Resistors too hot (tri-cree stunt): nearly 200°F

[vivid-dark]

Note: this is not the final wiring, this is just a test to check long-term performance, I'll be adding a switch later (the first one I used literally fried). Also yes, I know the battery is huge, I built a custom hilt myself to fit it.
I have 3 photo/deep red crees wired in parallel with a 1.2ohm 3w resistor each (from tcss: https://www.thecustomsabershop.com/1...istor-P22.aspx).

The problem: after only 10 minutes of operation, when I tested the temperature of the resistors with a thermal probe, they were over 90°C (193°F) and rising!

Not so great for either the safety of the internals or my hand, not to mention the not-so-insignificant loss of battery life being converted to useless heat energy.
Does anyone have any ideas how to make the wiring more efficient and/or less dangerous using the existing power source?

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

Giving off heat is what the resistors do.

You’re direct driving them I assume from the diagram? If so, the only thing I could recommend is you use larger wattage resistors if you are that concerned about the heat. Also the third die isn’t going to make that much of a difference in the “brightness factor”, so you could disconnect that if you absolutely had to.

[vivid-dark]

Yeah, I get that it's what they're supposed to do, but presently I just have the resistors free-floating inside the hilt so they could potentially transfer that heat directly to the aluminium, or touch other wires. Thanks for the tip though, I'll try a higher wattage resistor. And I should probably anchor the resistors to a circuit board just for good measure, now that I've read what I just wrote lol.

Edit: yes, direct driving, as buckpuck requires 5V sadly

[vivid-dark]

On second thought, I think I'll re-solder the crees in series and use a step-up/boost converter instead of resistors, since I have a lot of amperage to work with.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

On second thought, I think I'll re-solder the crees in series and use a step-up/boost converter instead of resistors, since I have a lot of amperage to work with.

That won’t work.

[jbkuma]

That won’t work.

Why do you think this won't work? I don't think it's a great idea, but there's no reason it wouldn't work given the appropriate circuit. This is how power banks work. It's just another thing that wastes energy and gets hot to hit the correct output, though.