Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets - Build/buy a regulator

I asked this in another thread about batteries and I thought I'd give it it's own thread to maybe get a few more responses.

I am considering using my 18V Nicad drill batteries to power my 12V nightsun dual headlights. I would primarily run the 10 watt halogen, using the 35 for fast downhills or battling high beam running cagers.

I believe 18V is a bit much of an over volt. 14 or thereabouts should do nicely. Having adjustability would be even better and a seperate strobe output would be the cat's ass!!!!!

Does such a thing exist or can someone tell me how to cobble one together. I am an electronics tech and pretty good with a soldering iron, so fabrication is not a problem.

Thanks.

Hey i built one for running a 20W halogen but i didn't actually use it in the field, just tested it in the lab and decided to go led instead. 35W total draw (10 + 35) running at once is abit of a draw, but doable. I don't think you really want to run Halogens on strobe though, methinks they do not like it.
I dunno whats out there interms of off the shelf. I'm an electronics cobbler myself. Here's a great design reference: http://www.national.com/analog/power you can plug in your requirements in terms of voltage and current and it'll design a switching power supply for you (if you don't go switching your power wastage @ 10W would be about 1.5A * 4V = 6W).

I suspect you're right about the halogens not liking being pulsed. When I was goofing around trying to get a 12 and 6 volt halogen to work in series off the drill battery, I blew 2 6V bulbs on initial start up. They seem to do fine if they survive the initial pulse. strobing them would be like starting them up repeatedly.

If you can read a schematic and a bit handy, a LVR can be built.

http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~willie/lvr.html

A nice article on using a LVR ...

http://www.audax.uk.net/lights/gens.htm