I reached a dead end road with not being able to figure why R1 won't give me the required voltage drop. So trying a different tack. Found an old workshop light driven by NiMh batteries ( long dead). I want to transpose those leds to my light.
Photo of old light with new ring for magnifying light
Photo of the wiring for resistor on bottom
This runs off a 7.2V NiMh battery. I get it to light up feeding approx 7V into white wire (KW)positive and blue wire (V-) negative.
Now I need to figure out if this is one long string of +- connected leds or whether there are 3 lines in parallel
Moderators note : removed double images