Bike light host recommendations
- Thread starter devryd
- Start date
Help Support Candle Power Flashlight Forum
This is a late reply, but I've found the most important thing in choosing a home brew bike light is to find a driver that can handle all the bumps you hit. The second consideration is how are you going to mount the light? The bigger and more massive, the more it will shake and bounce no matter how you mount it. I have used at least 3 single 18650 lights, and they all put out enough lumens to ride 15-20 mph in the dark of night. A single 18650 host will be much less massive and subject to bouncing. Building around a 6V 2 cell XHP 70.2 will be a challenge to find a bicycle mountable host, but good luck if you persist. The best driver I have used is a 3V (look at a 3V XHP 70.2) 17mm DrJones H17Fx Driver w/ lucidrv2 - 7135 + FET from Mountain Electronics. As the description says "If mounted on a bike, bumps may cause the battery to lose contact to the driver for a very short moment, which many drivers interpret as a button tap and change modes. This driver however ignores those bumps and keeps it's mode." Good luck!
I have an old Blackburn X6 dual light system that I modified with Seoul LEDs back in the day. They are still pretty bright, but the battery life was miserable when I last used them. The heads and battery are yours for just the cost of a medium Priority Flat Rate mailer if you are interested (assuming you are in the U.S.). Please send me a PM.
@datiLED I am living in germany, so this is not really an option but thanks for the offer.
@jdvoraced I found a cheap 2s 3p pack for 18650 cells and plan to just mount the LED itself in a "host" (dont know whether this is the right term then)
I ordered a cheap light from fasttech and a heatsink and I will try to combine them. If it works, I should have plenty of heatsinking for my light. And the battery life should be decent too, thanks to the power bank. I am currently using a 7* 7135 driver with zener mod and pushing the LED to about 2.4 amps. It is dedomed, but I guess I will still need something like 4 amps for enough throw. I will keep you guys posted, if these things arrive.
Edit: also I think, you might be talking about the xhp50.2. Or is there a 3V variant of the xhp70.2 too?
@jdvoraced I found a cheap 2s 3p pack for 18650 cells and plan to just mount the LED itself in a "host" (dont know whether this is the right term then)
I ordered a cheap light from fasttech and a heatsink and I will try to combine them. If it works, I should have plenty of heatsinking for my light. And the battery life should be decent too, thanks to the power bank. I am currently using a 7* 7135 driver with zener mod and pushing the LED to about 2.4 amps. It is dedomed, but I guess I will still need something like 4 amps for enough throw. I will keep you guys posted, if these things arrive.
Edit: also I think, you might be talking about the xhp50.2. Or is there a 3V variant of the xhp70.2 too?
Last edited:
