OK a question mainly for Suzy , since she's made a light very similar to what Iwant.. Well, I guess I'll take anyone's input actually!
So here's 2 buckpucks, which are constant current regulators:
http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=862&link_str=240::241&partno=3021DE700
http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=863&link_str=240::241&partno=3021DE1000
I like these models because they have all kinds of cool stuff like dimming for instance.
OK one is 700ma and one is 1000ma. Can I use either one with the Cree? Or will the 1000 fry it? .
the Cree:
http://www.cree.com/press/enlarge.asp?i=1160427137863
What if I wanted to add a second LED head later?
I can't see the difference between the XR and the XR-E products, except the XR-e has only white... Anyone?
So here's 2 buckpucks, which are constant current regulators:
http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=862&link_str=240::241&partno=3021DE700
http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=863&link_str=240::241&partno=3021DE1000
I like these models because they have all kinds of cool stuff like dimming for instance.
OK one is 700ma and one is 1000ma. Can I use either one with the Cree? Or will the 1000 fry it? .
the Cree:
http://www.cree.com/press/enlarge.asp?i=1160427137863
What if I wanted to add a second LED head later?
I can't see the difference between the XR and the XR-E products, except the XR-e has only white... Anyone?
I used the 700mA one with my Luxeon-III. My reasoning was that there wasn't a particularly big increase in lumens from 700 to 1000mA, and I wanted the light for all-night brevets, so wanted to keep the power consumption reasonable.
Everything I've read about the Cree LEDs imply that they max out at around 700mA, so I'd go for the same module for a Cree LED too.
Cheers,
Suzy
Everything I've read about the Cree LEDs imply that they max out at around 700mA, so I'd go for the same module for a Cree LED too.
Cheers,
Suzy
Yup, the Cree efficiency is what's so appealing. I have now done a 200k and 300k brevet and various double centuries. For the 300k or double century (200mi.) we certainly need lights for a few hours. I can't say that any further would be appealing, but who would have thought that I'd be doing the distances I'm doing now? -not me!
I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of riding for hours in the night, but it turns out to be rather peaceful and fun -even with some car traffic. I did have even more fun when I was with some other riders that had better lighting, so a decent light directly equates to More Fun!
Even though we think highly of ourselves here in northern California, we are forced to admit that our roads are often in poor condition, and the nagging thought that your wheel is about to disappear into a pothole takes away a bit of the joy
variac
I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of riding for hours in the night, but it turns out to be rather peaceful and fun -even with some car traffic. I did have even more fun when I was with some other riders that had better lighting, so a decent light directly equates to More Fun!
Even though we think highly of ourselves here in northern California, we are forced to admit that our roads are often in poor condition, and the nagging thought that your wheel is about to disappear into a pothole takes away a bit of the joy
variac
Variac said:
Sure is! I ride home every night from work - 'round about midnight. Lovely. No wind, no hot sun, very little traffic. Have ridden all over the island at night, what fun!
I bought a bunch of 10mm white LEDS to make a light from.. Never did. Seems like you guys have a good thing going here with the 3W and 5W leds. Wow! Was going to make a solar charger for my light. Maybe I will, someday.
AndrewT said:
Probably because there's the thermal resistance of a layer of FR4 between the copper and the base material, so the reduced resistance of copper is not significant.
I don't know. I've never seen Cu/FR4/heavyCu, but Cu/FR4/Al is commonly used for taking the heat out of RF circuitry.
I got four Luxeon V's off ebay for $20 and since they're only the bare bulbs, I will be needing the aluminum core PCB.
since heat reduces the life of the LED, I was thinking of something better than that, what about using something like the metal tab of a TO-220 transistor (only the metal tab, get a copper plate to a similar size and shape) and solder the LED heatslug on it. since the back must be electrically insulated, mica and grease would do nicely here.
soldering may not be a problem since I have soldered IC's with heatslugs in the past and they worked just fine. I just don't know how much the LED's will stand the heat.
any comments?
since heat reduces the life of the LED, I was thinking of something better than that, what about using something like the metal tab of a TO-220 transistor (only the metal tab, get a copper plate to a similar size and shape) and solder the LED heatslug on it. since the back must be electrically insulated, mica and grease would do nicely here.
soldering may not be a problem since I have soldered IC's with heatslugs in the past and they worked just fine. I just don't know how much the LED's will stand the heat.
any comments?
That seems like a great price!
I am also plannning to add a small square of aluminum or copper to a bulb. Most components can stand soldering temp for a certain amount of time. MAybe the specsheet states this. So maybe you have to solder fast with a massive soldering gun or such and then quickly place it on a thick and large piece of metal to cool it?
This is another possible way, Arctic Silver Thermal Epoxy:
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556003014.html
I am also plannning to add a small square of aluminum or copper to a bulb. Most components can stand soldering temp for a certain amount of time. MAybe the specsheet states this. So maybe you have to solder fast with a massive soldering gun or such and then quickly place it on a thick and large piece of metal to cool it?
This is another possible way, Arctic Silver Thermal Epoxy:
http://www.coolerguys.com/840556003014.html
I would have gone with the thermal adhesive but availability is an issue besides, soldering is still better thermally ( I think! ). I can't try it since the LED's haven't arrived yet so I'll have to wait.
I got the LED's from here
and they are removed from unused stuff from what I can tell. although the bad thing is, the next day later I found out someone is selling new Luxeon K2 whites at around $5. damn. oh well. the good thing is, I can only get Al core PCB's for luxeon I's (luxeon V's have the same footprint) so I won't be able to use AL core PCB's on the K2's anyway.
I got the LED's from here
and they are removed from unused stuff from what I can tell. although the bad thing is, the next day later I found out someone is selling new Luxeon K2 whites at around $5. damn. oh well. the good thing is, I can only get Al core PCB's for luxeon I's (luxeon V's have the same footprint) so I won't be able to use AL core PCB's on the K2's anyway.
I started building some HID lights, check out the progress so far...
Take 1 H4H 35W HID lamp (from a car)
Take 1 mains voltage halogen reflector lamp and carefully remove the front glass (i tried with 2 diffferent bulbs to get it off without breaking the glass with no luck)
Saw the end of the lamp using a tungsten carbide blade and some tape to keep your fingers safe.
I finished it off on a grinder wearing all the proper protection stuff (didn't fancy glass in my eye)
I used a bit of copper pipe to mount the reflector central around the lamp and some exhaust cement to hold it inplace
Testing! In real life all the trees got lit up in the background, it was very bright!
Shining it at the floor, nice round projector (i think 20 degree spot).
I'd say in real life life it's significantly brighter, the camera hasn't picked up much of the surrounding which were lit up pretty well.
Next up is the battery, i want about 3 hours run time so it's going to be around 120WH. I was thinking of using a li-ion laptop battery as it work's out fairly cheap. I just need to devise a way of charging it carefully - i think this will be the hard bit. I might use a PIC chip or something.
As for the casing i thought about moulding some CF, or perhaps fibreglass if i'm feeling cheap
The plan is to blow away my mates 10W HID which cost him £300!
Take 1 H4H 35W HID lamp (from a car)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Take 1 mains voltage halogen reflector lamp and carefully remove the front glass (i tried with 2 diffferent bulbs to get it off without breaking the glass with no luck)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Saw the end of the lamp using a tungsten carbide blade and some tape to keep your fingers safe.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I finished it off on a grinder wearing all the proper protection stuff (didn't fancy glass in my eye)
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I used a bit of copper pipe to mount the reflector central around the lamp and some exhaust cement to hold it inplace
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Testing! In real life all the trees got lit up in the background, it was very bright!
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Shining it at the floor, nice round projector (i think 20 degree spot).
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
I'd say in real life life it's significantly brighter, the camera hasn't picked up much of the surrounding which were lit up pretty well.
Next up is the battery, i want about 3 hours run time so it's going to be around 120WH. I was thinking of using a li-ion laptop battery as it work's out fairly cheap. I just need to devise a way of charging it carefully - i think this will be the hard bit. I might use a PIC chip or something.
As for the casing i thought about moulding some CF, or perhaps fibreglass if i'm feeling cheap
The plan is to blow away my mates 10W HID which cost him £300!
Let me be the first to say wow!
I love it. Yo may be on to something here.
Things to watch for:
Temperature, temperature temperature. It is going to get hot,real hot.do not get things too conjected it will need room to breathe.
