double check my work please? don't want fried lux's on my motorcycle

If ya'll dont mind, can ya'll check my work. this is for my motorcycle's tail light. there are 2 circuts, one run and one is brake. at a complete stop there are 12.5 volts supplied and when i am crusin' i have 14.5. if i did this right, when i stop the luxes should get very bright (should put them at the full 350 ma) and when i am just crusin, should be brighter then my stock tail light, but noticable when i hit the brakes....

this is my makeshift wiring diagram

this is how the tail light should look. there will be about an inch of space between the reflectors and the actual tail light to alow a little more dispersion... should look like an infinity's tail light...

any input on this lemmme know thnx

What happens to a Buck Puck when the input goes in the output?
You will be pushing voltage into the brake buck puck.
Chris

so should i throw some diodes to make sure that the brake buck doesnt get into the output?

Nice, should be a cool project.
Is there any reason why you didn't simply use two wire-wound high watt resistors to supply the current?
No need to isolate the buck pucks and IMO, cheaper.

I did something similar with 1W white LuxeonStars as running lights at the front of my car. Simple resistor-in-series circuit. Has held up for a year now.

Is there any reason why you didn't simply use two wire-wound high watt resistors to supply the current?
No need to isolate the buck pucks and IMO, cheaper.

Click to expand...

Yes. Automotive (including motorcycle) electrical systems are a nasty and dangerous place. There is tons of noise and spikes, and even negative spikes when the starter motor dumps after it's turned off. You can see +50V spikes, and -40V spikes, all of which will quickly kill an LED.

A proper regulator and reverse voltage protection is a must if you want your luxeons to survive for long.

evan9162 said:

Yes. Automotive (including motorcycle) electrical systems are a nasty and dangerous place. There is tons of noise and spikes, and even negative spikes when the starter motor dumps after it's turned off. You can see +50V spikes, and -40V spikes, all of which will quickly kill an LED.

A proper regulator and reverse voltage protection is a must if you want your luxeons to survive for long.

Click to expand...

I agree with evan.

there were several reasons for going with the regulated route.

1) those nasty resistors burn up to 6 watts a peice ... my primary purpose for going to led was to save juice as my bike only has 400 watts to run on(70 after everything said and done with cooling fan off). I would have gone with 5 mm led's but after seeing some of them i was disapointed. you couldnt tell the difference between run and brake during daylight.

2) to help smothe out the jumps in the bikes electrical to the led. i will prob put a small 14 volt elctrolic(sp) capacitor to eat up the rf signals too.

3) to increase the life of the leds. i dont need my tail light buring out on me on an emergency stop..... that would leave some bad results....

4) if needed i can quickly and easily adjust the dimmness of the Luxes (the potiometer on the bucks). i dont know how bright this set up will be, but it is certian to burn some retina if u tailgate me ....

well sadly due to irrisponable vandals, the project is on hold till the bike is back up and running again.... but i will post final results.... took my inova t3 white lux and shined it through the tail light.... i figure with all the light that was cut that wasnt red, would be about the same as what a lux i puts out...i can already hear the horns from the brightness.....good thing i am installing a 125 db air horn too huh....

"i'm faster, brighter and louder "

Let me just say that putting 9 Luxeon1's running at up to 700mA each would be several things:

- Excessive
- Unnecessary
- Illegal
- Irresponsible.....

While you may think it is funny to have the guy behind you honking his horn because your stop light is so bright, the kid he runs over pushing his bike along side the road 10 seconds later cause he lost his night vision will not think so.

CARS AND MOTORCYCLES ARE NOT TOYS! .... The specifications for automotive lighting (well not all of them), were developed with safety in mind. The safety of the vehicle with the lights, and the ones around it. This is not really something to toy around with. If you are in and accident and have non-standard safety equipment, you could be found at fault. Heck, that person you blinded may rear end you and you could end up paying for all the damages, not to mention getting ticketed for illegal equipment.


Now on a technical note......

- Resistors are not a bad way of powering LEDS in Automotive, especially three in series. The losses are not terrible. You need reverse protection diodes and a transient suppressor would be good, but Luxeons are pretty robust and would likely be fine due to the short duration of the load dump and the resistors limiting current.

- Buck pucks may be killed by automotive transients.

- Typical stop/tail currents would be on the order of 10:1

Semiman

SemiMan said:

Let me just say that putting 9 Luxeon1's running at up to 700mA each would be several things:

- Excessive
- Unnecessary
- Illegal
- Irresponsible.....

While you may think it is funny to have the guy behind you honking his horn because your stop light is so bright, the kid he runs over pushing his bike along side the road 10 seconds later cause he lost his night vision will not think so.

Semiman

Click to expand...

1) may wanna check your math.....or i need to fix the diagram... they should be running at 366 mA @3.7v total on brake. i dont consider that excessive, nor do i consider that light output total excessive. if it is, let me know. Plus... the bucks dim... so what i may view as reasonably too bright i can adjust.

2) i have check with the dot regulations. there are only minimums. no maxes.

3) anyone know what led's the infinity's are using... i looked up close, but couldnt tell :thinking: ...

4) do u know how many motorcycists are rearended every year at intersections b/c someone isnt paying attention? a good percentage. we have no roll cage, so when we end up in that interesection in cross traffic, we are dead :duck: . i would rather take a risk "blinding :shakehead " someone according to you, and save my tail b/c someone didnt wanna quit text messaging. and yes, i have been rear ended in my escort b/c the person was trying to dial. they hit me going at least if not more than 30 mph. luckly there wasnt much cross traffic. worst thing... he didnt even get off the damn phone as he was trying to avoid giving me his insurance and DL info.

i was also looking at mabe the super flux leds... anyone work with these b4? or should i start a new tread on those?

