How to wire a flashlight?

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by TimTheGreat

So we tried connecting the light straight to a talon and limiting the output to 4.5 volts, but it burned out the light.

The output of a Talon is actually either 0 volts or battery voltage. It's pulsed fast enough to yield a variable average voltage, but apparently it's not fast enough to keep the LED from being fried due to too much current.

If the flashlight is happy at 5 volts, then using one of the old 12-to-5-volt converters on the output of a Talon could work. But I'd suggest using a relay (e.g. a Spike) instead of a speed controller, so you never have the chance of making the converter itself unhappy with a PWM'd or reverse polarity input.