OSRAM OSTAR for DUMMIES

Hi,
this is my first post on this forum and I would like to say that you guys are amazing, things you do with lights is really amazing.

I am really newbie in this stuff, but I would like to give a try in building my self a bike light. I found some stuff on forum, but I would really prefer using OSRAM OSTAR for light source and unfortunately I have no clue what I need to use that king of light source. From my point f view the ultimate solution for MTB use is
http://www.marwiusa.com/default.aspx?taxid=24&cid=productview&bbid=3&pid=217#52

or

http://www.mtbr.com/spotlight/lightshootout/lupineedison10.shtml

and of course helmet mount, because of fast descending on trails in the wood, the light must be where you are looking, ultimate solution would be handlebar + helmet light, but for now one would be o.k.
As I mentioned in the title I would really need some basic directions:

1.) Thanks to this forum I know where to buy:
http://www.reichelt.de/?SID=20191SI6wQARQAAGZGdNU2bbe443e7661f93b7d47d69f319f6f73;ACTION=3;LA=4;GROUP=A536;GROUPID=3032;ARTICLE=65185;START=0;SORT=artikel.artnr;OFFSET=16
which is very good, because I am from Europe that's suite me fine.

2.) Do I need any special electronic to drive Ostar, three stage dimmer (low-medium-high) would be very nice to have (for time to climb do not need maximum performance)?

3.) What kind of voltage do I need to get good performance and which batteries are the most suitable, because weight plays a critical role in this project. Burning time for maximum brightness cca 2 hours + 2 – 3 hours for low-medium?

4.) What kind of reflector and lens can be used, because I am looking for 10-20 degrees beam?

Of course I know that I need some housing for all that, batteries will be in the back pack, and as I mentioned light must be on the helmet.

I am looking for all together weight around 600 – 800g.

Total cost: ?????

Any suggestions and ideas are more than welcome and I hope I did not ask too much stupid questions.

Just to realize what I am looking for,…
http://www.mtbr.com/spotlight/lightshootout/beampattern.shtml
Lupine 10 or NightPro Extreme

Thank you very much.
I.

Ps: excuse me for grammar mistakes I made, but English is not my first language.

First off, welcome to CPF. :wave:

I would not consider the expensive 6 die OSTAR for your self contained portable lighting because it is not as efficient as the newly introduced Cree XR-E LED.

What about a combination of several Cree XR-E leds with optics mounted on the handlebars?

You could use 3 series wired Cree XR-E leds with optics of your choice powered by 4 or 5 protected 18650 sized rechargeable lithium ion batteries connected in series.
You could have adjustable 0-100% intensity control via a potentiometer (variable resistor) by using a 1000mA LUXDRIVE BuckPuck.
The 5 18650 sized batteries and LUXDRIVE BuckPuck controller would easily fit inside a frame mounted water bottle and the lithium ion batteries are very light in weight compared to nickel metal-hydride cells of similar capacity.

The XR-E emitters can be purchased pre-mounted on stars for much easier installation.

XR-E order page
XR-E lenses
LUXDRIVE BuckPuck info

There are quite a few threads here at CPF about the new Cree XR-E. Plenty of good reading when you have several hours to go through it all.

Hi

ThoseCrees certainly do look impressive.

I have a pair of OSTARs on their way, I got them in the recent group buy on here. To drive them they will most likely need a boost type driver. This is because they need 20 odd volts to drive them and most batteries are less than this. I intend to drive them from my 14.4V Lith Ion bats I have already from my HID. The Driver I have for this is the Shark driver from sandwich shoppe.

I am interested in trying the Crees becasue of their efficiency, But to get the lumen output you still need at least 3 in my opinion. This isn't so bad. Looking at these you can make light that is brighter and has longer burn than the cateye tripleshot I also have. The triple has an OK output, it was fine when combine with my double shot on my helmet. On its own though its not enough for me. My HID ouputs alot mor elight. This is where I hope the OSRAM will be good. Yes it isn't as efficient as the cree or Hid, but 2 should output enough light to compare to a HID.

