Welcome! I'm interested in what you come up with for your lighting.

Those sound pretty interesting. Do you have any online stores / local parts places where you can buy this kind of connector?

Some of us salvaged "used" SLAs from UPSes and other equipment for a free source of power. Chargers for SLAs are very inexpensive as well. SLAs are also available fiarly inexpensively in larger capacities for those who want to run halogens for long periods. NiMH batteries are available in high amp hour packs, but they're a lot more expensive. For those who like to run their bulbs "in-spec", 12 volt SLA batteries are a lot easier to find than 12 volt NiMH packs.

All that being said, I will soon be buying two 7.2 volt NiMH RC car packs to power my light setup. :)

I personally prefer the MR-16s because they are more efficient for the wattage (bigger reflector) and they are more commonly available in my local area. I used Optronics housings (the plastic ones, not the metal ones some use) and they are sized to use MR-16s. The size of the light heads isn't a big deal to me.

As long as the path of least resistance for the electricity is through the motors / headlights / etc, they will work. I'm not going to ask how or why you tested this, because I'm not sure I want to know. :)

Some have done this - I remember seeing a post or two on this in this thread. The consensus is that this will work. I used multiple conductor wire (computer AC power cables) for wiring my lights, so all the conductors are in the same package already.

Have fun designing your lights!

Ken

Weather-Pak terminals can be had at any auto parts store,big chain stores or mom @ pop.If they don't have them in stock,they can order them.

I guess if the SLA's are free....I'd still don't like the idea of strapping a gallon of water(weight wise) or more to my bike and humping it around town.

Booger1

I use SLAs because of the low cost of the batteries and smart chargers. I have chargers for 3 family bikes at home where we lockup the bikes, and I have one at work to recharge during the day. If you don't discharge the SLAs to deeply, you get better battery life. Also, I have changed my headlight to a MR16 3-watt luxeon that has a built-in power regulator so the power/discharge curve doesn't effect it.
I have been using my bike frame for the ground for years--works great. The only thing I have done differently is to have 2 contacts from the battery to the frame (seatpost). I have had the connection break from fatigue/age and there go your lights. A backup ground connection takes care of this issue.

I use Anderson Power Pole connectors on the battery packs ... much easier to connect and doesn't need the additional "series" adaptor. Plus ... my charger has APP connectors which I can build adaptor cables for to attach any connector type to.
I rig mine like this:
http://dtipton.home.att.net/img/series_app.jpg

I use the Deans because they have a low resistance and that's what my RC car has on it. the Anderson's look good too but I've never seen them before. Considering the number of Deans I have around my house I won't be switching soon:rolleyes:

Where do you get them and how much? (For future reference)

I use the APP's in RC too so I guess I'm in the same boat. I mount the two 7.2 packs to my 12V RC starter (airplanes and helis). Don't have to worry about the long cord attached to your 12V hobby battery getting wound up in the prop :eek:

So I guess if you have a bunch of Deans already ... can't really blame you for bringin what you got.

The last time I purchased the APP connectors, I purchased a pack of 50 (50 black, 50 red, 100 contacts). That's been about 5 years ago. You save more by buying in bulk (single connectors here and there will eat you alive).
I'll try to remember where I got them but they are available everywhere in the lower quantities.

What LED are you using? What are you driving that LED at? What lens do you have mounted?

I think I had some of those long ago but I only ever had a few and couldn't find a supplier. Your system is more elegant than mine for doing the serial connection. Oh well, use what ya got;)

You'll find everything you need at www.luxeonstar.com

Received my lenses, Q5 LEDs and bFlex - so now I have to learn how to solder. :eek:

Luxeon 1w red led, and a random lens i had. 2x NiMH AAs in series, direct drive

Ok just got their email notice.

I got mine at www.acerracing.com. They offer a 50 pair kit (50 red, 50 black, 100 contacts) for 50.00.
I don't know if they are the cheapest but they are cheaper than buying a pair at a time (look at their 2 pair price ... 3.39 for two pair ... yikes.

Besides ... if you buy a 50 or 100 pair kit ... you won't buy any more for a long time.

You folks saved me from making a huge mistake!
 

I just spent the last 4 days reading every single post in this thread and viewing most of the homebrew light pics that people posted... and I have to say "Thanks!"

