Newbie Advice - Bike Light

Hi Guys,

I am hoping to make some sort of a light for my bicycle and am thinking about basing it around one of the luxeon stars.

I was thinking about using one of the luxeon III leds, but I am a bit confused about what sort of a driver to use and the amount of heatsinking I will need.

I was hoping to use fairly low voltage to cut down on the amount of batteries I have to use. I also wanted to build the light into a sealed container to keep out the rain etc.

I am prepared to keep the battery pack away from the light if necessary.

Any advice would be very welcome. There is so much information out there that I am finding it all a bit confusing.

Thanks.

Don't go through the trouble of building it yourself unless you just want to.

Go buy:

minimag 2aa flashlight (wal-mart)
badboy 650 lux 3 sandwich (from dat2zip @ sandwich shoppe)
kroll tail switch for light from dat2zip
lock block (two fish unlimited)

assemble and strap to handlebars

run time will be approx 1 hour

easy, quick, doubles as regular flashlight

quite bright, plenty for street riding
cautious trail riding can also be done

cheap, easy to obtain batteries

Go buy a LongBow Mirca from http://www.bulldogenterprises.com and cable tied it to sit firmly on a cateye holder. I'm doing the same now.

Still thinking whether to buy an extra Mirca, mod one with reflector for throw and the other one for flood.

LongBow Mirca is waterproof and a single 123 battery can last for 2 hours at peak brightness.

There are 2 threads in the Mod forum where CPF members have cut holes in conventional bike lights and inserted heatsinks and Luxeons. I don't have them in my favorite threads; otherwise I would link them. I have also started a thread in that forum regarding my mod in progress, 2 3W Luxeons on a BadBoy 500 running on 4AA NiMH. With 2300mAh batteries, I should get around 2 hours of runtime.

I'm a little over half-way through my mod, waiting on parts and free time. Considering the time and expense, it's not worth modding unless you get some enjoyment from making it. The terribly dim headlight originally cost me $25 with a reasonably good taillight.

I would definitely consider turbodog's suggestion. To be more cautious, I would go with a BB500 with a 3W T-bin Luxeon, as the 650 runs a little hot for constant use. Badboy 400mA Sandwich Module Kit w/Lux3T looks like the best sandwich available right now. It will have high brightness and up to 3 hours of runtime on 2 2300mAh NiMHs.

I don't know if the Fraen optic is necessarily what you want for a bike light. I know some members here use the MiniMag in this setup, but I think it might have a too narrow beam. I've sat on my bike and looked around with my MiniMag, but I haven't ridden with it. My mod will run Fraens, but the Luxes will be side-by-side, and the stock diffuser widens the beam further.

On my above suggestion, the fraen (narrow) lens works well. If you want more flood, just remove the head of the minimag. As far as heat goes, the moving air keeps the unit cool. I mean really cool, heat is not an issue at all.

In my experience, the Narrow Fraen is still a bit wide for road riding, so the middle is not bright enough.
Lovely for off road though.
IMO, the '30mm' optics are best for the road.

If someone will tell me how, I will post a pic of my latest bike light.

Steve

Ps, I hope IMO means in my opinion!

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Bandgap said:
...

Ps, I hope IMO means in my opinion!

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what it means everwhere except St. Louis. Here its the name of a chain of pizza joints that make the 2nd worst pizza I've every had. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yellowlaugh.gif

Clips

IF you look at CatEye and I imagine many other bike products, they have this clipping system. For example, on my MTB I rarely ride at night, so I take off the light and leave it at home. The only thing that remains is this little rubber strap base mount thing. It leaves a small foot print. The great part is the clipping system.

To me, the perfect modified bike like (using Luxeons) would have to use this system. I don't want to ziptie anything to my bike unless it's never meant to come off. So the idea of modifying an existing bike light shell by adding LS's is a good one. The other solution would be to somehow figure out where to get the clips so you can mount it on your own custom light.

