Solus SU-1250 LED On test

[dublinbay]

I`ll keep schtum

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by steve6690

I'm just starting a project to design and build my own. It's not as easy as I first thought...

Steve,
Metal housings are the only way to go. Inadequate heat sinking is the major killer of LEDs. There are a few plastic bodied LED lights out there but they're usually not run at anywhere near rated power. Those that are have a fairly short life before turning yellow.

Oops ! There I go, giving away trade secrets again.

Regards,
Kevin

[steve6690]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

Steve,
Metal housings are the only way to go. Inadequate heat sinking is the major killer of LEDs. There are a few plastic bodied LED lights out there but they're usually not run at anywhere near rated power. Those that are have a fairly short life before turning yellow.

Oops ! There I go, giving away trade secrets again.

Regards,
Kevin

Thanks Kevin,

The plan is : umbilical design, aluminium body, 5 x Cree Q5's in series driven at 700ma by a boost regulator, all mounted on a thick copper heatsink which in turn is attached to the torch body so that it forms part of the heatsinking.
15 bar rated cable gland, magnetic switch to turn on and off, and to provide dimming steps. If that all works fine without heat problems then the eventual plan is to ditch the Cree's and run 3 x Osram Ostar whch should give me around 3000 lumens...they're expensive though

[KevinJ]

Originally Posted by steve6690

Thanks Kevin,

The plan is : umbilical design, aluminium body, 5 x Cree Q5's in series driven at 700ma by a boost regulator, all mounted on a thick copper heatsink which in turn is attached to the torch body so that it forms part of the heatsinking.
15 bar rated cable gland, magnetic switch to turn on and off, and to provide dimming steps. If that all works fine without heat problems then the eventual plan is to ditch the Cree's and run 3 x Osram Ostar whch should give me around 3000 lumens...they're expensive though

The overall design sounds good. Sounds a bit like ours

Kevin

[steve6690]

Originally Posted by KevinJ

The overall design sounds good. Sounds a bit like ours

Kevin

I think yours is probably slightly better though ....looks like a custom 7-led optic for a start. I have to stick to a 50mm width for the electronics "pack" which limits me to 5 led's as I am stuck with using individual 8-degree collimators. It'd be nice if I could machine the heads myself but I don't have access to the machinery required (or the skills any more) . Still, I can buy the head in, complete with cable gland, 10mm glass, o rings and magnetic switch for under £100 which isn't bad as it means I can concentrate on the electronics. The head is rated down to 150m but the maker reckons that's very conservative. I won't be going anywhere near that deep...
I have to say that I used to think umbilical dive torches were a bit of a rip-off. Now that I've looked into it a bit more I reckon they're worth every penny, and I am still going to buy a "proper" one later this year.