Mr16 LED to replace 20 watt halogen

[NoShoulder]

I'm very happy with the light my 20 watt halogen produces. However, obviously, I'm not so happy with the runtime.

There are so many good threads here, but I need advice, not extensive discussion.

Which LED MR16, if any, will give me something approaching the brightness of what I have now? You'll be speaking over my head if you say something like, "oh, any mr16 with a p7 or a ..." as if I knew where to get/how to tell what emitter is in the mr16 I'm looking at.

As I used to say to my big brother, the carpenter, when I'd ask to borrow a hammer and he'd want to teach my how to build a geodesic dome, "I don't want to understand it, I just want to know which one to buy". Just point me and I'll act like a dutiful minion.

Any suggestions appreciated.

NoShoulder

 

[NoShoulder]

I'm very happy with the light my 20 watt halogen produces. However, obviously, I'm not so happy with the runtime.

There are so many good threads here, but I need advice, not extensive discussion.

Which LED MR16, if any, will give me something approaching the brightness of what I have now? You'll be speaking over my head if you say something like, "oh, any mr16 with a p7 or a ..." as if I knew where to get/how to tell what emitter is in the mr16 I'm looking at.

As I used to say to my big brother, the carpenter, when I'd ask to borrow a hammer and he'd want to teach my how to build a geodesic dome, "I don't want to understand it, I just want to know which one to buy". Just point me and I'll act like a dutiful minion.

Any suggestions appreciated.

NoShoulder

I built a bike light out of a maglight and got a battery pack from battteryspace. Now I've added a Y conncector and have an LED light bar under my top bar. It's pretty cool. I usually just run the blue LEDs which gives a kind of black light effect to my socks and reflective stickers and also throws a nice oval pool of light on the ground around the bike. Between that, my headlight, my tail flasher and my smaller helmet flasher. I'm pretty darn visible. In my little helmet mirror I can see cars changing lanes a mile back. It helps as I have a 17 mile nighttime urban commute.

Any suggestions on the MR16?

Thanks.

Jeff (NoShoulder)

 

[NoShoulder]

I built a bike light out of a maglight and got a battery pack from battteryspace. Now I've added a Y conncector and have an LED light bar under my top bar. It's pretty cool. I usually just run the blue LEDs which gives a kind of black light effect to my socks and reflective stickers and also throws a nice oval pool of light on the ground around the bike. Between that, my headlight, my tail flasher and my smaller helmet flasher. I'm pretty darn visible. In my little helmet mirror I can see cars changing lanes a mile back. It helps as I have a 17 mile nighttime urban commute.

Any suggestions on the MR16?

Thanks.

Jeff (NoShoulder)

bump

 

[yellow]

Which LED MR16,

short: none

semi-short: use a quad emitter (Seoul P7, Cree MC-E), it will blow away the halogen

long: a very good, high driven single-emitter seems as bright as the 20W
(it is not, but its the white light making our brain think it is).
When knowing what to look for, one also notices, that the beam degree of the Halogen is much wider
Use a Quad emitter
forget MR16, imho meaning implanting that into Your existing housing (?). Thermal path is pretty nonexisting then.

 

[NoShoulder]

short: none

semi-short: use a quad emitter (Seoul P7, Cree MC-E), it will blow away the halogen

long: a very good, high driven single-emitter seems as bright as the 20W
(it is not, but its the white light making our brain think it is).
When knowing what to look for, one also notices, that the beam degree of the Halogen is much wider
Use a Quad emitter
forget MR16, imho meaning implanting that into Your existing housing (?). Thermal path is pretty nonexisting then.

Thank you Yellow. That's the kind of answer I was looking for. I suspected the reason I couldn't find the answer was because it didn't exist.

What is the best way for me to proceed? I don't know how to use a "quad emitter".

Thank you again.

 

[herulach]

What kind of light do you have already? It maybe that you could alter the housing in someway, but there certainly won't be a 'plug in' replacement anything like as bright. (i.e. everything will require some assembly)

If you're not afraid of a bit of assembly work, look at nightlightning, or ktronik's kits. If you want something really simple check out Turboferrets kits to modify Dealextreme torches.

