SuperFire W-3 Cree Q5-WC 230-Lm LED Bike/Flashlight.

[pe2er]

I would like to introduce my Bike-light, reworked from a SuperFire W-3 Cree Q5-WC 230-Lumen LED Flashlight. This light I use during my 1:30 commute on a Giant RS-2 GTX bicycle.

This is the light I used for my project:

First, I disassembled the light. It unscrews easily. An aluminium sheet was cut to a 25mm wide strip, and two screws were installed to hold the head of the light.

Next, I glued the head to the strip using epoxy bond:

This is what the assembled head light looks like:

...as installed on my bike:

Above this light, is my older light, which I no longer use.

Power comes from four TrustFire Protected 18650 Lithium Batteries (2400mAh). Two pairs of cells are placed in series, so I get a 7,2/4800mAh power pack that can provide ~7 hours of light.

This is the battery pack in the making, showing one of the paired cells and the electrical connector:

Of course, the cell no longer fit the standard charger, so I modified it, to accept the battery pack's connector

This is what it looks like now:

I Still need to:
- Mount it under my luggage rack
- Add a red LED taillight to it

So far, I am happy with the light it provides

 

[pe2er]

Next thing on my list: Make the battery pack water resistant:

And mount it under the luggage rack:


Click on the pictures for more information (in Dutch...)

Need to find some black ty-raps to replace the white ones

 

[mhuk]

Do you charge all 4 batteries at the same time? If yes, is that safe? Any possibility of overcharging a battery if it charges quicker than one of the others?

 

[pe2er]

Yes, I do charge all 4 batteries at the same time. Two batteries in parallel are connected each to a battery shaft of my charger. So the two pairs are no longer in series. It should be safe; the voltage on a single cell will never exceed 4.2V, because it is limited to that voltage by the charger (same as it would do for a single cell).

On top of that, the cells I use are 'protected' cells. A piece of electronic protects each individual cell from undervoltage and overcharging.

So far, no problems

 

[mhuk]

the two pairs are no longer in series

Is that because of the way you've wired the charging socket (the serial connector) on the battery pack?

 

[pe2er]

Exactly. A jumper wire in the connector on the wire harness connected to the lamp switches the two battery pairs in series.

I Use a different cable to connect the battery to the charger. This cable does not have the jumper wire, so each pair of cells can be connected to the charger individually.

 

[mhuk]

Thanks for your reply.

I understand now

 

[pe2er]

The tail light is almost complete...

Here are the parts.

The LED and driver are salvaged from a 1W RED Spotlight from Dx.
A common round Blinky is modified to take a Dealextreme SKU 1919 35mm Lens/Diffusor.

Star glued to the aluminum backplate.

Lens and red reflector clamped over the LED (too tight as it turned out later )

The - now cracked - lens during testing.

The LED driver is housed inside the rectangular reflector base.

Connectors added to the wiring. Sub-miniature D will connect to the battery pack, the small round connector will be connected to the head light.

 

[pe2er]

Tadaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Finished.... (Almost)

Here is a comparison between my backup light (Planetbike Superflash), my previous 'best light' mounted to my rackpack, and the new 1W light with diffuser:

A Close-up of the mounting; the Superflash is normally inside the rackpack and only mounted in case my batterypack runs dead.

The new light:
- Has a larger lit area when looking from behind.
- Has better side visibility.
- Takes power from my main battery pack.

 

[Grox]

Creative! I like your thinking!

 

[pe2er]

Thanks!

Too bad it's springtime - in wintertime I need to ride in the dark in the morning and evening - now I only have half an our of darkness in the morning But I am ready for the coming winter :twothumbs

Did a runtime test last week with both lights switched on. One charge of the batteries gives me enough power for two days commuting. Runtime is a little over 2 x 2 x 1.5H = 6 Hours

 

[pe2er]

Here is a picture of my bike in the garden with all lights on



And my solution for the white ty-raps:

 

[dhiris]

Pretty good idea on making the charger for the battery pack. Did you solder the wires in the battery pack? Are the batteries connected serially? How long do they take to charge? Do the LEDs on the charger still show when the charge is complete? I'm not very familiar on how the charging works.

 

[pe2er]

Pretty good idea on making the charger for the battery pack. Did you solder the wires in the battery pack?

Yes, I did solder wires to the batteries. That was before I read some horror-stories about soldering to Li-Ion cells on this forum. No harm seems to be done, so far the batteries are performing well.

Are the batteries connected serially?

Yes, when powering the light. During charging, they are not connected in series.

How long do they take to charge?

I mostly plug in the charger after I finish riding in the evening and the following morning charging is complete. I Never timed it. I Estimate that it takes at least 4.8 Ah (Battery capacity) / 1 Amp (Charger current) = 4.8 Hours.

Do the LEDs on the charger still show when the charge is complete?

Yes, they do.

Hope this is helpful ;-)

 

[pe2er]

The red reflector broke (actually, the red reflector separated from the black base and I lost it...)

So I had to modify the bracket to accept another reflector like so:

Just one drawback; the new reflector is kind of big and ugly :scowl:

 

[pe2er]

Finally got around to making some pictures to compare my bike taillight with that of a car (Fiat Punto, 2003):
Here it is, comparing my bike (Fiets) to the normal taillights.

The following picture shows a comparison with the rear fog (Mist) light.

Pictures are ade with my cellphone cam, so apologies for the low picture quality.

The verdict: Brighter than car taillight, but car rear fog light is even brighter.

 

[pe2er]

Life is short. Especially for LEDs

After less than one year its time for an emitter upgrade. Just finished swapping the CREE XR-E Q5 for a brand new XP-G :thumbsup:

Also took the time to finally paint the aluminum.

Now let the cold weather go away soon, so i can ride the bike again