My light project w/MR16 bulbs

[kristiancyclist]

Hi,

My name is Boris and I commute to work on my bike quite a bit - more so this year than other years thanks in part to the high price of gasoline. Gasoline is just not something I want to spend money on and I also don't like driving. Normally I would call this time of year the end of my riding season and only ride on the weekends in the afternoon. Since I am on a good rhythm here, I will continue riding my bike to work.

I know that I will need some sort of lighting system for my bike. The small LED lights that mount on handlebars give a relatively bleak output. They look like something "to be seen" rather than help "to see". I had a chance to check out some of the pricier CygoLite and Niterider systems. Some of these systems cost over $120. It's quite a chunk of change and in some ways I don't mind spending it if I felt that it was worth it but the output was still pretty minimal.

Feeling brave and adventurous, I decided to build my own lighting system. I didn't know where to start so I took at stab at buying some mini fog lights from Walmart. The lights I got are made my Optronics and cost around $15. Two fixtures are include and each fixture has a 50W MR16 bulb. The output was very bright but the fixture got too hot too quickly and I knew that the current draw will kill any practical battery I could take with me.

By chance, I stumbled upon some LED based MR16 bulbs on eBay. Little didn I know that these bulbs are pretty common and I knew even less that LED lights are seemingly taking the world by storm. I got two bulbs: a 15 degree spot and a wider 45 degree sort-of-a-flood. Both bulbs were purchased from LED Wholesaler's eBay store. The folks running the place seem like nice people and were happy to answer my questions over the telephone.

The bulbs fit in the fixtures with some difficultly. In one case I had to use the included rubber washers to push the bulb forward against the front cap and in another and in the other case, I had to trim the internal cup metal that holds the ceramic MR16 base because the bulb was too tall.

I mounted both fixtures on my front rack. Here is what it looks like.

The output of these bulbs is absolutely amazing! I set up a little experiment in my backyard. Three buckets were placed 33 feet away and another three buckets were place 50 feet away. They were lit up as if it were broad daylight.

I don't know if I am approaching a "stuipid bright" level here but I know that I will need as much illumination as I can get. The rural roads in my area are pitch black at night. There are no street lights at all. If the moon's out then it's OK but otherwise you can barely see anything.

I have been using my car's battery for these experiments. Batteryspace.com has a neat kit that includes a battery in a water bottle and charger. I ordered the NiMH kit that gives 4500 mA*h. Even though each bulb draws a measured 250 mA, I wanted to have some reserve in case I get a flat and need the extra time to fix it.

I see now that there are many other ways to make a DIY lighting system and I regret that I didn't stumble upon this forum earlier. Now I must finish what I started. I think I'll be OK but waterproofing everything will be somewhat of a challenge. While I don't intend to ride in the snow and hail, I know I will probably get caught in it at least once. This project has been fun so far and I can see how easy it is to become a "light freak". Sounds kind of fun to follow the technology and play with the gadgets.

Once my system is finished, I'll post some more pictures.

-- Boris

 

[Lunal_Tic]

That's pretty cool. :thumbsup: They look a bit retro which I like. Are you going to run them together all the time or be able to switch between one, the other, or both? As for waterproofing I'd guess silicone RTV/caulking might work well. There are some high temp versions available at auto stores.

Welcome to CPF!

-LT

 

[kristiancyclist]

Thanks for the note! Yes, I was thinking of using RTV or some sort of caulking agent to seal the little hole in the back where the wires come out of. The trick is to not use too much and make it look like a blob. I'm going to cut the pre-existing wires as short as possible and cover as much them as I can with heat shrink tubing too. For the front I was thinking of getting a thin 2" gel or plastic disc and glueing it to the inside of the twist-on cap. I can also cover the seam of the twist-on front cap with a large wide rubber band (like the kind that holds bunches of brocolli). Add a little bit of rubber cement to keep the band in place. The rubber cement should easy enough to defeat and peel off if I need access to the bulb.

