Most commercial LED solutions have some kind of driver circuitry built in already. Those fog lights (I assume they were originally designed for a car or ATV) most likely had a 12v-to-whatever-the-leds-want converter inside.
You can use a dc-dc converter with constant-current function, but a dedicated LED driver will often have other nice features like remote dimming control. I used that to emulate high/low beams and brake/tail lights.
As long as the combined forward voltage of all your LEDs is less than the maximum output voltage of the driver, you can run all of them from a single driver in series. That LDU56 I linked earlier running off 60v can run up to 56 volts worth of LEDs. At 1A, that’s 56 watts of LED from a single driver.
Obviously in an esk8 application you’d be limited to 25-30 volts of LEDs to make sure they would be lit when the battery was at or near LVC, but that’s still a ton of power in a very small (1.25" L x 0.80" W x 0.49" H) package
Only thing left to find is a driver that can fully use the led capability
And don’t underestimate the led heat production, even with this relatively massive heat sink I’m using, with the board stopped I can only run 1200 mA, more than that and the temperature gets out of control, they can do 3000 mA
On Lacroix lights they are run at 1600 mA, so if you manage to use the same LEDs (Cree U2 - T2 bin) at peak current you can have the same output as two lights in one, or in my case have almost 3 times as much light
Let it run 15min to see how hot.it got… Still thinking of using Velcro to attach and running the wires into the case at each attachment point… Ahould be ok
After many tries I think I now got the final version of this multi-purpose SmartRing mount :
SmartRing (as always for years now)
Gopro mount
XT30 socket providing 5V for the attached device (main purpose : light, but can be used for action cam or charging the remote)
As the SmartRing is powered with an 5V UBEC (40 RGB leds used + Arduino), I found a flashlight that would work at the same voltage + an easy way to install/remove ('cause I rarely ride by night).
I ended up with this product : https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/32922037927.html
The model without battery is perfect.
I just needed to solder the power leads on the battery pins. That’s all.
I didn’t try to charge my phone though.
I think it’s a bit too much for my setup as it hasn’t been sized for that much current in those thin routed wires (current would be something like 1.6A + leds).
So each color needs a power source that adjusts the voltage so that the current flowing through them is the correct amount
You may need 3 power sources, or you can fake it by adding some resistors in series with the brighter ones, but the resistors are going to get really hot.
all three are wired independently as they enter the case…then each lead comes together in parallel right before the buck converter…
i may just roll with it first and see how it looks when I ride as the overall output is still bright but wont know till I can mount the wheels and get it in the street…
of all them the red between the blue and green looked kinda dim but who knows…plus asphalt will absorb some light too
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