Mud and crap on the reflector, you will need a method of keeping it clean some how.
Replacement bulb do you have to completely remake the lamp when the bulb burns out? Is there a way you can make it so you can work through a few prototypes.
Mounting bracket, I have used a handle bar mount from a cheap Cateye when making other systems. A helmet mount would be really nice once you get the bugs worked out of your prototype.
Power you will need at least a 5 or 6 amp hour battery to get any reasonable amount of burn time from a 35 watt bulb. Lead acid will be cheap but very bulky. NiCad may be a better way to go. Li-ion will also be expensive. I recommend Lead acid for the prototype and if it works out go for a lighter better system once you have things a bit more refined.
Good for you and good lucky
I love it. Yo may be on to something here.
Things to watch for:
Temperature, temperature temperature. It is going to get hot,real hot.do not get things too conjected it will need room to breathe.
Mud and crap on the reflector, you will need a method of keeping it clean some how.
Replacement bulb do you have to completely remake the lamp when the bulb burns out? Is there a way you can make it so you can work through a few prototypes.
Mounting bracket, I have used a handle bar mount from a cheap Cateye when making other systems. A helmet mount would be really nice once you get the bugs worked out of your prototype.
Power you will need at least a 5 or 6 amp hour battery to get any reasonable amount of burn time from a 35 watt bulb. Lead acid will be cheap but very bulky. NiCad may be a better way to go. Li-ion will also be expensive. I recommend Lead acid for the prototype and if it works out go for a lighter better system once you have things a bit more refined.
Good for you and good lucky
Variac: The HT supply is simply a denso HID ballast pulled from a Lexus. As it's built for a car it runs off a good range of voltages (about 10.8- to 14.4v) and also features hot ignition
It seems fairly efficent as well, doesn't get that warm so not much energy wasted. It's also pretty small, although not as small as typical ballasts like on the the cateye stadium...
SCD: Thanks for the comments!
You're right, there is no way i can run it like this on a ride, it needs a proper housing. I have an old cateye stadium kit i can tear up, and with a bit of modification i should be able to fit the lamp in the housing. That solves the mounting issue as well.
The lamp has a lifetime of about 3000 hours, and i imagine a typical battery will only last about 300 cycles so it really should last the lifetime of the system. Having said that i think it wouldn't have been much more difficult to make the lamp replaceable...
Yeah, the battery will need to be fairly big. I have a whole load of lithium cells but i'd need to parallelize them massively to get a good capacity. Also being lithium you need sophisticated control circuitry to avoid them blowing up and for a lot of cells this is tricky.
I like the look of large laptop batteries like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/8900mAh-DELL-...5QQihZ010QQcategoryZ14297QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
This should easily get around 3 hours run time and once i figure out how to charge it ,all the safety features are built into the battery.
Yes, lead acid is cheap but heavy! The batteries also degrade rapidly if you constantly discharge them fully. I think for the small amount extra i'll pay for li-ion it's worth it over Ni-MH as for a battery this size saving weight is very important!
As for temperature issues I've use the lamp for about 2 hours non-stop and whilst it does get pretty warm it's stable and doesn't melt any of the plastic plumping pipes i've got attached to it. I expect when it's fully enclosed this may become more of a problem, but hopefully it won't be a major issue as the cateye housing is built from metal.
The annoying thing is i don't have time to work on it until the summer, but hopefully this might give people some ideas
PS. I like these LED lights you guys are talking about, i think for most puposes LED lights are the future..
It seems fairly efficent as well, doesn't get that warm so not much energy wasted. It's also pretty small, although not as small as typical ballasts like on the the cateye stadium...
SCD: Thanks for the comments!
You're right, there is no way i can run it like this on a ride, it needs a proper housing. I have an old cateye stadium kit i can tear up, and with a bit of modification i should be able to fit the lamp in the housing. That solves the mounting issue as well.
The lamp has a lifetime of about 3000 hours, and i imagine a typical battery will only last about 300 cycles so it really should last the lifetime of the system. Having said that i think it wouldn't have been much more difficult to make the lamp replaceable...
Yeah, the battery will need to be fairly big. I have a whole load of lithium cells but i'd need to parallelize them massively to get a good capacity. Also being lithium you need sophisticated control circuitry to avoid them blowing up and for a lot of cells this is tricky.
