So I got one of these:

for $3. I hope I can get more, because when I give it 1A at 17v, it will give me around 450 lumens of red light. I think I can get green and yellow too. But where do I get a battery pack that will deliver 19+ volts to power my driver? I'm hoping for a portable light, as the AC-DC converter was broken anyway.

I did a quick test-light, and at 300 mA with 12v it's pretty bright. I'm looking forward to full power!

Crazy man is crazy!

Thats awesome! But I would guess you could build a pack to suit your needs? The best idea I can think of is start out with an ammo can and mount the board to that and then use the bottom of the inside to house all your batteries and electronics and then you can make a plate to go on top of that and then use the rest of the top of the can for storage? Also you could look into making a charging jack and running it to through a hole in the back of the can so you can just plug it in when you get home.

... Or did I just go WAY overboard?

Ok even better idea. I was bored and did some research for you and this is what I came up with. Get 2 Craftsman 19.2V tool batteries and run them in parallel, that way you can make a quick connect for the whole assembly with the craftsman charger.

Or you could use 5 18650's (21 volts but you can probably step that down) and make your own pack by soldering tabs on the ends of the batteries. Then you would have to ensure you have or build a suitable charger for that. Depending on your electrical know-how option 1 may be a better idea considering how dangerous li-ion cells can be.

And may I ask where you got this for $3!? I would like to get 2 if they are still available!

my DELL inspirion 1720 laptop battery runs at 19.2V 11.5 and has 85Wh. that means almost 4.5 hours of max power from those lights...


ebay or craigslist for "broken laptop"

Tijmen

EDIT sorry, the adaptor outputs 19.2V, the battery is only 11.5V.

School's back in session, slowing down ALL projects. I'm planning on making a battery box without a regulating driver, because even underdriven this will be BRIGHT. Especially if I use NiMH batteries for the 2A discharge and run two of them. That'd be quite a dimmer, "Fire" and "More fire." I have 3 of the type pictured above and a much less bright one. Pretty soon I'll firm up how many I plan to use... and how many I can pass on.

You can actually make electronic step-up devices....