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Cyccommute's Retinal Burners...DIY lights

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Cyccommute's Retinal Burners...DIY lights

Old 04-21-08, 08:43 AM
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I think the overcharging problem of nimh can be overcome with the right 'smart' charger.
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Old 04-21-08, 03:57 PM
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Originally Posted by 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!
Each lamp is about $100 (US) using the setup I have. That's for everything except the charger. You don't have to use the fog lights, PVC or even track lighting works well. As long as it will stand the heat, you should be fine.

NiMH batteries don't like overcharging anymore than any other battery but that's why you need a good charger that measures heat and charge. When you get to a certain point, the charger will shut off or go into a trickle mode. There's lot's of smart chargers out there. Your RC guy should have them or check with a ham radio shop.
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Old 04-21-08, 05:44 PM
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
Each lamp is about $100 (US) using the setup I have. That's for everything except the charger. You don't have to use the fog lights, PVC or even track lighting works well. As long as it will stand the heat, you should be fine.

NiMH batteries don't like overcharging anymore than any other battery but that's why you need a good charger that measures heat and charge. When you get to a certain point, the charger will shut off or go into a trickle mode. There's lot's of smart chargers out there. Your RC guy should have them or check with a ham radio shop.
thanks again.
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Old 04-22-08, 07:20 AM
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Originally Posted by Jonahhobbes
thanks again.
Be creative about the housing and parts. There's lots of stuff out there that can be adapted easily to make lights. Just be a clever monkey
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Old 09-14-08, 08:26 PM
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
Not for a while but wouldn't these be a blast in the Elroy-Sparta tunnels?
The what tunnels? Can you provide me with more info on this? Thanks in advance.
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Old 09-14-08, 08:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Zero_Enigma
The what tunnels? Can you provide me with more info on this? Thanks in advance.
Could this be them??? https://www.elroy-sparta-trail.com/
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Old 09-15-08, 07:31 AM
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Originally Posted by greparm
Yea, those. The Trail of the Hiawatha in Idaho has a mile long tunnel that would be fun too. We have a couple of those length tunnels in Colorado but our high altitude and cold winters are hard on them so they are closed...bummer.
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Old 09-16-08, 10:33 AM
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Good guide You got your handlebar/helmet mount links backwards though.
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Old 10-23-09, 02:59 PM
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
Batteries.

Since you’ll want to run the lamp at 14.4 V to get the best light output, you’ll need to wire the RC car batteries in series. You’ll need to make a harness to do this that will take the negative pole from one battery pack and connect it to the positive pole of the other battery pack and then make sure that it all connects to the light. This is easier than it sounds. I use Dean’s and my connections are complicated and ugly…but they work.

<Snip>


The Anderson power poles are easier to do this and would be my choice if I didn’t have so much invested in the Dean’s.

<Snip>

Just make sure you have a black wire running from one pack to the red wire on the other pack.

I charge my packs as a single 14.4V unit so that I don’t have power imbalances in the packs…and so that I only have to charge 3 packs and not 6 different ones.

Once I get the packs wired up I put them in the Rocket Cage holder and put them in a water bottle cage.

<Snip>

My helmet light is powered by a pack carried in my Camelbak. (No picture)

The final result is this



Over 4500 lumens of raw retinal burning power. People at my work hum the Darth Vader theme when I leave work at night. In nearly 30 years of riding at night these are the brightest lights I've owned or ever seen. I even got high beams flashed at me for the first time ever...by a guy in a 4x4...up a hill from me I have arrived!
Does that light melt the tape on your handlebars? How much heat does that thing generate?
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Old 10-23-09, 03:37 PM
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Originally Posted by 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.
If you're building your own light set, you could either install separate switches on each lamp. Or use a dimmer switch.
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Old 10-23-09, 04:58 PM
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Originally Posted by Digital_Cowboy
Does that light melt the tape on your handlebars? How much heat does that thing generate?
Not as much as you'd think. The housing is a metal housing and the mount is on a Spacebar. That keeps it away from bars. However, even then, the housing gets only warm to the touch...not hot.
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Old 10-23-09, 05:58 PM
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Originally Posted by cyccommute
Not as much as you'd think. The housing is a metal housing and the mount is on a Spacebar. That keeps it away from bars. However, even then, the housing gets only warm to the touch...not hot.
My Marwi system the light housings can and do get rather warm over time, so I can see it. Looks nice, and it throws a lot of light.
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Old 10-23-09, 09:37 PM
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cyccommute,

Your DIY project has inspired me to use a different Optronics housing to create a multiple LED headlight. The thin light fog kit looks perfect for a multiple led project.


I want to use 4-6 CREE XP-Es to build a head light. (Heck with a second housing unit in the kit, maybe I'll use it and do the "Ktronik Blinder LED Tail Light" described in a thread at Endless-Sphere. https://endless-sphere.com/forums/vie...hp?f=2&t=13479 The video posted by the member who started that thread and has completed wiring his LEDs and driver (ambroseliao) is awesome. https://picasaweb.google.com/ambrosel...31406943924498
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Old 10-25-09, 10:52 AM
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Originally Posted by nwmtnbkr
cyccommute,

Your DIY project has inspired me to use a different Optronics housing to create a multiple LED headlight. The thin light fog kit looks perfect for a multiple led project.


