Homemade 3W LED bike light

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Suzy provided the inspiration with her 3W Luxeon bike light:
http://www.littlefishbicycles.com/bikelight/index.html
I've now built my own light derived from that design:
http://www.ghostgum.com.au/misc/BikeLightV1.htm
However it isn't going to remain a Luxeon light for long.
I'm planning to replace the LED with a Cree XLamp 7090 XR-E, which is
twice as bright and more than twice as efficient as the Luxeon III.

--
ghostgum

Good one, Cutter electronics now have some of my cash via Paypal, and
hopefully I'll be the proud owner of a pair of CREE LED's real soon 🙂

I reckon they'll be the ducks nuts with my Schmidt dynohub. Been using a
pair of 3W Luxeons, they're good, but I reckon they could be better 😉

Ray

Ray said:

I
Good one, Cutter electronics now have some of my cash via Paypal, and
hopefully I'll be the proud owner of a pair of CREE LED's real soon 🙂

I reckon they'll be the ducks nuts with my Schmidt dynohub. Been using a
pair of 3W Luxeons, they're good, but I reckon they could be better 😉

Ray

Do you have any pictures of your 3W lights?

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:27:56 +1000

Ray said:

I reckon they'll be the ducks nuts with my Schmidt dynohub. Been using a
pair of 3W Luxeons, they're good, but I reckon they could be better 😉

I'm happy with the lumotec, but something with more go would be nice
with the dyno hub.

So let us know how you get on.

Zebee

Zebee Johnstone said:

I'm happy with the lumotec, but something with more go would be nice
with the dyno hub.

Some of the dyno bike lamps have a specialised beam shape to give a more uniform illumination on the road with distance. That is, the beam is brighter where it points 10m out than where it points 5m out from the bike. My 3W LED isn't that smart. There is one commercial 3W LED light that mounts the LED horizontally, pointing up into a reflector which gives a better beam shape.

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:38:06 +1000

ghostgum said:

Some of the dyno bike lamps have a specialised beam shape to give a
more uniform illumination on the road with distance. That is, the beam
is brighter where it points 10m out than where it points 5m out from the
bike. My 3W LED isn't that smart. There is one commercial 3W LED light
that mounts the LED horizontally, pointing up into a reflector which
gives a better beam shape.

I think the lumotec's good, but on unlit bike paths it could do with
more.

I suppose the sensible option is to buy another and aim them
differently. I tend to aim mine quite far out on the theory that not
only will I see more but the light will be more visible to cars and I
spend most of my time on the road.

Zebee

Zebee Johnstone said:

I think the lumotec's good, but on unlit bike paths it could do with
more.

I actually find the Lumotec very well suited to unlit bike paths. It has a
concentrated bright area that illuminates the width of the path almost
exactly and doesn't waste light out to the sides. It's not super bright, but
bright enough to see the way, and is less likely to dazzle other path users.

Quoted message said:

I suppose the sensible option is to buy another and aim them
differently. I tend to aim mine quite far out on the theory that not
only will I see more but the light will be more visible to cars and I
spend most of my time on the road.

Check that you're not aiming it too far. I tend to have mine set up so that
the beam illuminates the road about 15-20 metres ahead. I believe it is
still quite visible to car drivers, but at this distance gives a useful road
beam. If you aim it 100 metres out you'll get no road beam, and will dazzle
on-coming traffic. This tends to be the problem with a lot of the high-power
MTB lights - they're designed for lots of light output to light up night
off-road trails well, but have less sophisticated optics ie. they throw the
light out in all directions rather than focusing into a useful
square/rectangular patch.