I know water is a tricky thing to keep out and I'm sure that despite my best efforts some of it will seep in. So, just in case, I was planning to drill a small hole at the bottom of each fixture so any water that does get in has a way to get out. I'm thinking that the bottom fixture will be more likely to collect water from the tire.

I plan to run both lights at the same time. They barely draw any current compared to their halogen equivilents so I am not worried about killing my battery. In the end, I only need full power for about an hour and half. That's my slow round trip commute time + spare time to fix a flat or solve any other mechanical problem. I ordered a water proof switch from batteryspace.com which will control both lights.

My bike is a heavily upgraded Downtube FS IX folding bike. It only has one set of water bottle cages bosses. I need to get a second water bottle cage on there for the battery. It looks like I will need something like the Twofish strap-on cage. I have a fairly long steerer tube which makes it perfect to hold the second bottle.

-- Boris

 

[kristiancyclist]

I got my battery pack from batteryspace.com along with a y-splitter, a switch, and two male connectors. The battery pack looks pretty slick but it's a little crude inside.

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The battery pack is shoved against the side and packed with some pink foam. A big dollop of glue seems to hold everything together. I was hoping to see a molded or neatly cut piece of foam centering the battery pack in the middle of the bottle. As it is the bottle is very off-balance and I wonder how it will move around when mounted on my bike. The threads have a little bit of glue on one spot to keep everything from unscrewing. There is also a slathering of glue on the inside of the water bottle nozzle. Like I said, I was expecting something fancier but this will work fine. I will probably seal the bottle with rubber cement all the way around the threads of the bottle.

The soldering job went OK but could have been better. My biggest mistake was cutting the heat shrink tubing too short on the top light.

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Whoops! Nothing tragic but I will need to find a way to cover and protect this. I am thinking of using two pieces of heat shrink tubing. Shrink both. Cut down the middle of both. Glue one on and secure with zip ties. Let the glue dry and remove the zip ties. Glue the second one on rotated 180 degrees and secure with zip ties. Let the glue dry and do not remove the zip ties. Once that is all done then I will use RTV or something like that to seal up the hole in the light fixture itself.

The connections are electrically and mechanically sound. I took care to make sure I don't have any cold solder joints without any "bald spots" on the wires. Both lights turn on just fine when everything is connected together.

Here's what the bike looks like so far.

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I am planning to hang the water bottle on the downtube by the crank, pointing at 1 o'clock. There seems to be enough clearance for the cranks to spin around without hitting the bottle. I will use a Twofish water bottle cage. I've used them before and they're not bad. Just ditch the velcro and use something like pipe or hose clamps instead.

(And yes, that is a Biopace crankset.)

-- Boris

 

[Lunal_Tic]

Thanks for the pix. There's more gear there than bike. I've had the "too short shrink tube" problem before. Seems like every kind I get shrinks a different amount.

If you are worried about the battery you could put something between the cage and the tube for shock isolation. Maybe an old piece of tire or something like that.

Also what are you using on the rear of the bike a light or a reflector? Do your panniers have something built in?

-LT

 

[kristiancyclist]

I don't have anything mounted on the back just yet. The back of my rack has a small mounting plate on it.

The plate is actually a plug.

I am thinking of attaching a thin strip of aluminum, about 1" high and 8" long. That will give me room to mount several flashing LED lights. I have a 9 LED unit from Performance Bike Shop that was given to me by my Dad as a present. It is really bright! Deal Extreme seems to have one as well and it is significantly cheaper. I placed an order with Deal Extreme for three units just now. This will be my first experience with the company. For now, I figure I can just the one unit I have until the others arrive. I can clip it onto the plug directly.

The rural roads where I commute have light traffic. At the moment I am more concerned about seeing coyotes crossing the road and obstacles to swerve around when we turn our clocks back.

