Help with custom flashlight!

LED Flashlights – General Info
1

Hello fellow flashlight enthusiasts! (this is my first topic/post thing so sorry if its in the wrong category).

i need some guidance to what i can use to drive my leds, i want to use four cree xhp 70.3s leds running on 12v (so total drive current is 14.4A :slight_smile: are there any led drivers that can do 3.6A? i have access to a cnc mill to cut massive heatsinks so heat management is not too much of an issue for the drivers and leds. as for batteries i plan to use 18650 cells in a 4s configuration.

i want to use it as an area flood/spot light that is sort of portable but i can also mount it on my car to act as a lightbar (thinking of de-doming 2 of the Cree leds so they can do the spotlight duty)

i have had experience with cree xhp 70.2s before

in summary
what driver should i use for 12v at 3.6 amps per led

Questions
is there an led that is better suited to my application ?
how hot can i expect these leds to get?
will i get the cree listed ‘5511’ lumens at max powerrrrr? (per led)
is this abit ambitious but rubbish?

2

Have a pleasant time at this friendly forum, Nath_!

3

You can do it. Take a look at Taskled drivers such as Ultraboost. How hot the LEDs get depends on your heatsink. You’ll need to dissipate 100+ watts. Active cooling would handle that more easily. As for the LEDs, there are lots of them to choose from. Smaller LEDs are easier to control with smaller optics, but you’ll need more optics and LEDs to achieve the same output of a bigger LED. XHP70.3 is essentially four XML sized LEDs combined. You will need to choose optics that create the kind of beam you want. Check out Ledil for a good variety of TIR optics. Yes, you would likely get ~5k emitter lumens from each XHP70.3, driven at max spec, but there will be optic losses and such of maybe 20%, so you might expect more like 4k lumens per LED in the end.