DIy 700 lumen batteries inside light

Quirrel – the jack polarity depends what you are connecting it to. Most DC power jacks are centre-positive so on the cable supplied the wire with a white stripe is the centre pin. Lumicycle for some reason went centre-negative so using a lumi battery pack the white strip wire would be negative. As the driver breaks when power is applied the wrong way it is safest to check with a meter before wiring up anyway.

As for cooling, really you need to get the heat to the box. If your heatsink is thick section and would give good contact with the case then no reason not to use it but the aim is heat transfer from the LEDs to the case, not dissipating said heat directly.

Your Netto battery wouldn’t be that bad – 18W roughly so about 2.5 hours on full. Mind you, if it’s a NiMH then I’d guess the weight would be a bit of a down-side.

No problem Quirrel ….. my twin lights have still only been around the back garden on a test rig …. still trying to decide on light levels and the new switches threw me back a bit. I set myself a harder task than I could have done, by trying to mimic the functions of the old twin halogen set up. So you’re not the only slow coach! I’m due to do a 28 miler tomorrow, the 14 mile return in darkness …. 6 in total darkeness on a no light cycle track, so I’m going to take the test rig out for a proper test. I’ll take back-up!

You’re still heading in the right direction so that’s a good sign. Use copper slip or heat sink paste and screws for the 2 LED stars. I only used AAA to stick the driver to the little ali plate and the little ali plate to the big ali plate on the back panel …. see one of my diagrams further back for that.

Are you now short of a switch and cover, or did you replace them?

trout – Member

keV
XML looks good. BUT
there are no tried and tested optics optics yet. and not a lot of the LEDs around yet

I am usually quick to get the new LEDs. but am hanging fire this time and watch what happens on the optic front

it will most likely be a flood monster as it is a bigger die than the xpg. so small optic/reflectors will not be too good

drivers exist. that will power it. same as the mce. p 7 s

Thanks for the feedback trout, bit of a shame as from looking at the figures I think 2 XM-L’s with a 6×18650 battery pack would be ideal for me.

I guess for the mean time I’ll need to look to build something around the XPG. I bumped into someone who had a MK 2 Liberator the other night, amazing light I was really impressed with how it lit up the ground around the front wheel as well. If only I could afford the full price for one.

Is there an optic for the XP-G which would fit inside one of these cases which would give a similar spill (not as bright of course) and also light up around the front wheel?

Thanks
Kev

Are you now short of a switch and cover, or did you replace them?

Got them from Maplin a few weeks ago.

Bought a second drill and dismantled the battery pack. It’s a bit bigger than I thought, I may use it or I may just save it for DIY use.

Didn’t do the 28 miler … well miffed 😕 …. but did a quick 10 miles around a local circuit.

On well lit roads, the dip on low (about 25%) was pretty good. A nice bright central spot 20ft in front of the bike with plenty of spill to fill in closer to the wheel and to the side. I had no one flash me … but think even on low, the spill at the top will get me noticed … it seemed a bit bright …. time will tell if it annoys motorists.

Off the main roads on an unlit cycle path in a country park, the dip on 100% was really nice. The paths were a little frosty in parts, the beam showed exactly where! The spill is good enough on the turns to show you where you are heading.

The high beam was just crazy bright (for me anyway …. I’ll get used to it!) The full 100% high beam looks in real life pretty much like Troutie’s and other’s beam shots photos, lots of throw and useful spill …. maybe the photos are a little exaggerated compared to my eyes impression …. but only a little. I had it aimed so that the hot spot of the high beam did not quite overlap the hot spot of the dip beam.

To me it was just no comparison with the old 10W overdriven halogen …. well over twice as bright as a totally unscientific impression, and a far more useable beam.

On an unlit country road, the main beam on 100% lit up the cat’s eyes for a full 400 – 500 yards on an unlit straight road, and I was beginning to wonder if it was as good as my car’s main beam (probably not …. just wishful thinking!) but dipping down to the dip beam on 25% for on-coming cars was no problem to continue at the same pace. I’m sure the on coming cars noticed the difference when I dipped, just like they would see a car doing the same. I had no one shout abuse or frantically flash their high beams at me …. so …. looking good! 😀

I’d be keen to experiment with oval or rectangular beams for the dip, to maybe control the upward spill, but will wait until I’ve asked a few victims (I mean fellow cyclists 😯 ) to stand in front of me on a sidewalk on a busy road, to compare my on-coming beam and car’s dip lights.