I'm getting geared up to start bike commuting again, and my commute presents some challenges. My ride is only 10 or 11 miles each way, but I live several miles outside of town in a very rural area. So the first part of my ride is on unlit roads that are not just dark... they are utterly blacked out after dark! When it's cloudy or moonless, the surrounding trees make it sort of like riding through an unlit tunnel. For these stretches I need light to see by... good strong light.

As I get nearer to my workplace, I'm faced with different challenges. I work on a military installation, so my lights must meet very specific guidelines. If you run bright lights on the base, the police tend to freak out and stop you every five minutes so that you can explain what the hell you're doing blinding other drivers. Most of the base is lighted very well with street lights, so I mainly need lights to be seen by.

The last factor is rearward visibility. Some of the roads that I ride have some very fast moving traffic on them... lots of shoulder room and extra lanes for cars to give me space, but the cars need to see me a long way off. I need to give them plenty of reaction time.

So you see... I was looking at buying 2 different headlight systems so I could turn off the high beams while on base... and some expensive tail light system for safety. I was looking easily at several hundred dollars. But no more!

I'm an engineer and a tinkerer anyways, so you guys have inspired me to make my own lights! With the stuff that is available out there today, I figure I can put together a system that does exactly what I need it to do for about $100 or so. I could probably do it for less, but I hate shopping endlessly for prices and components.

So thanks to you all... and look for me if you're ever out on Georgia's roads!

Bobby

I finally finished my light! I'll post pics tomorrow. It's running at 350 mA, and at the highest setting it outshines my wife's 10W halogen. I can't wait to bump it up to 750 mA!

I started a separate thread: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=355361

Does anybody have any experience with this LED?
They claim the light output of a 20 watt Halogen.
It would seem a quick and easy way to upgrade my MR16 based light.

http://www.optotech.com/MR16_12V.htm

According to the datasheet, it only produces 85 lumens with a current draw of 700mA. That's about equivalent to a Luxeon III emitter. Equivalent output to a 20W halogen? No. More efficient? Yes. Worth the money? Probably not.

Installed the '07 version of my light system this weekend. Added a second Whelen TIR III in back. The pair of them are so bright I'm wondering if I may be breaking some regulation. The gory details:

Front bike rack: Rivendell Mark's Rack
Batttery: 5AH SLA, I get about 30 minutes on full bright, but with the dimmer I can do the whole ride.
Battery Box from Target, I'm using Bungees this year to get a bit of suspension between the rack and box.
Light Dimmer Circuit: Light Brain 2002 twin
Dual Auto style fog lights, with 20 Watt Halogen MR16 bulbs, one narrow, one medium spread.
All connectors upgraded to Power Poles.

In the rear:
Dual Whelen TIR III flashers, mounted on a 1/8 by 1 1/2 aluminum stock, attached to the rear rack with "P" clamps.

Plus:
Planet Bike Beamer, bar mounted.
AAA LED flashlight velcro'ed to helmet.
Backup AA batteries to run the flashers if the SLA goes dead.

I've had great results with the Light Brain Controller http://www.lasertagparts.com/lightbrain/index.htm to control dual Halogens.

My dual Whelen TIR III flashers at about $45 a piece, are very bright, visible from at least a mile. I was quite happy with one, but the second one has definitely bought me some clearance from the passing vehicles.

I just finished setting up my first light build. It's a 12v halogen front and led rear using PVC and MR-16 bulbs. The rear blinks and as soon as I decide on a brake switch setup it'll go solid when I brake. I've got a bunch of pictures as I pieced it together at http://flickr.com/photos/coweater/se...th/1961706731/.

Here's a "complete" picture.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2019/...63a14b.jpg?v=0

Thanks for all the ideas I pulled from the lighting systems in this thread.

I've had to add a resister into the rear light circuit. The TIR III's are just too bright at 14.4 for regular use. I'll run them full bright in precip. But otherwise, at about half brightness, about 10v or so.

I've finally upgraded the homebrew system I started in on two years ago. I have 3 main components:

Headlight
My primary light is a 30W Philips EnergyAdvantage (24 degree narrow flood) MR16 in an Optronics housing, driven by a 14.4V NiMH battery (4200mAh) from batteryspace.com. At this voltage I'm getting nearly 1200 lumens, in a nice broad pattern that illuminates the roadway very well, and somewhat brighter than the similar 35W bulb that I had been driving at 12V. I also stepped down from 5000mAH (C cells) to 4200 (subC cells) for this upgrade, so even with the additional cell count my new battery fits into a smaller case. After the first 10 runs or so I'm getting 80-85 minutes on a charge, plenty for my round trip commute and exactly what I would calculate based on the battery's rated capacity. My previous battery was very dependable in this manner, so I'm not surprised.

