Bike Light, lights.....etc. « Singletrack Forum

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Bike Light, lights.....etc.

25 posts & 10 voices | Started 2 years ago by Luminous | Latest reply from Luminous

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Luminous - Member

Hi.

For anyone who may be interested in how a single MTB'er is getting along making a bike light for himself, and a few friends, with possibly a few left over.

Following on from here:
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bike-lightxp-gs-arrived-today/page/2

Its been a long process getting to this stage, mostly due to the ignorance and prejudice of some local machining companies in my area of the world. But, eventually I've found a great company that has done a fantastic job of making light housings for me. Shame my photographic skills aren't better really.

Well, having some would be a start

This picture is actually of an assembly rejected from my finished item batch.
So this particular housing will be used for anodizing and performance tests. But if gives a fair sense of size and design.

Luminous

Posted 2 years ago #
stumpy01 - Member

Nice.
Probably would have spaced the fins a bit more myself, but that's just a preference thing.

Would love to have time/money/gumption to look into this sort of thing.

Posted 2 years ago #
saladdodger - Member

Excuse my ignorance but would the cooling fins not be more efficiant in the front to back direction to go with the airflow over it

Good luck all the same

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Ah !

I thought my post had sunk without trace.

As you will know, fin spacing is to maximize surface area and so enhance the benefits this brings from a cooling perspective.

Cooling fins in the direction of airflow would be nice, and certainly has its merits, just look at the cylinder heads of many motorcyle engines.

However, when I set out to do this, I didn't want to copy what had been done before, the Trout light may not be the perfect light (what light is), but having the cooling fins in the direction of airflow is a great feature and I take my hat off to Chris for his concept.
It was there staring us all in the face each time we looked at a motorcycle engine, but he made the light that so many buy now, so recognition to him there.

So, I'm giving radial cooling fins a go, and so long as it does the job, well. I don't know about you, but I don't look at my light, when I'm barrelling down some ST, so if it doesn't please you from a looks point of view, just remember you can't see it in the dark

And I know my opinion will be biased, but when holding this actual light in my hand, I think it looks great.

I'll not bore you with the detail, but the eagle eyed among you may notice that I've replaced the lens clamp ring. This with a few other features, should only enhance the weather-proofness of the light.

I send a body assembly off to an anodizer tomorrow so I'm lookng forward to how one of these will look, "coloured in".

Thanks for your posts.

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

I've just been caught !.

Now I have been ordered to the sitting room, to go watch DH4

Catch you later.

Cheers

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
montylikesbeer - Member

It looks a very neat package and you are not that far off.

Hats off

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

MLB.

Ta

LEDs arrived this morning, R5s this time (my prototype used R3s).

If my connectors arrive this week, then I'll be able to build one up.

Sent a body off this morning for anodizing also. I'll be very interested to see how it looks with a colour and to see what kind of finish the people anodizing it can produce.

Months of work, years of building bike lights, now coming to what I hope will be a respectable result.

Cheers

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
trout - Member

Looks good But Oiy the card was my idea

look at it another way when the light needs cooling it will be stopped or traveling slowly so when stopped convection will be up through the fins

when I tested the 7up and I assume that is what is going in there it will need all the cooling you can throw at it if run at full tilt .

Posted 2 years ago #
stumpy01 - Member

Luminous - yeah I agree in increasing surface area of fins and so having them close together, but my thinking was that too small a gap between them would maybe result in a reduced cooling effect, as you would get less fresh air through them - obviously with fins in the direction of travel this is less of a problem.
Purely based on a gut feel type thing though, and I imagine any type of cooling aids will help greatly & there's probably no need to look into calculating this kind of thing.

I think that machining fins on a box-shaped housing to make them coincide with the direction of travel is a lot easier than on a cylinder. To machine fins on a cylinder it would probably make the most sense to turn the whole thing on a lathe, thus making 'radial' slots easier to cut than longitudinal slots.
Is this part of the reason for the slots being in the orientation they are?
I have done a quick model of an extension tube for the Lumi cans to accommodate an LED conversion and initially put longitudinal fins in it, but later changed them to radial for ease of manufacture.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Trout.

Hi, yes, the playing card, another Trout idea

The light could take the cutter 7-up disc or seven individually placed 10mm square LEDs. But my housing is designed for a full installation, its not just about the ID at the head, think about it.

Cooling the 7 LED would require a larger housing in order to reach a good rate of heat dissipation. Not a problem in itself, but we know, people want a tiny light, with massive output, weighing next to nothing, etc.
So I'm not sure that a physically larger light would be acceptable.

But I've another solution in mind.

Stumpy01.

"To machine fins on a cylinder it would probably make the most sense to turn the whole thing on a lathe, thus making 'radial' slots easier to cut than longitudinal slots.
Is this part of the reason for the slots being in the orientation they are?
"

As you may know, with todays machining centres, alot is possible, and my design did "push" things abit. But the real issue is time. The longer the machine time, the bigger the numbers on the invoice !.

So, yes, with machining time and feasibility in mind, I designed the housing for radial fins.

I am trying to achieve quite a lot with this light, trying to keep size and weight down, while using the best components I can find for the job and getting a very bright light out onto the trail.

Then theres the all-in-one, the helmet mount and the diving lights to get done yet. Busy, busy.

Show us your Lumi work, when you can, be interested to see what you're doing.

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Update.

Hi. Built this beauty up over the weekend and just took it out for a spin tonight. Then I've come on here and seen chit-chat about other lights.