Re: Clips

You guys really need to check out the twofish fasteners.

Get Bright Light and put it on your Bike! You also then can usr it for other things! This one runs for 70 minites, has rechargeable, comes with 2 batteries and is focusable from spot to flood on the fly. Only 3200 lumens (7 million candle power) though. Also has angular control of light head- up down via push button.

http://www.tjtech.org/gallery/BrightBikeLight

Click on each photo for large image. #5 tells it best.

Light from: www.BrightGuy.com /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Bracket from: ACE Hardware /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif


Good luck. Have fun. This one ALWAYS gets comments from people. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

NikolaTesla /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif


An Arc lamp is the Spark that takes away the Dark--HID Forever!
Recent additions to My Lights: *** http://www.tjtech.org/gallery/NikolaTesla/Dscn3236

hahaha, nice one /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif definitely brighter than bicycle light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin07.gif

I bought one of Waynes (elektrolumens) custom bike lights, if you ask, he may build you one, it has 3 luxeon III's and is very bright (216 lumens). It also has 6-8 hours runtime. Price was very decent also.

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gessner17 said:
I bought one of Waynes (elektrolumens) custom bike lights, if you ask, he may build you one, it has 3 luxeon III's and is very bright (216 lumens). It also has 6-8 hours runtime. Price was very decent also.

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hmmm... you are one of the lucky fellas that bought the 3x3W Tri Star custom bike light from Wayne. He only left with 1 other piece of 3x1W Tri Star, I'm not too keen on this one. Can you kindly tell me how's the throw and flood for the 3x3W? Any pictures of the light in action? TIA.

Throw and spill are excellent, it is very similar to the HID bike lights, just heavier and not quite as much throw. I ride trails at night, it does wonderfully, I can see clearly 300+ feet in front. I also have a 3x3 regualar flashlight, it is just like having one on your handle bars. Probably a little more throw cause it doesn't have the focus problem. I may be able to get some action shots this weekend or during the week. If you do buy one from him, one thing you should look into is a battery pack instead of using D's, especially if you ride off road trails, light tends to flicker when on a bumpy road, due to the batteries jumping around. Otherwise, a very nice light. If this isn't doable, I my self would get a HID bike light from night rider or Cateye, unbeatable.

[ QUOTE ]
gessner17 said:
Throw and spill are excellent, it is very similar to the HID bike lights, just heavier and not quite as much throw. I ride trails at night, it does wonderfully, I can see clearly 300+ feet in front. I also have a 3x3 regualar flashlight, it is just like having one on your handle bars. Probably a little more throw cause it doesn't have the focus problem. I may be able to get some action shots this weekend or during the week. If you do buy one from him, one thing you should look into is a battery pack instead of using D's, especially if you ride off road trails, light tends to flicker when on a bumpy road, due to the batteries jumping around. Otherwise, a very nice light. If this isn't doable, I my self would get a HID bike light from night rider or Cateye, unbeatable.

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Eagerly awaiting your action shots. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif

Not really good if this light flicker when on a bumpy trail/road. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif

Well, only because I have a cheap battery pack in my watter bottle holder, easily fixable. I have a bunch of 6v Lantern batteries I might try out, Probably last for days /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks for all of the information guys,

It has definately given me a lot to think about.

Check your pm 's frogboy

Try something like this?

Run it with a DB 1000, Put a 5 watt in the middle instead of the 1 watt HD which I've put, You'll get excellent flood and spot, Run it off 4/8 C/D cells. Should run really long.

OK Guys,

After reading all of the posts, and dusting off my old crappy bike light, I have been thinking about building the new light into the housing of the old one.

I could probably fit 2 lux's in there and was thinking would I be better off running a single 3w luxeons or a pair of 1w luxeons?

If I were to run a pair of 1W luxeons, how would I wire them up (series, parallel?) with say a badboy driver board, and which badboy would be the best.