First off I'm studying to be an electronics engineer but haven't really taken any classes on it until next semester. So I'm kind of a newb at designing. I found a flashlight for $300 on this link.

http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Wicked_Lights-74-0.html

Funny thing is if you go to the next link you can buy the bulb for it for 10$. How involved would it be to build a circuit to control it the same as the flashlight itself. I figure you could make it for so cheap and stick it in some other flashlight case. Thanks in advance.

 

The power supply is 100 Watts! Practically all commercially available batteries I can think of offhand would dissipate much of that power across their internal resistance, resulting in overheating and a loud explosion.

 

I forgot to post the other link but it is the same thing. Click on the accessories tab and you will see the light bulb and the batteries it uses which are 14.4 volts at 1400mAh.

http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/The_Torch_NI_MH_Battery-75-0.html

Would that still make it a difficult power source to create?

 

You'd better have a well-designed blast shield to absorb the impact when the batteries go Tango Uncle.

Look, there's a reason for those high-powered flashlights costing so much. It took a LOT of engineering to get them safe enough to get them on the commercial market.

You say you want to become an EE - so go ahead and take the courses. Keep this in mind. Four years down the road (perhaps five or six if you like to party) and you'll be thanking me for discouraging you from this project when you didn't know what you were getting into.

Because if you proceed upon this path with the limited knowledge you currently possess, you may become seriously injured.

Building something cheap sounds good, right up to the point where it kills you because you didn't know what you were doing in the first place.

I don't and won't pretend to be an all-seeing all-knowing battery guru. But I DO know that what you want to do would not be safe with typically available commercial batteries; they would overheat and explode, likely causing injury to the user, aka YOU.

Do yourself a huge favor, and save this as a pet project for your senior year?

Please?

It would be nice to graduate with a complete body.

OTOH, if you know a law student, build a prototype and have them test it for you. Or take them bungee-jumping, or hang-gliding, or just get them to jump out a 50-story building window, I don't care. The world could use a few more good EE's, and a LOT fewer lawyers.

 

battery lifetime 15 minutes?? batteries cost more than $1 a minute. yikes. cool light thoogh

 

battery lifetime 15 minutes?? batteries cost more than $1 a minute. yikes. cool light thoogh

That's why they use rechargeable batteries. Very high-tech ones able to source/sink more than six whole Amps.

 

I guess I didn't realize how much power was going through the module. I will actually be done in about 2 and half years but whatever. Thanks for the info and advice.