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.

MR16 LED reviews
 

I have added an additional MR16 LED headlight to my Geek light system. I have been running with a single 3 watt Luxeon MR16 spot headlight for the past year. The beam was ok in a mixed urban light environment, and good in the few dark sections, but I felt the need for more 'forward' light during these winter months. I ordered 2 different bulbs:

1. A 3x 1 Watt Luxeon MR16 (both bulbs from http://autolumination.com/mr16.htm )
2. A 3W Luxeon MR 16

Both are taller than standard halogen MR16 bulbs, so I had to modify the Optronics QH-7CC housing by hammering the inside metal bracket that holds the bulb socket. It took a bit of adjusting to get the 2nd housing mounted to my handlebars, since my cockpit is crowded.

Both lights throw a wider, shorter beam than my first LED MR16. However, when used in conjunction with the existing headlight, I can get a good, bright beam, wide nearest the bike and narrower in the distance. The 3x 1 watt bulb seems to fluctuate in brightness; I am thinking that either the integral power puck isn't as good as the other bulbs or is having difficultly providing good steady power to 3x 1 watt Luxeons. Currently I am using the 3 watt luxeon.

I added an inline switch on the new headlight, so I can just use one if I think the battery is getting low. The built-in power pucks seem to keep the luxeons going even if the battery is getting low; the only way I can tell (by looking) that the battery is getting low is the rear beehive leds really fade below 12v. The pictures below show the rest of the system. The first 2 pix show the headlights, along with my car horn and bell. The 3rd pix is the 3x 1watt MR26. 4th pix: I store my SLA 5Ah battery in a cheap underseat bag--soon to be replaced with a homemade leather bag. The rear beehive leds are joined with a yellow strobe from allelectronics.com. I replaced the battery powered bar-end leds with one connected to the mains power--these flash all the time. The final picture are my yellow led front fork maker leds--these will be replaced with yellow beehive similar to the rear lights.

All in all, I am satisfied with my system. It has worked for more than 2 years, with various changes and upgrades along the way.

Just noticed another source of batteiers...Northern Tool and Supply sells a 12 v 7 A-H SLA battery for $25- used to power gate-openers; also solar chargers for them.

Just finished my new Hub driven LED light.

Using a shimano 3n71 hub dyno wheel for power.
Martin has published a bunch of dynamo circuits for extracting a good amount of power from a dyno.
Cutter Electronics supplied the triple cree R2 and narrow optic which seemed perfect for the road.

http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//cutt1.jpg

From this I should get the same output as my old dual Q5 setup (around 400 lumens, 20w halogen equivalent), the dyno outputs only 500mA.

The light head was built from the same aluminium section as my MTB light but a lot shorter. Its about 5x4.5x2cm.
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//HUB1.jpg

The disk in there is a 8x25 filter from ledsupply. It will spread things out to give a little peripheral light, good for some of the fast downhills around here, I hope. Also should make me very visible to the cagers.
See what it does to the beamshot:
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//HUB2.jpg

The light end were sealed with yellow epoxy(just add some food colouring into the mix) to give bright sidelighting. Combined with my white bar tape this gives the cockpit a warm glow.
For mounting I'm a big fan of keeping the bars free, so mounting over the brake calliper seemed like a good idea. Made a swoopy bracket for this.
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//dyn0.jpg

From last years riding experience I knew I wanted around 200lumens for normal riding and as much as possible for downhills. The 3 R2s at 500mA should deliver around 400 lumens. Martin has a combination voltage doubler/rectifier circuit which halves the power when required. I went with his circuit 10, crammed into a small box that hides under the handlebar stem. Bottom switch selects high/low and I added a on/off switch at the side. Liberal amounts of silicon slathered everywhere for waterproofing. The electronics are pretty simple, 3 capacitors, two switches, 4 diodes and a resistor. I will always run with a backup light so a standlight wasn't needed.

http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//dyn1.jpg

The end result is quite tidy. Note beamshots are hard using the dyno, this photo is upside down on the table, note one led has a wide spread.
http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//dyn2.jpg

http://idisk.mac.com/timonz/Public//dyn3.jpg

Total weight of the light head, wires and control box is 175gms. The shimano 3n71 hub is 700gms. My old 12AA battery pack alone was over 400gms so I think the weight isn't significant.
The hub drag is 2w with the light off and should be around 6/10w low/high. An extra 10w has got to help the training! The power requirements go up with more LEDs, the triple seemed like a good balance of light and power.
I got a bloke to mill the head unit but it could have been done with hand tools, just not quite as tidy.
Total cost probably a bit over 100NZ$ (this is similar to 12AA NiMH and charger!) plus the wheel.

