Power two LED flashlights w/ motorcycle battery?

[feedmelies]

Hey guys. I hope this is the appropriate section. I ride a quad and I have been considering putting together a helmet light setup for a while. The commercially available set ups are expensive and only put out light for a small period of time (~2.5 hours). I would like around 4 hours of light if possible. Right now I am thinking about mounting two LED flashlights on my helmet and somehow wiring them up to a motorcycle battery that I am wearing in a backpack or that is mounted on my quad. I am currently using all of my quad's electrical output, so I cannot wire the helmet lights up to my quad. After browsing this forum, I have discovered this LED light, which apparently is 3,500 lux or 325 lumens. I thought that was pretty bright, especially for how cheap the light is. http://www.cpfmarketplace.com/mp/showthread.php?t=195708 Do you guys have any tips or ideas on how to wire two of those lights up to a motorcycle battery? Feel free to suggest a different flashlight or even a different battery. I am very open to different thoughts and ideas. What do you guys think?

 

[R@ndom]

A motorcycle battery will get less energy density than a few 18650's.

 

[jankj]

Well, +1 for ingenuity and thinking out of the box! I like that...


If something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't. I think your 325 lumens is a misunderstanding. The light you show is supposed to be 50% brighter than the regular Q5 version, which according to shiningbeam is 100 lumens. The xp-e q5 should therefore be 150 lumens, not 325. Still a great light, and great value for money. BUT it is designed to run off 1*AA (1.2-1.5 volt)! How on earth are you going to run it off a motorcycle battery? Is your motor cycle battery 3.0 volts? Most likely it is 6 or 12 volts, so you would need to run 4 (6 volt) or 8 (12 volts) of these in series.


I think you wanted to this light, which is identical except it runs of CR123A batteries (3 volts) and is smaller and brighter. Two of those in series running of an 6 volt motorcycle battery should work. Still not 325 lumens... at least I can't find that figure anywhere.


Weight is not your prime concern, but I'm guessing price is, which is why you intend to use heavy motorcycle batteries and budget lights. The light will certainly be lightweight enough for helmet mount. I suggest you try it with CR123A batteries to see if they are bright enough for your use. If not, the light should still be in mint condition and you can sell them at cpf marketplace. If they are bright enough, wiring them to a separate power supply should be very straightforward.

 

[qwertyydude]

An 18650 powered flashlight should be good for about 4-5 hours so just get a couple of cheapies on DX and mount them to your helmet. You'll easily get 300-400 lumens depending on flashlight choice and you'd have only spent 40 bucks or so. Plus it'll be much lighter in weight or heck just mount them to your handlebars and you'll have decent headlights.

 

[feedmelies]

Thanks for the input guys.

Well, +1 for ingenuity and thinking out of the box! I like that...


If something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't. I think your 325 lumens is a misunderstanding. The light you show is supposed to be 50% brighter than the regular Q5 version, which according to shiningbeam is 100 lumens. The xp-e q5 should therefore be 150 lumens, not 325. Still a great light, and great value for money. BUT it is designed to run off 1*AA (1.2-1.5 volt)! How on earth are you going to run it off a motorcycle battery? Is your motor cycle battery 3.0 volts? Most likely it is 6 or 12 volts, so you would need to run 4 (6 volt) or 8 (12 volts) of these in series.


I think you wanted to this light, which is identical except it runs of CR123A batteries (3 volts) and is smaller and brighter. Two of those in series running of an 6 volt motorcycle battery should work. Still not 325 lumens... at least I can't find that figure anywhere.


Weight is not your prime concern, but I'm guessing price is, which is why you intend to use heavy motorcycle batteries and budget lights. The light will certainly be lightweight enough for helmet mount. I suggest you try it with CR123A batteries to see if they are bright enough for your use. If not, the light should still be in mint condition and you can sell them at cpf marketplace. If they are bright enough, wiring them to a separate power supply should be very straightforward.

I was talking about this light:

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-149/Romisen-RC-dsh-G2-II-Cree/Detail

According to the individual selling the light, it puts out 3,500 lux (this was posted by him/her in the discussion I posted a link to in my original post).

An 18650 powered flashlight should be good for about 4-5 hours so just get a couple of cheapies on DX and mount them to your helmet. You'll easily get 300-400 lumens depending on flashlight choice and you'd have only spent 40 bucks or so. Plus it'll be much lighter in weight or heck just mount them to your handlebars and you'll have decent headlights.

Hey thanks. Would you mind posting links to the specific items you are talking about? I'd appreciate it.

 

[jankj]

I was talking about this light:

http://www.shiningbeam.com/servlet/the-149/Romisen-RC-dsh-G2-II-Cree/Detail

According to the individual selling the light, it puts out 3,500 lux

Lux is not not lumens. Lux is a measure of how intense the light is (energy per area). Lumens is a measure of the total light output (total energy).

