Semper Fi

The battery is about 9 lbs. For me personally, that's not a lot. I probably is to some. I think that with LEDs you will get by with less battery wt but then mounting and heat sinking will be more. Hopefully I can take some pics soon and post them. I went for a ride tonight, and my wife said that I looked like a motorcycle from over 1/4 mile away.

jur

The heatsinking of the Luxeons on a bike is less of an issue; the wind cools it good, I have not ever been able to feel my 3W led warm up even.

vrkelley

9lbs! Gads be careful on windy days and on steep hills.

Ritz

Gee, I was complaining about my SLA battery weighing four pounds!

WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

Sead0nkey

@ vrkelley (or anyone using a dewalt charger)

This is a cool little link that shows how to mod a dewalt charger to be used with almost any battery pack.
Charger mod .

Becca

Okay, how about this tailpiece? Then I used thermal cement to attach three turns of 3/16" copper tubing to the Luxeon's metal substrate. The tubing then interfaces to the tailpiece to dump the heat. I got a lens designed for a Luxeon, plus a version of a buck puck. I took pictures before I assembled the light; I'll post them soon. Oh, to seal up the end I have a PVC cap that fitted. Drill a hole for the electrical wires, put some silicone sealant on it, and the light is done!

jeff-o

Yup, that tailpiece should be enough to sink pretty much any luxeon you put in there. Just be sure not to rely completely on thermal cement to conduct the heat away, it's mostly there to fill in the tiny gaps between two metals. It's always best to make sure that the Luxeon sits as closely and as flush to the heatsink as possible.

Also note that the metal substrate on the Luxeon must be electrically isolated from both the negative and positive power connections.

BTW, how will you attach the tailpipe to your bike? Is 0.22 lbs a little hefty for a headlight body?

Becca

How do I isolate the substrate? I don't have any wires soldered to it. Is it connected electrically to either pole? I haven't seen any of the documentation that says much about that.

I'm using two clamps similar to this to attach. They'll be looped through each other, one attached to the tailpiece aka headlight and the other to the handlebar.

jeff-o

No, don't use those. They won't hold anything in place very well, and they will scratch your paint. Go to www.mcmaster.com and seach for "P clamp". You will find a wide assortment of cushioned clamps that will hold on much more tightly, and won't damage your bike's finish. They'll look more professional, too.


As for isolation of the substrate (actually just called a Slug), just make sure that it isn't connected to the +ve or -ve poles on the LED in any way. It's best to use an electrically isolating thermal pad (like what you'd put between a big transistor and a heatsink), but if you just connect it to the heatsink directly it should be ok...

Sead0nkey

Here are a few pictures I have from my completed DIY headlight. The hardest part of the job for me was finding a clean mounting system for the light that had a quick release. The second picture (bottom of light show) shows the method used. The only thing I would change in moving to an overall smaller package. Well its all done and I wanted to say thanks to everyone here. This thread helped me out a ton.

DCCommuter

Wow, that's geeky. And I mean that as a compliment. Can you tell us a little bit about what the pieces are and how you put them together? I'm particularly interested in the quick release.

vrkelley

OK you guys... [slightly off topic] I bought one of these
128MB MP3 Player/Digital FM/PEN Drive/Voice Recorder
https://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=5785679562

I recorded a truck honking [Mp3] but I could not find a 3X2 small waterproof speaker to do the job. Any hints on how to get a small waterproof speaker that'll "do the job?"

Ritz

Radio Shack sells, or at least they used to, a pair of water proof AMPLIFIED speakers. Perfect! Peace, Ritz.


WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

vrkelley

No I just use the FireStorm recharger. Cool idea! Awesome setup for your light. Is that bag waterproof?

Jeff-O that's an awesome setup on the 2 headlights on the forks. Couldn't find your orginal post with link to pictures...What sort of clamps did you use for that?

John Ridley

Took the plunge - ordered a Trail-Tech HID light (chassis mount version, not helmet mount; I'm a commuter not a trail rider) and NiMH bottle battery from batteryspace.com yesterday. Also I ordered a 56-LED truck brake light from superbrightleds.com

I have a Planet Bike 1W Luxeon Super Spot, a 1W luxeon flashlight, a Cateye 3-LED head lamp and a 20W halogen light; when I get them all together I'll see about posting comparison photos. They're coming ground so they won't be here until next week. This should be enough time for me to do all my DIY before I SERIOUSLY need lighting (I have been in the dark in the morning, but dawn is cracking by the time I get to the busier streets).

I'm thinking I'm going to set up the truck light to run in "tail light" mode constantly, and use the high power 'brake" light in a strobed configuration (driving it with a 555 or microcontroller, depending on if I want fancy flash patterns).

jeff-o

Here you go!

