from TaskLED (3 emitter 6V in series or 3 emitter 12V in series) but not run at full power
best option maybe one driver for each emitter
maybe this thread have some useful info for you
You can use driver from Buck LED driver TaskLED, but buying 3 of them will be a lot off money
works fine for me, to drive a 100W LED
this LED need to be drive at 36V @ 3A, so if you goin to wire your LEDs in series it could work…
this boost module have adjustable volt/current option, and it will regulate wotever setup you choose, so no need an extra battery, it will “clean” the power for you.
but i have to say, for me it works fine only while the engine is runing, no problem at 40v@3A, if engine is off, then 2A or so…
maybe you should also consider to use the 6V LED version, and use a “step down”/”buck” module, but i have no experience with them,
or maybe one of this per LED.
Why series guys? If he wires them series and one dies he loses all of them till he fixes it. Parallel wiring means the rest keep running, and he’s not left in the dark.
not always., i had one led in a string fail, but others still were running fine, led is not a bulb, i have experienced few cases of leds not working but not braking a circuit either.
parralel wiring will actually be worst, if 1 fails, the rest have to take up the current, and if 3led driven at 3A, and one fails, now you got 2 leds sharing 9A that may not be a good thing, it will make the rest fail sooner, or a lot sooner. unless the led can take, 4,5A. (but that is only if both leds identical and have exactly the same vf, which is very unlikely, in reality one will always pull more than other).
that is why series is prefered way to wire leds, parallel otoh can also work, if you do not supply more, or a lot more, to the string than single led in that string can take, also the more power you supply, the higher your vf is, the higher vf “spread” would be larger, you want to parralel leds that are driven at low currents.
if you wire in series, entire string will have same current, as 1 led, voltages add up, when it is in parallel string, than you add current and keep same voltage. you never add current AND voltage
that 600w board should work fine, volt\amper wise, not sure how it’ll deal with spikes in onboard power. but i think it should be ok, it is not expencive either, so no big tragedy if it does burn out.
a lot bigger question would be what you’ll be using for optic (afaik, there are no true spot lenses for this led) and how you’ll get heatransfer from the led, those are some very powerfull leds, they will make plenty of heat, if you do not remove it fast enough you’ll fry the leds.
also using it in off road means lots of vibration, poorly made light will shake itself apart in no time, i learned the hard way.
i actually agree a driver for each led (either buck driver for 6v leds, or liner driver for 12v leds) is most reliable way, even if 1 driver\led fails other leds\drivers wont even notice, but you got to buy 3 drivers.
watch some “Julian Ilett” videos if you want to learn some basics, he got some nice tutorials, (me, i actualy got my basics with him) High Power LED Tutorial
maybe to use some kind of spot led as a host, probly need to mod them,
i actualy want to know what you will end up doing and how its works, as i want to mount one on my scooter
it is probably easier to build a light from a scratch than to mod existing lights, of course it depends on light you moding, but for off road, i’d build a led bar, quite an easy thing to do. as for scooter, thing will be a bit more complicated, as most have lights integrated into the body.
