LED question

[trost]

Ok I'm looking for a good led system to put in my BAJA 5B. I don't want to buy a system with standard 5mm leds that don't produce much light. This is a big truck and I'll be driving it at night in the dunes far away. I have a nice Fenix LD10 flash light that produces 120 Lumens with a single AA battery. I'm looking for a similar led to this. On superbrightleds.com they sell a few leds from 100 - 140 lumens that would be perfect. I plan to mount them in the HPI baja light buckets. Has anyone used these types of leds? Do you just use a resistor like a normal led?

Here is the led I was looking at...
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...Fxre_specs.htm

I would run two of these and two normal 5mm leds in the back for brake lights. I dont know what kind of voltage it will take to run these, do I need a specific controller? If you can think of a better system for my baja please let me know!

Here is the selection of leds, witch would be best?
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...Fxre_specs.htm

I apreciate any help I can get. I have put leds on a bunch of my rcs in the past. Normally I use 5mm leds and the correct resistor and im good to go. For this baja I want somthing much more powerful because of how big and fast the truck is and the range it will be driven in.

I'm also looking into using a small 2s lipo to run the lights and a lit whip.

[microgoat]

The voltage is right there on the data sheet 3.7v max, so you could use a single-cell lipo and less resistance. You will need a limit resistor, same as any other LED. The ones you linked are surface mount, which is usually a royal PITA, but it looks to be on a small daughter board so you can probably make it work.

For a Baja, you've got nice big buckets, might as well fill 'em up with these:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b...xWHP10-DDC.htm

Best part is they're plug and play, 10-30V so a small 3S lipo can run them.

[tom@vp]

i think the problem is heat

[trost]

Just measured the buckets and those plug and play modules would just barley fit into the Baja buckets. Its almost to perfect to not do it. So this module is ready for voltage and I can put anywhere from 10-30v directly to the board and I'll be fine. I wonder how well a 3 cell lipo would run 2 of them (one in each bucket). I will look into this more but I think this is what I want to do. I'm also concerned about heat like Tom said. Guess all I can do is try it. I might even call superbrightleds.com and talk to some one, let them know what voltage I would be putting into it and maybe they can give me an idea on heat.

-Thanks

[microgoat]

The only time I've seen LED's get even warm is when you over-volt the suckers and esplode 'em Since 3S is on the low end of the design voltage you should be just fine.

[trost]

Originally Posted by microgoat

The only time I've seen LED's get even warm is when you over-volt the suckers and esplode 'em Since 3S is on the low end of the design voltage you should be just fine.

I think so to. My fenix flashlight gets alittle warm if I run it a the full 120 lumens for more than 5 min. I think its this type of led that get hot, my 5mm leds dont get warm. Thanks for all the help guys I think I'll order these and see how they do.

[NorCal 2500HD]

Another option would be to do something like this.....
http://bikeled.org/copperhead/Copperhead.html Ditch the mount hes using and go with 2 of the pods with some sort of heatsink.Heat is the biggest killer.
You are going to have to figure out a mount but it shouldnt be that bad.

As far as the LEDs go, you can get them from here.....
http://www.ledsupply.com/

What kind of battery pack are you going to use? Thats going to determine if you are going to need a boost puck or a buck puck.

Have you thought about what kind of beam you want? Flood or Spot, maybe even both?

[trost]

Originally Posted by NorCal 2500HD

Another option would be to do something like this.....
http://bikeled.org/copperhead/Copperhead.html Ditch the mount hes using and go with 2 of the pods with some sort of heatsink.Heat is the biggest killer.
You are going to have to figure out a mount but it shouldnt be that bad.

As far as the LEDs go, you can get them from here.....
http://www.ledsupply.com/

What kind of battery pack are you going to use? Thats going to determine if you are going to need a boost puck or a buck puck.

Have you thought about what kind of beam you want? Flood or Spot, maybe even both?

I like the mount but the buckets on the hpi baja should work. I can make a heat sink easy enough I just don't know if i'll need them. I have never used leds like this so its hard to say what will work. I can run a 2-3 cell lipo so about 8-12 volts. I don't care if they are flood or spot. Just something so I can tell which way the buggy is pointed even at far distances. Thanks for the info!!! The research continues!