After an accident on my scooter last year, I've been obsessed with increasing the visibility of my scooter, especially at night.
Scooter lights are passable at best. My scooter comes with a 25w/25w front lightbulb.
It is best described as adequately visible to other cars. When it comes to lighting the road ahead, it is dismal. I can barely see anything at night with it unless it is pitch black, and the beam, and it's pattern are so weak, that in pitch black, I easily overdrive the lights. And that's with the beam on high.
My scooter sucks not only because it has a crappy 25w bulb, but that single hi/lo bulb sits in a housing meant to look like a dual housing. This means that a large piece of plastic blocks the light right down the middle.
I was first inspired to think about it with this forum:
But it looked like a complex build for a round headlight of which my housing is certainly not.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/197913
Then I stumbled onto a DIY bike headlight that had a 700lm rating which looked like somthing I could do without too much complex fabricating or specalized heatsinking supplies.
http://ledsupply.com/docs/700-Lumen-LED-Bike-Light.pdf
This is something I can do. I'm better with hacking home depot stuff than making customized specialty heatsinks.
In addition to the headlight, there are four 'pods' where I would like to stick accessory illumination. These lights would be the equivalent to the 'accessory' light switch that turns on all the exterior lights except the headlights. These aren't meant to light the way, but meant to make me more visible in addition to the main headlight.
I plan to have it so that all lights are always on or always off. I'm going to hardwire this so that all lights are on when the handlebar switch is in the highbeam position and all the lights are off when the switch is in the lowbeam position.
I plan to build a mount using aluminum angle iron, gluing emitters onto them using thermal adhesive and using aluminum reflectors (or optics with lens holders, but I don't know how to use or get them).
I definitely plan on using a constant current driver, and using proper heatsinking of course, I've got the skills to build it, but not select the right emitters or constant current driver.
The thing that I've noticed on these two other builds is that they all use three emitters in series.
In this build, the goals are:
1. More visible to other motorists.
2. Better forward illumation of the road.
3. Less power consumption than the present set up.
4. Low cost and idiot proof build
5. Idiot proof parts buying
I'm good at building and modding, however I'm still very green at the electronics side. I know how to solder, and follow a wiring diagram, but the math completely baffles me.
I've got a lot of questions and am hoping that you all can help design the lighting circuits for me.
Basic Design:
Since the headlight assembly is poorly designed for one central bulb, I'd like to have two separate forward facing emitters. I've noticed in the two previous builds I've noted that they both use emitters grouped in threes.
There's no room for three forward emitters in my headlight assembly, so since I only have two, I'd like a bit more powerful emitters to make up for the loss of one emitter. The three seouls in the vespa build seem quite powerful at 2800ma and two would do quite fine, however the 700lm bike light build still seems quite powerful with the cree xre emitters. Even if I had 2/3 the lumens using cree emitters, it would still be much better than the stock 25w halogen bulb.
Am I forced to use three emitters? Is this the simplest way to build a circuit?
If I'm forced to use three, this won't be a bad thing because I would use two emitters using reflectors facing forward, then I would have the third emitter facing backwards into the stock reflector housing. The optics for the backward facing emitter would be awful, but it goal would be to light up the housing so it would be more visible to other cars.
If I'm using a constant current driver, does the voltage of the emitters really matter anymore? I don't read anybody really worrying about the voltage. Only the current. I'm planning on using a buckpuck cc driver, or something cheaper. The input voltage needs to be within 10-16 volts of course.
There are also the four light pods that I want to light up. The led emitters that will go in those four spots will be behind stock light diffusers, two amber and two clear. I'd like these four to be a bit simpler so I don't have to worry about heatsinking as much.
Should I run these four pods on a separate cc driver?
I don't know which emitters and which cc drivers I should buy. When it comes to emitters, I'd like a suitable whiteness, and the maximum illumination possible, but if there is a choice between the absolute brightest lumen/watt ratio emitter or something that will do 90% of the brightness for 60% of the cost, I'll take the cheaper emitter. However, a good beam pattern that works in an emitter is still important
Dealextreme would be the simplest for me or a place where I can get all the things in one place to save on shipping.
If you could recommend (aka design, and do all the math for me) I'd super appreciate it. I'd appreciate it so much that I would take tons of pics and repost.
I'm just a dummy when it comes to electronics. As a friend said to me electronics to me run on only two things. FM and smoke.