I want to use 4-6 CREE XP-Es to build a head light. (Heck with a second housing unit in the kit, maybe I'll use it and do the "Ktronik Blinder LED Tail Light" described in a thread at Endless-Sphere. https://endless-sphere.com/forums/vie...hp?f=2&t=13479 The video posted by the member who started that thread and has completed wiring his LEDs and driver (ambroseliao) is awesome. https://picasaweb.google.com/ambrosel...31406943924498
Good luck on your project. Make sure you look at Battery Space for mounting hardware. Their parts work very well and can be adapted to a number of different lights of you use some ingenuity
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Old 10-30-09, 05:56 PM
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Do you have a 3.3 Ahr pack per light? or are the two lights wired to the same pack?
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Old 10-31-09, 06:01 PM
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Originally Posted by vantassell
Do you have a 3.3 Ahr pack per light? or are the two lights wired to the same pack?
I actually use 2 packs per light...wired in series. Jumps the voltage to 14.4v.

Granted, this system is old technology and it is quite heavy. Output is way over what you can currently get from LED, however LED is getting better. I suspect that this kind of light can be obtained in the same sized package within a year or two.

The advertised output of the Magicshine is close but the real light output is significantly lower. Other commercial systems are approaching the Magicshine but for about 5 times the price.
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Old 10-31-09, 06:37 PM
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Originally Posted by operator
I get this feeling with the 200L. The lights are not biased down and to the right (you can't with the standard mount), so I get the distinct feeling that i'm blinding and/or glaring drivers with my light.

This is not cool.

Nobody ever seems to mention this when they are reviewing their lights/using them.
Yeah. Whenever someone bosts a "beamshot" I think "OK, now you should leave the light adjusted like that, leave the exposure set on the camera, and get your pal to ride the bike out and get another shot with the bike coming towards you. Preferably next to a car with HID projector headlamps for comparison."
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Old 11-01-09, 12:03 AM
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Originally Posted by zzyzx_xyzzy
Yeah. Whenever someone bosts a "beamshot" I think "OK, now you should leave the light adjusted like that, leave the exposure set on the camera, and get your pal to ride the bike out and get another shot with the bike coming towards you. Preferably next to a car with HID projector headlamps for comparison."
I have a video of my lights coming at the camera. I haven't posted it but while the lights are bright, they don't appear to be overly bright in the video. I don't adjust the lamps to be that high...about 30 feet in front of the bike or about 2 car lengths...because I've found them to be rather inefficient if the lamps are aimed too high. I really want to see what is in front of me
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Old 10-23-11, 02:44 PM
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This setup is truly awesome. Thanks for sharing your experience.
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Old 10-23-11, 06:12 PM
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Originally Posted by christ0ph
This setup is truly awesome. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I would probably do some more modern research before implementing this design.

I built up the Pond Scum light that cyccommute mentions, 20-watt halogen bulb, 1.5 xenon strobe taillight and a 3 pound lead-acid battery. It's more than a little clunky and the blinking light usually only lasts an hour. However, it has been very durable, bright as you could ever need and... did I mention it still works? I've had it 5 years on my winter commuter and it works pretty well.

But, as I said, there are a lot of pretty good light choices out there now that weren't available in 2006.
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Old 10-29-11, 11:54 AM
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This set up was pretty amazing 4 years ago and even now it's still an impressive system compared to current technology.

I can't see that I would ever need a system this bright and for $300 current technology allows me to buy something off the shelf that is bright enough for my needs. But wow, this was very impressive when the OP posted it.
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Old 10-29-11, 12:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Watchdog
This set up was pretty amazing 4 years ago and even now it's still an impressive system compared to current technology.

I can't see that I would ever need a system this bright and for $300 current technology allows me to buy something off the shelf that is bright enough for my needs. But wow, this was very impressive when the OP posted it.
More like 3 years ago

I'll agree that there are other options out there now that are tough to compete with. The Magicshine revolution made LED almost too cheap. However, LED technology does have it's limitations. The Magicshine is cheap but the output is about 1/3 of the overvolted halogens. I do use Magicshine but with 3 heads, I'm not putting out as much light as one of my previous lights.

You can now find LED that are in the range of lumen output that the halogens put out but look at the cost. To have the output of 3 of the Retinal Burners, you'd need need 3 Niterider Pro 1500s. That's going to be an outlay of around $900. And, if you run the Niterider on high, you get around 1.5 hrs of run time. Surprisingly, the Retinal Burners get about the same run time. The Niterider is lighter but so is your wallet
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Old 10-29-11, 03:28 PM
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I haven't used my PondScum halogen system since last spring. Charged it up briefly to test it and it worked just fine. The lead acid battery is heavy but seems to be pretty durable.

I do believe there's better technology available now, but I think I'll keep using it until it breaks.
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Old 10-29-11, 04:06 PM
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These look almost identical to my setup, except I used 4W LED MR16 bulbs instead. The ones I got put out about the same light as a 20W halogen, but I can run them from a dynohub. Yours are overvolted, though, which doesn't work on regulated LEDs.

Good job!
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Old 11-02-11, 06:32 PM
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Originally Posted by FunkyStickman
These look almost identical to my setup, except I used 4W LED MR16 bulbs instead. The ones I got put out about the same light as a 20W halogen, but I can run them from a dynohub. Yours are overvolted, though, which doesn't work on regulated LEDs.

Good job!
This has me interested. Are you saying, I could use one of these powered from my dynohub? If yes, let's start a new thread!!!
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