My esptimates show I should get about 2 hours burn on the li ion bat i have ( Each,,,I have 2) and have about 500Lumens (The Triple shot has 195 or so as stock, a hid 0ver 500 as far as I am aware). That is runing 2 at 350mA each. They can take more wick at 700mA they should have about 800 odd lumens but burn drops to under 1 hour eek. This all theoretical using data sheets and calculations. I have accounted for electronic efficiency. But not optics efficiency. Even so, the Ostar shoould be far supior to the triple shot and still have a reasonable burn. the battery pack weighs about 180g. It is a litio Ion 14.4V 2.4Ah. I estimate a
7.2Ah pack to weigh about 540g.....this triples the burn times I estimated. For a helmet light Id cope with 540g pack in my camel back and have a smaller light unit on the hemet. But only because I am greedy for lumens.

I haven't put the figures for the Cree in my spreadsheet yet...will do later on.


I will try and get some to play with. They might be more than ample...and my greed may not be necessary ....the HID has spoiled me . Their 70lumen/watt at 350mA could make a light with enough light that is errr light .. The Osram is about 40Lumen per watt when driven at 350mA. Both LEDs efficient drops as current rises.

Not sure what to do about optics on the Osram yet. Going to try the various ones I have for LEDs though.

Hope my rambling makes some sense......i types as I thought

Stu

LumenHound said:

First off, welcome to CPF. :wave:

I would not consider the expensive 6 die OSTAR for your self contained portable lighting because it is not as efficient as the newly introduced Cree XR-E LED.

What about a combination of several Cree XR-E leds with optics mounted on the handlebars?

You could use 3 series wired Cree XR-E leds with optics of your choice powered by 4 or 5 protected 18650 sized rechargeable lithium ion batteries connected in series.
You could have adjustable 0-100% intensity control via a potentiometer (variable resistor) by using a 1000mA LUXDRIVE BuckPuck.
The 5 18650 sized batteries and LUXDRIVE BuckPuck controller would easily fit inside a frame mounted water bottle and the lithium ion batteries are very light in weight compared to nickel metal-hydride cells of similar capacity.

The XR-E emitters can be purchased pre-mounted on stars for much easier installation.

XR-E order page
XR-E lenses
LUXDRIVE BuckPuck info

There are quite a few threads here at CPF about the new Cree XR-E. Plenty of good reading when you have several hours to go through it all.

Click to expand...

Just ordered some Q2 bins ones . Readily available optics is a bonus. Even though they are on the other side of the planet and I chose quick shipping they are good value compared to the OSTAR.

I have entered the Vals into my spreadsheet for the Q2 (use the bnottom limits for lumens for that bin). Driving 3 at 700mA gives about 419 Lumens (again without optic efficiency). With a 14.4 2.4Ah battery burn time is about 3.5 Hours with 80% electrical efficiency. Again using the bottom lumen value for the Q2 bin, gives 75 Lumen/watt at 350 mA and 56.Lumen?watt at 700mA. At 350mA they are brighter than the triple shot I previously quoted and runs for over rwice as long.

Glad to see my LED collection growing again

Stu

I'm looking at putting together an XR-E-based bike lighting system.
It needs to be really light and really bright.
Handlebar mount is problematical because of the fairing.
I'd like something I can mount on the fairing, possibly at the mounts.

