gentlegreen
Newly Enlightened
Dear fellow DIY-ers.
Since the mainstay of DIY bike lights for years were QH MR16s, I naturally looked for the LED equivalent when building my lights.
After much Googling, I settled on some lamps made in Taiwan and marketed by http://www.ledonline.co.uk/HP-MR16-1x5W-38-.htm.
They do "40", "25", and "15" degree versions - using standard drop-in refractive optics. They're decent value for the housing and electronics at £16 plus post, but the beams are all over the place.
The 40 degree diffused one makes a nice splodge of light on the road, but not really suitable illuminating the path ahead by itself.
The 15 degree clear one does a reasonable job as a high beam with only a few watts, but the optic gives a messy beam with lots of sidespill.
I had placed hopes on the "25" degree lamp, but even though it has a third type of concave, coaxial optic, it's like the 40 degree one, but messy - like the 15 degree.
I've more or less given up trying to communicate with the supplier, so plan to order a range of lenses from Cutter or elsewhere - but even they don't provide any photos of what the beams will look like in practice.
Can Candlepower do any better ?
thanks in advance for any help.
http://sites.google.com/site/gentlegreen/bikelighting
http://sites.google.com/site/gentlegreen/bike-light-photos
Since the mainstay of DIY bike lights for years were QH MR16s, I naturally looked for the LED equivalent when building my lights.
After much Googling, I settled on some lamps made in Taiwan and marketed by http://www.ledonline.co.uk/HP-MR16-1x5W-38-.htm.
They do "40", "25", and "15" degree versions - using standard drop-in refractive optics. They're decent value for the housing and electronics at £16 plus post, but the beams are all over the place.
The 40 degree diffused one makes a nice splodge of light on the road, but not really suitable illuminating the path ahead by itself.
The 15 degree clear one does a reasonable job as a high beam with only a few watts, but the optic gives a messy beam with lots of sidespill.
I had placed hopes on the "25" degree lamp, but even though it has a third type of concave, coaxial optic, it's like the 40 degree one, but messy - like the 15 degree.
I've more or less given up trying to communicate with the supplier, so plan to order a range of lenses from Cutter or elsewhere - but even they don't provide any photos of what the beams will look like in practice.
Can Candlepower do any better ?
thanks in advance for any help.
http://sites.google.com/site/gentlegreen/bikelighting
http://sites.google.com/site/gentlegreen/bike-light-photos
