Which LED to use?

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I do alot of night mountain biking, and I use the Vistalite system, which includes a 5w bulb, a 10w bulb, and a 7.2v 2200mAH battery. The bulbs are bright enough, but I only get about 2 hours burn time. I would like to replace them with LEDs, I've tried several configs with white LEDs, I just cant get enough distance on the beam. I would like to achieve about 10-12 feet. Any suggestions?

 

[Jonathan]

Your only choice will be the Luxeon 5W led, and it won't give you much better light than the 5W halogen running from the 7.2V battery, nor will it give you a significant run time advantage.

The issue is that LEDs are only slightly more efficient than properly driven halogen lamps at the power level of a bike light...they are much more efficient than low power filament lamps (less than 1 watt), and they remain efficient when the battery drains (whereas a halogen lamp is only efficient if run at full power).

I'd suggest looking at a system based upon Willie Hunt's LVR, combined with a higher voltage NiMH battery. This will give you better run time and better light quality. Perhaps add an LED as a 'low beam' to get better run time by dropping out the main light when you don't need it.

-Jon

 

[EMPOWERTORCH]

What about using a group of very tight beam LED's (4 degrees beam angle) and group of wider beam LED's for nearfield vision? Some of these LED's have a very high mcd rating and can project beams 1000s of feet.

 

[BentHeadTX]

Benzi,
I understand your paradox! My usual day consists of riding my fully suspended recumbent to work with the 7.2v helmet mounted light. Today, I got my Bad Boy 500 Luxeon Star Mini-Mag mod in the mail, it will be frame mounted to suppliment the incandescent. Yeah, a bit paranoid of the bulb blowing in the helmet mounted light.
The cyan 5 watt side-emitter Luxeon Star seems to be the ticket for bright, vibration-proof lighting for the frame. Mount one of those in the head of a 3D cell maglight, use to correct resistors and run your battery pack on it. It should have the blinding light that you require. The Maglight optics will allow adjustment of the beam and that is what I am looking for.
My plan is to use the 7.2V NiCad 2000mA pack for a 5W SE cyan inside a Maglight (the battery pack for my helmet light) and mount the 1.25 watt Bad Boy 500 Mini-Mag on my helmet using the original mount. The 500mA current regulator works well with NiMH batteries so the dream will live.
Now to get a 5W SE and the Maglight head... just remember: There are no problems, just opportunities. (Welcome to the land of opportunity!)