Convert Nightsun To LED?
 

I've got a set of Nightsun Team Issue dual halogen lights on my mountain bike. If you don't remember these, they were the cat's meow for powerful, rugged rechargeable bike lights - 20 years ago.

Today, they are still pretty bright, but not very bright; the beam pattern is too diffuse; and the color of the light is much yellower than we're used to.

They are like this: http://www.night-sun.com/htmldocs/team_issue.html

The battery is 12v. One bulb is 10 watts, the other is 20 watts. They are two-pin halogen bulbs with reflectors. They look like

http://www.lickbike.com/productpage....-20'<br />

My question is, can I convert these to LED? Find a powerful LED that will fit in the housing? How would you approach this, if you had a mad hankering to tinker?

The reason why I don't simply dump the old Nightsun, is because it looks correct with the bike, which is an early '90's machine. I like the retro vibe.

my experience is that these housing don't really have enough heat sinking for a power led. You would need to either modify the reflector to put a hole in it, which isn't easy, or find a reflector and make it fit. There are some 35 mm reflectors that might fit. There are various forums for building lights. I frequent many of those forums, and I haven't seen a project like this in recent memory.

They are called MR16 = M(ultifaceted) R(eflector) 16 (x 1/8th inch diameter)*.

A 20W MR16 halogen produces about 250 - 300 lumens, a 5W LED will give you more light (but not necessarily more illumination). Althought the 5W LED naturally produces less heat due to the higher efficiency, as Unterhausen says they can still have thermal issues because they can't handle anything like the same temperatures.

Google "Cree XP-G MR16" to see what's available in your area.

*This teminology dates all the way back to the days of valves (vacuum tubes to Septics) which had envelopes specified the same way - common small ones like the 6SN7GT came in a T-9 envelope = T(ubular), 9/8".

A tungsten lamp produces light because the filament glows from being so freakin' hot. Heat is fundamental to the process.

An LED produces light in an entirely different way, to which heat is counterproductive.

OP, it's not worth the trouble - conversion parts cost more than you can buy new. I retired my very well used Marwi Night Pro 20w+15w dual MR11 bike light 4 years ago, due to obsolescence from maturing LED technology.

You can get an official Magicshine 808 from the largest US seller with latest generation emitter for $85, and a clone for less.

http://www.action-led-lights.com/col...men-bike-light

Thanks, guys. I will look around.

I know I could buy a better light brand new for $50. It's the retro look I'm trying to keep, if possible.

Those are mine. I love them. I've got 5 sets that I've put together from ebay, 4 of which even have the law enforcement only "wig wag" controller.

Cheers!

Impersonating a law enforcement officer doesn't trouble you?

I live in Japan, so no.

These aren't even the colors used for LE.

Ah, thank you. I bought spoke lights from a Chinese web site, and it turned out they flashed blue and red. An oncoming car pulled over to the side of the road. I decided not to run those lights any more.

The Bright LED's are attached to Heat Sinks , now Too .