DIY TriLux3 Li-ion Bikelight

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KonradC

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Wotcha

Having come accross this fantastic website last year, I began experimenting with LED lights, after making a number of halogen bikelights. This is the result of my experimentation:

TripLed1.jpg


The casing is built from four 22mm copper end-caps bonded together, three housing the 'U' Bin 3W stars and the fourth to hold a Fatman driver. This is sealed using the top from a bottle of soy sauce. I've added a potentiometer to the fatman to provide stepless flicker-free control of brightness from a decent low beam with 80Hrs runtime to full power (300 lumens +) for 3.5 hours.

TripLed3.jpg



The light is powered from a 7.2V 2400maH Li-Ion battery that sits in an inner-tube sarcophagus held in a 5mm neoprene bag. This straps to the frame using a velcro cinch strap

TripLed2.jpg


The whole lot weighs 240gms and I eventually hope to add some better connectors to improve watertightness and shorten the potentiometer shaft.

It casts a good spread of light, illuminating the roads and signs for at least 50m. I found the carclo 6deg optics to produce a flood beam but I might investigate replacing one of the lens with a tighter beam lense, possibly a conventional reflector to illuminate the road surface a bit more. Overall, there is plenty of light to ride at >20mph and the lack of weight of the system is a bonus.
 

Long John

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Hello KonradC:)

Welcome at CPF:grin2:

Wowww, that's a nice start and a great bikelight:goodjob::twothumbs:clap::thumbsup:

Best regards

____
Tom
 

roguesw

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that is a nice bike light
can i ask how do you wire up the 3 leds to the driver and how do you wire up a potentiometer to the light
and finally, how do you work out which is positive and negative on those connectors you are using
thanks very much
Cheers
Des
 

greenLED

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roguesw said:
that is a nice bike light
can i ask how do you wire up the 3 leds to the driver and how do you wire up a potentiometer to the light
and finally, how do you work out which is positive and negative on those connectors you are using
thanks very much
Cheers
Des
Yeah, tell us the steps you followed to build your light, please?

Nice job! I love it when people post creative builds like this. :twothumbs
 

Timson

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Very nice.. :goodjob:

Great idea on using the copper end-caps.

You've inspired me to do a similar build myself....Might even steal the end cap idea - If I can find any of a suitable size to accomodate what I want to do.

Where did you get the handlebar mount?


Tim.
 

greenLED

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I was thinking... Could you replace one of those LuxIII's with a LuxV and drive all of them off the same board and battery? Or would you need 2 separate boards and independent batteries. Something like that would be a killer bike light.
 

gearfreak

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Nice work and really clean profile, just wondering what range potentiometer did you use?

Timson said:
Where did you get the handlebar mount?
Looks like a vistalite nightstick lamp mount to me
 

roguesw

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greenled, i was thinking the same thing
i am in the process of designing a panel light to house that combination, several Lux IIIs and a Lux V, but i dont know if i need a separate board and if i can run them both from the same power supply
so far , no one has answered the question i posted yet
the search continues


greenLED said:
I was thinking... Could you replace one of those LuxIII's with a LuxV and drive all of them off the same board and battery? Or would you need 2 separate boards and independent batteries. Something like that would be a killer bike light.
 

KonradC

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wow, thanks for all the kind complements and interest guys. :)
I'll try and answer your questions:

DUQ & bombelman: I'm using Carclo's 6deg colimators as they were kind enough to provide me with some free samples last year. The colimators sit in their little 'baskets' this slides over each led. Since I was not keen on permanantly bonding these in place, I wrapped electrical tape around the outside of the 'baskets' to achieve a friction fit in the copper end caps. It sounds dodgy but has been fine for the past month.

roguesw: The three front endcaps have aligned holes drilled through each to allow wires to pass through to the leds internally. These were marked and drilled prior to bonding to ensure accuracy. Short sections of plastic tubing were then located in the holes to prevent the adhesive from blocking the holes. Further holes are drilled through to the rear end cap to connect the leds to the Fatman driver board. The potentiometer is wired into the driver board as detailed in the instructions on www.taskled.com. As I couldnt find a small enough switching 47k log pot and had to settle for an unswitched pot, the light is always on untill the battery is disconnected. In practice, this is not a problem as it is easy to drop to the lowest power level which barely tickles the battery.

I wired up the batteries myself as these came without connectors from batteryspace. I believe I wired both the battery and charger as centre positive pin but this is purely a personal preference and either polarity would have been valid in this application.

One of the 3W leds could be directly replaced with a 5W led as I'm driving the leds at a max of 700ma, but this would reduce runtime. Prior to this light, I ran a single 5W led using a similar copper endcap layout but was unimpressed with the beam produced using the 6deg carclo optic. From reading this forum, it turns out the 5W led is more difficult to focus than 3W.

Gearfreak: Good sleuthing, it is a vistalite bracket. I got it a couple of years ago from www.chainreactioncycles.com for my old diy halogen light, however, they no longer stock these brackets.

Timson: I've found caps in 15 22 and 28mm sizes from most plumbers merchants. Usually around 25p each. Don't go to B&Q as they are a quid a pop and I've found these to be of poor quality compared to those sourced from a plumbers.

hope that helps

Konrad
 
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greenLED

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KonradC said:
One of the 3W leds could be directly replaced with a 5W led as I'm driving the leds at a max of 700ma, but this would reduce runtime.
Just to verify I'm understanding correctly: you had 2xLuxIII and 1xLuxV wired to the same converter board?
:popcorn:

Thanks for sharing the details on the wiring/construction!
 

KonradC

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greenLED said:
Just to verify I'm understanding correctly: you had 2xLuxIII and 1xLuxV wired to the same converter board?

No, I havn't tried them together personally, but according to the spec-sheet it is possible to connect both 2xLuxIII in series with a 1xLuxV and drive them all using a single Fatman. This would, however, draw more power from the battery to drive the increased forward voltage of the combined LED string.
 
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