As to title really. I stopped messing about with homebuild lights about 5 years ago, but just about to make a new one more from the remnants of a selection of cheap Chinese jobs.

Did some searching forum for info but nothing recent.

Show us your light builds.

I gave up – simply not worth it any more now the chinese lights are so good

I’ve still got a set of the lumicycle halogen to LED conversion that was on here years back, Still used on the commuter.

No pics unfortunately, but a friend of mine rigged up an impressive 12v setup using the leds usually fitted to emergency vehicles & some custom wiring & brackets – they were bright, even with a diffuser you could see it was him half a mile up the road – he was behind me on the way home one night, I could see my silhouette projected on a building about 50m in front, wasn’t a cheap setup by the time he’d put it all together with the 12v pack etc. but Jesus it was bright.

I have some diy lights and occasionally tinker with them, but only because there still isn’t a lot of choice for cheap, bright dynamo powered front and rear lights. Supernova E3, Exposure Revo and various things from B&M are all good, but pretty expensive.

I have a converted a smart 20w halogen bar light into a helmet light. It’s got a switch hanging next to the helmet straps. had it years. just about to start using it again.

I gave up – simply not worth it any more now the chinese lights are so good

That’s pretty much where my head went. About all I would do these days is adapting lights to take bigger battery packs.

I too used to make LED lights. Even bought a lathe. Then the Chinese market quickly made DIY lights pointless.
I have made a dynamo light, triple XM-L light that’s super bright, single XM-L head lights. Did some home anodising too, that was fun as it was always a lucky dip as to what colour you were going to get, even though the die was black!

I am working through a new pcb design for the dynamo light as I want it to fit into the steerer. It’ll have a USB out too. There will be pcbs available if anyone want to build one too.

No, I found my old NightSuns that I’d retrofitted LEDs to the other day and couldn’t actually bring myself to bin them. I can’t see myself ever using them though.

As above, the Chinese lights are so good, why bother? My only complaint has been they’ve not got enough spread, and I found a flat diffuser for lighting signs up in a broken light fitting, and since bodging that into an X2, I’ve been really happy.

was toying with playing about with the ‘9 cree xm-l T6’ chinese light I have. no where near as bright as you’d expect, but it is running off a 7.2V 4Ah battery, so guess not much in the way of mA drive. thought about finding a driver for it taht woud allow me to vary the drive amps, assuming that’s what’s holding the LED’s back, as traditionally the drivers take anywhere between 6-24V.

Gave up in the end as my searches revealed I knew very little about what I was actually looking for!

I still use a cutter kit 3 LED into a lumicycle halogen pot as a helmet light. fairly spot beam but I reckon about 1000-1200 lumen. Seemed bright back then, not as bright as my 50mm 30W HID, but even that I think may seem a little average compared to modern LED’s.

I used to and don’t bother now. I was just marvelling last night, when riding down an unlit lane, that my £3 usb rechargeable light I use on the pub bike is way better than the first halogen light I made about 25 years ago. The various XM-Ls have pretty much rendered DIY obsolete unless you have a very niche requirement.

I still tinker a bit as I’ve got access to CNC machines to make the cases and have all my soldering kit from when I used to make/sell them.
My latest one has 2 x Cree XHP70 LED’s, Fraen optics, a taskLED H6Flex driver and puts out nearly 8000 lumens.



Have been looking into making something new but this is the best light I’ve ever made and I think it’s hard to beat.

8000 lumens!

crikey.

do you get much light reflected back? torchy reported that the really bright cateye i think it was, bounced back so much light that it ruined the light.

I wish I knew something about this sort of stuff – if only to make fresh battery packs for the Chinese lights I’ve bought where the batteries have died and then I’m just left with a head unit!

Martin, best thing to do is buy a new battery pack from mtbbatteries.

Far better and last a lot longer than the Chinese jobs.

I build my own battery packs, (I have access to a stash of laptop batteries) which I use with my chinese lights. Have been contemplating switching out the optics, I want a spot for the helmet and flood for the bars.
Anyone know of a good source for optics?

Just been thinking about this kind of thing, actually.

My 2008 Spokeshirts light has gone a bit intermittent & I think we’ve narrowed it down to the wiring going into the unit.
I partially stripped it down last night & it could really do with a re-wire.

I really should learn how to solder & buy a decent soldering iron & multi-meter. I bought a soldering iron a few years back, but my Wife reckons it’s crap (she’s an electronics engineer & ace solderer, so I bow to her wisdom on these matters).

Some of mine here
My latest one is here

I know I can just buy fresh battery packs, but knowing how to do them myself would be a good skill to have, and surely the cheapo batteries the Chinese use will be the limiting factor – also, stops me just buying more stuff! Recycling and all that….

coming back to this, I’m thinking maybe buying this:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cree-6V-XHP70-2-LED-Bulb-Lamp-16mm-20mm-PCB-Size-With-1-Mode-or-5-Mode-Driver/123033440161?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=423466898648&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

XHP70 plus 3(5) mode buck and putting it in an old magicshine MJ808 a like case. would probably only run for about an hour on max with my current (no pun intended) battery. but if it works I coud get something a bit better.

however, driving the 6V version at 4000mA may generate a bit of heat?