Battery is mounted in a CageRocket (thanks to this thread for the suggestion), with hole drilled in the side for a waterproof switch from batteryspace. Connectors are the very rugged "waterproof" ones from batteryspace. Unlike my v1.0 homebrew light project, which used quick-and-dirty but ugly crimp connectors, all connections on my v2.0 are soldered and shrinkwrapped.

Approximate cost to build: $140. $15 for bulb, $15 for Optronics housings, $50 for battery, $30 for charger, $10 for CageRocket, $20 for switch, connectors and miscellaneous supplies. And it blows away any commercial bike light I've seen for under $300.

Helmet light
I bought a Princeton Tec Apex as soon as they came out a couple years ago. The 3W Luxeon beam (60 lumens) is enough for the moderate nighttime mountain biking that I do, and for conspicuity even the 4-LED blink mode blows away the Princeton Tec Eos (1W Luxeon) light that I've had strapped to my helmet the last couple of years.

But I've been using the Eos (and charging its tiny AAA batteries 1-2x/week) because with its 4-AA battery pack on the Apex, there's just too much weight strapped to my head (especially with my past neck injuries). And besides, the cord from the light head to the battery pack is about 2 inches too short for elegant helmet mounting.

So last month, while working on the main headlight v2.0, I hit upon the solution: an extension wire that allows me to carry the battery pack in my pocket, and more connectors from batteryspace that allow me to quickly disconnect it from the helmet. Batteries are AA rechargeables, and in blink mode I seem to be getting enough burn time for more than a week's worth of commuting. Thumbs way up.

Approximate cost to build: $100. $80 for the headlight, $10 for batteries, $10 for connector and supplies.

Edit 12/14/07: I'm going to further upgrade the helmet light by replacing the Apex's 4AA battery holder with a 4.8V 2200mAh pack from BatterySpace.

Running lights
Yes, running lights. This was actually part of my 1.0 project, so I've been using these for a couple years now and they're working out great. I have four Piranha automotive LED side marker lights on my bike: an amber one on each fork leg, and a red one on each seatstay. Each of these is about 2" long, contains two emitters, is very bright and consumes around 1/2 watt:
http://www.pmlights.com/cacheimages/...70e490f9ee.jpg
I have four more of these units (in addition to $20 worth of DOT reflective tape) on my child's Chariot Sidecarrier trailer, with connectors that let me tap the trailer into the bike's running lights whenever I'm using it.

Driven by a little 2000mAh 12V pack from batteryspace that I've had for a couple of years (current model is 2200mAh), I get 8-10 hours per charge running only the bike's running lights (more than enough for a week of commuting), or 4-5 hours with the trailer hooked up. This battery pack is tiny (<300g), housed in a little canvas pack that I strap to the bike, and has performed flawlessly for nearly 2 years of year-round (yes, including summer) commuting. I'm not using a switch, since that's been a failure point for me in the past: I just plug the running lights in at the beginning of a ride, and unplug them at my destination.

Approximate cost to build: $100. $30 for bike LEDs, $30 for trailer LEDs, $20 for battery, $20 for connectors and supplies. This assumes you already have a charger.

Edit: here's a side view of the bike and light system (sorry no helmet light photos yet) on a bright overcast day. The glow from the front running lights is clearly visible, as are the big battery in the seat tube bottle cage and the small battery in the downtube bottle cage.

http://forums.mtbr.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1196937010

Most of you already know what the Optronics light head looks like, so I won't bother taking a closeup of it. Here's what it looks like head-on in broad daylight though: ;)

http://forums.mtbr.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1196937010

I've just got a quick question. Does anyone know what the size of the Nite Hawk Nomad's plug is? I've just swapped out the 5W/6V bulb for a 20W/12V bulb and I think that I have settled on getting the Laptop Nimh Universal External 12V Battery from BatterySpace.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...ROD&ProdID=166

I just want to make sure that I'll have a plug that will work with the light.

Thanks

Is this just a matter of unscrewing the light to get the housing apart and unplugging and plugging the bulbs? What do you mean by a great light?