 

[NoShoulder]

What kind of light do you have already? It maybe that you could alter the housing in someway, but there certainly won't be a 'plug in' replacement anything like as bright. (i.e. everything will require some assembly)

If you're not afraid of a bit of assembly work, look at nightlightning, or ktronik's kits. If you want something really simple check out Turboferrets kits to modify Dealextreme torches.

Thank you very much. I will check those out. I am not afraid of work, I am forced to admit to ignorance and incompetence however. Nevertheless, I'll check them out.

NS

 

[wes_wall]

If you have the head and everything, you may want to consider a TerraLux TLE300. It is meant as a Mag drop in, but you can desolder the bulb socket from the TLE300 and solder wire onto it. I did it and have it sitting here on my desk. I wired it to a MAg switch and here it sits. However, the assembly shold fit into the space vacated by a MR16.

I really don't like the pattern the TLE puts out, but it comes with electronics and everything. It is a possibility.

 

[yellow]

what kind of battery pack do You have now?

search at www.dealextreme.com for a Quad-led light (flashlights --> Cree MC-E lights, or Seoul lights with a "P7"
The input voltage should cover Your existing battery pack.
Now remove the body, build Yourself an end plate that features a switch, connetions to the batt pack and to the inside contacts of the lights head, build Yourself a bar holder
--> done

or, less work, get something like this here: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149 which is, practically, the same thing as such a modded light head but already with bar clamp, pack and charger.
Only "needs" to be disassembled and a bit of thermal paste added

these offers are cheap and thus not perfectly made, but work and are a really good start to enter actual lighting technology
(if You want ready made, high quality ones: Lupine Tesla, Fenix TK40 and Jetbeam M1X)

 

[lecoder]

I personally use a MR16 LED replacement globe for the basis of my everyday light (bike paths, little road riding) and love it. Well more specifically only having to lug around 6 AA batteries instead of the giant 7.2ah SLA I used with my halogen light.

Depending on your housing, most (all?) MR16 led globes wont fit due to the aspheric optics on the front, so you might need to modify the housing, or run without the housing lens. This would help with cooling as well. I've personally used some pvc pipe and ingenuity to mount the globe to my handle bars

As for what to buy? Hard to answer, I use something that looks like this http://www.kaidomain.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=4927

But if you're up for a little modding and want some serious light, I'd definitely start with a quad or triple cree q5 flashlight and go from there.

 

[NoShoulder]

what kind of battery pack do You have now?

search at www.dealextreme.com for a Quad-led light (flashlights --> Cree MC-E lights, or Seoul lights with a "P7"
The input voltage should cover Your existing battery pack.
Now remove the body, build Yourself an end plate that features a switch, connetions to the batt pack and to the inside contacts of the lights head, build Yourself a bar holder
--> done

or, less work, get something like this here: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.25149 which is, practically, the same thing as such a modded light head but already with bar clamp, pack and charger.
Only "needs" to be disassembled and a bit of thermal paste added

these offers are cheap and thus not perfectly made, but work and are a really good start to enter actual lighting technology
(if You want ready made, high quality ones: Lupine Tesla, Fenix TK40 and Jetbeam M1X)

I have a batteryspace 5600 mAh 12V pack. It runs my 12V 20 watt halogen for about 3 hours or more. But on a long daily commute (35 miles) that means recharging every day just to be sure. It would be nice to have an adequate "to see with" light in LED format. My halogen I guess puts out about 500 lumens and, yes, those lumens are all over the street and the sky, even so, I have a nice hot spot and can ride as fast as I can go and still see safely at night. It looks like these led's are considerably dimmer. So that, if I get enough of them to put out 500 lumens, I'll be up to 20 watts again.

Am I wrong?

