Dual Luxeon V Bike Light

nightrider

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I've completed this dual Luxeon V bike light, similar in design to the 3xLuxIII I finished a few weeks back.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/99175

IMG_1110
IMG_1110.jpg


Once again I used one inch square aluminum tubing to construct most of the light. 20mm IMS reflectors are used, although I experimented with optics also.

I used a Downboy 750mA to drive the LEDs and a DPDT switch with center off to allow, one on, both on, or both off. It is powered by a 14.4v, 2500 mAH NiMH battery pack. One issue is that when fully charged, the 14.4v pack is over 16v which causes the DB to overheat (starts to flicker and freak out) it's designed for a max of 16v. I will probably replace the DB with a 700mA 3021 Buckpuck which can handle up to 30v input. It also turns out that I really like the dimming capability gained using the Buckpuck by just adding a 5k pot, and the Lux Vs will be a little happier at or below 700mA. I think I will like this better than the one or both on approach.

The light warms up within a couple of minutes if it's just sitting in the house, but on a test ride at about 10mph in the cool night air, it remained icy cold. The thermal mgmt plan for this light does not intend for it to be run for long while sitting on a desk... it is intended for night time trail riding and I usually ride 2 nights per week in the winter months.

Here is a link to some more pics of the Dual Lux V and a few beamshots: http://myfwyc.org/Timberlake/DualLuxV

Link to the construction of my Tri LuxIII bike light: http://myfwyc.org/Timberlake/BikeLighting?page=1
 

hotbeam

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NICE mod. Hitech looking too. What comments have you had from your riding friends?
 

bbaker22

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Impressive. This version looks more refined and the spill from the Lux V's looks really nice. I like flood on the bars and more throw on the helmet.

baker
 

nightrider

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bbaker22 said:
Impressive. This version looks more refined and the spill from the Lux V's looks really nice. I like flood on the bars and more throw on the helmet.

baker
Thanks. Being the second effort it is a little more refined and polished and I was able to build it in a much shorter period of time. Yes, I too prefer the light with more throw on my helmet. Unfortunately, that will be the larger TriLuxIII... I was hoping to put this smaller light on the helmet, but it will go on the bars. This light, with helmet mount, weighs about 120g, which is about 30g lighter than the TriLuxIII light... so the difference is insignificant. The additional spill from the LuxV setup will be welcome however, as the TriLuxIII beam was on the borderlilne of being too narrow... but what killer throw! I haven't gotten a chance to ride with both lights yet, but I'm sure the combo will be awesome.

One note that I forgot to mention... I had to slightly raise the reflectors (IMS 20mm) off of the surface of the Lux V about 1mm to eliminate the donut hole effect. With the Lux IIIs, you can sit the reflector flush onto the face of the emitter surrounding the LED and the beam looks great.
 
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nightrider

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hotbeam said:
NICE mod. Hitech looking too. What comments have you had from your riding friends?

Thanks. Most of the folks that I ride with have HIDs. At first glance they think that I have an HID, due to the brightness and color of the beam. The throw of the TriLuxIII is close to that of an HID, but the HIDs typically have more spill combined with the throw (of course it depends on the beam width and model of HID lamp that I'm comparing with). Of course, I can dim my light, turn it off and right back on etc, which you can't do with an HID. I find the continuous dimming feature (5k pot with Buckpuck 3021) more useful than I thought I would. I dim the light when I'm at the car getting ready for the ride and at the end of the ride, when talking to people (so I don't blind them), and when we stop at the end of trails to wait on people (of course sometimes they wait on me :) ). I'm gonna try to put a 3021 and pot in this smaller 2xLuxV light. The 3021 is gonna be a tight fit.
 

nightrider

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I added a few more beam shots that are at a distance that I feel is about where I look while trail riding at night... about 25-30 ft. These shots make me feel a little better about the Dual LuxV. The Triple Luxeon III still kicks the most butt in the throw category, but the Lux V does a nice job at this range. All shots are F2.8, 1/4sec, ISO400

LuxV_1.jpg

One of the Luxeon Vs switched on...(above)


LuxV_2.jpg

Both Luxeon Vs switched on (above). Nice amount of spill and lights up the scene.


LuxIII_3.jpg

And the TriLuxIII at full blast. (above) Great, bright throw... less spillage.
 
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HarryN

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Nice build and very good pics. I was curious - how did you mount the screw holes on the side of the body - shown in pic 9 of 39 on the trilux pages ?

