turbocat nuclear power upgrade

[turbodog]

I've been running turbocat lights for over 7 years now. Several friends and I participate in these 24 hour mtn bike endurance races.

I don't know if it's age, or lack of practice at my night riding, but I seem to be having trouble at night over the past couple of years.

The setup I current have is a 15w flood for the bar and 15w spot for my head. Both are overvolted (standard turbocat practice) and put out ~19w of light. Runtime on stock batteries is ~2 hours each.


My upgrade:

replace bar light's bulb with 35w flood (49w output)
replace headlight's bulb with 20w spot (28w output)

I will replace both packs with custom packs. The weight should be equal or LESS than what I currently run. I need to go from a 6v battery to a 13.2v battery.

Note: the 49w output is higher than car headlights on low. Add that to the helmet light and I have a nice 77w of extremely white light blasting ahead of me.

Parts won't arrive for a week, but expect some beamshot here.

Parts:
bulbs - turbocat, $24 each plus $6 shipping = $54
cells - batterystation 4000mah nimh 4/3a, $4 each * 22 cells = $88

That's not too bad..... about $140 plus some wire/connectors.

This next part pushed the cost up, and has been the reason I have delayed this project for 2-3 years.

I also ordered me a triton charger to charge this mess. My turbocharger tops out at an 8 cell pack, but the triton goes to 24. And I also ordered me a new dc power supply for the charger. My old rivergate supply has some failing capacitors. This is bad about starving the charger and causing false peaks.

 

[greenLED]

Note: the 49w output is higher than car headlights on low. Add that to the helmet light and I have a nice 77w of extremely white light blasting ahead of me.

Oh, man! I gotta see pics and beamshots of that setup...

 

[msxtr]

Oh, man! I gotta see pics and beamshots of that setup...

That one :kewlpics:

Greetings - Saludos

msxtr

 

[turbodog]

I've got the water bottle pack built for the bar light. The charger will arrive this Wednesday. By that time I will have the pack built for the headlamp.

The cells had solder tabs on them, but they were too short to bridge between the cells. I had to remove them and solder all the connections.

 

[turbodog]

Well ok. I've got both packs built and charged. I swapped out my 6 volts bulbs for some 12v ones.

Then I plugged in the 13.2v packs and hit the button.

SHAZAM!

Holy crap!

These things are brighter than the bat-signal.

Just one of them running is a lot brighter than 2 of the old ones. And to educate you, the old lights were at the top of the heap already. I always got compliments on them about brightness and color temperature.


Beamshots to follow soon.

 

[greenLED]

Beamshots to follow soon.

 

[turbodog]

I've just gotten back from a night ride (in the rain). These things kick butt.

It's one thing when cars dim their light when you meet. It's another thing when them dim them from over a hill or around a curve because you evidently look like a car.

It took some adjusting on my part. I was used to 2 beam of light, with dark all around the edges of the beams. With this setup, there were no beam edges. It literally was like daylight. I could see everything in a 180 degree range up to about 400 feet out.

Now, where's that camera...

 

[turbodog]

Ok.

I need some help with this &^&^#*&#*** camera if I am going to get some decent pictures.

I read the manual and set the thing for a slow shutter speed. It ignores the setting and gives an underexposed picture.

This sucks.

 

[greenLED]

What camera do you have? If it has a manual setting, you're golden. Otherwise, try locking the exposure only.

 

[turbodog]

It's got a manual setting. It's a corss between a normal digicam and an slr digicam.

I set it, but it refuses to work.

 

[crackerkorean]

What camera is it?

 

[turbodog]

canon powershot s3 is

 

[crackerkorean]

I have the same camera here at work.

Turn the dial to "M"

to adjust the time, use the 4way (left and right) to adjust
Left - make shutter time longer
Right - to make it shorter

Set to something like 4"

(seconds shown with " ", and fractions of course are 1/1200th and so on)

The adjust F Stop (apature) smaller the number larger the opening for light to come in.
Using the 4 way
Down - smaller number
Up - Larger number

You want the number as small as itl go, (2.3 if your not zoomed in at all)

Lastly you want to set the ISO (ISO button next to screen) to 400-800

Now take some shots. If its still dark you can increase the time.
Also make sure that its on a stable platform or tripod

 

[turbodog]

I have the same camera here at work.

Turn the dial to "M"

to adjust the time, use the 4way (left and right) to adjust
Left - make shutter time longer
Right - to make it shorter

Set to something like 4"

(seconds shown with " ", and fractions of course are 1/1200th and so on)

The adjust F Stop (apature) smaller the number larger the opening for light to come in.
Using the 4 way
Down - smaller number
Up - Larger number

You want the number as small as itl go, (2.3 if your not zoomed in at all)

Lastly you want to set the ISO (ISO button next to screen) to 400-800

Now take some shots. If its still dark you can increase the time.
Also make sure that its on a stable platform or tripod

Dude. Sweet. Thanks for the how to.

The pic I am taking is outside, at night, focused about 100' away, with no streetlights or other lights except the beamshot.


Same settings still apply?

 

[crackerkorean]

You might have to play with the time but evetrything else should stay the same.

 

[turbodog]

This has been good info. I actually read the manual, but wasn't able to pick up on this. Manual (owner's that is) sucks by the way.

 

[crackerkorean]

Did you get some pictures last night?
I was thinking depending the brightness and how close you are to the object you might have to lower the exposure a good bit.

Mike

 

[turbodog]

Did you get some pictures last night?
I was thinking depending the brightness and how close you are to the object you might have to lower the exposure a good bit.

Mike

No pics yet. Should get them Sun night. I've been fighting with my pc. The mobo died.... very strange, asus brand, on an apc ups also. Good cooling.... oh well. New parts for a complete build are being overnighted.

The total watts will be about 70 and I'm 100' from the target. I'll see how they turn out.

 

[turbodog]

Got parts in for new pc today. Still building it up. I've got office loaded and itunes! Only about 25 more s/w loads to go.

New hdds are quiet. Can't even hear them running hardly.

Will have some pics soon.

 

[turbodog]

Pics of LIGHTS are coming soon. In the meantime, I've had some other thing come up....