DIY Lights
- Thread starter GSTim
- Start date
ArmyOfNone
Well-Known Member
I cant wait to see what that looks like on the trails
The future is indeed LED for sure.
Soon enough we will see LED technology catch up and pass HID.
This will make night riding even more popular as the price drops.
I have a customer who uses lasers, and LEDs in his work.
He says that the super LED stuff he uses in the lab will be in the hands of consumers within 3 year.
j
Soon enough we will see LED technology catch up and pass HID.
This will make night riding even more popular as the price drops.
I have a customer who uses lasers, and LEDs in his work.
He says that the super LED stuff he uses in the lab will be in the hands of consumers within 3 year.
j
Nice job!
What kind of LEDs are in there? Do you have details on the headlight build? Regulator/controller? What capacity are those cells?
I'm currently waiting for a few SSC P4s, I've got everything else. I'll be testing with regular rechargeable batteries I have laying around at first, but eventually I'll be getting one of those Li-ion packs so I'd like to size it.
Supposedly 3 SSC P4s at 1A should give me some decent light and it's a fun project. I've been playing around with a single CREE (don't know what bin...) at 1A and that thing gives out way more light than an overvolted 10W halogen...
Cheers,
Maurice
What kind of LEDs are in there? Do you have details on the headlight build? Regulator/controller? What capacity are those cells?
I'm currently waiting for a few SSC P4s, I've got everything else. I'll be testing with regular rechargeable batteries I have laying around at first, but eventually I'll be getting one of those Li-ion packs so I'd like to size it.
Supposedly 3 SSC P4s at 1A should give me some decent light and it's a fun project. I've been playing around with a single CREE (don't know what bin...) at 1A and that thing gives out way more light than an overvolted 10W halogen...
Cheers,
Maurice
J-Dro
Well-Known Member
Geek alert!!:scared:
These are Cree XR-E P4 bin LED's. The light is using a buck driver converting 14.4 volts to drive the 3 LED's at 11.1volts. In high mode, the current draw at the battery is ~530mA and the current supplied to the LED's is ~710mA. I used 4 Li-Ion battery cells rated at 2300mAH wired in series to get 14.4v battery pack.
As you can see, I'm only running my LEDs at 710mA and the amount of light is incredible. At 1 amp, it must be unbelievable. But your enemy is going to be HEAT. Thats the achilies heal of any LED light system. You have to allow for adequate heat dissipation.
This is just a fun side project for me too since I already have an HID light that is more then adequate. But the learning process has been fun. The newest Cree Q5 bin LEDs are out now too and supposedly give even more lumens/watt.
Jeff, I suggest quit the day job, hire some local kids for $5.00/hr and go into business for yo'self. I'd bet you could sell them for $125 or so
then again, you'd have to field phone calls for tech support so forget it
but impressive, nonetheless. very cool stuff.
C
Crankfire
Guest
I have had slight success with DIY lights. That is if you consider success starting with brightness and soon after ending with fire? :hmmm:
A buddy and I built these:
http://www.racedaynutrition.com/features/bikelight.aspx
We liked the design, and they were pretty bright running on just AA's. Kind of a pain to build though.
When I take mine apart to see what caught fire I will probably do away with using the binder clip (it was too cramped in there IMO). We also only put 1 switch on the binder and planned to put the other right on the battery pack itself. Again, just because the clip was stuffed to all heck already. The battery plan was to use a pvc tube and make a battery stick, but I was using a AA battery pack from radio shack.
A few other places for DIY info:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1755372
and
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=295664
A buddy and I built these:
http://www.racedaynutrition.com/features/bikelight.aspx
We liked the design, and they were pretty bright running on just AA's. Kind of a pain to build though.
When I take mine apart to see what caught fire I will probably do away with using the binder clip (it was too cramped in there IMO). We also only put 1 switch on the binder and planned to put the other right on the battery pack itself. Again, just because the clip was stuffed to all heck already. The battery plan was to use a pvc tube and make a battery stick, but I was using a AA battery pack from radio shack.
A few other places for DIY info:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?p=1755372
and
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=295664
J-Dro
Well-Known Member
Yikes! Where was the fire? In the light head or in the battery pack? Did you use any sort of battery protection or current limiting device?
