Converting old lights for LED
 

Who's done this and how have you gone about it? How do you make it hold up to the rattles of the road? Southpaw I know you have!
I painted and rewired a beyond saving dynamo headlight from my dad's Hercules months ago but I've never been able to get the set up just right.
I used a cheepy 9 led flashlight that's plenty bright and the battery case that was part of it. The hole for the original wiring was ground a bit larger to accommodate the switch and the original dish was ground out in the middle to have a larger hole for the new light to fit in. I used to be able to fit it in there by tension but it's popping out so I'll have to silicone it.
But the wires I used are stiff and one keeps breaking at the connection point to the switch when it gets rattled around so much on the ride. Unfortunately I don't know what type of wires are appropriate for this. I think I'm taking a trip to the radio shack today haha.

Here's the Frankenlight in question:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/...2cccd5bb48.jpg

I've done this a hundred times, and the last few attempts have been pretty successful. But I always power them with hub dynamos.

I'll typically start with one white LED such as this for the headlight, and a matching red one for the tail, such as this. Each one needs ahttp://ledsupply.com/10732.php. The front one gets a tight lens, the rear one an elliptical one. Wire them in sequence; so one wire comes from the hub to the headlight, another wire from the headlight to the taillight, a third wire from the taillight back to the hub. At the hub connection I solder together four schottky diodes to rectify the current. It's better (and easier) to use four separate diodes than to use a pre-made bridge rectifier. The four diodes are small enough to fit inside a piece of heat shrink tubing, from which exit two J-shaped leads at one end; each of these consists of the leads from two of the diodes, soldered together;

Each star LED, together with its lens and lens holder, can be made to fit into a copper cap for a 3/4" copper plumbing pipe. That's a good idea because it will serve as a heat sink; all together, it comes to a piece of copper about the size of a marshmellow with just a pair of wires coming out a small hole at the back; pretty robust and close enough to waterproof. And if you want, you can mount that inside an old fashioned headlight or taillight.

I've been meaning to make some photos of the process... I'll get to it, I promise!

Here's one approach:

http://www.home.earthlink.net/~stein...erchandise.htm

Here's another:

http://minisystem.blogspot.com/2008/...-charging.html