5W (white) Luxeon Star Bike Light

[Gimpy00Wang]

Mmmm...downhill riding at night. Now that's when you need to make sure your n*ts are screwed on really tight! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

- G!mpy

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ahavemann said:
The 12v light works good though, it's fine for 80% of my night riding and only fails on fast downhills when I have to kick in a 20w halogen to light up the distance, otherwise I just can't see far enough ahead.


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[ElektroLumens]

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Gimpy00Wang said:

You might not need to worry too much about a large mass of heatsink to cool the unit. Instead, optimally placed fins might disapate heat nicely due to air moving over them while riding. Kinda like how newer laptops use heatpipes to carry the heat away from the CPU to where the fans are... ideas...ideas...

- G!mpy

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ElektroLumens said:
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ahavemann said:
Actually - this looks like a pretty good housing for a mod. here's a link

http://aebike.com/site/page.cfm?PageID=30&ID=13645

How about it Wayne - think you could mod one of these for max brightness without cooking it?.

Al

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If it is constructed of aluminum, it would be a possibility.

This one does give me some ideas for a bike light based on a 5W and 30mm optics.

My thought is to use the battery bottle concept, running a wire to the light. I was counting on aluminum handlebars. I didn't realize carbon fiber handlebars and other components were prevalent. So the size of the light must be large enough, with adequate sinking for the 5W. So the big fins would be mandatory for sinking. So all the feedback here is very helpful.

Wayne j

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One cannot always count on moving air. What if the rider stops for a while to chat or take a rest, but leaves the light on. The rider will /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mecry.gif if the light goes dim.

Wayne j

 

[Nerd]

Have some sort of thermal protection. Thermal shut down. Add some circuit in, complicate things /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/naughty.gif

 

[Illuminated]

The Marwi BULLITe does have a fairly heavy machined (not drawn) aluminum housing.

I will try to disassemble and post pics tomorrow (Saturday) for all to see.

I like this light for its cam-action quick-release mounting, and the fact that it is completely self-contained.

Much nicer quality than any other self-contained handlebar light I've seen.

John

 

[RJ]

Wayne,
Soon as you get a dual 5watt model available I'll buy one. I've been waiting for a 5watt Luxeon light, but 2- 5watter's I can't resist! You can email me when you have them available.
Russ

 

[Al_Havemann]

I shouldn't think that cooling would be that much of a problem, although I'll be the first to admit that I'm hardly the expert on this, I'm just a hack. I guess I'll need more education (probably via blown Luxeons) before I know what I'm doing.

Anyway, I mentioned that because I was out last night for about 2 hours after dark and had the 12v/5w light on the whole time without any overheating that I noticed. The only cooling on the 5w star is a heat sink I bought from Wayne that's about 30mm in diameter. It's secured to the bottom of the star with CA-ZAP model cement and stuffed into the head. I had drilled some holes in the head for ventilation, but that's about it. True, I was moving all the time and it was fairly cool out, but even the major manufactures of lights like Nightsun and Catseye have warnings in the owners manuals about leaving the light on when not moving. If I leave the 20w high beam on (halogen) for more than about 4-5 minutes, I'll melt the front lens (done it twice) in addition to blowing a 10$ bulb.

As for batteries, I wired 12 new 3000mh sub-c NMIH cells(leftover from strobe pack rebuilds) in series then put them into a water bottle from which I had cut open about one inch up from the bottom. I re-attached the bottom with a strip of gaffers tape and put a small toggle switch into a hole drilled in the top. The battery weighs less than half what my older ni-cad did and took less than a hour to make. Nothing fancy and it works fine, for production purposes though, gaffers tape isn't the way to go.

Al