HID bicycle lights

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#21
LineSource said:
From what I have read, LEDs last at least 200x longer than HID, are more energy efficient in mcd/watt, are more rugged and allow instant on/off. One 5 watt and two 3 or 5 watt white LEDs sound attractive to me. Reflectors and an aluminum heatsink seem the basic building blocks
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Many of previous posters are comparing 2-10 years old led technology to HID. 3 Watt or 5 Watt luxeons are in somewhat different league. HID-lamps yield 20-90lumens/watt and 5w luxeons about 25lumens/watt. Hopefully soon coming CREE chips 60lumens/watt.

edit: Maybe best side of leds is ease of use compared to HID in DIY projects, no need for 15kV starting pulses etc. And Li-Poly for batteries as they are more forgivin than Li-ion.
 
#22
OK, bit late on the task here but it may help someone....

I've just ditched the old halogen lights on the front of my car for some HID ones. Fortunately they are actually made for my car so all I had to do was wait until someone had some up for grabs on eBay. I managed to buy a set for 30 pounds (stirling) which for what they are is very little! It's like daylight in front of my car now, and the fog just isn't there (although it is here in abundance in england at the moment)!

Anyway, that all aside, my thought is this: These lights have their own HV transformer which sits in the back of the light cluster under the bonnet. It's obviously 12V being automotive, and from what i can gather doesn't actually draw all that much current either, (they'll run happily through a 3A fuse) so if you were to grab yourself one from eBay on the cheap and do exactly what us DIYers are all good at and run it off one a small 12V supply, maybe even charged by one of those little wheel servos you used to see on the back wheels of old bikes powering the lights. Job done.... that's my theory, eBay is your source for cheap High Intensity Discharge bulb assemblies and the right transformer for it the rest is childs play and a bit of reflectorship!

Just one more thing, don't point them in anyone's eyes eh cos the f'n sting like hell, these are REALLY bright!

Best of luck let me know if you do it.
 
#23
The little wheel dynamos only put out like 5 watts and even they slow down the bike perceptibly.

LAtest word from my friend is that the bulb is fine, it is the batteries that went bad in 10 minutes. I have written back and quizzed him as to whether he tried the unit with different batteries and did it work OK? Trying to see if the ballast is OK.

He isn't very technical and IS very busy...


IF the bulb and ballast are fine, then it seems we might want to do a group buy directly from the bulb/ballast maker. That would be a lot cheaper and then the reliabilitty is up to the individual maker....
 
#24
Bulk Buy

I'll be in on the bulk buy.

So far my this is what I've come up with:

http://www.batteryspace.com

14.8 V 5500mAh Polymer Li-Ion Battery w/leather bag $99.95

Universal Smart Charger $24.95

Welch Allyn 13W MR11 HID Bulb for replacement of Trailtech HID Light $75.95 -I don't know if this is the same as the M10P002-1

Using the 14.8V power pack, the nearest ballast is the 14.1-14.5V

Probably there will need to be some kind of voltage limiter too - but I don't realy understand how they work yet - here is a good link for anyone who is more electronically minded:

http://www.national.com/appinfo/power/files/f4.pdf

http://www.walamp.com

The Ballast - 14.1- 14.5V
Welch Allyn PN: B10N003 $79.00

The Bulb - 13 Degree wide Beam
Welch Allyn PN: M10P002-1 Parabolic Lamp $126.00

We can set up the bulk sell using Ebay. We need a wealthy volunteer first, to make the bulk buy...& I would volunteer myself but I'm currently skint!

Regards

Ben
 
#25
Where did you get your prices on the ballast and the bulb?
BatterySpace seems to have and entire setup, helet mount, for $230

I think the ballast is mounted in the same pod the light is in?

Anyway my friend with the BatterySpace light just offered it to me to look over and try to fix.... I'll have a lot to report if that happens soon....
 
#26
I got the ballast price from Welch Allyn official site.

The Bulb and ballast prices are fixxed on orders bellow a quantity of 47. Also there is a minimum order value of $100.

I believe the bulb is the same as the one on the Batteryspace website - so it is cheaper there. But batteryspace don't sell the ballast separately.

The battery that I have listed is a realy good low weight polymer Li-Ion battery - normally a HID light set up with Polymer Li-Ion battery is $500 or more.

Maybe you are right in that it is cheaper to buy the whole unit at battery space.
 
#27
I checked out one of those sites and saw no bicycle headlights. What I saw were helmet lights with person carried batteries. Those could just as well be called skateboard lights, sexual adventure lights (if used in the bedroom.😀 :att'n: ), or walking headlights.

I always thought bicycle headlights employed a generator mounted on the vehicle to power the lamp. Don't they do that anymore?

If these compact, low wattage arc lamps with ballasts are strictly battery powered why aren't they showing up as flashlights/lanterns? It is common to see much more power hungry 55 and 100 watt halogen bulbs in such portable lamps.


:att'n: Caution when using any form of arc lamp in bed as to avoid risk of fire!
 
#28
A generator won't put out the power for these. There have always been both generator lights and battery lights. At least these batteries are rechargeble.

Why aren't they showing up as lanterns?
Well, how many people are going to pay $400 for a lantern?
Bike riders are well known to be willing to spend lots of money on gizmos, and they are motivated because the consequences of bad lighting can be severe injury!

