Can any of you point me in the direction of some form of literature giving advice on the actual electronics side of building these things? I’m thinking of having a go myself – I have access to plenty of CNC machines, so no problem knocking up a nice shiny housing, but as far as the gubbins inside goes, I haven’t the foggiest. Can anyone enlighten me?

I wouldn’t worry about the electronics, just buy a ready made driver board & LED boards like the bflex or maxflex & LED boards
You then only need 6 wires, two for battery, two for switch & two between the LED & driver boards.
You only need an optic (lens) & you can fit them in a housing of your own design.

As Snaps said

it all depends on what you are wanting to build
which leds
and how many

also your power source
these all have a bearing on which driver board to use .

if you can give a bit more info then we should be able to narrow it down as to which bits you require.

Thanks guys – not really sure what I want, LED-wise. I was thinking along the lines of 4 or 5 in a cylindrical housing, perhaps something in the order of 1000-1500 lumens…

Have a good browse around candlepower forums

Just visit cutter.com.au and you’ll find most stuff there.