The Makita LXT 18V 3AH battery is an ideal power source for portable LED lighting.
I have done a number of modifications and prototypes using it.
Initially I used the base dock portion of the Makita LXT flashlight. I designed a dock that could be milled from a block of aluminum:
The design was further revised to be suitable for an injection molded plastic dock. Below are pics of a milled and black anodized proto dock as well as a molded polycarbonate dock ( Courtesey of Wayne Yamaguchi who had these made) :
This dock design is such that the "CreeBar" extrusion can be bolted directly to the dock via four mounting holes usning #6 screws or alternately, the dock can be used as a base for building up with other assemblies. The large through hole serves as a pilot hole for 1/8" NPT thread.
The dock mounted on a CreeBar:
The stereo work light below is mounted via use of a tapped 1/8" NPT thread in the dock, host to a Loc-Line fitting :
Stereo light hanging on a laddar:
I built out a CreeBar/Makita Dock with 5 ea. Nichia 083 LED's which are a high CRI LED (90+ CRIa). The string of LED's has a Vf of 18.4 volts @ 350 mA. I used a LED-TECH.DE linear driver (350 mA) to handle the excess voltage of the fresh off the charger Makita. When the battery settles down the drive level will likely be slightly less than the 350 mA and the driver basically doing nothing. At 18 volts, the If of the string of LED's is 325 mA.
In the photo below, the frosted lens is not in place and you can see the 5 LED's sticking up through the MCPET reflector. The LED's are mounted on custom .750" diameter MCPCB's which are clamped to the bulkhead of the CreeBar with #4 screws.
