KTM off-road setup... 28 watts of LED projector goodness!

Alright guys,



I have put money into this dream I've been wanting to tackle... currently waiting on close to 300 dollars worth of parts to play with.



I have just recently gotten access to a nice machine shop that I will try to make the housings for this setup in. In the time I've been thinking about the project I have come up with some pretty ludicrous concepts but this one I drew up in solidworks today seems like it will go in the final running if the testing deems it doable...



I will try to update on progress as parts roll in and as I figure out Conversational coding for the cnc i will be using.



In the meantime check out this little assembly I rendered in SW! Can't wait!

Any updates on this project? What components are you planning on using?

Here are the parts that came in the mail while I was on vacation. Took nearly a month to arrive from DX and I am still waiting for 3 2 inch orange peel reflector bowls.

I plan to make some simple testing equipment at work tomorrow and I will get pics up as soon as I have some testing shots ready for you guys.

Since I posted the picture in my first post I have altered the design to be made from a single billet with 2 end caps each holding the lenses in place or sealing the electronics from the rear.

I have sourced a place that will anodize the assembly KTM-orange for me for just 30 bucks which is very helpful.

Stay tuned...

Oh, and here are the 2 Hyperboost drivers I sourced from TaskLED for the project as well.

I finally have some time to sit down and start playing with all these toys!

Here is the latest render of the housing I plan to have machined within the next few weeks. I have made a little fixture to test out what range I want to be able to adjust the projector lenses over which allowed me to finalize the positions of the internal retaining rings that separate the reflectors and lenses.

There is a pocket that you can't see that will house the 2 Hyperboosts epoxied to the top surface opposite the fins. As far as cooling of the LED's goes I hope that I will have plenty of thermal mass and enough moving air that they don't overheat on long slow* rides through the woods.

I found a huge piece of round stock at the local metals dealer that was the only solid piece big enough to wittle down to this size (3x3x7.5 in). It was an 11 inch diameter solid round about 5 feet long... they gave me a 3.5 inch slice of it for scrap metal prices... about $45.

Will update as the build progresses.

Cheers!

Very cool build! Can't wait to see what optics set you end up going with. You gonna use those bolts to hold down the clear cover to protect lenses?

Man I am looking to build something similar for my bike. Do you think it will be bright enough to have a good hustle at night through the desert? I ride in southern california and baja. I have a CRF450r, I dont want to get a stator kit but it looks like that might be the only option. Saw a couple battery powered lights but I dont think they will have enough light to move at a good "daytime" pace.

Subscribed! Looking forward to seeing your build come to life!

I have registered as well, I want to see how this project takes shape!

Hey guys!

Sorry this project has been slow to make progress... but just yesterday I commissioned one of our guys at work to do the machining for me. I created a tool list and a CNC program using NX 6.0 that he will use to mill it from a 13 lb block of 6061-T6. Final part weight should be in the neighborhood of 1.75 lbs.

Here is a pic of the final model:

The rear... Back cover is removed to show the space for my electronics.


The machining I would expect to be done by the end of the week and then I plan to test and if I don't get any overheating problems I will disassemble and send it out for orange anodizing.

Check back soon! I hope to get beam shots the night I get it back

Nice, keep posting

Those renderings are so COOL! Man I wish I could do that (without dedicating all the time it would take to learn, hah hah.)

So, I am thinking you have mocked up some sort of model of this, even it is was 3 toilet paper tubes and a rubber band, and have bench tested all your components before actually commissioning your housing there? Details on that bit are lacking

As awesome as that looks, wouldn't it be much simpler to build a square or linear solution? I have been designing my own led aux lighting for my quad for way longer than I care to admit. It's based around a 7xXPG round MCPCB from Cutter. The parts have been sitting on my bench for months now, but the housing has scared me off, and project has completely stalled.

VegasF6 said:

So, I am thinking you have mocked up some sort of model of this, even it is was 3 toilet paper tubes and a rubber band, and have bench tested all your components before actually commissioning your housing there? Details on that bit are lacking

Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for pointing that out. Actually I have not made any mock-ups except for the fork tube model I made and put into the assembly. Truthfully I have not yet decided how I am going to mount this setup. It may come back to bite me in the arse too since this thing will weigh close to 3 lbm with all of the glass lenses accounted for.

My thinking at this point is to use the flats on the side of the housing as surfaces to drill and tap through holes for any mounting fixture I develop. I can get titanium bar stock from work and my preliminary plan is to TIG weld a mounting bracket from that (0.240 OD 6Al4V). After I get that mounted with a thumb screw angle adjustment (I havnt designed this part yet) I hope to fabricate a custom polycarbonate wind screen to go over the top of it.

At this point I have not mocked up or designed any of the new windscreen bits but I have a process in mind to do the sheet polycarbonate forming. That's another thread for another forum however.

I talked to the guy doing the work today, he said the program looks good and would start proving out the CNC program with a foam block tomorrow. Luckily I have an in with him and he will only charge about 40/hr shop rate for the work. Contrast that to a quote I received from a job-shop for programming/machining of the parts for the housing of $2,200!!!

Will update on progress.

Cheers!

Just so you know, the KTM is AC power not DC Power. i found this out because my friend has a KTM as well and he blew up the first LED Driver i let min try and use

Did I miss where he said which model he had, if it was electric start and included a starting battery or not?

mds82 said:

Just so you know, the KTM is AC power not DC Power. i found this out because my friend has a KTM as well and he blew up the first LED Driver i let min try and use

Click to expand...

That's a great warning to anyone modding ANY vehicle. Always know what you're working with. Could be AC or DC, and with many DIY'ers out there, the warning is a great reminder to research what you have. One of my neighbors assumed that his bicycle's dynamo was DC. Yeah, he went from stumped to OMG when I told him that his dynohub was AC and won't charge his battery. Another neighbor tried to jump start a 24v truck with a 12v vehicle created an interesting, 'scratch your head' event.

Hypersapien, this is an awesome build.

Thanks for the insights guys. First of all let me say I am just getting ready to start fully understanding the stator output on this bike ('05 525 EXC converted to supermoto duty).

I have found online a way to grab some extra stator output however and convert it to a dc output. I see that normally the halogen setup runs off of pure A/C current and that just won't work for the drivers I have. I wish I could just run straight battery power but comparing the stock charging power of just 10 watts to the nearly 30 watts I want to draw for this project I doubt I would have good results.

There is a way to rig a bridge-rectifier to the stator A/C output directly where I will be able to draw current directly however only when the bike is running... I will have to do some further digging into exactly how I want to set this up but it shouldn't be a problem overall.

Tentatively, the housing will be done by the end of this week. Depends on how hard I smack the whip I guess.

Hope to post pics of a finished housing as soon as I can.

Cheers!

My friend ended up using this to convert the AC to DC and it works great for him: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062584#

I built a replacement light which used 3 Cree MC-E's and some optics and he said its quite bright!

It looks like there is a lot of info about "floating the ground" of the stock stator, and updating the rectifier/regulator to output DC. Good stuff. Looks easier than it is on my XR650R where you actually have to wind a couple coils.

Are you sure as is it's only a 10 watt DC system? Seems to go against the info I found.

You can't just slap a big rectifier bridge on the output and not regulate the voltage.

Just an update. I talked to my machinist today and he was proving out the program tonight finally. Looks like it could be done in the next couple days.

As for the charging system... I found out I am dealing with a TrailTech 100W stator, not the stock KTM stator. It has already been converted to DC headlight output I think due to that addition. The "10W DC" thing is just a quick spec I grabbed from a forum. Not highly reputable...

I can't wait to show you guys what the end result is! Hopefully sooner rather than later.