Introduction: LED Car Searchlight

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About: Hi, my name is John. My hobby is to solve problems from other people and creating nice and functional stuff out of trash. I'm living in Germany so excuse my not so fluent English (some technical terms are hard…

In the year 2003 the hype about "high power" LEDs begun. I bought a lot of them, without any idea what to do with them.

Now I've found one project to use 6 5W LEDs.

Sometimes I need light when I'm around with my car. So I created a searchlight for the standard 12V plug in the car.

Step 1: Milling of the Housing

At first I've milled a housing for the LEDs. The fins are not calculated, I just did it that it look nice.

Step 2: Turning of the Housing and Caulking

After the Milling I've turned out the pocket for the LEDs. Furthermore I've caulked the housing against Water. The o-ring is from a KTM motorbike it was the only suitable to buy as a private person.

Step 3: Make a Handle

For the handle I've used a old billiard cue. I've only cut it to the right length.

Step 4: Electrical Stuff

As already mentioned, I've used 6 5W LEDs with either a 30° or 15° beam angle. The power supply is a DC/DC converter for laptop computers. The output is rated to 12V. It isn't specialized for the usage with LEDs but I trust in the thermal mass of the housing.