I do believe I saw a handlebar mounted light at battery space...
http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=738
Look to the lower left...
 
#29
Update from my friend that bought the light. The Welch Allyn bulb and ballast are fine, it is the battery pack that gave out he says. Said that he had it tested locally. but hasn't sent it back yet. Ironic in that Batteryspace's contribution is the batteries.

He said he has been too busy to send it back, so we don't know what kind of service Batteryspace would offer.

So, I don't think it's fair to judge Battery Space too harshly- bad things happen and we don't know- they maybe they are incredibly responsive to problems...but one should be careful...
 
#30
Hi,
bike power generation is available from axle mounted alternators.

When switched off they are very efficient (no drag).
Similarly when switched on, the efficiency is much better than the old fashioned tyre rubbing dynamo.

They would allow on road recharging and supplement the batteries when in use, extending the effective battery life considerably.
It is possible that on board recharging may remove the need to charge the batteries away from the bike.
 
#31
www.solidlights.co.uk use Luxeon LEDs (as mentioned by Linesource), Lithium Ion cells and some very nice PIC-based circuitry.

I used their 10W bar-mounted light alongside a 3W helmet light at a couple of 24 hour mtb events last year, and the combination was definitely up there with HID for brightness. And much lighter, cheaper and more reliable.

Their dynamo version is surprisingly good at wringing the last drop of energy out of a very limited source.

For DIY: use some sort of pulse DC-DC controller. Running them at less than peak current (eg from a series resistor) seriously reduces their efficiency.

Nothing to do with audio - for the tenuous connection, let me fact you up: the father of the guy behind Solidlights was the chief engineer at Neve for their original digital audio mixer design.
 
#32
OK I apologize to those advocating LED tech

I just rode with a guy who has a 3w unit from these guys:

http://www.princetontec.com/products/index.php?id=2&type=1&use=0

It is the same, but has a bike mount bracket.

It was darned good!! This friend has a HID light also, but he thinks the LED is probably enough for night brevets!

In penance, I have rounded up some information - parts and LEDs and drivers that easily would assemble into a light . What do you guys think?

http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=1779&link_str=327&partno=L2OP520


http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=1782&link_str=327&partno=L2OHS35-WH

http://www.luxeonstar.com/item.php?id=386&link_str=196::198&partno=LXHL-LW3C

http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/DS46.PDF

http://www.luxeonstar.com/basic-circuit-design.php



Drivers:

http://www.analog.com/UploadedFiles/Data_Sheets/82738057AD8240_0.pdf

http://www.national.com/appinfo/power/LEDrefdesign.html

http://www.ferret.com.au/articles/fa/0c01bbfa.asp

http://www.allegromicro.com/ic/leddriver.asp

http://www.marktechopto.com/product...ptID=2100&SeriesID=1286&Part_Number=TB62731FU



Just Added
http://www.luxeonstar.com/sub_category.php?id=241&link_str=240::241

http://www.luxeonstar.com/sub_category.php?id=241&link_str=240::241
 
#33
Have you all considered Compact Fluorescent Lamps?

Their light output per watt is similar or better to those of HID lamps, but the price is almost 50 times lower. For example, I got two 11W CFL lamps rated at 900 lumen each for just $5. The only big drawback is size, as these lamps are 20cm long and require some kind of custom reflector, but they costed almost nothing (efficiency, cheapness and size are mutually exclusive factors, as always).

One of my projects is a 12V powered electronic ballast with dimming for these lamps. In my current prototype, adjusting the light output allows to reduce the current drawn from 1A at maximum to 0.3A at minimum in order to allow to increase battery life at the expense of lower light output (lamp filaments end up using most of the power at the lowest light output levels, though).
 
#34
That has crossed my mind, but you have done something- which is a lot more virtuous.

I would like to hear more about the fluorescents as an option.

I suppose a very sophisticated reflector could be made from a sheet of silvered mylar folded into a parabola in one direction.
 
#38
Eva,

I think for bicycles the popular battery configuration is four cells, which is about 6 volts.


Do they make around a 6 watt 10 cm model light tube? 6 watts is a power consumption that would allow reasonable battery weight and enough hours for long rides...


I think that one dimming setting of about half power is probably enough...

This is from interviewing my riding friends...

I'm interested in more info
 
#39
I'm working on it from time to time. There are smaller CFL rated at less power, but I think that they are less efficient. Also, small low-power lamps may be easily taken from those fluorescent light-bulbs that include a built-in ballast, I suppose you know them, they are available in different shapes and sizes.

Currently, my circuit uses a SG3525 driving two MOSFETs that switch the push-pull primaries of a tiny transformer, which produces 120V AC and has two additional 12V AC windings. Operating frequency varies between 50Khz and 125Khz. The 120V AC output feeds a 75Khz LC resonator that ignites the lamp and then works as a ballast allowing for dimming by changing the operating frequency. The two 12V AC windings provide variable power to the filaments depending on the frequency by means of a capacitor in series with each one (lower dimming levels require increasing filament power, while full intensity requires little or no filament heating).

The main drawback of the current prototype is that it's not automatic, it has a frequency potentiometer that has to be adjusted to approx. 75Khz for starting the lamp, then you have to wait a minute for the lamp to get warm and then it can be dimmed. I will make it automatic, though.

A 6V version may be also possible by employing logic gate MOSFETs and some tricky start-up bootstrap circuit.
 
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