Define "really light"? I''ve been actively working on something like this myself (pics as I get further along), and someone else had a great "DIY" configuration that I've borrowed (I'd give credit if I could remember who it was, sorry...)... anyhow
A "triple-shot" configuration, using Cree XR-Es (actually it could easily be modular, I'm considering a triple-bar / double-helmet configuration)... using Ledil optics (I'm thinking either 3 @ 15-degree optics, or a combination of 15-degree and 5x25 degree "wide" optics.
These lenses will fit perfectly in 1" square aluminum tubing (1/16" wall, so 7/8 total inside dimensions) from Home Depot (or wherever), the inside dimensions are nearly perfect for Ledil XR-E optics. My configuration would be....
1" tall (by x" wide based on number of emitters) aluminum plate (at Home Depot) (or copper for better heat transfer as available) backing, Cree XR-Es with corners trimmed (to neutralize the base plate), soldered/affixed to the backing plate, with aluminum square tubing surrounding to the height of the optic (don't have offhand, 1" roughly)... so each LED is in an aluminum "pocket" with the lens protected). The aluminum "sockets" are joined to the base plate to act as massive heatsinks on the front side as well as lens protection (a clear lexan lens could be affixed to all this, I'm still debating some of my final design including standoffs for a "removable" lens)....
On the back of the plate, are 3 more (less would be fine) tubing "sockets", these are to function as additional heatsinking, as well as to internalize the regulation circuitry for the emitters. You could do without anything on the back depending on your desires.
Joining the aluminum tubing to the plate is a trick I haven't decided on a solution for yet (but welding/soldering (a challenge) are the first considerations)...
I would of course drill out the appropriate areas to pass wires through, etc.
Total solution I'm looking at currently is a roughly 3"x2" aluminum fixture with great heat transfer, lightweight (no idea of actual final weight, but the parts are light, and could be ground/drilled/cutaway to make it lighter...), running 3xCree XR-Es (I'm looking at 500mA for a great brightness/battery life/output ratio). A 2x unit would be great for a helmet, (or even 1x). Oh, cost, a 3-foot flat bar and 3-foot tubing are both in the $11-12 range I believe (only a few inches are actually needed for this project). An option to make it lighter (at the expense of some heat transfer) would be to cut out the "interior" walls of the tubes and put the lenses right next to each other, making the light a little "thinner" across, lighter in weight, but losing a little thermal mass.
To really lighten this unit up, creative use of drills and fiber (carbon, glass, whatever) or other materials to weatherproof the unit could be done, keeping in mind heat transfer, a good solid mass of aluminum needs to be kept intact to get heat from the interior "core" of the fixture out to the exposed surface areas.
Other variations, attaching prefab heatsinks to the backside to quickly dissipate heat is high on my consideration list, and a "triple triangle" configuration (2 below, one high) to make the fixture more compact are under consideration. (The sky is the limit with the "square stacking" nature of this idea). Lenses could be varied based on personal preferences, there are 4 beam options from Ledil for the XR-Es.

Also I've found another "single" emitter "hardware store" solution that is nearly 100% "premade" with only some very minor cleanup needed. In the HD fencing department, they have rail-pipe mounts (pipe slides into one end, the other closed, and a nice flat base internally, perfect for heatsink with a little smoothing out) end has an eyehole to mount to a pole, etc).... they are perfect MR-11 sized openings, I took the lens from a Viewpoint Gen3 emitter (MR-11 size), and it fits on a Luxeon star, completely inside the "housing", with about 1/8" at the end extra. It's all aluminum, already made in a nearly ideal "bike" form factor, it has excess material for the application (especially on the bolt mount, it's like 3/8" thick), but a grinding wheel can quickly fix that/lighten it up. Oh... price.... $0.81 I think (or .88). Yes, I'm doing cheapo lights, it's what I can afford at the moment, and don't have mills or lathes to do nice things with, LOL...

Like this, only the ones I found were much cleaner and nicer looking...
http://www.hooverfence.com/catalog/rail_end.jpg

HD had two boxes, one the "well bottom" was flat and flush, the other had "China" embossed (raised) on it and would have to have that sanded down. It's a nice, tiny, aluminum (heat friendly) lighthead for an MR-11 bulb/optic application.
Pics soon, I hope, when I have more time, and something actually finished, if ever.