cyccommute 

Yes. 2 hrs at 20W but less than an hour at 50W. I have some batteries with high capacity but these are silly bright anyway!

ericthered

Is there an issues when connecting battery packs in series? Do you charge the Packs seperately? If so what happens if you connect a dead and charged pack by accident? I am guessing that most of my back the head unsubstantiated warning bells would apply to a parallel configurations not series.
Nice right up.
Thanks,
Eric

diff_lock2

You can charge the packs it series if the charger can handle the large amount of cells. Mine can do up to 14cells so 2 6cell packs in series is just fine, and act like one 12cell pack when charging and discharging. You should not charge ni chemistry cells in parallel since you can end up with totally unbalanced cells.

cyccommute 

I have charged packs in parallel in the past without issues. I did use them in parallel, however, and didn't use packs that had been charged separately. My thoughts on it at the time was that I didn't want to run unbalanced packs connected in parallel. However, I now charge the 14.4 packs as a single unit, i.e. 2 packs in series. I haven't had any problems with my charger or the packs.

quester

cyccommute, how did you arrive at this number? I've found nothing like a quick and simple equation to calculate such a thing.

And as an example, any idea how many lumens this 35W M16 would be, overvolted to 14.4?


https://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=2251

Thanks,
pete

cyccommute 

I'm sure the equations are out there somewhere but I got number from here. A 35 W 12V lamp overvolted to 14.4V should give out 2290 lumens according to Steven Scharf.

cyccommute 

Dekindy's post on the LED shoot out got me to thinking about how to photograph my lights. Looking at the photo settings, I set my camera up to take pictures as close to the photos in the shoot out as possible. Using a Cannon A530 set to manual, ISO 100, 6 second exposure and an f-stop setting of 5.6 (I can't do 4.0), I took the following. These were taken on 10 January 2008 at 1724. Civil twilight is at 1724 in Denver. The pictures were taken on a couple of surfaces including blacktop and concrete with concrete being more reflective. The lights are 3 20W halogens overvolted to 14.4V. Two bulbs are 12 degree spots and 1 is a 35 degree flood. The camera is clamped to the bars at the same level as the handlebar lights.

I also discovered the video feature of my camera and was able to take a very crude video of about 100 yards of the trail I ride. What I find most interesting about the video is that it shows something I've noticed about bar lights for a very long time...that the light goes where you don't really need it. Maybe I can figure out how to mount the camera to my head.

Concrete



Blacktop



19 second video of the lights in action.

Sir Bikesalot

Interesting idea, but I don't know that you can compare directly without using the same lens and equivalent focal length, which wasn't reported. Plus the two cameras may have different sensor sensitivities.

diff_lock2

In the vid they sure look WHITE, I am guessing that is just the WB on the cam right?

cyccommute 

Probably. I hadn't messed with the video feature before the very start of the video last night. I just used the factory settings.

cyccommute 

Film is so much easier

Zero_Enigma

Must....see.....in...per...son...myself.....must.....ride...with...you.....sometime.

Damn... Any plans coming up north anytime.

cyccommute 

Not for a while but wouldn't these be a blast in the Elroy-Sparta tunnels?

HiYoSilver

Huh?? I thought you were using 20w bulbs. At +20% that would be 1,555 lumens and not 2,290 using the MR16 bulb. But it drops to 730 lumens with the MR11 bulb.

What is strange about the table is a 20w MR11 is 400 lumens and 10w MR11 is 190 lumens for a total of 590 lumens.
Same table, shows L&M HID at 675 or 550 lumens. I used to ride with 20w+10w NiMH dual and HID is much brighter even at the lower 550 setting. So with multiple lights are lumens not strict addition**********

cyccommute 

Quester was asking about 35W bulbs overvolted. I do use 20W. I found it a good balance between light output and run time. At 1500 lumen, the 20W is stupidly bright anyway

I've found that, while the light output for 2 lamps is good, if you can get the same output from a single bulb you'll have a brighter light. As soon as the light leaves the bulb, it's intensity starts to decay...probably in the square of distance (I'm too lazy to go look right now). Not doing a lot of math (I'm still lazy), twice as much light from the single source will result in twice as much light at any given distance. Each light source has to be treated independently.

That's one of the problems I have with LED. It'd be pretty easy to put together a 1550 lumen LED system but the light hitting the ground out in front of you wouldn't be as bright as a single source.

Short answer? No I don't think that lumens can be strictly added.

evblazer

Is there a way to focus the light more on the road since it is throwing out so much light? Even having my old overvolted halogen angled downish it was like a high beam.

I found my old PVC?Hoseclamp 20 watt MR16s that were on my old BikeE which was retired. I would like to start using them again but I'm concerned about run time. 1 1/2 hours isn't enough for one way of my commute. I found some 10W bulbs which overvolted a bit should still outshine the dinotte but double my run time vrs 20w. 732 lumens vs 200 should still be brighter even with the wider beam.

cyccommute 

What is the beam angle of your light? A narrower spot will throw more light with less beam spread. While 12 degree bulbs seem to be the norm for spot lights, I've seen them in 7 degree too. I tried one of the 7 degree bulbs but it was too long for my housings. That shouldn't be a problem with PVC. I got them from Light bulbs direct...I think.

