halogen to LED mod

[126buddy]

Hi all,
I have an old UK 1200 which was a great light. I dropped it and broke the housing that holds the actual lamp. I fixed it fairly well but I've discovered the focus is off. The corona is quite bright with a now darker center. In my musings of fixing it I found a guy who DIY'd an LED lamp configuration. Check this link to see it:
UK1200 dive light converted to hex Cree xre Q5

I would LOVE to do this to mine, but the thread is 3 years old and I haven't been able to find out how he did what he did or if there is a better way to do it now. Anyone ever do anything like this and be able to pump out 1100+ lumens?

 

[350xfire]

The first thing I would do is try to find out whether that light survived. Six LEDs are going to produce a lot of heat (the reason for the big chunk of metal in the head... There is only so much heat that the chunk of metal will take before overheating as a result of no thermal path into the water. That plastic is going to retain heat....

I think you are better off with a maglite head and a single XML. That alone will put out 900 lumens and the aluminum head will keep it nice and cool. Also, the build will be much easier.

Give up on that big ugly plastic light!!! lol

 

[livewire]

Hey 126buddy, did you ever try it out? Any successes/failures? After an easy success with my UK SL4 LED conversion, I think I might take this project on next. There are some pre-built drop-in LED's on dealextreme, but since you're now talking 4, 5, or even 6 LED's the investment is a little heavier, and yes, heat could be an issue, but in cold water maybe not. On the up side my SL4 puts out so much light now, for the type of diving I do I think I could just use that as my primary!

 

[126buddy]

No, I never could find any information about it. I've been still diving with "that big old ugly plastic light". hahaha.It still works great and money has been a bit tight, so I've been just holding out to probably buying a canister light. If you figure something out, let me know. My buddy is running the UK D-4 but it isn't half as bright as my 1200. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on something that turned out wasn't what I wanted on terms of brightness.