No sign of any heat problems on 100% power …. but then it was a bit frosty, so not a conclusive test!

Fitted mine together last night, still haven’t wired in the switch though, but got the led’s etc in place permanently with some good old fashioned bodging. Holes were drilled a little off on the lenses but looks ok.

Just need to find some time to finish off the wiring up of the back panel now.

Got mine finished and fitted

I mounted the handlebar clamp slightly off centre so the light sits pretty much in line with the stem. It should make the commutes on unlit lanes a lot more pleasurable.

Did some comparisons with my old light last night and was mightily impressed with how much brighter this one is.

Interested in giving one of these lights a go having seen all the builds on this thread so BCT and Troutie do you still have kits available?

I will also contact you direct through emails in profile but thought would post here also incase you see this first.

Many thanks

Hi there, I’m also interested in building two.

If there’s no bits left, where would I get them from?

I noticed that Troutie might not have any 20mm star XPG’s left after reading about his “1800 lumen Regina batteries inc” on MTBR.

Thanks in advance for any help, and apologies for not ordering sooner.

I have plenty of XPGs on 20 mm stars now but only a few Reflectors with 100 on order so hopefull they will be in soon .

Thanks to Trout and BCT who sorted me out with the various parts this morning, really looking forward to getting on of these built and in use.

I can see this light building being a bit addictive, I started via the P7 torch route last winter but now want more light.

Be good to see a few more completed builds as everyone seems to have there own take on what they want.

You wont be dissapointed MK. I finished my lamp late last week and have been using it morning and evening to and from work (I’m blessed with an 8 mile commute, 7 miles of that is offroad 😀 ).

I’ll post up some pics of my completed unit later this evening (provided I remember). I’ve just ordered another driver board from BCT (eBay), so I can start building another one for my helmet.

I fitted two switches to mine, one for power on/off and the other for lo/med/hi. The med position isn’t neccessary so I’m going to change the 2nd switch to a two position unit and have hi/lo. I’ll do the same with the helmet lamp, i prefer having two switches as there is no chance of me knocking the lamp off completely whilst fumbling around in my motorcycle gloves in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard 😀 .

The little rubber grommet that Mr T supplies is a perfect fit for a magicshine extension cable, I left about 6″ of cable out of the back of the lamp and attached the remainder to the battery pack, very nice sealed connector.

Just waiting on some batteries from dx to get mine finished off.

It is addictive – I’m already thinking if I can replace the P4 in my joystick maxx with an XPG – the battery is dying and rather than pay Exposure the £70 for the pleasure of a new 18650 in it I’m tempted to take it apart and do that myself anyway. Also I’d like to make a joystick style single LED + battery for the helmet…

I remembered..

That’s the river weaver, frozen solid and covered in snow, decided against seeing if it will take my weight 😯

🙁

My pics no worky…

Fixed, but not in the 15 minute window, I’m a dimwit… 🙄

That’s the river weaver, frozen solid and covered in snow, decided against seeing if it will take my weight 😯

built myself a triple..

and using a 14.4v battery i built from 12 AA batteries.. gives about 15 volts when fully charged.. did a run test and it ran perfectly for about an hour and 20 minutes..

then dimmed significantly… and the dim mode switch didnt make any difference to the light output.. checked the battery and it was giving about 13.2 volts… im guessing this is too low for three LED’s ?

it kept running for another hour or so though..

would i be better off running with 2 LED’s with this battery?

or would the nimh batteries smudge supplies keep their voltages high enough to give decent run times with three LED’s?

hmmmm.. now the dim mode isn’t working at all… even with a fully charged battery..

worked the first time i turned it on after the recharge but now it just stays on full power.. in either switch poition

🙁 the wiring looks fine and ive even tried it with the other resistor with no joy..

has the driver board died? :/

Those of you using AA cells in cases – where did you get decent PP3 connectors/leads from? The ones in Maplin aren’t up to it.
I’ve got a couple of Smudge packs but it would be nice to have the ability to make up a spare pack with Nimh AAs if I need to

3 XPgs will be 10.5 volts VF so even down to 13 volts it should be fine

at least it is working on full so your not left in the dark .

I finished mine last week and wired the battery pack up to my 18v drill pack, which is quite large, but fits perfectly in an underseat bag.

Not convinced it’s water proof yet.

