Well I've been making pretty good progress on this project for the past few weeks now. I do plan on doing a "build" thread once I'm finished but wanted to share some info and a few photos. First of all that AC-DC 12v regulator from Ebay works great (remember, the headlight wiring puts out 18v AC)! I get a steady 11.98v DC with no load no matter the throttle position (voltage does not rise/fall with the throttle).
Here's a pic of my homemade heatsink modules mounted (front emitter view):
In the above photo you can see where I completely goofed up my measurements for the mounting screws (large head screws) placing them way closer to the emitter star than I intended. It works, but I had a heck of a time not shorting out the positive wire to ground (notice the blue plastic "washers" - they are cut from a coffee can lid). "Test for shorts first before applying power" is my new saying!
Rear View:
You can see in the above photo how I tapped right into the existing headlight wiring with terminals (and taped back the second headlight wiring).
Another goof up (just keepin' it real man, keepin' it real):
DOH! My wiring is too short! Double DOH!!! In the pic it looks like I am holding them in order to show positive going to negative, but that's just the way it turned out. The 3 positives go together and then 3 negatives go together (2 to driver, 1 from AC-DC Regulator).
Well I pulled the wires together and used alligator clips to keep them connected while I fired the mower up (lights don't operate unless it's running). And guess what . . . they work!!! The optics aren't mounted yet so it's full flood "candle mode". The output wasn't bright at all, but I'm figuring it's an optical illusion do to no optics in place. The front end of the mower (under the hood where the regulator / drivers are mounted) gets really hot due to the exhaust being on the front lower side of the engine; hope my work holds up to this heat.
You may have noticed in another thread that comfychair has talked me into going with the LM2596 modules to drive the emitters, even going so far as to setup low beam and high beam output levels operated by a toggle switch. This is because in my testing of the single mode KD driver the output is rather disappointing - only about 1.36A to the emitter.
Getting closer!
-Garry