For run time, you could get a higher capacity battery. A 4.5Ahr battery with a 20W bulb would give you around 3.25 hours. Battery Space has some higher capacity batteries than that or you could just carry more packs. Or a charger at work? There's lots of ways around run time.

evblazer

The only 10watts I have found are narrow floods and floods but I'm going to keep looking. The narrow is 24degrees which may be too wide. The 20 watts I have in PVC right now I just got from the hardware store, GE brand I think, and I think were spot of some sort. It would be nice to be able to have a Hi(20watt)/Low(10watt) to extend the runtime of a 3.3ah pack and I could charge at work.

rm -rf

How many hours do you get before the bulb burns out? It's good that you have two lights, since they won't burn out at the same time.

evblazer

Here is a chart I found which seems to match some other data I have seen

overvolting puts a big hit on bulb life, bulb are roughly $3 though so no biggie.
I was able to go a whole winter season on a 20watt bulb . Rated 2000 hours in home use the chart shows 90% loss, I've seen on some sites mention of 95%. Mine lasted 2 hours a day 5 days a week 4 months+ which was at least 160 hours with no issues. I pulled it out of the attic this week and it still works great. IIRC it kept my hands nice and warm at stop lights too

HiYoSilver

Ok, thanks. It makes sense.

harleyfrog

cyccommute:

I was checking out your lighting system and all I can say is WOW! I might actually try this.

I do have a question, though. Have you had any experience with this lighting set-up in fog, I mean really think, pea soup fog? We've been having quite a bit of that lately here on the Gulf Coast and I remember when I took driver's ed in high school that you should not use your high beams in the fog because it can reflect back at you and make it worse. I notice that there is a fog light companion and wondered if it would be worth having it as a second (wide beam/fog) light.

cyccommute 

No, I haven't. Fog generally forms only when you have enough water in the air. With a mean relative humidity in the teens, the only fog I ever get to see is from my own breath

I have ridden with my MR11 system in snow storms and I'd suggest not running a helmet light in those situations. Looks a bit like the opening of Star Trek...how nerdy is that? Fog would probably have the same effect.

cyccommute 

I've only popped an MR bulb once. I've been using the MR11 for 15 years at least and I just started the MR16 this year. I'd expect to get about 400 hours out of them (20% of the capacity at nominal voltage) but 400 hours is about 300 trips to work. I average 12 trips to work a month and use my lights from the end of October to the end of February or about 60 times a year. That should be about 5 years per bulb but I've been luckier than that

Jonahhobbes

Just wondering as I'm just sourcing the batteries etc, no mean feat in New Zealand I can tell you. Can the NiMh batteries that you use RC types stand being overcharged? Although the sealed batteries I have used in the past weigh a ton they can stand being left on the charger when you put them on and fall asleep in front of the TV type scenario; unlike the Vision stick/Nite Flux Nimh which would totally get screwed if you overcharged them. Also what sort of life do the batteries have?

I emailed this guy who supplies RC stuff: "Hi,

I am intending to build another set of lights for my bicycle and was wondering if you could recommend a battery/batteries? I intend to run a 20watt halogen bulb and am looking at around 1hr minimum run time. I have used a12v 4amphour SLA batteries but want to go for something lighter. One website recommends x2NiMH RC car battery packs, which are 7.2 volts, 3 AmpHours each, connected together via a Y cable or something similar to power the bulb. Do you think these RC batteries would be up to the task? If so do you stock the batteries, chargers and connecting Y cable and what sort of cost would I be looking at?"

The build I was looking at was very similar to yours, I used this as an example because I forgot to favorite this page and could not find it quickly


His reply:

"Hi I would say li poly would be best as they are less than half the weight of ni cads but they are expensive and you need a special charger. I carry a large range of batteries and chargers with cables. What I don't have I can get in."


I've read that Li poly batteries are more expensive and have some weird safety issues.

I am just wondering if the system is worth the hassle as we don't have anything near a Radioshack or battery outlets over here and sourcing stuff is a nightmare, also a local company is offering very very cheap deals on commercial light systems. Grrrr sometimes living over here is so frustrating!

Sealed=weighs a ton but works for ever taking a million recharges quickly without memory issues. Cheap and does the job.

Commercial Nimh systems= No sourcing problems, you get a complete set up. They suck if you commute as they get messed up if left to long on the charger, never seem to stand multiple recharging, expensive although getting cheaper, very light. I have tried about 3 types from cheap to expensive and never had any that stood more than a years daily use.

Homemade Retinal burners= ? Need to find the components, batteries, chargers, wiring, (bulbs easy though), the cost of making them is getting close to the cheaper commercial systems.


Any advice would be appreciated!