Originally Posted by
mrbubbles
LED is simple. Here's what you need for major components.
LED
Led lens
driver
simple switch/potentiometer
battery
You are forgetting the heat sink. And which driver? How do you choose? What does the driver do? Any other things you have to take into consideration for the LED to work? I've looked at what schematics I can find that and there's a whole lot more to them than a lamp, a battery and a wire. I'm not an electronics guy and the whole schemer looks very complicated.
Originally Posted by
mrbubbles
That's it. Not only that, dimming is easier, there's a much need highly visible flashing mode, 200 lumens flashing at 10 hertz is ridiculously bright, and much more noticeable than a 700 lumen steady light, you just can't miss it.
I have never understood the need for dimming of lights. I've never needed dimmer lights...if anything I want brighter! That's why I ride with 3 lamps putting out 1600 lumens...each! The only weapon I have at night on a bike is my lights and I'm already carrying a knife into a gunfight, why would I trade my knife for a rock?
As for the whole flashing thing, I've never understood the need. I'd much rather have a steady lamp that gives me good illumination of the road so that I can see hazards before I run into them. If I need to get a driver's attention, I have a very powerful (we're talking 100 m or more of throw) helmet light that gets far more attention than 200 lm of flashing light. Just riding down the road, my helmet light is moving all over the road.
Originally Posted by
mrbubbles
Overall, it's much more portable, transferable, and lighter (think 4 AAs battery plus 100 grams for the light).
Personally, I don't care about lightness of the unit. I care much more about illumination, i.e. light output. My system may not be as light as an LED but I can throw down much more light than any LED (or even HID) system currently made...commercial or DIY. I also have enough run time for what I need it to do. If I were doing rides that lasted longer than my current capacity (around 2.5 hour), I might consider LED. Or I could just carry a larger capacity battery.
Transferability is a function of the mounts you use. Some DIY LED systems don't look too transferable to me. Some DIY halogen systems can, and are, transfer from bike-to-bike in seconds. Personally, I wouldn't have a system that couldn't be easily transfered.