Are those a plate that was cut out and JB welded in place ?
 

nightrider

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HarryN said:
Nice build and very good pics. I was curious - how did you mount the screw holes on the side of the body - shown in pic 9 of 39 on the trilux pages ?

Are those a plate that was cut out and JB welded in place ?

Thanks! Yes, with the TriLuxIII, I just JB welded some 3/16" aluminum squares (from 1/8" stock) in place and drilled and tapped them for my screw. With the DualLuxV, I JB-Welded a piece of 1/4" angle (1/16" thick) across the back of the body and tapped into that... much easier and worked out better (this can partly be seen in image 35 behind my fat thumb). I had to Dremel out the middle part to get the switch inside. 4-40 hex head screws were used. You could also use some small threaded inserts JB welded into the corners, but I couldn't find any small enough after driving around town for a couple of hours! A good source for these are RC airplane parts etc.

The other notable design change from the TriLuxIII in the DualLuxV is the addition of a piece of 1/8" aluminum bar between the Luxeon Stars and the body of the light. (images 35 & 36 of 39) It was cut 1/16" inside the width of the 1" body (at the top and bottom) and glued in place with Arctic Alumina Adhesive. It gives a 1/8" lap where the front housing meets the body which makes for a better weather seal and provides much better thermal transfer to front body of the light, taking advantage of all that aluminum as additional cooling surface. Use some regular (non-adhesive) thermal compound to improve this thermal connection.

I'll add a couple of shots to the DualLuxV photos to illustrate this:
http://myfwyc.org/Timberlake/DualLuxV
 

nightrider

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jashhash said:
Good work man. The design reminds me of that old school cartoon Transformers...

Wow! That gives me a new idea. Maybe I should make a handle/battery pack that somehow attaches to the bike light "transforming" it into a handheld flashlight... hmmm.
 

nightrider

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RiskyGuy said:
Nice light! Can you give us some info about the cost of the components?
2 x Luxeon V Stars WX1S @39.00 ea
2 x 20mm IMS reflectors @ 5.50 ea
1 x Downboy @ 16.50 ea
S&H 8.00

Switch, DC connectors, aluminum, plexiglass, screws, JB-Weld, Arctic Alumina Adhesive, solder, wire, etc on hand... but estimate another 25.00 here.

Puts the total at around $140.00. A rather expensive project... and that does not include batteries which I already had. I can only think of one other Dual Luxeon V bike light on the market, and if I remember right, it was selling for around $400 (including LiIon battery) and it does not look as cool as mine :devil:. I can get a real nice 14.8v LiIon battery (4 Amp) and charger for about $75.
 

mpf

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I have a suggestion. Instead of the downboy and pot you could try 11xAA batteries, leds in series and a linear buck regulator and TaskLed's D2Dim for output control.
I have just finished a linear buck regulator design that is fast enough to use with D2Dim and also has over discharge protection so you can safely run your batteries until the circuit cuts off. On my Tesla 6 I get about 1hr at full power and another 1hr at dimming power. Plenty of warning that I need to charge/change the batteries.
With the battery voltage close to the Led voltage the regulator is very efficient. You could also continue to use the 12xAA set up, you would just be throwing away one cells voltage in the regulator.
matthew
 

nightrider

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mpf said:
I have a suggestion. Instead of the downboy and pot you could try 11xAA batteries, leds in series and a linear buck regulator and TaskLed's D2Dim for output control.
matthew
I don't use a pot with the Downboy. In my other TriLuxIII light I use a Buckpuck 3021 + 5k pot that is made to work with that regulator as a dimmer. This version just uses a Downboy and a switch. I get about 3hrs runtime with my current 2.5A, 14.4v battery pack.

Edit: Check on that runtime... looks like my lights begin to loose some brightness after about 1hr, 45 min... but will still be usable for about 2.5hrs. This NiMh pack is a little over a year old. The 3hrs was calculated based on current draw from the battery and rated mAh rating.

Yes the D2Dim looks pretty cool... I'll give one of those a try in a future project! However, TaskLed's web site doesn't seem to have a convenient way to order things...
 
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Biggimo1

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Yes the D2Dim looks pretty cool... I'll give one of those a try in a future project! However, TaskLed's web site doesn't seem to have a convenient way to order things...[/QUOTE]

Just shoot George an E-mail and a PayPal.

Brian B.

p.s. nice headlamps by the way.
 
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