Need some advice for my motocycle light project

[mercurial85]

Hello guys,
I am planning to undertake a project where I try to use led's like luxeon V or even cree Q5/P4 arranged in a cluster to make a headlight equal or if not brighter then the standard HID/Xenon headlights. Do your think a cluster of 5 to 7 leds would be enough?? Should i use fraen lenses, polished smooth aluminium reflecters to give it a far throw or OP reflectors for floody type of beam. Thanks you for your advice..

 

[-Virgil-]

I have in my hand an amazingly good prototype 5.75-inch round 2-emitter LED headlamp producing a 140kcd 8° spot with a clear lens. With other optics, it produces other beam patterns. There are no thermal problems in either direction. Can't go into detail beyond this at the moment.

If you are interested in trying to make your own, study-up on the light distribution patterns required for the low and high beam functions, which are a lot more specific and detailed than "flood or spot" — and for sound safety-related reasons.

 

[mercurial85]

hi.. thanks for your input. I am currently undertaking this project as part of my university course work with the view of marketing it to the industry. Would you be interested to be a consultant on this project.?? Credit will be given for your help. It would really help to accelerate the project given the 5 week deadline I have for it.Thank you

 

[TorchBoy]

I have in my hand an amazingly good prototype 5.75-inch round 2-emitter LED headlamp producing a 140kcd 8° spot with a clear lens.

That seems very big for two emitters. (I would have thought that 5.75 centimetres would be enough.) It is that size simply for retrofitting reasons?

 

[-Virgil-]

That seems very big for two emitters. (I would have thought that 5.75 centimetres would be enough.) It is that size simply for retrofitting reasons?

It's this size for a number of reasons. Physical compatibility with existing equipment is one of the reasons, but take another look at the numbers involved; it is, shall we say, "extremely difficult" (because we don't like to use the "i" word) to get that kind of output and beam precision/light control sufficient for vehicular forward illumination without some rather significant light-gathering optics. There are also at least two important thermics-related factors to consider. I'm sorry I have to speak in cryptic half-riddles like this, but such is the nature of product development! I hope before too long you will be able to hold the production descendent of this prototype in your hands and we can discuss the specifics.

 

[LukeA]

I made something similar to what you want. Here

 

[-Virgil-]

I am currently undertaking this project as part of my university course work with the view of marketing it to the industry. Would you be interested to be a consultant on this project.?? Credit will be given for your help. It would really help to accelerate the project given the 5 week deadline I have for it.Thank you

Oh, wow. That is a very tight timeline in which to develop what you have in mind to anything approaching a proof of concept ready to present to industry. I think the best advice I could give you would be to reduce the scale of what you're proposing. It seems to me you might not have been aware of the intricate light distribution requirements for headlights. Spots and floods are easy to make, for they don't require much in the way of fancy optics. But headlight beams, especially the low beams, have to strike a difficult balance among lighting the way ahead and to the sides, and keeping glare out of others' eyes, and minimizing stray light. You will probably want to start by taking a careful look at the regulated beam requirements for motorcycle headlights. US Motor Vehicle Safety Standard #108 Figure #32 contains the specs legally required in the USA. You can snag this info easiest via Canada's (identical) MVSS 108 Figure 32 here. The rest of the world uses the European regulation, either number 57 which is here (PDF) or number 113 which is here for motorcycle-specific headlamps, or number 112 which is here for car/truck headlamps which are also allowed on motorcycles. The US/EU motorcycle headlight standards are pretty close to each other and there's a significant amount of overlap between them, so it's possible to build one lamp that meets both standards.

I am assuming (maybe incorrectly?) that you are already familiar with the concept of beam photometry expressed in terms of candela minimum/maximum at test points plotted on a coordinate plane, or in terms of lux at distances on a test screen...

 

[-Virgil-]

I made something similar to what you want. Here

Beam pattern pictures? For a commercial (or, for that matter, safe/legal) device, we can't just use our own notions of what makes an appropriate low beam or high beam light distribution.