LED spotlight

[Craigy]

I am looking (wanting to if feasible) to install led spotlights on the front of my electric golf cart. I have no idea where to begin. It currently has 35 watt lights (Wally world variety) on it now. Previous owner had killed two of the six batteries using it so much. Anyway, I would like to try to make some (maybe buy if i cant) bright led head lights for the cart. I wil have (8) 6 volt batteries on the cart, so voltage choices are good. Any ideas how to get started. I have very little knowlegle of LED's, but am willing to try anything. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[NeSSuS-GTE]

Let me reply to this and make help make it more appropriate for this section.

You're MUCH better off doing a HID conversion than an LED conversion for an application like that. Price and effort will be substantially less, and output and efficiency will be substantial.

You can likely find HID bulbs that will fit your current light housings. Then wire up the ballasts and enjoy!

There are good threads on HID conversion in the Automotive section.

my $.02

 

[jasonck08]

You can find 35W Kit's on eBay for $60 shipped. The output will be at least 4x what your current halogen 35W lights are doing. The only way you could come close to this brightness would be 4x p7's LEDS (at $20 a pop for each light + heatsinking and drivers. Likely over $100 for the same brightness as a 35W HID). Go HID.

 

[BVH]

Well, maybe 3x's overall output increase. But that's splitting hairs!

 

[broadgage]

Regardless as whether you use HID or LED lamps, be certain to use the whole battery pack voltage to drive the lights, useing a suitable DC to DC converter if needed.

When a number of batteries are used in series, it is important to draw the same current from all batteries.
In your case with 8 batteries each of 6 volts, you have 48 volts available, it would be most unwise to obtain 12 volts from just two of the batteries.
So doing will result in some batteries being discharged more than others, when the batteries are then recharged, all in series, some while be overcharged and others wont fully charge.
This will drasticly reduce battery life.

Either use a DC to DC converter to obtain 12 volts from 48, or obtain 48 volt lights which may be a challenge.
Alternativly you may be able to obtain HID lights for 24 volts, in this case connect one lamp accross half the battery, and the other lamp accross the other half, this will ensure equal discharge of all the batteries.

Larger electric vehicles often have a dedicted 12 volt auxilary battery for lighting etc, charged from the main battery by a DC to DC converter, this is probably a bit OTT for a golf cart though.

Remember that golf cart batteries can supply hundreds, possibly thousands of amps if shorted, correctly rated fuses are essiential to avoid risk of fire.

 

[Ken J. Good]

Something to consider:

http://www.rigidindustries.com/products.php?5&suba9

 

[billhess]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Maxx...5fRVQ5fTrailerQ5fCamperQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

note the voltage on this one:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-5-...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

 

[Craigy]

Thanks for the replys. The lights that I have on the cart now are the bolt on kind from Wal-mart. I'm not sure that I could replace the bulbs in them with HID ones. They are actually bright enough for me, I was just thinking that a HID bulb setup would draw less amps from the batteries. What I was trying to do was avoid buying a voltage converter ($120-$150) and just use two of my 6 volt batteries. It seems that I just need to do this and keep the lights that I have. Someone suggested 35W HID from Ebay for about $35.00 or so. I could not find them. Anyway, thanks again.

 

[Richie086]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Maxx...5fRVQ5fTrailerQ5fCamperQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

note the voltage on this one:


http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-5-...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Hi Bill,

That first LED link you posted, what is the actual power requirement for it? Obviously it's 6W but how many amps? I have a Toro 828 XLE snowblower that has an 18w halogen headlight that really isn't very bright. But this LED version looks to be even better and much brighter not to mention requiring much less power.