More lumens! Joy!

[kristiancyclist]

Not sure if this is better suited for the LED flashlight thread but it has a lot of bike commuting involved here.

I mounted two supposed 3W flashlights on my bar ends.

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Each flashlight uses 3AAA batteries and has a Cree XRE P4 LED. I'm not too knowledgeable about the LED itself but it is really bright. If I read Cree's website correctly, the XRE LED puts out around 100 lumen. So I must have a combined output of around 200 lumens then.

The mounts are pretty cheap and cheasy but they seem to work. Their design is decent but they're just not well built. There's lots of play between rotation clicks and they just feel flimsy. After I aligned the flashlights, I took apart both halves and filled in the space with glue. Now the structure is solid and rigid. I can remove the flashlights if necessary without worrying about losing my alignment. My only remaining gripe is that the mounting nut tends to unscrew. I think I can fix this by attaching a second metal locking nut that has a bit of nylon at it's top part.

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The reflector/cone of the flashlight creates a nice wide "hot spot". Here's a shot of both flashlights on. ISO 800 and 1 second shutter speed.

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Whoops! Way overexposed! But at least you can see just how much light comes out of these two flashlights. Kind of ridiculous.

When I combine the output of these flashlights with my MR16 setup, I get this pattern. ISO 800 and 1/2 second shutter speed.

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I enjoyed the wide pattern and intensity of my MR16 lights but I wish I could shine farther, especially when flying downhill. These flashlights together make a nice tight hotspot in the center that can give me the extra visibility I want. The first set of buckets is 33 feet away and the second of buckets is 50 feet away.

The flashlights are no-name generics sold by LED Wholesalers on their eBay store. Included with each flashlight is cheap red LED rear light. What a joke. It's barely visible even during the day but the flash patterns are kind of cool.

Just wanted to share my latest addition. :twothumbs

-- Boris

 

[yellow]

unfortunately those mounts (I have mine from DX, get it at 10 per order or so) suck.
They stand about one lend them around because the plastic is so brittle.
Still cheap and fit on any size bike bars, the single reason I still have a few.

... if only the plastic were better

 

[nintendo64]

Looks fairly bright, nice setup. 2 x 3 watt looks good, got any picutures of a single light for comparison.

what sort of battery life?

 

[kristiancyclist]

It seems like you can get a bit less than an hour before the lights start to dim considerably. Here are some pictures after close to one hour of operation. ISO 800 and 1/2 second shutter speed.

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The picture on the left is one light on and the picture on the right is both lights on. Compare the hot spot on the right with a previous picture in this thread that has all of my lights on. It's way dimmer. So, it's probably time for new batteries. Still, if my main lights failed and this was all I had to ride home with, I wouldn't be completely disappointed. It's actually a bit brighter than what the picture shows. These dimmer shots should still give you an idea on the pattern output with fresh batteries.

You can see the spot size grow a bit on the right. The two lights aren't aimed perfectly and there is a bit of offset between the two.

The light uses 3 AAA batteries in a little holder/clip that connects them in series. So the light draws 4.5V. For a supposed 3W of output, that's about 2/3 A. This will be the last of my alkaline batteries. Now I will move to rechargeable NiMH. We'll see how the slightly lower voltage will affect the light output. I got some Rayovacs waiting for these lights.

The two nice things about these lights that I have noticed is that there are rubber O-rings front and back. And! And! .... No battery rattle.

-- Boris