A quad Cree headlight for my recumbent, fast and cheap, without using a lathe or mill. This is what I built:
It started from this (my wife still has another sugar castor):
I cut it down by jamming it into a hole saw, rotating it in a stand drill, pressing an old saw blade against the side until cut. Alternatively, a Dremel and approx 5 cutting discs will do the job.
More pieces:
The net of the sugar castor I have replaced it with a piece of acrylic glass. I cut this by first marking the circle with a hot soldering iron (both sides of the acrylic), then breaking away the material outside the circle. Eventually used silicone glue to seal it.
The quad optics are sku1915 and the LEDs sku2394 from dealextreme.
The plastic rivets (5mm) and the stress relief (6mm) are from reichelt.de
The bracket is from my local DIY store (Obi).
The 5mm aluminium disc that carries the 4 Cree XR-E has been cut with a hacksaw and perfected with file and sand paper. I cut 2 threads for mounting, one hole for feeding through the cable (inside a 6mm transparent hose for protection), 4 holes (2mm depth only) for guiding the optics.
The LEDs are held in place by Arctic Silver glue.
The optics are glued to the aluminium using epoxy.
With the cable to the outside world connected, heatsink compound put on the bottom of the disc and all fit together:
With the LID on:
The bracket:
To seal the head, I will eventually put a piece of inner tube over it, covering the rivets and the gap where the cap meets the bottom part of the can.
The beam of the final product is smooth and slightly wider than the one of a Fraen 10deg triple collimator which I put in my triple Rebel100 design. There's a good amount of spill. The beam is nice for road use but needs diffusion for trail.
Heat dissipation is absolutely not an issue as long as the light is powered from a dynamo (current not exceeding 600mA and bike moving when there is current). This is what I'm doing.
If high-powered by a battery, the LED temperature probably rises quickly when the bike stops and the light is not being dimmed. A battery-powered system should monitor the temperature and adjust the LED current accordingly.
It started from this (my wife still has another sugar castor):
I cut it down by jamming it into a hole saw, rotating it in a stand drill, pressing an old saw blade against the side until cut. Alternatively, a Dremel and approx 5 cutting discs will do the job.
More pieces:
The net of the sugar castor I have replaced it with a piece of acrylic glass. I cut this by first marking the circle with a hot soldering iron (both sides of the acrylic), then breaking away the material outside the circle. Eventually used silicone glue to seal it.
The quad optics are sku1915 and the LEDs sku2394 from dealextreme.
The plastic rivets (5mm) and the stress relief (6mm) are from reichelt.de
The bracket is from my local DIY store (Obi).
The 5mm aluminium disc that carries the 4 Cree XR-E has been cut with a hacksaw and perfected with file and sand paper. I cut 2 threads for mounting, one hole for feeding through the cable (inside a 6mm transparent hose for protection), 4 holes (2mm depth only) for guiding the optics.
The LEDs are held in place by Arctic Silver glue.
The optics are glued to the aluminium using epoxy.
With the cable to the outside world connected, heatsink compound put on the bottom of the disc and all fit together:
With the LID on:
The bracket:
To seal the head, I will eventually put a piece of inner tube over it, covering the rivets and the gap where the cap meets the bottom part of the can.
The beam of the final product is smooth and slightly wider than the one of a Fraen 10deg triple collimator which I put in my triple Rebel100 design. There's a good amount of spill. The beam is nice for road use but needs diffusion for trail.
Heat dissipation is absolutely not an issue as long as the light is powered from a dynamo (current not exceeding 600mA and bike moving when there is current). This is what I'm doing.
If high-powered by a battery, the LED temperature probably rises quickly when the bike stops and the light is not being dimmed. A battery-powered system should monitor the temperature and adjust the LED current accordingly.
Last edited:
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