NS

 

[NoShoulder]

I have a batteryspace 5600 mAh 12V pack. It runs my 12V 20 watt halogen for about 3 hours or more. But on a long daily commute (35 miles) that means recharging every day just to be sure. It would be nice to have an adequate "to see with" light in LED format. My halogen I guess puts out about 500 lumens and, yes, those lumens are all over the street and the sky, even so, I have a nice hot spot and can ride as fast as I can go and still see safely at night. It looks like these led's are considerably dimmer. So that, if I get enough of them to put out 500 lumens, I'll be up to 20 watts again.

Am I wrong?

NS

Okay, I just found the emitters and an MR16 "adapter" for a couple bucks. I'll check it out - thanks

NS

 

[yellow]

It looks like these led's are considerably dimmer.

right,
but one needs to know what to search for for recognizing.
If You have not seen what actual Led technology is, the white light would seem way brighter than the Halogen.
And that some of this is, because the halogen makes a much wider beam --> again depending on being able to look out for that.

Wen both are running, the halo seems to "brown-out" already (meaning: battery seems to be at the end of runtime), even with fresh batt.


Very old example, but still good:

note the halogen on the right being the brightest light, also the one with widest beam,
but even in the pic the halo seems "brown", in reality its even worse.
Also the light needs - like Your 20 W - SIX times the power of a single led.
I like to use just one single for my trail riding, to somehow still have the feeling of riding at night ;)
2 single together are on par with the Halo
a quad emitter (Cree MC-E or Seoul P7) easily kills the Halo and still needs less power.

As You need seem to be runtime over brightness, a single die light might be enough.
Seach for the "usual" recommendations for a 1*18650 light, or check f.e. a Sigma Powerled black.
That light is comparable to any single die, but is meant to be a bike light with all holders and an external pack --> double runtime than mounting a handheld 18650 light on the bars.

... or to what I typed regarding using Your existing pack + the head of a ready made light.
Such one for example: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14212

 

[R33E8]

I highly recommend Lamina lighting SoL MR16... The TruColor version is excellent and I am sure it's bright enough to replace a 20W lamp.. If you have any problems they will actually help you...

 

[NoShoulder]

Thank you so much to all of you. Really great info, really great.

Thanks

NS

 

[NoShoulder]

So, let's see if I have this right:

I need a quad emitter with a heat sink,
a controller of some kind to regulate battery voltage
a case,
a battery

anything else?

I have can order this: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16145
Do I need to order a reflector and a lens?
I have a fog light, rather small but it holds an MR16 halogen. I also have my Mag head with the flashlight tail cap in the back that I use now with an MR 16
I have a 5600 Ah 12volt battery pack.

I assume I need to afix the emitter in front with the heatsink firmly attached under it, with the controller under that, then wires out to a battery connector. I have Trailtech connectors now that I can use.

I'm not clear on the reflector or lens arrangement.

Any help appreciated, even if it's just a link to another post. I've been through lots of them and I don't know which is best to learn from.

thank you.

NS

 

[dhiris]

short: none

semi-short: use a quad emitter (Seoul P7, Cree MC-E), it will blow away the halogen

long: a very good, high driven single-emitter seems as bright as the 20W
(it is not, but its the white light making our brain think it is).
When knowing what to look for, one also notices, that the beam degree of the Halogen is much wider
Use a Quad emitter
forget MR16, imho meaning implanting that into Your existing housing (?). Thermal path is pretty nonexisting then.

If you like the tint of halogen you might not like the LED lights. I'm not sure you'll find a P7 in that tint.

 

[NoShoulder]

Bump. Please see my last question, not the reply but the last post by NoShoulder

 

[herulach]

Mag head would be a great start, look over in homemade/modified for all the how to build a p7 Mag posts you could ever want. It may be better with an MCE wired 2s2p - this gives you the same effect, but the voltage will be 7.4V, making it much closer to your battery voltage, increasing driver efficiency. If you're doing this, don't drive it at 2.8A, around 1.8/2A is the most you'll want to use.

 

[thehick]

I have nothing to do with this supplier and the mr16-LED is super-expensive but I bought one anyway. This was my first step away from Halogen. Seems OK. The spec says 25 degrees. 6 watts. 3 cree of unknown type/bin. More of a flood.

http://www.canadaleds.com/HB_led_mr-16.htm