5 Fixed-Voltage Regulator or 12volt with 2 caps one on the line in and one on the line out to smooth the spikes..



this one is going to illuminate the licence plate on a Vette..

- My mistake on the current per LED, but I still think what you are putting in is excessive and possibly dangerous. Driving a motorcycle is your choice. Putting your safety over the safety of others is still irresponsible.

- FMVSS - 108 is the specification if you are truly interested in reading it.

- THERE ARE MAXIMUMS defined, not only for STOP mode to ensure glare is reasonable, but also for TAIL mode to ensure it is not confused with STOP mode. These are defined for safety reasons.

Semiman

Hey all (longtime lurker here, first post)

First of all, Hizzo, I ride too and I've been rear-ended. In fact my mint '91 BMW K100RS was totalled on August 18, 2005 when I came to a full stop at a stop sign, and the incompetent driver behind me didn't.

Now, with that said, SemiMan is absolutely right. It is irresponsible to throw too much light back there, and you want to be very careful to keep the correct difference between running light brightness and brake light brightness.

The solution I went with on my new bike is a product called BRAKE! by Gizmomill. It is an LED product that strobes 4 times when you first get on the brakes then goes solid. This thing works. It's fun to watch cars back off instinctively when I am on the brakes. At first I thought seriously about building my own, but spare time is in short supply. Besides BRAKE! there are other solutions such as Kisan and Hyperlites to name two. You can Google it for further info.

Steve O.

lurker here also,

Ide have to venture a guess that SemiMan doesnt ride a bike, for obvious reasons.

thanks for the gadget Steve, much appreciated.

hope to see ya on the roads!

I believe the Infinitis are using 10mm high flux LEDs in their rear lamp assemblies.

BTW, that's a good idea to use LEDs to light the rear license plate. I saw a new GS450 Lexus the other night with just that. From the brightness, I'd say the owner was running two 1W Luxeons.
Why bother one may ask, well cops will pull you over and summon you for dead plate bulbs. That's one hassle LEDs can help to avoid.

And regarding the opinion 9 Stars as excessive....far from it!
Yes a 1W (in his config) Star has good output, but only when concentrated with optics/reflectors. The 180 degree spill of a bare emitter is hardly bright to the viewer. In my pictures, the 1W Star sits surface mounted behind the faceted reflector. In reality, it's no brighter than the 194 bulb in the corner lens.
Therefore, after arraying 9 emitters that must shine through the red/amber lenses, which spread the output, it will not be as blinding as one might assume.
Don't forget, it must be effective in bright daylight as well.
You can't tell my 1W Stars are on in sunlight.

I'm also a biker. I sympathize with the fact and fear of being rear-ended. It happens a lot, with some fatal results to a few of my colleagues.
I have a Honda VFR, and modified the rear turn signals to be running lights by subbing 1156 bulbs with 1157, and replacing the appropriate sockets.
It's amazing how much more visible a bike becomes with this somewhat illegal mod. But everone who has given me feedback said I caught their attention better. The strobe kit is a consideration I may add.

yeah i saw a lexus with the white led license plate leds too... they were on the side of the plate.... i couldnt tell if it was a paired 1 watt lux or something else..

btw thanx for the input from all of you..... here is what i have decided..... i am gonna burn the cash (isnt that how we all learn) and see how it turns out. if it is too bright i will go another route...if i like it... i'll stay with it...

hey steve how fast is the strobe on that device your talking about... i was looking at doing my turn sigs in both red and amber ( like the new landrover LR3's) and i want the red to strobe for a few then solid.. let me know....

i will end up posting results and pics....

hizzo3 said:

...hey steve how fast is the strobe on that device your talking about... i was looking at doing my turn sigs in both red and amber ( like the new landrover LR3's) and i want the red to strobe for a few then solid.. let me know....

Click to expand...

Hey hizzo3: I don't have the bike with me right now, but working from memory (not that my memory is all that good; it's not like I can actually *see* it strobe when I'm riding) I would say it's a pretty quick strobes rate, guessing about four times per second. It strobes like 4-5 times then goes solid.

Steve O.
gotta get a sig line

Have you considered running a few 1 or 3 watt red or red/orange leds in place of the white. Would be bright as most of the light would pass through the filter.

lasercrazy said:

Have you considered running a few 1 or 3 watt red or red/orange leds in place of the white. Would be bright as most of the light would pass through the filter.

Click to expand...

Huh. lasercrazy is absolute right of course. I didn't even notice that hizzo was planning to use white. Red LED's are the correct choice for a brake light. They are way more efficient than white (lumens per watt) and the red light passes right thru the red taillight lens.

i was planing to use red.... another note..

after much thought, i will be looking at effacy of the superflux leds as well and compare it to the lux I's. I have also decided to look at using a D2Dim module to dim the lights without as much power loss through a resistor. i figure i am getting about 5-10 lumens for my run light and 80-160 lum at brake (i can't get and exact light reduction from a red filter, but i've read everywhere from 80-90% light reduction). i want a little more then that, 15 lum run and 120-190 at brake. Since they Brake! module is using 18 super fluxes.... i may base my design around that, with luxeon turn signals ( i know this mod is illegal, but i saw it on a bike at night, totally notice able it was a bike. amber turn sig running lights). there is a device that converts the turn signals into running lights and flashes them a few times when stopping and allows normal turn signal use. but is almost $200. may find another route. may use a trailer light controler for this.