Here is an idea for anyone out there who wants to tinker with a home brewed light .
not too sure as to cost but it will make a great light to rival the exposure stuff .
rounding up stuff in my garage and from early diy builds .
list of components needed.and approx price
2 XPG leds on 20 mm stars £10
2 Ledil Regina reflectors . £ 5
1 hammond aluminium box from halfords £8
1 driver from teapot on ebay aka black cat tech on here .£6
switch £2
connector .£2
7.4 volt Li Ion and charger .Dont know yet but about £50ish
small piece of clear plastic
small piece of aluminium for heat sink .
drill and files
hack saw .
bit of thermal paste .
Total probably under £100 for a killer no wires light .with a beam up there with the exposure stuff .
No I am not selling it as a kit but will be building one over the next week or so
Stuey
Not that i know about release date is late nov I believe I have no plans to aquire any yet will let others do the early work and see what general opinions are.
lots of lumens but also lots of amps and a huge chip so will need a large optic for a good beam .
My gut feeling is it is not going to be a good bike light more aimed at fixed lighting and leccy saving
Point a camera at it once in a while while your building it would you? It looks like a nice winter project for me but im not the sharpest tool in the box at this kind of thing.
Hmm… would be interested in trying this as a project as well. Could you take some photos while making it that will explain the more difficult things to a layman like myself?
Ta, plus also, where on earth would I buy half the stuff on that list. I can find halfords, but LEDs on stars?
How is this one mounted as well?
(ive got a feeling you’re going to wish you’d never started this 🙂 )
what’s the chances/opportunities of doing a bluetooth/Radio remote for lights?
with a helmet light it makes sense (to me) to have a bar mount remote to control it rather than fiddling around on top of my head/on battery pack to find switch and adjust output.
I guess it would reduce the weight of head unit for helmet mounting if the remote controlled switch was mounted on the battery as well?
Stuey
No way would it get swamped by a P 7 more like show it up as a fraudster.
it is running at 960 ma drive so on paper lumens of 700 but as the Regina reflector is real good
it punches above it weight .
probably the best 20 mm dia optic for the XPG I have seen for throw
It is possible but beyond my experience some of the electronic geeks are talking about it but
I am of the KISS principle for my lights
Can I order the stars and optics please andrewgillies
AT mac DOT com am going to give it a go. How long do the batteries last BTW? Also do you know where I can get hold of a switch on a fly lead as I am looking to use this as a helmet light and would like the switch on the end of a wire cheers.
I have a P7 Airbike light which has failed, the battery is fine so was thinking about fitting 3 XPG’s in the head unit, does anyone know if they would fit and if the driver would be sufficient (from memory I think its a 7.4V battery)?
Hi Trout. This looks quite interesting. I’ll await the report of the full build before adding to your order for LEDs (never tried anything like this before).
Was having a look on Maplin’s website for the box. I assume its this one(although there are multiple models). From the dimensions i’m guessing the completed light will be 54 x 23 x 120. Would this be correct?
stueyI think the hole it needs is too big I’ve been looking around the 10mm mark, plus not sure if the led would work in the switch as batteries are only 7.4 v