I like what you've done with your light housing. How did you cut the aluminum?

The light head was originally cut with an electric hacksaw. I was going to dremel out the hole but got a bloke at work to do it instead on the mill. He was kind enough to tidy the ends too. You could do this easily enough with a hand saw, will be a bit of work with a dremel making the hole (thinner al would help, this stuff is quite sturdy).
The bracket was cut with a band saw and cleaned up with a file.

Just been out for a pedal, ride report and photos here.

Good morning all - just thought I'd share a neat little find of mine. Our local woolworths was having a tool clearout and I snagged a 40LED floodlight/worklight. I stripped off the big carry handle/frame and charged it up. The unit has 3*1500mAh NiCd AA's built in - when these start to fail I'll crack the unit open and drop in 2200mAh NiMH replacements. The weight without the handle is 300g, the charge time is 3 hours with these batteries and it gives good light for 5 1/2 hours (the box claims 3 1/2!) The
lamp is rated at 3watt and gives a nice even squareish beamshot. I think I'll mount it with some drop-in brackets when I pick my bike up next week.

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8...0418de9.th.jpghttp://img99.imageshack.us/img99/552...0419xr0.th.jpg

Best thing? It was reduced to £19, but rang up the till at £4. Wish they'd had more...

Whelen TIR3 tail lights
 

Finally got around to taking some pics of my dual whelen TIR3 setup. I've hooked them up in alternating flashing mode as you can see in the video. They're mounted on aluminum stock, and I used some power pole connectors. I use four power options, during winter commuting it's connected to the 12V sla that powers the headlights. I added a small resistor (the orange connectors on the rack) to cut down on brightness. Drivers were complaining that they were being blinded. I normally use a small 7 cell nicad, but if I forget to charge it I use an 8 cell AA pack. This is somewhat problematic as it doesn't hold the cells real good. Finally, during the summer I carry a regular 9 volt battery just in case I fine myself in rain or dusk conditions and I want the visibility.

The video shows them running in bright sunlight. They are extremely bright, and the lenses make them visible over a fairly wide angle.

The two whelen units were bought a year apart and they changed the bezel. The new one is on the left. They use very little current for such a bright light. The 9 volt battery will run a single unit for about 15 hours.

The space between them is for a reflector, but I've been waiting for a round tuit.

http://www.tekisp.com/~gene/whelen1.jpg Overview
http://www.tekisp.com/~gene/whelen2.jpgBattery options
http://www.tekisp.com/~gene/whelen3.jpgSimple construction
http://www.tekisp.com/~gene/whelen4.jpg
http://www.tekisp.com/~gene/whelen.aviVery blinky

I bought them from http://www.strobesnmore.com/

Well, I've been using my lighting system for about 8 or 9 months now.

I've got a 10watt/12volt lo-beam and a 20watt/12volt (energy efficient) hi-beam. I have a 1watt LED rear tail-light. I'm using a 5ah SLA.

By my calculations (please correct me if I'm wrong), my lo-beam can be used for 5.45 hours maximum and just under 3 hours without harming the battery. I can use my hi-beam for 2.85 hours maximum and 1.5 hours without harming the battery.

The entire light assembly attached by one zip tie (for the rear tail-light), removing velcro fasteners, a quick release buckle (for the battery), and one allen bolt (attaching the headlights to the bike). I can remove everything off the bike in just a couple of minutes and reattaching it is just as easy & fast.

I also use a red & white guppy headlight on my helmet and red/white/blue Tireflies on my valvestems.

I have been told that drivers have mistaken me for a police motorcycle in the mornings and that I'm easily visible from distance. Biking at night has been a total pleasure. Riding a recumbent, I can get a good look at the stars as I cruise around.

I will hopefully post some pics soon.

intrepidbiker, looking forward to the pictures, especially how the battery is mounted.

Hi,

there is ton of data here. Can any one give or point to a simple....build a light how to?
I can read a schematic, but couldn't design one.
I am competent with soldering, drilling, filing, wood, plastic, and inmprovising with standard tools

I am thinking MR16 based, but am open
Design goals:
Cheap, under $50 if possible
Weight/size: get battery pack in water bottle or smaller would be great
Batttery: rechagable in some way
runtime: any thing 2 hours or above is great

thanks