I used P-clamps to hold the flashlights, I bought them from www.mcmaster.com They have both bare metal and cushioned versions (say, if you want to clamp the lights to your handle bars instead). Just search for P-clamp.

At first I used a piece of aluminum plate for the bracket, but it has since broken (metal fatigue) so I replaced it with a steel L-bracket from a hardware store. Usually you find these in the cabinetry/shelving section. It was a beast to drill the holes in it that I needed, I had to buy a cobalt drill bit especially for this application...

vrkelley

Multibiker...where did you get that buck puck?
The spouse is rolling his eyes, I came home with supplies to start work on a 12V lighting system that'll replace the back blinky, and do more side vis. The Rope light idea would have been cool but 10' of that stuff made the Wattage too high. There's no amperage on these 12V drill batteries...

Jeff-O the P clamps work great, no slippage for my front headlight. Next time I'll use those cushioned ones instead of making the cushion from padded electrical tape. What's the make and voltage on that battery?

jeff-o

The battery is branded with the name "esq" but I've seen it sold under other names as well. It's a rectangular silver brick about the size of two decks of cards set side-by-side. The voltage is 9V, and the current is 5400mAh.

Multibiker

I got them from LED Supply https://www.ledsupply.com/led-drivers-buckpuck.html. Good service.

Becca

Okay, as promised: here is a couple of photos of my new light setup using a Luxeon V star emitter:

Parts is parts: these parts are from my light!

The above image shows (on top, l-r) the tailpiece screw-on connector, the tailpiece itself, and a PVC endcap. Below it is the Luxeon star installed in a lens with the heatsink in place and the buckpuck attached. All this will be inside the tailpiece. The switch for the light will be on a small box attached to the handlebar.

I have turned this on for just a few seconds to see how it will work. It seems to be MUCH brighter than my 6v NiteHawk light!

John Ridley

OK, I got everything together. You can check out my photos of the setup here:
2005 light setup photos
Drill in one more album to see comparisons of the various lights. It's interesting to note the true color of the grass in the photos with the HID.

A little discussion on my site here.

The HID from batteryspace.com cost $105 (you get a 5% discount code for your next purchase whenever you buy from them), the 4500 mAH NiMH bottle battery was about $60. I went with NiMH instead of LiIon because of better cold weather performance.

The rear flasher is the venerable amber xenon from all electronics that's been mentioned here so many times.

vrkelley

John that is such a cool setup. The bike does not look overloaded with equipment at all!

Ritz

Yep, It's pretty nifty!

WWW.TOURDEPANTS.COM

jeff-o

Well, I just thought I'd drop a note about the latest developments with my dual-3W Luxeon array that I've been posting about for a while now. Just yesterday I finally assembled all the hardware I needed to swap the old aluminum bracket for a steel one. The aluminum bracket had broken at the bend due to metal fatigue (bumpy roads!!) so I replaced it with a much stronger steel bracket. The bracket itself was from the cabinet section at the home depot.

Unfortunately, my titanium coated drill bits weren't enough to drill through that steel, so I had to buy a cobalt bit. Then I needed new hardened steel hardware to hold it all together, since the old screws were garbage.

Anyway, everything got put together last night, and I took my newly-illuminated bike for a spin after dark. I can't say that I'm blown away by the performance:

The dual 3W luxeons do indeed light up the road, but are still drowned out by the street lights. Their blue-white light makes it harder to see contrast and holes, compared to the orangish light of the street lights. However, these lights can illuminate street signs over 200 feet away, and are quite bright to oncoming driver's eyes. Great for being seen, which IMO is more important than being able to see, at least on a bike.

So, I would consider these adequate for night time riding on streets, but would not take them on trails and such where the danger of obstacles and stuff is greater.

My next project will probably put quad Luxeons on a trike, though I haven't ruled out other illumination technologies yet. Well, and I need a trike first too.

Rural Roadie

Hello again!

Couldn't find the time to make the MR 11 or MR16 mounts like I wanted so dug around in the spare farm parts pile and came up with this.

Steel 4" farm style light housing, Haligen trapazoid pattern worklight= 18 oz, I think I can mount it and keep it under 20 oz. There are 25 and 40 watt bulbs out there and flood style too.

Gotta 5 amp/hour SLA battery from napa for 20 bucks, its supposed to be for emergancy brakes on trailers=3 and 3/4 lbs. Too heavy and too big for a waterbottle cage.

10 AA NiMH batterys weigh 11 oz and a 12v pack would have 2.3 amp/hours.

Tried to find red beehives local but no luck, ebay is my next choice, I really like the idea of a 3D tail lite.