I like the look of large laptop batteries like this one:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/8900mAh-DELL-...5QQihZ010QQcategoryZ14297QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
This should easily get around 3 hours run time and once i figure out how to charge it ,all the safety features are built into the battery.
Yes, lead acid is cheap but heavy! The batteries also degrade rapidly if you constantly discharge them fully. I think for the small amount extra i'll pay for li-ion it's worth it over Ni-MH as for a battery this size saving weight is very important!
As for temperature issues I've use the lamp for about 2 hours non-stop and whilst it does get pretty warm it's stable and doesn't melt any of the plastic plumping pipes i've got attached to it. I expect when it's fully enclosed this may become more of a problem, but hopefully it won't be a major issue as the cateye housing is built from metal.
The annoying thing is i don't have time to work on it until the summer, but hopefully this might give people some ideas
PS. I like these LED lights you guys are talking about, i think for most puposes LED lights are the future..
upping the old thread as I made myself a similar setup.
battery pack connected to charger, battery life is 2.5 hours cont.
mounted to bike with reusable zip ties
would have been nice if the glass was clear but that was the only one available. HID lamp is 35watt 6000K
battery pack connected to charger, battery life is 2.5 hours cont.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
mounted to bike with reusable zip ties
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
would have been nice if the glass was clear but that was the only one available. HID lamp is 35watt 6000K
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
Nice output but a lot of the light is wasted in front of the bike VERY close.
Good choice on ballast. Those Hella Gen III's are ******** tanks. Good that you have a real Hella Gen III and not one of the myriad of knockoffs.
An option for some of you guy would be some projector fogs like the blazer fog (not to be confused with the vehicle, blazer is a company) or the fusion fog.
/huge HID nut, I know HIDs like most old timers on here know amps.
Good choice on ballast. Those Hella Gen III's are ******** tanks. Good that you have a real Hella Gen III and not one of the myriad of knockoffs.
An option for some of you guy would be some projector fogs like the blazer fog (not to be confused with the vehicle, blazer is a company) or the fusion fog.
/huge HID nut, I know HIDs like most old timers on here know amps.
The 'wasted' light near the bike is actually as bright as the front beam. just a camera artefact. Doesn't bother me so it is just fine.
The ballast IS a cheap knockoff everything is cheap on this setup hehehe like the bulb housing is only $4 and batteries are surplus Sony cells from ebay. I originally wanted a projector but when using this one, I find it is good enough so it stays
The ballast IS a cheap knockoff
everything is cheap on this setup hehehe like the bulb housing is only $4 and batteries are surplus Sony cells from ebay. I originally wanted a projector but when using this one, I find it is good enough so it stays
Haha ur right, I didn't look close enough. I am used to the knock-offs having gaudy stickers on them.
For on the cheap its a damn good output for what you need.
Also, if you want to play around inside the ballast a bit. You can undervolt the ballast down to around 25W or so to get more life out of the batteries if you need them.
For on the cheap its a damn good output for what you need.
Also, if you want to play around inside the ballast a bit. You can undervolt the ballast down to around 25W or so to get more life out of the batteries if you need them.
I have two sets on my car both headlights and auxiliary lights are HID. The set I used on my bike is a spare ballast and the used bulbs I took off my car (I used bnew ones on my car... really bright!)
I can't mess around with the ballast, everything is potted in silicone. From what I know, HID bulbs cannot be run beyond +/-10% from the rated wattage or bulb life will suffer. run time of 2.5hours is long enough for me I only ride the bike about 1.5hours tops.
Haha, yeah if you only do 1.5 no need to fuss. That being said, actually, the bulb life gets extended the less wattage you push. So a lower watt bulb will last longer while a bulb pushed at higher watts lasts a shorter amount of time. The reason is the main determining factor in the life of an HID bulb is its output. Unlike halogens they typically don't just go out. They just get dimmer and dimmer over time. At 35W most bulbs are dimmer than a halogen at around 2000h of usage. Decreasing the wattage extends this time, increasing it decreases this time. So for example, running a 35W bulb at 55W (only do this on quality OEM bulbs) the lifetime drops to around 1000h or so. With cheap chinese bulbs, this lifetime is actually closer to around 300 or so hours.
- Status
- This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.