Driving lights whats the best way?

[A426fan]

I've spent the last few days reading thing here. At first it looked like Greek to me... starting to sink in some...

So what I want to build is some driving lights to replace the ones on my motorcycle with LED's. I would like to match the output of my MR16 50W 15* halogen's. From the sounds of it my biggest problem will be getting rid of the heat. I'm guessing around 600lm would get me in the ball park?

I plan to make custom housings for my lights and would like them to be no bigger than what a MR16 housing would be.

So would 3 Seoul SSC P4 LEDs or a single SSC P7 be a better way to go? What would create the least amount of heat? Or a different LED???

Being I will have 2 units on the bike what would be the best way to drive them? Being I would like them temp regulated for the situations when I'm stopped what to use and how to accomplish this?

Thanks.

 

[A426fan]

Re: Noob with a ton of questions

Can anyone help me please?

 

[Sabrewolf]

Re: Noob with a ton of questions

You are definately going to need multiple P7's for each light housing.
Seperate optics for each one is needed for an optimal beam pattern.
I have actually built some fog lights for my car with about 8x 8watt
Osram Dragon White leds. I mixed 2 red ones in there for color contrast.
Since i am kinda tied up with a bunch of other products, It would be
kinda hard to help you out building the project right now. But i am sure
that some other members will chime in. Just give it some time, As this
is the "Dead Zone" of CPF.. Between 3-6ish AM Eastern Time.

Hope yer project goes well

 

[Kiessling]

Re: Noob with a ton of questions

This thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=197913

... should give you some ideas. McGizmo modded his Scooter to LED.

bernie

P.S.: welcome to CPF :wave:

 

[A426fan]

Re: Noob with a ton of questions

You are definately going to need multiple P7's for each light housing.
Seperate optics for each one is needed for an optimal beam pattern.
I have actually built some fog lights for my car with about 8x 8watt
Osram Dragon White leds. I mixed 2 red ones in there for color contrast.
Since i am kinda tied up with a bunch of other products, It would be
kinda hard to help you out building the project right now. But i am sure
that some other members will chime in. Just give it some time, As this
is the "Dead Zone" of CPF.. Between 3-6ish AM Eastern Time.

Hope yer project goes well

OMG 64watts... not the direction I want to go... Basically I want to supplement the head light and provide more throw. And most importantly keep each light under 20 watts...

 

[A426fan]

Re: Noob with a ton of questions

This thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=197913

... should give you some ideas. McGizmo modded his Scooter to LED.

bernie

P.S.: welcome to CPF :wave:

Thanks! Thats cool. I tried searching for stuff like that but didn't find anything close.

 

[Kiessling]

Re: Noob with a ton of questions

You might also consider changing your thread title to attract some flies. It is rather unspecific right now and sounds like a "generic noob thread".

 

[romulus]

Re: Noob with a ton of questions

Hey Noob, I've played around a bit with light engines, thermal epoxy, and heat sinks. No matter which assembly you end up with, definately strobe. Strobing reduces heat, and in most cases, you can get away with a simple 1/8" to 1/4" thick plate of aluminum.

A good strobe rate for high power / highly visable lights is about 5KHZ. If you use a PWM driver, 75% on time should be plenty - just an estimate.

 

[A426fan]

OK I think I want to try a single P7 and see how that goes.

So for optics... An oval beam would be cool or around a 10* would probably get me what I'm looking for. You guys know of any sources?

Driving the beast... This is where I get confused the most. What to use??? Where could I find a driver to work with my 12v system? Along with one that will reduce output to protect the LED from heat???

Also looking for a simple heat sink that I can attach everything too. I will make the housing around it...

 

[A426fan]

Re: Noob with a ton of questions

Hey Noob, I've played around a bit with light engines, thermal epoxy, and heat sinks. No matter which assembly you end up with, definately strobe. Strobing reduces heat, and in most cases, you can get away with a simple 1/8" to 1/4" thick plate of aluminum.

A good strobe rate for high power / highly visable lights is about 5KHZ. If you use a PWM driver, 75% on time should be plenty - just an estimate.

Is the strobing visible at that freq? I would not want to cause any problems with on coming traffic.

The housing will look something like these made from billet stock but with my own twist on them, maybe some cooling fins... I plan to build the light engine and then thermally glue it in place.

 

[romulus]

Very nice pkging, the chrome looks hot! I got pulled over a few years ago effing around with LED fogs at 1khz. I adjusted the strobe to 5khz and the strobe was undetectable. The thing is, you don't want to go too high in freq. because at some pt. heat losses will begin to increase. I would keep it between 5 and 7khz

I used 4 light engines per lamp, Loctite thermstrate, and an 1/8" thick heatsink plate with 3/8" fins

Each assy ran 110 degrees F (warm to touch), only problem, I didn't seal
them properly, so they fogged up, dimming the light a bit.

Good Luck, send pix when finished - serious stuff.

 

[Daravon]

If you are running these on a 12v motorcycle, consider using simple linear current source like LM317. They are not efficient but it shouldn't matter.

 

[A426fan]

I found this
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14413

Do you think I could run 2 of these in series and be fine with out any more voltage regulation?

Any bad things about this unit?

 

[romulus]

Don't know for sure, but specs seem to indicate that they have built-in
regulation. Based on self regulation, I'de try them in series at 12V.

 

[Oznog]

I found this
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.14413

Do you think I could run 2 of these in series and be fine with out any more voltage regulation?

Any bad things about this unit?

No. Those are switching power converters and when placed in series the voltage balance between them becomes extremely unpredictable. It is doubtful they'd evenly split the voltage 50/50 initially and even if they did it on the bench there's no guarantee they'd retain it in the field.

 

[romulus]

If I were to design an actual product, of which 1000's would be built, I would not, but we're talking about modding.

It appears that they're using surface mount discretes with the regulator thermal epoxied to the inner wall of the base, basically the design of this light does not appear to be a switching reg. but rather, a linear. It should be ok to try them in series provided you keep the supply voltage
around 12V

"Aluminum texture/OP reflector with copper heatsink base" indicates the whole housing is being used as a heat sink, not just for the LED, but for the inefficient linear reg. circuit.

End all speculation - email the person who made it, I'de be interested.