Originally Posted by EricDJ
Anyone who is an electonics person with amps and volts out there. Wondering if there is a way to update some old lighting that I have had since 89/90. The front light takes a Halogen Bulb that is 2.5V - 0.5A. The rear is a small screw in style that is 2.5v and 0.3amp. Is there a way to get a brighter bulb like an LED? I'm getting new lights for the road bike, but If these can keep on going, why not use em. They are ok as is, but if they can be improved, i'm all for trying it.
Well... the LED upgrades aren't really worth the cost. For that kind of money, you can build your own halogen floodlight system like the
The Geek Bike and have 10x the lumens output of the LEDs.
An immediate upgrade for you is to find the Krypton or Xenon bulbs for Mag-Lites. These put out about 2x the light-output as the old vacuum incandescent bulbs. Youcan find them at Home Depot or Big-5 sporting goods stores and are good for about 20 lumens or so.
Another step up from there to 41 lumens output is a higher-power bulb, ni-cad/nimh batteries only:
CL618 Carley-lamps
With a little work, you can install li-ion batteries in your light to get 7.2v and run even higher-power bulbs in the 6-10w range:
CL716 Carley-lamps, 6w 129 lumens
CL612 Carley-lamps, 10w 182 lumens
But these will probably melt the plastic housing/reflector in your light.