Vintage lighting thread.............retro upgrades accepted
03-19-13, 01:48 PM
#1
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Vintage lighting thread.............retro upgrades accepted
I did search the forum before I started this.
I remember someone was working on a new vintage light..could not find the link.
if you have some vintage light stories or pics please post them here!
I just got to share this with you,
last week I was acquiring some n.o.s. stuff to turn into cash and there are always odds and ends around.
I saw this, it had 3 very large dents on it and I asked If I could buy it-"Gift" he said
I took it home and with a tiny ball peen hammer and a kitchen spoon I worked it and got almost perfect results.
what amazes me is the optic in it-thats real glass and its solid.
Im thinking beacuse of the optic it would convert to high power LED very easily.
dont have an application for it-but maybe the Cresto.
I remember someone was working on a new vintage light..could not find the link.
if you have some vintage light stories or pics please post them here!
I just got to share this with you,
last week I was acquiring some n.o.s. stuff to turn into cash and there are always odds and ends around.
I saw this, it had 3 very large dents on it and I asked If I could buy it-"Gift" he said
I took it home and with a tiny ball peen hammer and a kitchen spoon I worked it and got almost perfect results.
what amazes me is the optic in it-thats real glass and its solid.
Im thinking beacuse of the optic it would convert to high power LED very easily.
dont have an application for it-but maybe the Cresto.
Last edited by puchfinnland; 03-19-13 at 01:54 PM.
03-19-13, 01:52 PM
#2
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I am hoping to use it with this dyno...
MEYLAS STANDARD
made in Germany D.R.P.
The "D.R.P." is a tight dating information - it's an abbreviation for "Deutsche Reichs-Patent". That means it's patented between 1936 and 1945- I have heard that some manufacturers continued into the 50's without retooling or remarking the product
MEYLAS STANDARD
made in Germany D.R.P.
The "D.R.P." is a tight dating information - it's an abbreviation for "Deutsche Reichs-Patent". That means it's patented between 1936 and 1945- I have heard that some manufacturers continued into the 50's without retooling or remarking the product
03-19-13, 01:55 PM
#3
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Mike, I love the French flag colors on the toothbrush. You're living in the wrong country, man!
I've done a lot of LED retrofits over the past few years, and honestly, I don't think it's worth the effort for headlights. For taillights, yes, because they don't really need optics. Old optics tend to be pretty poor focusing a good beam pattern, and LEDs generally emit light in a very narrow angle such that they're not well matched to traditional lenses, which tend to work better with a diffuse light source, like an incandescent bulb. If you're just interested in brightening the light up a bit, sure, but it's never going to have the focusing power of an Edelux or IQ Cyo.
The easiest thing to do is source a replacement "bulb" LED. I've seen them on ebay.de. It's an LED but attached to a traditional screw-in base, like the one your headlight was made for. I tried buying one but the seller wouldn't ship to the US. Perhaps he'll ship to Finland?
I've done a lot of LED retrofits over the past few years, and honestly, I don't think it's worth the effort for headlights. For taillights, yes, because they don't really need optics. Old optics tend to be pretty poor focusing a good beam pattern, and LEDs generally emit light in a very narrow angle such that they're not well matched to traditional lenses, which tend to work better with a diffuse light source, like an incandescent bulb. If you're just interested in brightening the light up a bit, sure, but it's never going to have the focusing power of an Edelux or IQ Cyo.
The easiest thing to do is source a replacement "bulb" LED. I've seen them on ebay.de. It's an LED but attached to a traditional screw-in base, like the one your headlight was made for. I tried buying one but the seller wouldn't ship to the US. Perhaps he'll ship to Finland?
03-19-13, 01:55 PM
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anyon eelse rememberv riding as a kid with a generatior light? kind of a fun romantic memory, there was always a little mystery to it. now with leds blazing there is almost no mystery left at night. it is fun though to use only a strobe at nite in falling snow
03-19-13, 02:21 PM
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The easiest thing to do is source a replacement "bulb" LED. I've seen them on ebay.de. It's an LED but attached to a traditional screw-in base, like the one your headlight was made for. I tried buying one but the seller wouldn't ship to the US. Perhaps he'll ship to Finland?
03-19-13, 02:26 PM
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I would LOVE if Velo Orange (or anyone else) would bring back these stainless steel flashlight brackets:
03-19-13, 02:56 PM
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oh this optic is solid and focused very well on the bulb,the reflector is more of a bulb holder.very much like modern headlights.
03-19-13, 02:56 PM
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Thanks for that link! Might work well with my 1951 dyno-equipped Raleigh.
03-19-13, 04:00 PM
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I have a fair sized box of vintage lights, both generator and battery powered. Need to get pictures up. Anybody remember Wonder Lights? 
Aaron
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Webshots is bailing out, if you find any of my posts with corrupt picture files and want to see them corrected please let me know. :(
ISO: A late 1980's Giant Iguana MTB frameset (or complete bike) 23" Red with yellow graphics.
"Cycling should be a way of life, not a hobby.
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"Steel: nearly a thousand years of metallurgical development
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Which one would you rather have under your butt at 30mph?"_krazygluon
03-19-13, 08:28 PM
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03-19-13, 08:38 PM
#11
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If you didn't see it before, you might be interested in the thread with photos of the guts of my c. 1950 Robin Hood headlight.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...our?highlight=
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...our?highlight=
03-20-13, 08:09 AM
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I've done a lot of LED retrofits over the past few years, and honestly, I don't think it's worth the effort for headlights. ... Old optics tend to be pretty poor focusing a good beam pattern, and LEDs generally emit light in a very narrow angle such that they're not well matched to traditional lenses....