--
Cheers
Peter

~~~ ~ _@
~~ ~ _- \,
~~ (*)/ (*)

In aus.bicycle on Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:57:24 +1000

Peter Signorini said:

Check that you're not aiming it too far. I tend to have mine set up so that
the beam illuminates the road about 15-20 metres ahead. I believe it is
still quite visible to car drivers, but at this distance gives a useful road
beam. If you aim it 100 metres out you'll get no road beam, and will dazzle

Distance estimating isn't my best hting, but I think I'm aiming about
20m forward. Well enough to see by and far enough to be visible.
About the same distance as the low beam on the motorcycle.

Zebee

ghostgum said:

Suzy provided the inspiration with her 3W Luxeon bike light:[indent] http://www.littlefishbicycles.com/bikelight/index.html
[/indent]I've now built my own light derived from that design:[indent] http://www.ghostgum.com.au/misc/BikeLightV1.htm
[/indent]However it isn't going to remain a Luxeon light for long. I'm planning to replace the LED with a Cree XLamp 7090 XR-E, which is twice as bright and more than twice as efficient as the Luxeon III.

Wow! That looks really cool. I like the way you managed to use a tube. I had a bloody big aluminium rod available, of which most ended up as swarf.

I'm also keenly interested in the Cree LEDs. Do they work with the same optics as Lux-IIIs?

Cheers,

Suzy

suzyj said:

Wow! That looks really cool. I like the way you managed to use a tube. I had a bloody big aluminium rod available, of which most ended up as swarf.

I was working with a small lathe. The whole thing is less than 400mm long, and I can't turn anything bigger than about 45mm. Your method requires a big lathe with a big motor and a tool table that doesn't bounce.

suzyj said:

I'm also keenly interested in the Cree LEDs. Do they work with the same optics as Lux-IIIs?

New optics, but Fraen does make some that may be compatible with your light.
http://www.fraensrl.com/prodinfo.html
Looks like you want the FCG optics for Cree XLamp
http://www.fraensrl.com/images/Fraen_FCG_Datasheet.pdf
which looks to have the same dimensions as the FHS optics for the Luxeon III
http://www.fraensrl.com/images/FHS_Lens_Series_Datasheet.pdf

There are multiple manufacturers of optics for the Cree and Luxeon LEDs now. L2 Optics, Polymer Optics Ltd, Fraen SRL, and 2 or 3 others.

ghostgum said:

Suzy provided the inspiration with her 3W Luxeon bike light:
http://www.littlefishbicycles.com/bikelight/index.html
I've now built my own light derived from that design:
http://www.ghostgum.com.au/misc/BikeLightV1.htm
However it isn't going to remain a Luxeon light for long.
I'm planning to replace the LED with a Cree XLamp 7090 XR-E, which is
twice as bright and more than twice as efficient as the Luxeon III.

That's a nice looking unit. How much did it cost you to make it? If
you were to make one for someone else, what would you charge for it?

Travis

Travis said:

That's a nice looking unit. How much did it cost you to make it? If
you were to make one for someone else, what would you charge for it?

About $100 for the parts. About 10 hours labour at $100 per hour. So an all up price of $1100. In other words, it would be better for me to spend the 10 hours riding with my son than to make a light for someone else! My son has already requested one of those lights for his tag-a-long :-)

ghostgum said:

Travis said:

That's a nice looking unit. How much did it cost you to make it? If
you were to make one for someone else, what would you charge for it?

About $100 for the parts. About 10 hours labour at $100 per hour. So
an all up price of $1100. In other words, it would be better for me to
spend the 10 hours riding with my son than to make a light for someone
else! My son has already requested one of those lights for his
tag-a-long :-)

Fair enough. I don't have the time to build something like that
myself, I'll stick with commercial lights.

Travis

ghostgum said:

My son has already requested one of those lights for his tag-a-long :-)

Is that wise if he's on a tag along GG??

You've probably seen this guy - one of the regulars riding an old crapper of a road bike, all the way to Syndal along the same route as us.... wears.. umm... rather threadbare knicks...

It's not too bad because I usually burn past him at a decent clip, but one tired Friday night in mid-winter, I didn't have much left in the legs. I slowly approached with my 3x Luxeon III light and - OHHH MYYY GAWWWSH - Luxeon power and threadbare knicks combined. It's like he wasn't wearing anything....

Snuffy said:

ghostgum said:

My son has already requested one of those lights for his tag-a-long :-)