Your mechanical design was a lot more involved then mine. I basically just modified an existing flashlight assembly and rewired it for an external battery pack. I do like the McGeyver quality though.
J-Dro
Well-Known Member
Well, I haven't had a chance to use my new light off-road yet, but from playing around at home, the L&M HID seems to have a softer bluish flood type pattern. The new LED light is bright white, more of a narrow spot beam with a hot spot in the center. And the LED really punches through and illuminates further down the trail, which makes sense because of the spot beam. This probably has more to do with the optics assembly that I'm using. Depending how deep you want to get into this, you can buy optics with just about any beam spread if you wanted a pattern that is more of a flood beam. I'll try to take a pic of the beam patterns when I get a chance.
ArmyOfNone
Well-Known Member
When are these up for sale?
GSTim
Formerly M3Tim
Helmet Mount
After riding at 6-mile with the bar mounts I decided I needed a helmet mount to see the corners better. Just tried it out tonight and worked great. Helmet mount seems to work much better for tight and twisty trails. Just used some velcro straps to tie it on:
P.S. Mtbdawg that LED light is SWEET. Where did you get the flashlight to modify?
After riding at 6-mile with the bar mounts I decided I needed a helmet mount to see the corners better. Just tried it out tonight and worked great. Helmet mount seems to work much better for tight and twisty trails. Just used some velcro straps to tie it on:
P.S. Mtbdawg that LED light is SWEET. Where did you get the flashlight to modify?
J-Dro
Well-Known Member
This thread has become way too tidy, it's time somebody put "ghetto" back in DIY.
This works wonderfully:
Notice the custom battery pack. I finally found a use for those bottles that are too small to fit in a bottle cage
Light goes on the bar or helmet quite easily, it's fairly small and light. I've used it to ride trails by myself, and commute on the road (a couple times in the rain, didn't go pop so that says something).
The batteries are 12 x 1.2V AA rechargeable. With 2.7Ah I get a little over 2.5 hours of runtime. I tried a L&M ARC (thanks jdog) and this one has a much more usable beam, on the trail it's lots of light.
Cost: light ~$50 (but then I've got loads of left over square pipe), batteries + charger $30.
I'm going to build some more just for the fun of it, but mostly because this one was more of a trial project to see if these things were usable.
This works wonderfully:
Notice the custom battery pack. I finally found a use for those bottles that are too small to fit in a bottle cage
Light goes on the bar or helmet quite easily, it's fairly small and light. I've used it to ride trails by myself, and commute on the road (a couple times in the rain, didn't go pop so that says something).
The batteries are 12 x 1.2V AA rechargeable. With 2.7Ah I get a little over 2.5 hours of runtime. I tried a L&M ARC (thanks jdog) and this one has a much more usable beam, on the trail it's lots of light.
Cost: light ~$50 (but then I've got loads of left over square pipe), batteries + charger $30.
I'm going to build some more just for the fun of it, but mostly because this one was more of a trial project to see if these things were usable.
J-Dro
Well-Known Member
Maurice, Thats awesome. What are you using for a driver circuit for the LED's?
This DIY thing is addicting. I'm currently working on a triple LED light for my buddies Schmidt dynohub. The hub puts out AC not DC, so it adds a bunch of complexity. He is currently running it with a 5 watt halogen bulb so this upgrade is going to blow that away.
This DIY thing is addicting. I'm currently working on a triple LED light for my buddies Schmidt dynohub. The hub puts out AC not DC, so it adds a bunch of complexity. He is currently running it with a 5 watt halogen bulb so this upgrade is going to blow that away.
J-Dro
Well-Known Member
I used to do what Maurice did... use rechargable AA NiMh barreries. They are cheap and easy to obtain and chargers are readily available.
Lately I have been using old laptop Li-Ion cells to make battery packs. These are smaller and have more capacity then NiMh cells but you need to know what you're doing so you don't explode the cells. You need to protect the cells from overcharging and short circuits, otherwise very bad things can happen.
Thanks.
I'm using this
I think they also make an AC version of it.
I don't know how many watts that kind of hub can put out, but I believe it's dependent on speed. That should be interesting, and will definitely be a lot more light than 5watt halogen, but I wouldn't use more than 2 of these LEDs, unless you're driving them at a lower current.