) works as well as it does because the filament in an incandescent light bulb is always in the same place, and pretty small. It emits light in all directions, and since the bulb is fairly far back in the parabola, most of its light hits the parabola and is then reflected forward. So you have a double beam pattern; the light that misses the parabola makes a wide and weak beam, and the light that hits the reflector forms a narrower and brighter beam. The only problem is that the bulb is pretty weak to begin with. Replace that bulb with an LED bulb, and all the light goes forward, but all of it misses the reflector, so you get only that wide and weak beam; not great unless the bulb is especially powerful, and, well, they usually aren't.
But higher power modern LED's are marketed with specific optics that reflect their light extremely efficiently. That's what you need.
So if you want to retrofit an old headlight, you have to completely ditch the old reflector and replace it with an LED and its optics. This is not hard to do.
Here is are a couple posts from another thread in which I described the process:
This is a German made lamp from the 60's I guess; aluminum bullet shaped housing, aluminum bezel, aluminum reflector holding a 2.4W bulb, and plastic lens. I removed all the internals, including the aluminum reflector, and replaced that all with copper bits made from plumbing pipe. The electronics include four schottky diodes, Cree x-re star LED's in white (front) and red (rear), and an elliptical lens on the front one. 
There is no capacitor for smoothing, so it will flash at low speeds. I suppose that's a safety feature. And there's no switch, so if the wheel is turning, the light is on. That, too, is a safety feature.Attachment 200388
I use copper because it's soft enough to cut with a hacksaw (or coping saw or saber saw) and shape with a hand file, you can solder it, and it conducts heat well. Bonus: it won't rust.
I cut and flattened out a piece of copper pipe into a square from which I cut a disk the same size as the original parabolic reflector from the headlight; then I cut a hole in the middle of that and soldered a copper cap --the one made for 3/4" copper pipe-- into that hole. This makes a hat-shaped copper thing. If you file the corners of the black plastic lens holder, you can make it fit all the way into that cap. Drill a hole in the back of the cap for the wires. The LED+lens holder+lens are held to the copper cap with a drop of heat conductive compound. The copper piece, complete with the LED, is held in place in the bezel with four little W-shaped steel springs (original). I put extra solder on the back of the copper disk because I thought the steel springs would need to press against something; this proved unnecessary.
The bridge rectifier is soldered together from four schottky diodes in the configuration shown here. Four diodes are arranged as two pairs, their polarity reversed. Their leads at one end of each pair are formed into hook shapes and soldered together. Then the positive lead from each pair are attached to the positive wire; similarly the negative leads are attached to the negative wire. Some heat shrink tubing is employed to insulate the wires. The four diodes can be fit into a larger piece of heat shrink tubing.
The head and tail light LED's are wired in series; so the positive wire goes to the headlight, the negative wire goes to the taillight, and a third wire connects the negative on the headlight LED to the positive on the tail light LED.
I use copper because it's soft enough to cut with a hacksaw (or coping saw or saber saw) and shape with a hand file, you can solder it, and it conducts heat well. Bonus: it won't rust.
I cut and flattened out a piece of copper pipe into a square from which I cut a disk the same size as the original parabolic reflector from the headlight; then I cut a hole in the middle of that and soldered a copper cap --the one made for 3/4" copper pipe-- into that hole. This makes a hat-shaped copper thing. If you file the corners of the black plastic lens holder, you can make it fit all the way into that cap. Drill a hole in the back of the cap for the wires. The LED+lens holder+lens are held to the copper cap with a drop of heat conductive compound. The copper piece, complete with the LED, is held in place in the bezel with four little W-shaped steel springs (original). I put extra solder on the back of the copper disk because I thought the steel springs would need to press against something; this proved unnecessary.
The bridge rectifier is soldered together from four schottky diodes in the configuration shown here. Four diodes are arranged as two pairs, their polarity reversed. Their leads at one end of each pair are formed into hook shapes and soldered together. Then the positive lead from each pair are attached to the positive wire; similarly the negative leads are attached to the negative wire. Some heat shrink tubing is employed to insulate the wires. The four diodes can be fit into a larger piece of heat shrink tubing.
The head and tail light LED's are wired in series; so the positive wire goes to the headlight, the negative wire goes to the taillight, and a third wire connects the negative on the headlight LED to the positive on the tail light LED.
03-20-13, 08:15 AM
#13
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Since then I've worked out an even simpler way to do these, skipping the Schottky diodes entirely. I take one of the wires from the dynamo and split it into two wires, and run one of them to the + terminal of the headlight and the - terminal of the taillight; similarly I split the other wire from the dynamo and run one of the wires to the - terminal of the headlight and the + terminal of the taillight. The result is that the head and tail lights flash alternately. Each one gets the full power of the dynamo, but only half of the time. It is awesomely primitive, from an electronics standpoint, but it works. No switch, no capacitor, no smoothing, no standlight.
Last edited by southpawboston; 03-20-13 at 08:21 AM.
03-20-13, 08:24 AM
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Well, sure, if you speak that language! But if I wrote that, someone might mistake me for someone who understands electronics, and then where would we be!
03-20-13, 11:16 AM
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rudi-look at the pic of the glass on the tiles-it is a true lens, its 1/2" solid glass in the center
03-20-13, 11:32 AM
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The lens is fine. I can see it works as a magnifying glass, but beyond that I don't know exactly what its optic properties are. Doesn't really matter; I wouldn't do anything to that. The problem is the parabolic reflector. It serves two purposes: to hold the bulb and to reflect the light forward. When you replace the bulb with an LED of any kind, it will serve one of those purposes badly, and the other not at all. That's the part you have to replace.
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