Is that wise if he's on a tag along GG??

You've probably seen this guy - one of the regulars riding an old
crapper of a road bike, all the way to Syndal along the same route as
us.... wears.. umm... rather threadbare knicks...

It's not too bad because I usually burn past him at a decent clip, but
one tired Friday night in mid-winter, I didn't have much left in the
legs. I slowly approached with my 3x Luxeon III light and - OHHH MYYY
GAWWWSH - Luxeon power and threadbare knicks combined. It's like he
wasn't wearing anything....

On the commute last week I was crossing the Swan St bridge on a sunny
morning and went to overtake a woman out for her morning walk. As I
passed her I realised that with the sun shining at the right angle not
only were her long pants completely see through, but also appeared she
wasn't wearing anything under them. That was the most dangerous moment
of my commute that day, amazed I didn't go over the bridge into the river.

As for threadbare knicks, well anyone who rode with TimC will vouch for
the importance of regularly replacing your knicks if you're riding in a
bunch ride.

DaveB

DaveB said:

On the commute last week I was crossing the Swan St bridge on a sunny
morning and went to overtake a woman out for her morning walk. As I
passed her I realised that with the sun shining at the right angle not
only were her long pants completely see through, but also appeared she
wasn't wearing anything under them. That was the most dangerous moment
of my commute that day, amazed I didn't go over the bridge into the river.

Did you U-turn and go back for a second look to make sure?

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

In aus.bicycle on Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:27:56 +1000

Ray said:

I reckon they'll be the ducks nuts with my Schmidt dynohub. Been using a
pair of 3W Luxeons, they're good, but I reckon they could be better 😉

I'm happy with the lumotec, but something with more go would be nice
with the dyno hub.

So let us know how you get on.

Zebee

I got my CREE LED's in the mail today, a pair of star mounted units from
Cutter - great service.

OMG these things are awesome, I thought the Luxeons were bright running
off my lab supply, better get me some welding goggles now!

I am talking seriously bright. The standard test chamber (under the
bench) is lit up like a spotlight (what a mess it is under there!), and
this is just the naked LED.

Can't wait to swap out the luxeons and see how they go, I'm going to try
the original Fraen lenses first.

Cheers, Ray

What are these new LEDS?. Where do you buy them?
Regards Wilfred

Quoted message said:

OMG these things are awesome, I thought the Luxeons were bright running
off my lab supply, better get me some welding goggles now!

I am talking seriously bright. The standard test chamber (under the
bench) is lit up like a spotlight (what a mess it is under there!), and
this is just the naked LED.

Can't wait to swap out the luxeons and see how they go, I'm going to try
the original Fraen lenses first.

Cheers, Ray

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

What are these new LEDS?. Where do you buy them?
Regards Wilfred

Quoted message said:

OMG these things are awesome, I thought the Luxeons were bright running
off my lab supply, better get me some welding goggles now!

I am talking seriously bright. The standard test chamber (under the
bench) is lit up like a spotlight (what a mess it is under there!), and
this is just the naked LED.

Can't wait to swap out the luxeons and see how they go, I'm going to try
the original Fraen lenses first.

Cheers, Ray

Follow ghostgum's original link into Cutter Electronics!

Ray said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

What are these new LEDS?. Where do you buy them?
Regards Wilfred

Quoted message said:

OMG these things are awesome, I thought the Luxeons were bright running
off my lab supply, better get me some welding goggles now!

I am talking seriously bright. The standard test chamber (under the
bench) is lit up like a spotlight (what a mess it is under there!), and
this is just the naked LED.

Can't wait to swap out the luxeons and see how they go, I'm going to try
the original Fraen lenses first.

Cheers, Ray

Follow ghostgum's original link into Cutter Electronics!

I looked into those LEDs, and the buckpucks. Unfortunately my existing
battery pack is 6V, the LEDs need about 4.5V, and the pucks have to drop
4V to provide 700mA :-(

I wonder whether there are switch-mode voltage dropper circuits which can
operate with a much lower margin, say 1V.

--
Home page: http://members.westnet.com.au/mvw