A flood light can have the same lumens output as a searchlight, but very different lux values for very different uses. The searchlight focuses most of the energy into a very thin, intense beam with high lux values in the beam and close to zero elsewhare. This is good for seeing things far away, but can be a pain up close. (Would you use a lazer to look for things in the tool shed?) . The flood light will illuminate a large area with lower lux area, but won't light up things that aren't close.

I highly recommend dealing with shiningbeam. He stands behind his products... if he says it is 3500 lux, it's probably true. But the 325 lumens figure is not reflected in his advertisment of said light. That lumens value is also much higher than you would expect from similar light using exactly the same diode and battery configuration. Like I said, if it sounds too good to be true... I'd go back and read again to see if that's really what he said.

What other lights do you have on your quad?

What voltage and amperage (watt hours) is your motorcycle battery? That light of yours is still the AA version (1.5 v). Without knowing more about this light I would say that you need FOUR AA lights for coupling in series to a 6 volt motorcycle battery. To couple two of them you would go with the CR123 version (3 volt) of this light.

But - the buisness part of the CR123 and AA lights may actually be identical. It cuts cost to make a single head with a wide voltage range (say 1.2 - 3 v); the only difference between the AA, 2*AA and CR123 version would then be the shape of the battery compartment and the performance. I don't know if this is the case, but you could ask shiningbeam...

An 18650 powered flashlight should be good for about 4-5 hours

I've never seen this kind of runtime for single 18650 battery lights at maximum, so I'd like some links as well. This one has a runtime of 2 hours at full steam. I think 1.5-2 hours is fairly typical.

 

[Gunner12]

If you really want, you can also build a light. I'm not sure what the voltage of the battery it but there are 12v drivers which can take the strain of a running motor(which creates spikes in the voltage). There are probably 6v drivers that can do that too.

As jankj posted, lux is how far the light can throw, and not how much light it puts out. Think laser vs flood light. Laser is a lot dimmer then a flood light but the laser throws much further.

Do you know how much output you need and what type of beam pattern you'll need? Also how much runtime would be good?

:welcome:

 

[feedmelies]

Thanks for fixing my misunderstanding LOL. I found a conversion calculator on the Internet and thought I could convert lux to lumens practically. I guess I cannot.

I would prefer more of a flood pattern out of the lights and around 300 lumens. I wouldn't mind building a light but I'd need a lot of information on the process.

 

[jankj]

Converting from from lux to lumens requires a good knowledge of the beam profile to be anywhere near correct...

Nip over to the bicycle and automotive sections of this forum and read a bit there about different self made, modified or purchased solutions. One popular solution is a multi-die (P7,MC-E) light powered by li-ion 18650 battery. This light is small enough to be helmet mounted or bar mounted and gives 400-700 lumens (don't belive the inflated 900 lumens factory claim...).

Since you are using all available battery capacity, I suppose you have some lights already on the quad. Probably some halogen lamps... Your helmet solution should match those, and that can be pretty though. A car headlight (60 watt incandesent) will be somewhere from 700 to 1400 lumens... Adding a 200 lumens flashlight to that does not really make much of a difference....

 

[hyperloop]

Converting from from lux to lumens requires a good knowledge of the beam profile to be anywhere near correct...

Nip over to the bicycle and automotive sections of this forum and read a bit there about different self made, modified or purchased solutions. One popular solution is a multi-die (P7,MC-E) light powered by li-ion 18650 battery. This light is small enough to be helmet mounted or bar mounted and gives 400-700 lumens (don't belive the inflated 900 lumens factory claim...).

Since you are using all available battery capacity, I suppose you have some lights already on the quad. Probably some halogen lamps... Your helmet solution should match those, and that can be pretty though. A car headlight (60 watt incandesent) will be somewhere from 700 to 1400 lumens... Adding a 200 lumens flashlight to that does not really make much of a difference....

agree with this, unless your quad's lights are really dim, i was wondering why you'd need a helmet set up unless its to see things off to the side but then again, why would you be looking left and right while riding, keep your eyes focused on the trail

adding another few hundred lumens may not make much of a difference in this case.

 

[kingnba6]

i plan on doing something similar to the OP. but my plan is to wire in 4 t6 flashlight heads using these mounts

and attaching them to my turn signal bars (im doing this on a cruiser). if i wire 4 t6 flash lights in series meaning each light will get 4v each (which i think is too much and might get too hot). what do you guys think of that? im not going to put the whole flash light, just the head of the flash light and will run wires. im sure its going to be too much heat since they will always be on, i might just get a driver. but instead of a driver cant i just get a 12v around 6-8v adapter. ?

 

[Poppy]

Your alternator should be regulated to put out 14.4 volts. That divided by 4 = 3.6 volts.

 

[kingnba6]

Your alternator should be regulated to put out 14.4 volts. That divided by 4 = 3.6 volts.

so do you think it will be safe to give him 3.6v without over heating? i worry because i am only using the head and not the body so theres less "heatsink" since no body. but then again since ill be moving it should help in cooling i believe