-- Boris

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[kristiancyclist]

My universal water bottle cage from Twofish came on Friday, and just in time too! Most of America will be setting their clocks back one hour on Sunday, Nov 2nd.

I thought I would share a picture of my water bottle battery mounted on my Downtube folding bike.

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It fits very nicely with plenty of clearance for pedaling. I haven't taken it out for a ride yet but spinning the pedals backwards didn't seem to be a problem. I'd like to extend that think to the pedals spinning forward.

The cable come out of the bottle and neatly follow the frame to the front lights. A poorly color matched piece of Velcro secures the cable for now until I can get something sleeker in black.

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The switch (turned away from view) dangles out a bit before the cables are routed to the front rack. Zip ties hold everything down on the rack. All of the cables are from batteryspace.com and they are called "Trail Tech" cables. Supposedly they are very water proof. I sure hope so!

Before I forget, I did manage to add more heat shrink to my cables where I didn't have enough (see my earlier post). It was quite simple. I took two pieces of heat shrink tubing and shrunk them both. Then I cut them open right down their lengths. They slip on quite easily. Each one was put on 180 degrees rotated from the other. Silicone sealant was applied to both and then small zip ties held everything together while it all cured. I just need to add some sealant around the opening on the light fixtures where the cables come out.

All the cable snap together very snugly and the light powers on without a hitch. Yippee!

The other thing I still need to do is add a cover for the front of the light fixture. Both LED bulbs are exposed to the elements. I'm still thinking of buying two cheap flashlights at Walmart and taking their lens covers.

-- Boris

 

[Lunal_Tic]

I'd definitely try to get a lens for the lights. It will cut down a little of the output but the extra protection will be worth it. Just make sure that you seal them from water well or you could end up with fogged lenses. If you have a hardware store near by you might be able to buy Mag-lite lenses without having to buy a whole light.

-LT

 

[FrontRanger]

I know water is a tricky thing to keep out and I'm sure that despite my best efforts some of it will seep in. So, just in case, I was planning to drill a small hole at the bottom of each fixture so any water that does get in has a way to get out. I'm thinking that the bottom fixture will be more likely to collect water from the tire.

Fenders would dramatically improve that, but perhaps they interfere with folding the bicycle? Or perhaps they're not readily available for your non-mainstream wheel size?

A front rack sure adds a nice mounting option. Looks like a good, clean setup overall. Nice work!

 

[kristiancyclist]

I sealed the fixtures this past weekend.

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This close-up picture is of the bottom light. You can see the thin plastic film inside the cap and in front of the light. I also sealed the seam of the cap as well, with silicone. It was pretty simple to do. The secret is to not use too much. Also, for the seam, I just masked off the entire circumference of the fixture with some tape, leaving only the seam exposed. I applied the silicone and then peeled off the tape. Easy peasy!

So now I will consider this project complete. Now it's time for me to review the light output. Light projecting down my backyard and light projecting the road while in motion are two different things! I get about a car lane's width of light which means I can illuminate quite a bit of the shoulder and beyond. The first thought was to turn the light to the left and have it point to the road more. Then on second thought, I decided to leave it as is so I can watch for wildlife that may spring out from the side of the road.

Lengthwise, I get about two car lengths worth of illumination. Beyond that, the light seems to die off to nothing pretty quick. At first I thought this would be too bright but after comparing the light output from a car, I think I don't have enough light! That's a thought for a different thread.

What amazes me is how the street signs, road markers, road paint, etc are illuminated! I think this is called retro-reflective? And not only that, but I'm catching signs that must be 200 feet away! Simply amazing!! I did not expect that effect.

-- Boris

 

[Lunal_Tic]

What amazes me is how the street signs, road markers, road paint, etc are illuminated! I think this is called retro-reflective? And not only that, but I'm catching signs that must be 200 feet away! Simply amazing!! I did not expect that effect.

-- Boris

You might want to see what it looks like to oncoming drivers, wouldn't want to tick off someone driving a 4000lbs hammer.

-LT