My battery is a NiMH 4.5-Amp and fits into the dive rite slimline canister. Will a 21 or 24W light head work? My 700LED is not cutting it. Do you make one? Thanks!
I will make the assumption that your pack is 12 volts. If it is not, let me know.
Right now, I am almost finished with a 12W LED. I have had a few requests for 21-24W, so I am looking into it. I found a 27W Ostar that would be great, but it runs on 20.8 volts. This would require at least 6 18650 batteries. I would want to do 12 to get about a 6 hour (guess) run time. Otherwise, it will be about 3 hours. That's not bad for an Intro tech diver, but for a more advanced diver So 12 18650 batteries!!! The canister would have to be about 3" in diameter. A 3" canister is pretty big. Will you give up small canister size for brightness?
The other Ostar option would be an 18W. I think this would be more reasonable at 14 volts. This would be a 18650 pack of 8 batteries. I think this is much better as far as size. You would have two sets of 4 batteries in series and those sets paralleled together for a 14 volt pack of about 4800 mah. You could do this in about 2 3/4"... I know, 2 3/4 to 3" doesn't sound like much, but it is noticeable.
Your 12 volt 4500 mah pack is fine, but the higher wattage LED would drain it much faster. You would have to burn test it and see. Example, the SSC P7 runs at 3 amps. This means that your 4500 mah has a theoretical run time of about 1.5 hour. The DR light runs onle about 700 mah (guess) so you get a much longer run time.
It's all a give or take deal.... How big, how much, how bright and so on...?? Mainly, how big is your wallet? The 12W LED is $15... The 27 W is almost $60 plus the driver??? Also, the battery pack is going to set you back a few $100 vs. $40 for the ones I built for the P7.
Once I get my first light done, it will be easy to adapt any size LED into it. If I get a for a high power one, I'll build it and see how it turns out.
I am looking into other high powered LEDs like Luxeons. We'll see what comes up.
Thanks
