aluminum or copper for my bike light body

hi all

I am making a light for my bike that will have a 6x cree xm-l2 running at 2500 mA i am kinda confused about the body material rather to be aluminum or copper so any suggestions ? Of course i am talking about the cooling side of the body .

Most bike lights have an aluminum housing and are very reliable.
My suggestion is to just stick with that.

Assuming 3.6v, you are looking at dissipating 54w of power. I'd suggest really big heatsinking fins, like from a CPU cooler. Those are aluminum...

schizeckinosy said:

Assuming 3.6v, you are looking at dissipating 54w of power. I'd suggest really big heatsinking fins, like from a CPU cooler. Those are aluminum...

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i think it doesn't need that big heatsink as long as i am riding the air flow will cool the body ?

It depends. Do you ever slow down? You'll always need some heatsink (Block of metal) to 'survive' stops. You'll always need fins to radiate heat (Fins).

and in Florida where I live the air doesn't cool much on its own anyway! I put two P60 dropins (XPE I think) in aluminum tubes and ran them at 3w each, and they burned up in 6mos because of inadequate heatsinking - and that was only 6w total. Constant on for a long time in the air is harder than momentary use in a flashlight in your hand, which makes for a pretty good extra heatsink.

schizeckinosy said:

and in Florida where I live the air doesn't cool much on its own anyway! I put two P60 dropins (XPE I think) in aluminum tubes and ran them at 3w each, and they burned up in 6mos because of inadequate heatsinking - and that was only 6w total. Constant on for a long time in the air is harder than momentary use in a flashlight in your hand, which makes for a pretty good extra heatsink.

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At 6W it does. At 54W your hand would be a drop in the bucket. At that power level I'd think pretty seriously about a thermal cutout, http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/White-Rodgers/3L11-170/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMvYG01UoL%2fmODh1H25oKvPy1ghiXV3WBFY%3d, or a driver with thermal protection.

At 2.5A, an XM-L2 won't drop 3.6V, more like 3.2. So more like 48W. Not that it makes much difference. What are you using for a driver?

i am going to use a very strange kind of drivers to CPF forum i have it and tested it . it is working very good and easy to use and very flexible check it here http://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC-P...nput-5-32V-Output-12-35V-Boost/545535803.html

the only problem for me now it will be 1 mode and for its size i will put it out the lights body i think i will put it with the battery box

Unconventional, yes, but except for its size it looks like a good choice. Let us know how it works out.

I made a prototype to test its performance i fixed the 6 XML on a big heatsink ,wired them ,fixing the reflectors is still pain, i will be using a laptop battery that contains 9x 18650 battery that gives me 12 volts ,connected the battery to that driver and BAaM

ITS bright soooo bright i will try to put some pics to the setup and some beam shots

those are some pics for the prototype, driver , battery , beam shots

sorry for the crappy and ridiculous photos but i will try with better cam

leds and heatsink




driver and battery, this driver is really worth it, it can work CV or CC and by limiting the volt output you can connect more than one arrays and not to worry about your leds if any arrays went down for any reason the other arrays will not overload and fry :thumbsup:





reflector strangely mounted still dont know a good way to fix them anyway i only fixed 4 because of the space so beam shots will be for only 4 XMLs




night on the roof for control




BAAAAM the whole purple building is lighted up :devil:




i wish i could get better quality photos :mecry: