Forum menu
I have been looking round for a handlebar bracket that could be bodged to take the homebrew lights, and I was in Halfords last night and they have a couple of different handlebar/helmet mounts for their lights (about a fiver each), which look like they could be modified to fit.
Anyone else got any suggestions for mounting to bars?
standard driver, switch, boot and dc connectors also here please
Slight hijack here...Blackcat, dropped you an email re driver for triple of quad xpg.
Did you receive it?
Thanks.
Hey up Scott .
He will be buried under solder by now .
if he runs out of this batch you can have one of my 5 ordered .
Sorry for being slow but with ths std driver, I assume that the 100k resistor will give roughly 50percent output and the 200k 33percent output?
Could you stick a potentiometer inbetween instead ( a lightweight internal pcb one might be better if such one exists)?
How should we pay you troutie?
I think I might call my light "The Edu-C.K-ator"
Good name Jazid
Paypal to troutie mail address in profile
add something on for postage
and don't make me pay any fees
Cheers
Would something like this be suitable if so, what resistance/item order could could anyone recommend?
( http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components/Resistors-Potentiometer/Preset-Potentiometers/3-8in-Single-turn-vertically-mounted-potentiometer/73462/kw/pcb+potentiometer+500k)
Instead of screwing the LED stars to the aluminium bracket, could [url= http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130353710926&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT ]this[/url] thermal tape be used instead, it might make installation slightly quicker/easier?
Oi Trout ... you copying me ... ! 😀 😀 😀 just kiddin ...
Mine from 2007:
Same wee box with 2x Seoul P4s @ 1A( was best value at the time in '07 ) , each with a wide and narrow beam in. Runs off 7.2V batteries for RC cars in a water bottle. Cheap batteries to replace and I can have a bundle of them pre-charged for an event and simply swap them out in the bottle. Per light / battery = 3hrs run time.
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
I even built a rear one with 2x 3W LEDS ...
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
BCT you got a price/list for the bits you are sending to Troutie? Would like whatever you can send - driver, switch & boot and the connectors please.
Troutie just about to send the PP over now (as per the list on the previous page).
BCT Steven has mailed me to give a info update.
Hi Chris,
Can you do me a favour? I can't post on the list while I'm at work and I won't be home until late tonight. Don't want people to think I've done a runner!
I've found a temporary solution to the driver problems - I can get a very similar chip at not much extra cost which will do the same job. This has the benefit of lower losses as well so will be better suited to anyone who still wants to run from two lithium cells. This should keep me going for now then when the bare boards are starting to run out I'll look in to other alternatives.
RS have just started stocking thermal adhesive pads for LED stars which may be of use to people, I'd still recommend screws for mechanical stability though. I'll put together a price list later today for the 'extras'.
Are you happy to take a bulk lot of parts to put in to kits? I don't mind if you want to take combined payment and pass my share on or if you'd prefer people to pay me individually. Might it be easier to do a complete kit of driver, switch, boot and connectors rather than asking people to specify which parts they need? The extras don't cost that much so for simplicity that may be the best approach.
Regards,
Stephen
Nice one fisha .
and still a good idea in 2010
Think lumicycle supply good brackets but you will need to drill and tap or use a nut to fix it on the box, worth a look. I will send monies tonight but I only need LEDs and lenses got the wife to cut out the platic cover for me at school as they use a laser cutter.
Edit I'll wait till BCT comes back with prices etc and see what your going to do about delivery.. That driver sound ideal for me as I'm going to run a 5.2Ah li-ion battery.
Please can anyone who pays say what your stw login is too as getting mighty confused
Trout - didn't want to interrupt this thread and go OT, but would appreciate if you could take a gander at this for me when you have a mo'.....?
Think lumicycle supply good brackets but you will need to drill and tap or use a nut to fix it on the box, worth a look. I will send monies tonight but I only need LEDs and lenses got the wife to cut out the platic cover for me at school as they use a laser cutter.
Mine use the lumi-cycle light with a nylon nut on the inside. Works very well.
Plus, its an easy swap to change the clamp between an MTB mount and and oversize one for my road bike.
Wow crazy! Look forward to the build results! I think you've got them all allocated now troutie but if anyone changes their mind I'll give a light a bash. Good work team.
Trout, I've sent the money through for you, hopefully.
Could you let us know please if bct goes down the road of supplying driver, switch connectors etc as a package, because it would be helpful to me- and how much and where to send payment to for his side.
what is the total cost then to be sent to Troutie, I've lost track.
Trout
I'd like to add 2 bits of angle and two bits of lexan please to my order. I've sent paypal gift to you and added a bit on for postage too 🙂
BCT
I'm going to be building two sets of lights so I would like two sets of standard driver, resistir, switch, boot, cable & socket please.
I'm going down the AA battery pack route to start with and then plan to upgrade to smudge paxks when I can afford to. How would you best advise wiring the AA pack to the light?
Could I take the driver along with a connector and the switch plus boot, oh and a resistor from BCT? And a piece of the lexan from you if that's ok Troutie?
I have a 14.8v 4.4Ah Lith-ion battery pack. Would it be ok to run it off this and what sort of run times could I expect?
I'd like the driver and the other parts mentioned in trout's post, lexan etc.
Did we agree if we're doing all this in one payment yet ?
Boy am i confused .
best way certainly for me would be pay me for my stuff
and pay BCT Steven for his
and probably less confusing too if Steven mails his stuff out to the user and I mail my stuff out .
to recap and add a little
I will be supplying
2 xpg leds on 20 mm stars @ £5 each
2 Regina reflectors @ £1.82 each
1 piece of aluminium L section @ £0.50
and can also do the front clear 1.5mm thick lexan @ £0.50
plus postage ?????
steven did say he was working late today and would get his bits and pieces sorted asap .
Couple of quid for postage ok trout and what email do you want the payment to?
Trout I underpaid you for two reflectors, sorry bout that dude have sent extra to you 🙂
Payment to the address in profile I take it?
Trout - you must have the patience of a saint. Have you got time to do anything except answer these e-mails and try to understand who has ordered what? VERY MUCH RESPECT fella.
Its great to see say many taking the plunge and building this light, this is when the fun really starts and hopefully lead to you building more lights of your own. Wait till you hit the trails for the first time with the very light you built 😀
Hats off to troutie for spending his valuable time on this as well, I know personally how busy he is at the minute so good on him for also taking on this project 8)
Trout have sent payment
Sorry for the delay guys, can't access the forum at work and went straight over to see the missus from there...
My proposal is to supply a kit of useful parts - if anyone just wants the driver please let me know but otherwise I'd prefer to supply just the kit to save confusion over who wants what!
The kit will include:
970mA output driver
Three-way switch
Weather-proof boot for above
2.5mm power socket
2.5mm plug with 1.8m of cable
160k resistor to give a low power mode of approx. 450mA
I'll try and remember to throw in a few bits of wire for those who may not have this to hand.
I'll do the lot for £7.50 per kit plus £1 postage per order. Paypal payments to address in my profile please. (As with Troutie, sending as a gift rather than payment for goods would be appreciated as it means I don't pay fees) I'm hoping to have the extras in to send out on Tuesday - I'm away this weekend and won't have time on Monday to post anything I'm afraid.
One point here - if anyone is intending to drive this from 2x lithium cells, please let me know as I'll ship a slightly different version of the driver which is better suited to running from low voltages / limited headroom. Three lithium or 8 NiMH is fine with the standard driver.
As an aside, I don't know how you'd charge them but you can get lithium cells in AA size these days - 14505 size. I've seen ones with 2Ah capacity which would give you over three hours run time if you used three of them and you could use a standard AA battery box.
Just to clear up a few other points...
The dimming resistor on the driver - the lower the resistor value the lower the output current. If you do R / ( R + 200k ) then this gives the approximate fraction of full power you will get. You will need a fairly large value pot if you want the level variable, again the above equation will help you work out what current you will get. A logarithmic pot is better as it gives a more linear response.
The spec of the resistor isn't important - you are passing microamps through it so it doesn't need to be high power or anything like that.
Ermm... Someone mentioned sticking the LEDs down rather than screwing them - I'd not recommend this as there will be a lot of vibration so a mechanical fixing would be more reliable.
Steelfan .
perfect battery for an allnight ride on full 😛
Steven cheers
That price for those bits sounds a real bargain .
Oh, one other thing - the switch operation is Off / Full / Dim, not Off / Dim / Full. No way around this without adding complication I'm afraid.
BCT/Steven paypal payment sent from me for all the bits. Thanks 😀
BCT you have funds
I'm not adding any markup on the bits so it works out pretty cheap. (I sometimes wonder if I'm too nice to be a businessman!)
I'll be in touch about the 'spare' drivers once I've worked out how many I'll have left from the batch I'm building. I'm owed four ICs by my supplier - I'm not sure how they manage it but each lot I buy I get a couple of empty bags that I have to send back to exchange for ones with a chip in...
BCT Ive already sent this on an email but I will be using 7.5v 5.2Ah li-ion battery hope this helps with getting the right driver.
1961Bikie
Thanks I guess its the devil making work for idle hands .
I am a flooring fitter and work is not very busy at the moment .
I never expected such a great response when I started the thread .
must have hit the blokes like making things nerve in a few members .
it a great little light and the guys will get a lot of satisfaction building it and using it .
OK the cost may be getting close to a Bastid but if it breaks at least the owner will have a clue how to fix it and have a rosy glow when using it. 😉
BCT have sent paypal gift to you for two sets.
Thanks to both you and Trout am really quite excited about this.
Troutie have sent payment to you also as paypal gift 😉
Think its going to cost me about £70 all in so I think that's not bad, big thanks to trout, smudge and teapot!! Just hope I don't blow my self up! 😛
hers what you can expect but a bit brighter still because I have used XPE R2 leds so high is an on paper lumen count of 500 lumens approx
low is using a 100k resistor and not sure of the maths for drive current .
you all are getting XPGs R5 leds so your hi will be 700 on paper lumens and a slightly wider and cooler beam .
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
100k = approx 1/3 power or about 330mA. Seems good and bright enough to me - may even be worth me including a few resistors so people can play and decide what works best for them.
Them box bushes need a trim 😉
Cheers
330 ma drive = 200 lumens for My XPE light
and 253 lumens for the XPGs .
The Regina optic realy does work very well way better than anything else I have seen for the XPG leds
Lipseal yep and we could do with a visit from a Panda to trim the bamboo too
Wow those beam shots look ace, much much better then my current torch combo.
I will be ordering 2 Hammond boxes from Maplins now just need to source a battery enclosure and some AA's.
With the battery box does it make any odds if the batteries are lined up flat together or in a cluster? Maplin do two types [url= http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=10400 ]FIRST[/url] and [url= http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=31427 ]SECOND[/url]. I was thinking of using a piece of inner tube to cover the battery pack for some waterproofing and to hold them in place or would this melt?
I was going to use these [url= http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_3&products_id=108409 ]BATTERIES[/url] unless theres any reason why not?
You need the 8 battery holder from SECOND or better still but more weight the 10 cell holder
its not going to get hot so no worries there
Troutie-ygm
Trout is your email as in profile without the www. ? I'm confused! i sent you an email last night but im not sure it was to the right address.
BCT payment sent.
my fault profile updated 😳
Stayhigh, what is the code for the hammond box - I can't find it on the maplins site at all :<
Order Code Type External Dimensions (mm) Anodised
Dimensions mm Order Code L W H Colour
N82AL 1455C801 80 54 23 Clear
N83AL 1455C1201 120 54 23 Clear
N74AL 1455C802 80 54 23 Clear
N75AL 1455C1202 120 54 23 Clear
N79AL 1455C1202BK 120 54 23 Black
for an external battery light the top one is the one
What would be the rough difference in runtime from 8 [9.6v] to 10 [11v] AA's? Sorry I dont know how to work these things out?
Not so worried about the weight for now as the batteries will be in a stem/back pack.
trout/BCT payments sent.
cheers for all the advice - here's hoping the build goes OK...
if the battery figures are correct then .
9.6 volts * 2.9 ah = 27.84 watts .
the light I have here connected to a bench power supply draws
.780 ma on full power from the 9.6 volt input
9.6 * .780 = 7.48 watts
27.84 watts / 7.48 watts gives a runtime of 3.72 hours
in real life the batteries will sag and the voltage will drop as it discharges so the runtime will be less .
the same method used for the 11 volt pack gives a runtime of 4.26 hours
on low the draw for this calculation is .230 ma or 2.2 watts
Hi Chris/BCT
Payments sent for two kits of each. Please let me know you've received and if I got the amounts right.
Thanks for this, I'm also really excited about it!!!!
JC
Trout, BCT Payments sent to each of you, for 'standard' kits as listed above. Many thanks,looking forward to this.
As I said before though, we really need a name for this light....any thoughts?
Trout/BCT Payments sent last night/today.
Other people's attempts make interesting reading (where you they get accss to CNC machines etc? lol) http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=295664
BCT can't find an email to send you payment....
As for a name, think i'll call mine "The Hamfister"
How much did everyone send to bct- can't find a total?