I just saw the later posts. Is the housing all you can use? Can't you use the niterider battery pack? Runtime using the Niterider pack?

The housing is held together with 4 allen screws on the face of the lamp. The lamps themselves have integral switches so you can turn them on and off. I rewire them to have the kind of plug I use for the battery but use the Niterider plugs to the lamp.

I don't use the Niterider battery because those are either 6V or 12V, depending on the system. I overvolt halogens to double the light output. A Trailrat, running a 6V battery and a 10W bulb, puts out around 200 lumens. Overvolting it to 7.2V puts out close to 400 lumens. It's noticeably brighter!

If you run an MR11 20W bulb at 12 volts, you get 400 lumen. Bump it up to 14.4V and the light output goes to over 700 lumen. A good light just became a great light!

I've been monkeying around with MR16 lamps lately and those are even better! You have to make your own housing or at least adapt other lights to the purpose but the results blow the doors off just about anything. A single 12V 20W MR16 running at 14.4V puts out nearly half of what my whole MR11 system puts out! Worth playing with.;)

A few years ago I purchased a 4AA Gen3 ViewPoint light, but it just didn't have the oomph I needed/wanted. So...after wading through all 70 pages of geek postings (;))...and bookmarking more than two dozen Internet sites, I've decided to take the leap and build my own 20-30W headlight.

I thought about using the Optronics fog-light housings, but was a little concerned about recent comments about the rivet connecting the body to the bracket loosening up over time. I also debated modifying a flashlight (i.e., cutting off the handle), but wasn't sure how to make it weather-tight.

So, I started down a slightly different path of using a submersible pond light (what can be a better all-weather unit?). I liked Jay Buthman's approach (http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=245737), but decided to try and find a housing that natively used a MR16 bulb. Well, it turns out that Intermatic makes just such a beast...compete with swivel and 20' of cable! And, while most sites sell the units for $90 or more, it turns out PoolsAZ sells them for only $33 +s&h. Although, of course, after I'd already placed my order I discovered that Amazon was selling them for even less (see here: http://www.shopping.com/xPC-Intermat...mersible-Light)!

Yes, the Intermatic unit is a little more expensive than either the Optronics or Harbor Freight options, but my hope is that it will require little or no modification. My idea is to integrate it with a handlebar mount, waterproof switch, rear amber strobe and a SLA battery.

More after my parts arrive.

Finally got my PAR36 100 watt aircraft landing light installed on the bike. Going home in the dark oncoming cars meaning to turn across my line would wait for me to pass. I guess the light is so strong they can't see it is a bicycle and wait, thinking, "Why is that wobbly motorcycle going so slowly in the bike lane?"

If I can lay my hands on a 14.4 NiMH 20 AH battery and jump the 13 volt light to 14.4 I'll really have some power.

Getting the battery is one thing, charging it is going to take some time. even at 5amps its going to take 6hrs.

And where are you going to find 20ah cells? the biggest i have seen are at 12ah...

And with li po its going to cost like 400$ (or more) for a 14.8v 20ah pack, and you need a balancing circuit.

I've finally pulled everything together for my 20-watt, 12-volt light and here are the specs:

Housing: Nite Hawk Nomad
Bulb: Currently a Philips 20W/12V MR11 bulb with an unknown beam angle. I have a BatterySpace 20W/12V MR11C bulb with a 12º spotlight beam angle just in case.
Mount: Nite Hawk One Touch Universal Handlebar Mount
Battery: BatterySpace 12V 3500mAh Laptop NIMH Universal External Battery
Connector: 5.5 x 2.5 mm
Battery Bag: Nite Hawk Nomad

I can't wait to get out and see how well this works.

Ken... when I was a kid, my Dad and I used to use an aircraft landing light mounted on a handle for navigating on the river and fishing at night. We connected it to a car battery in the bottom of the boat.

The beam pattern was great... sort of flat and wide beam. And man was it BRIGHT!

It made fishing easy too. We'd just shine it down into the water and scoop up the fish as they came to the surface clutching their little bleeding retinas! (That's just a joke guys... don't report me to the game warden!) :p

Even when the battery is getting low cars at uncontrolled intersections are frozen and wait for me to go by. Several cops have seen the light and there has been no problem. I do need a better battery as my current one is only good for 1 hour and a bit.