I'm posting this here instead of in the bike light section since it's fairly near from-scratch diy.
I'm currently commuting with a pair of Q2 Cree's in parallel from a one amp controller, through what are claimed to be 8mm optics, and they are individually aimable. Which gets me to work and back for now. Could use some more throw, this one reaches out to about 20 mph safe braking distance (reduce for oncoming headlights or wet pavement-wet pavement is tough to illuminate and increases braking distance); and more spill up close for turns. I do like the run time on common nimh aa's with this setup.
So, here's my evil plot: Three single emitter Cree's or SSC's. One with an "oval" projecting optic for short distance throw. One focused around 8-10 degrees or so for middle distance. And one around 4-6 degrees for distance.
Two places where I'm coming up against a wall:
--The narrow focus. I'm not seeing the right optics on DX or Cutter; there is one 6 degree hexagonal lens on Cutter, but hexagonal holes are hard to machine, so hopefully there's something round out there. I tried searching the forums for spot optics, but was overrun by aspherical projection monsters. (wow, by the way!) Anyone have a good lens/reflector suggestion at around 4-6 degrees?
--Powering the things. The close-up spill led shouldn't need full power nearly ever, the far-out tight-focus led shouldn't need full power in the city, and so forth. So I'm having this idealistic vision of separate control for each led. With good reliable controllers. Running on 8 aa's. I'm not as familiar with the controllers as I should be; lots of catching up to do... Suggestions?
And thanks to everyone here from this lurker, CPF was a great resource while I was making my first set of lights!
I'm currently commuting with a pair of Q2 Cree's in parallel from a one amp controller, through what are claimed to be 8mm optics, and they are individually aimable. Which gets me to work and back for now. Could use some more throw, this one reaches out to about 20 mph safe braking distance (reduce for oncoming headlights or wet pavement-wet pavement is tough to illuminate and increases braking distance); and more spill up close for turns. I do like the run time on common nimh aa's with this setup.
So, here's my evil plot: Three single emitter Cree's or SSC's. One with an "oval" projecting optic for short distance throw. One focused around 8-10 degrees or so for middle distance. And one around 4-6 degrees for distance.
Two places where I'm coming up against a wall:
--The narrow focus. I'm not seeing the right optics on DX or Cutter; there is one 6 degree hexagonal lens on Cutter, but hexagonal holes are hard to machine, so hopefully there's something round out there. I tried searching the forums for spot optics, but was overrun by aspherical projection monsters. (wow, by the way!) Anyone have a good lens/reflector suggestion at around 4-6 degrees?
--Powering the things. The close-up spill led shouldn't need full power nearly ever, the far-out tight-focus led shouldn't need full power in the city, and so forth. So I'm having this idealistic vision of separate control for each led. With good reliable controllers. Running on 8 aa's. I'm not as familiar with the controllers as I should be; lots of catching up to do... Suggestions?
And thanks to everyone here from this lurker, CPF was a great resource while I was making my first set of lights!
