Mexico I hope your head is not swimming from information overload :)
CPF and the mountain bike forum have good info. I'd be just as wary of drivers from DealExtreme as I am about chinese led panels from ebay, IMHO they're mostly all junk. If I recall correctly, CPF has resource links on where to buy well made well made drivers (made by the hobbyists for hobbyists)
You mention a well equipped workshop, making your own is not hard, far from rocket science :)
Here's a photo of my latest prototype LED driver circuit board. These are fixed brightness, no dimming support. They are dc-dc buck converters, for 12 volt applications. The design can accommodate any LED or string with a forward voltage of Vsupply - 1.0v (so with 12v in thats up to an 11v led) at up to 1 amp. These are constant current drivers, so the voltage of the LED is not important, only the current.
They are about 1 x 0.5 inch or 25 x 15 mm
