your friend is way weirder than you , props <| sep |> Also Orcs and Goblins . <| sep |> Building a light is fairly straightforward all the complicated stuff is done for you and all the mistakes have been made before . You also have people here who have made them and can help you . Basically all lights have just a few components the hostbody , the emitters aka LED , or shiny thing analogous to a bulb but you can ' t call it that , the emitter board aka mcpcb metal core printed circuit board , the optics lens or reflector , the driver a circuit board that controls the current for the emitters , a switch and some wires and thermal paste to join everything together . A popular hotrod build is the convoy s 6 with 3 direct driven emitters direct drive means there is no current regulation so the led gets the full voltage of the battery , this is achieved by an electronic component called an FET . you can get all the components at mtn electronics you will need an s 6 host , a triple optic of your choice , an mcpcb with 3 emitters either 219 c or xpl HI , will explain below , a copper spacer , a driver with an FET the mtn electronics own brand one is good , the dr . Jones is better , you will get better runtimes with less heat on the medium modes , the firmware is different , some thermal paste and some 18 ish AWG wires may be included with driver or optics . For the emitter , an XPL HI is more efficient but lower CRI colour rendering index . It will also draw less current at a given voltage so it will put out less light but won ' t get as hot . The 219 c is what you want for max power and has a better colour rendering index but it will get hot . The brightest will be the 85 CRI one , then the 80 CRI one , then the 90 CRI one on BLF . As for tint with the nichia the first two numbers in the smxxx denotes the tint e . g . sm 505 denotes 5000 k . 5000 k is considered pure white , I wouldn ' t recommend any higher . I prefer warmer whites of 4000 k or below . If you are getting the bare emitters , you will have to reflow them yourself heat the board use a skillet or gas flame , put a tiny blob of solder on each contact , take it off the heat , align the LEDs I think the dot goes on the positive side , then heat it back up , apply a small amount of downwards pressure but the dome will be fragile , use tweezers oin the side if your hands are steady enough or use a q tip . you will want a small abount of thermal paste , enough to cover the surfaces but as thin as possible . Use pressure . you will also need paste between the spacer and the body . You will need a pypassed spring on the driver or a brass button and you will need to bypass the spriung on the tail , ideally put wire from a burron or blob of solder on the spring , through the board and directly to the switch . You will also need a high drain cell like a Samsung 30 Q .