Well, if its quality you're after, this is a serious contender.

Switch and power connector are individually sealed to the body using their proper nut fixings and rubber O-rings.

The lens assembly is sealed also to the body and all this without the use if silicone sealant. All proper seals sourced and used here

Bar clamp allows quick release of the handy, pocket sized light. The bar clamp also allows left-right adjustment of the light too.

Running 6 XP-G R5s and giving out plenty of light in a nice pattern as the LEDs are clustered together into two rows of three.

I've just the anodizing left to sort, which will hopefully happen this week.

Cheers.

Luminous.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

I'm wondering about colours and how many lights to have anodized in any particular colour.

What colours do you lot on here prefer ?.

Oh, baring in mind the standard colour palette of most anodizers, Black, Blue, Gold, Red.

Cheers

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
bunkbed - Member

how about a peek at the front and back and a few beam shots to wet the appetite L

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

BB.

I've suffered quite badly at the hands of the postal strikes earlier this month and, err, slow, support from some suppliers.

But I should be getting the camera out this weekend.......

In the meanwhile I conducted another 2 hour run-time, test ride last night using the light pictured above. Ambient air temp was around 10 degrees, but there was a fair bit of wind around which wold have aided cooling.

Result ?, totally cool running and after 2 hours on full power, the Multi meter measured 15v at the battery, from an initial off-charger V of 16.7v.

Those batteries from smudge really are something else
They're just ace

Thanks Smudge.

Got stopped a few times last night regarding the light, remarks like "what is it" and "how much" and "That light is very Bright !".

Everyone looks as I plod along and most cars wait in the junction for longer, until I've pasted them.

Cheers.

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
racing_ralph - Member

THE PINK LOOKS SPOT ON
what ouput do you think you are getting? mesured?

Posted 2 years ago #
MRanger156 - Member

SO how much will these be? Whats the spec like?

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Rob

Um, err, thats not pink, its my poor photography

I have managed to do some things that I hadn't thought I could achieve on this project, but actual lumen measurement has been beyond my resources, so far.

Therefore I can't quote anything other than an expected figure.
I expect that its giving out something approaching a range from the theoretical to high teens. But its not just about the numbers, beam pattern is a significant part of the equation and I'm hoping that my 2 rows of 3 will be effective.

An older thread by me (link at the top) shows pictures of my prototype using R3 XPGs, if thats any use.

MRanger 156.

Answer one, I' haven't updated the spreadsheet recently and I've two more opps to cost in, so I don't have a final build cost yet.
Answer two, you may e-mail me if you wish

Thanks

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
stumpy01 - Member

Looks nice.

As for colours, I chose red for my Lumi cans, but I reckon red, blue or black are the best looking colours for light stuff.

As for my attempt with some kind of Lumi conversion. So far it's just an extension tube that I cooked up one lunchtime using Solidworks.
The idea was to create a little more space in the Lumi can while also providing a decent amount of aluminium to cool things down with. Threaded at each end to screw straight onto the Lumi can threads one end and accept the bulb securing ring at the other end. There's a bafle inside to mount the LED board on.
At the moment it's sat on the computer & I've not really done anything further. Perhaps I'll get something made up & a Cutter kit on order before the evenings start getting lighter, but probably not!!

Posted 2 years ago #
Old Git Surrey - Member

Anyone want to build me a helmet light? Looking for about 450-500 lumens on twin LEDs and a small battery (Li-Po?) to give about 3 hours on full blast.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Stumpy01

Thanks for the colour opinion, I was hoping to gain an idea of what were the most popular colours, it would be useful. Thanks.

Be even better if my anodizer could manage to return my sample parts in a timely manner

I'm not familiar with this lumi-can light, but as you describe it, it should worth a punt.
So in the spirit of old-school homebrew, I say, go for it

OGS.
Real work on the helmet light starts this weekend, the design has been bouncing around in my head for a couple of weeks now, but I haven't had the time to start it.
A prototype could be on a CNC machine by next week, as I was speaking with one of my CNC suppliers last night about the helmet light.

Output will probably be more like 650 - 700 lumens though and a beam pattern that allows this little light to punch well above its weight. I already have a bar light set-up of this light which I still like to use its that good.
So I've just got to sort the housing, etc, but its coming.

Ta

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Nearly there now. Got to see a man tonight about one other thing and then I reckon its done.

Luminous.

Posted 2 years ago #
wors - Member

looks a cracker that mate, well done.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Thanks Wors.

Just been chatting with the person using the none anodized prototype shown above. I think he likes it.

It was spotted on a train this morning and imediately recognized, which was good to hear.

Theres one more operation to carry out on the red light, then I'll post some more pics.

Luminous.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Oh well, never mind then.

I thought it looked pretty good myself.

L.

Posted 2 years ago #
Luminous - Member

Just for anyone who may be interested.

One of my testers came to me today after a very wet journey on the bike.
The battery bag was very wet, but the battery surived.

If anyone else is concerned about keeping their battery dry, heres what I've done.

As has been suggested, I am using something like a sandwich bag into which I place the battery, then put it all into the battery bag.

But before putting the battery into a sandwich bag, I am fitting two lengths of old inner tube over the battery. One length pulled along the length of the battery, the second peice of inner tube stretched to then close onto the top and the bottom of the battery, sort of set 90 degrees to the first piece of inner tube, if that explaination makes any sense.

It seems to have worked today, no its isn't water proof, but I reckon it helps.

L.

Posted 2 years ago #