Total for BCT is £8.50 but I can't find his email addy!
I sent a payment to BCT last night using the email in his profile but paypal is saying its unclaimed?
You should be able to get my address by clicking the 'Member' link next to my username. I'm guessing posting it direct in the forum is an invitation to spammers...
I've not claimed payments yet, partly because I've been busy but also because I'm waiting for the parts to arrive.
Regarding batteries and battery life, the output power drain of the unit will be about 7.5W on full beam including the losses within the driver. Multiply the battery voltage by the capacity (amp-hours, if it is in mAh, divide by 1000) and that gives the power available in the battery. Divide this by 7.5 to get the approximate run time on full power.
It might be worth considering going for the type of batteries that keep their charge - standard NiMHs discharge fairly quickly once removed from the charger. Sanyo Enloop and Gp Recyko+ are two that have this property. You could make a nice little permanent pack and use a plug-in charger rather than having to remove the cells each time you want to charge them up. I find CPC (cpc.farnell.com) have a good range of chargers and batteries but you need to spend £45 with them to avoid a small order surcharge. Otherwise, I'm sure eBay will come up with something or Maplin if you don't mind paying their price premium.
(That said, I'm surprised that Maplin aren't that much more expensive than Rapid for the Hammond enclosure.)
I think I have found a new inspiration for my light housing!
Jazid - Classic! I wonder how many lumens you get from the average car headlight - beating that on a bike would be something..
One thing I've just remembered I was going to say, the driver in the photo Troutie posted is an old version, the terminal arrangement is different on the new ones. I'll be including a datasheet with them so take care to read that, not follow the picture!
Thanks for the runtime information, its all slowly starting to sink in and make sense.
At home I have some airsoft batteries which I think are around 8.4v. I'll check once I get home. They have a small white plug on them which look similar to [url= 
]THIS[/url]
FWIW I reckon it should be called the Citizen Kane or CK light.
Hows this the CKLuminator
so my 7.5 4300mah nimh will give 4hr runtime? sounds good to me!
it'll prob dim a bit but then if i'm riding 4hrs in the dark i recon i'll be fading too!
The "Rosebud" light?
Payment sent trout.
Paypal gift sent to both
Cheers Steve.
Paypal gift sent to both, hopefully for the right amounts 😉
So quick Q, will the driver be ok with 4 18650 cells ?
If so should I do 4 in series to ensure good voltage or would 2 sets of 2 in parallel i.e. 7.4 volts cover me, feels close to tolerance with around 3v drop per LED.
Final Q assuming I can use 18650, is there a reason people are opting for the AA's as the cheap (probably highly volatile) 18650 cells on eBay are around the same price 😉
Really looking forward to this project, great work by trouty and BCT in opening this up and giving so much support!!
Sit back and waits for the wife to ask why I’m giving money away on Paypal whilst wandering why Paypal is setup in her name with my bankcard 😉
If so should I do 4 in series to ensure good voltage or would 2 sets of 2 in parallel i.e. 7.4 volts cover me, feels close to tolerance with around 3v drop per LED.
Final Q assuming I can use 18650, is there a reason people are opting for the AA's as the cheap (probably highly volatile) 18650 cells on eBay are around the same price
My thoughts too!
Good work guys. Need to do the BCT PP, it will come!
My reasons for using AA's was simply based on cost as this will only be a temporary pack until I can get a Li-on pack. It will cost roughly £20 to get the enclosures and batteries for two packs of ten cells and I already have a charger. Once I have the Li-on packs the AA's will disappear throughout the house in torches, Wii controlers and to appease the Battery Monster, a close relative of the Sock Monkey 😆
Alternatively I have two airsoft battery packs.
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
The large green one is 8.4v 3800mAh NiMH and the smaller red one is 8.4v 1300mAh NiMH.
Would these be better then the AA's?
Fozzyuk
the 4 x 18650s will be better as a series set the 14.8 volts is better than the 7.4 as the 7.4 will drop in voltage to the dropout zone .
the 14.8 volt will stay in regulation all the time until the batteries are depleted .
one question are the cells protected .
Stayhigh both your airsofts are good to go as well as the 10 cell AA packs .
I don't have the 18650 cells yet. I have two trustfire ones I've used since last year in the dxtreme mte torch, they were advertised as protected...
I also have a bastid, no idea if that packs protected., I think it's 4 18650.
If anyone knows of a safe 18650 brand let me know....