Scooter lights are passable at best. My scooter comes with a 25w/25w front lightbulb.
It is best described as adequately visible to other cars. When it comes to lighting the road ahead, it is dismal. I can barely see anything at night with it unless it is pitch black, and the beam, and it's pattern are so weak, that in pitch black, I easily overdrive the lights. And that's with the beam on high.
My scooter sucks not only because it has a crappy 25w bulb, but that single hi/lo bulb sits in a housing meant to look like a dual housing. This means that a large piece of plastic blocks the light right down the middle.
I was first inspired to think about it with this forum:
But it looked like a complex build for a round headlight of which my housing is certainly not.
https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/197913
Then I stumbled onto a DIY bike headlight that had a 700lm rating which looked like somthing I could do without too much complex fabricating or specalized heatsinking supplies.
http://ledsupply.com/docs/700-Lumen-LED-Bike-Light.pdf
This is something I can do. I'm better with hacking home depot stuff than making customized specialty heatsinks.
In addition to the headlight, there are four 'pods' where I would like to stick accessory illumination. These lights would be the equivalent to the 'accessory' light switch that turns on all the exterior lights except the headlights. These aren't meant to light the way, but meant to make me more visible in addition to the main headlight.
I plan to have it so that all lights are always on or always off. I'm going to hardwire this so that all lights are on when the handlebar switch is in the highbeam position and all the lights are off when the switch is in the lowbeam position.
I plan to build a mount using aluminum angle iron, gluing emitters onto them using thermal adhesive and using aluminum reflectors (or optics with lens holders, but I don't know how to use or get them).
I definitely plan on using a constant current driver, and using proper heatsinking of course, I've got the skills to build it, but not select the right emitters or constant current driver.
The thing that I've noticed on these two other builds is that they all use three emitters in series.
In this build, the goals are:
1. More visible to other motorists.
2. Better forward illumation of the road.
3. Less power consumption than the present set up.
4. Low cost and idiot proof build
5. Idiot proof parts buying
I'm good at building and modding, however I'm still very green at the electronics side. I know how to solder, and follow a wiring diagram, but the math completely baffles me.
I've got a lot of questions and am hoping that you all can help design the lighting circuits for me.
Basic Design:
Since the headlight assembly is poorly designed for one central bulb, I'd like to have two separate forward facing emitters. I've noticed in the two previous builds I've noted that they both use emitters grouped in threes.
There's no room for three forward emitters in my headlight assembly, so since I only have two, I'd like a bit more powerful emitters to make up for the loss of one emitter. The three seouls in the vespa build seem quite powerful at 2800ma and two would do quite fine, however the 700lm bike light build still seems quite powerful with the cree xre emitters. Even if I had 2/3 the lumens using cree emitters, it would still be much better than the stock 25w halogen bulb.
Am I forced to use three emitters? Is this the simplest way to build a circuit?
If I'm forced to use three, this won't be a bad thing because I would use two emitters using reflectors facing forward, then I would have the third emitter facing backwards into the stock reflector housing. The optics for the backward facing emitter would be awful, but it goal would be to light up the housing so it would be more visible to other cars.
If I'm using a constant current driver, does the voltage of the emitters really matter anymore? I don't read anybody really worrying about the voltage. Only the current. I'm planning on using a buckpuck cc driver, or something cheaper. The input voltage needs to be within 10-16 volts of course.
There are also the four light pods that I want to light up. The led emitters that will go in those four spots will be behind stock light diffusers, two amber and two clear. I'd like these four to be a bit simpler so I don't have to worry about heatsinking as much.
Should I run these four pods on a separate cc driver?
I don't know which emitters and which cc drivers I should buy. When it comes to emitters, I'd like a suitable whiteness, and the maximum illumination possible, but if there is a choice between the absolute brightest lumen/watt ratio emitter or something that will do 90% of the brightness for 60% of the cost, I'll take the cheaper emitter. However, a good beam pattern that works in an emitter is still important
Dealextreme would be the simplest for me or a place where I can get all the things in one place to save on shipping.
If you could recommend (aka design, and do all the math for me) I'd super appreciate it. I'd appreciate it so much that I would take tons of pics and repost.
I'm just a dummy when it comes to electronics. As a friend said to me electronics to me run on only two things. FM and smoke.
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