I've finished my bike lights!! Now with Beam Shots

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Swallow

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Ive just managed to get registered on CPF although I have been reading all LED threads for some time, in the background.... This led me to have a crack at making a set of lights for my MTB - Big thanks to all those who have unwittingly helped me and to those who have been of more direct assistance (ktronik, Wayne, Gene...) Also to Sasha for getting me through my cpf registration quandries at an obviously very busy time!!
Went for first night ride last night around the hills of Bath and was very impressed! 6 x Seoul P4 (3 in each head) 2x buckpuck 1000ma cc driving each head from a pair of 14.8v li ions (4Ah) heatsinks from sandwich shoppe. Mounts homemade adaption of a handlebar raiser made by Trans-X mated with spare set of wheel quick releases. Thanks also to my mate Oli and his skills on the lathe
lights1.JPG



lights2.JPG



lights3.JPG



lights4.JPG



lights5.JPG


Beam Shots taken last night, having no experience of trying to photograph like this, they appear much less bright than in reality - there is a much greater spread of useable light. Anyone with any tips on how to use a digital camera to more realistically photograph light, please advise!

beam1.JPG



beam2.JPG



Spot quiz - can you tell me what this bright blue thingy below is? (will tell later!)

beam3.JPG
 
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datiLED

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Welcome to CPF!

WOW! That looks like a great job on the lights. I would like to build something similar for my night rides. I really like your mounting solution...very clever.
 

WadeF

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Awesome job! How do they compare to car headlights? If you have a chance, it would be cool to see a beam shot at night. :)
 

Swallow

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Comparison to car headlights - brighter than the headlights on my Fiat Barchetta (although these are terrible!) and also have the useful effect of keeping oncoming cars at bay :twothumbs, will post some beamshots soon.
Thanks for the compliment!
 

monkeyboy

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Hello and welcome to CPF

Impressive first post. I've never seen m@glites modded like that before. What reflectors did you use? They look bigger than 20mm but I wouldn't have thought 3 x 27mm would fit in a m@g head.

BTW, try to arrange the pictures in your post so they fit without horizontal scrolling. (800 pixels width since this tends to be the minimum screen size)
 
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Swallow

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Hello and welcome to CPF

Impressive first post. I've never seen m@glites modded like that before. What reflectors did you use? They look bigger than 20mm but I wouldn't have thought 3 x 27mm would fit in a m@g head.

BTW, try to arrange the pictures in your post so they fit without horizontal scrolling. (800 pixels width since this tends to be the minimum screen size)

Apologies for poor photo layout - my first post on a forum ever!!
Reflectors were 20s (I had to file the bases dow by a little bit) they probably look a bit bigger as I cut down the original maglite reflector to leave just a ring around the smaller reflectors (to aid with compressing the glass against the cap as well as looking nice) which fills the space more. Thinking of putting some low output leds in this ring for use on the roads as I think this level of light may be actually more of a danger than a help - blinding motorists!
 

Swallow

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Welcome to CPF!

WOW! That looks like a great job on the lights. I would like to build something similar for my night rides. I really like your mounting solution...very clever.

Thanks for welcome (although I have been studiously reading all posts in the led section for a few weeks) and thanks for compliment - mounting solution was borne of frustration - spent ages scourin ebay for things that could be butchered!
 

Swallow

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Swallow,

Nice mods!

As the author of the original post you can edit and move the pictures out of the text. Single vertical line in left margin works well.

mike

Hi Mike, wher do I find the bit for doing this? Never posted before and not hugely computer literate! Help appreciated:thinking:
 

Swallow

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Can anyone with the knowledge lpease tell me what sort of lumen output I could rate these at - just so I can wind-up those who have just spent hundreds on tailor made systems? Ta
 

Swallow

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Awesome :thumbsup: I bet more drivers hate you now. PS- aim your beam down.

As if car drivers needed more reason to hate us cyclists!! Nice to return the favours of years of blinding full beam headlights!
 

tulanebme

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

Of all the homemade bike setups I've seen, that has to be by far the cleanest rig I've ever seen. I'm very impressed and very jealous! Nice job.
 

RGB_LED

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

That's a great setup! :thumbsup: How do you find the Cree's out on the trails? I used my PT Apex last year and found that, while the main LED on high had good throw, the light from the LED tended to be very 'flat' on the trail so it was difficult to see a lot of detail in terms of ruts and rocks. Does it help to have 6 Cree's putting out that amount of light? Dang, you must scare people out on the trails!

Btw, that's a great bike! I own a RM as well and they are solidly built bikes.
 
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greenlight

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

sweet project welcome to the forum. Thanks for sharing your design.
 

Swallow

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

what rmb do you have??
 

aljsk8

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Re: I've finished my bike lights!!

is that much light even needed?

must be putting out over 1200 lumens

my fave bit is the cables - there have been some
really good homemade bike lights on cpf but that cabling is top notch!

look out for my bike light in the next few days on cpf
its another nightrider clone but with an interesting twist

only problem is - now its summer (in the uk) you have to wait ill 11pm before its pitch black!

good work

Alex
 
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