I wasn’t sure that the convoy drivers could handle a continuous 100% power without cooling, rn it’s in series for the buck but I could convert it to use a standard driver and be in parallel
I’m no driver expert, but I believe those Convoy buck drivers are pretty efficient. All else equal, input voltage close to output voltage is preferred. I don’t think you’d be any worse off than you are now, and you’d get the amperage output you want plus a UI.
As for sustained output, I think our hobby is a little lacking in the study of driver thermodynamics. But if you thermally decouple the driver from the LED like you have, and maybe add a heatsink to the driver, I imagine you’d get a big boost in sustained output versus a setup traditionally found inside a flashlight.
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One drawback would be lack of thermal regulation at the LED- since LED4POWER shut, I’ve not seen any MCPCB LED boards that offer a way to remotely measure LED temperature, of course, with this setup, it looks like there would be space to attach some sort of temperature sensitive resistor near the LED.
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To be fair the LED really shouldn’t even be warm given all the cooling I’ve added, after a while at full power I get a few degrees over ambient at most
Here’s the almost finished light, if I can find a way to drive it harder then I’ll update the electronics, otherwise I’m happy with it as is.
I need to re do the lens holder to add 1.8mm to get the led better focused and I also need to create a centering ring for the lens, then I’ll glue in my magnets and the box will be complete.
I’m going to brainstorm ways to keep the lid perfectly centered before I add the magnets
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Stayed in the maker space with my co-workers (now friends) until 4 am 
I taught one how to solder and then I finished the spotlight and tried to learn circuit bending.
The spotlight got fully redesigned and is now very easy to build and it’s super sturdy
co-worker projects: I taught cad and then we raced to make new name tags; I taught Arduino and soldering and we made a screen that shows a new affirmation whenever the button is clicked
spotlight sealed with poly and painted inside to reduce reflections. I will upload a full video showcase later this week.
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I’m thinking of selling my spotlight after the OL. Contest.
I wouldn’t include batteries, but it’ll laser cut any shadow box shapes you’d like and add a spacer to unfocus it so it can be used like a bat signal (in theory).
I will get some performance metrics and beamshots soon. For now what is a decent starting price in your mind?
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