My reflectors are a bit off centre of the holes, the case is covered in silicon from my fingers, BUT I made it and it’s mine.

When I have some more funds spare I might make another.

Hi Troutie

Just sent you an email re 2 x XP-Gs if you have any left.

Cheers Ben

BlackCat, Parts received yesterday, thank you.

A couple of points are making me scratch my head though. Looks and sounds straight forward until it’s all laid out in front of you! The wiring diagrams and photos of the drivers posted on this thread previously are for a different driver, so:

As mentioned in the supplied instructions, the driver differs from those sent out previously.
The switch diagram shows a resistor across its two outer terminals. Could you please clarify, this resistor is now incorporated in the board on the BCL01 driver and doesn’t need to be sourced and attached?

If the above is true, then the driver ‘C’ terminal is connected to the switch centre common terminal.
The other two switch terminals connect to the driver 1 and 2 terminals respectively?
Either terminal 1 or 2 are then connected to the battery negative terminal on the driver?
This then gives full/off/reduced.

Tried attaching a circuit diagram to illustrate this, but it wouldn’t paste.
Cheers

Philbr
Your stuff will be posted today or tomorrow I have been a bit slack this week due to work overload .

Ben I have replied so hoping it has made it through the snow .

No worries trout, no rush. Got to wait for hammoond box from maplin to arrive too, out of stock locally for a while now.

I can send you a box as have a few left if you want .

A couple of quid dearer than Maplins though £8 and only silver left .

Hi trout, what is the best way to contact you?

Sent an email using you email in your profile at the beginning of the week about parts for a Lumicycle conversion but have not got a reply. Did you recieve the email? It was sent from my hotmail account which sometimes causes problems.

cheers

russell

Russell

Yep I replied on the 30th .must have got stuck in a snow drift .

Here is the gist of it

plenty of XPE modules in stock in a 90% state of completion
25 XPGs triple led boards have left Australia this morning so should be here soon
plenty of the heatsinks .

stock of the single XPGs for the hammond is 50 plus .with holes drilled 😆
but only 4 reflectors left until 97 arrive mid next week
and 6 silver Hammond boxes in stock .
inside my garage it is measuring minus 12 today Brrr

Thanks trout, but I have them on order to be delivered when they are back in stock, which should only be a few days now.

managed to trace my problem to a faulty cell in my battery.. it gave 15 volts with no load but with any sort of load it reduced to around 8…! took it apart and found the offending cell looking a bit sorry for itself with a little scorch mark..

i think i shorted the battery during the original testing phase and popped it!

working fine now.. 😛

or at least it was till i tried to rewire everything more neatly and managed to knock one of the solder pads off the driver.. 🙄 hey ho.. new driver it is then!

this post makes me sound like a real disaster area! 8)

Those of you using AA cells in cases – where did you get decent PP3 connectors/leads from? The ones in Maplin aren’t up to it.
I’ve got a couple of Smudge packs but it would be nice to have the ability to make up a spare pack with Nimh AAs if I need to

I use my favourite PP3 clip ….. good strong grip on the AA holders …. quite tolerant of heat from soldering …… can take hefty wires.

Where do I get them from? ……. the top off those gold and black PP3 9V batteries once they are dead and destined for the recycle bin. I’ve tried other makes … they’re OK but the black and gold ones are the best I’ve found so far! They have a form similar to a shallow potting box …… like this. (These are old ones lying around … need a clean up ……. no PP3 ever goes in the bin whole 😀 )

I make sure they really are dead and carefully open the black and gold metal case, snip the plus and minus flat tabs at a convenient point, keep the top, throw the rest away.

I trim back the flat tabs to a length that is long enough to solder to, but too short to cause a short-circuit. Solder whatever gauge wire you want, using a heat sink on the clip to minimise heat distortion of the plastic. Cut a notch in the plastic to allow the wire to come out flat outside the clip, and pot with araldite rapid or similar ……. very sturdy decent wire gauged clip.

Hi Mr T, payment sent for a set of XPGs, optics, aluminium angle and cable grommet. I even remembered to include my STW name this time 😀 .

Been having a blast this evening on my way home from work. Couple of inches on the ground, snowing like crazy, pitch black, great fun. It’s taking me longer and longer to get home, I keep exploring more and more. Helmet lamp definitely required.

Spacehopper post up a pic of the damaged driver, you might be lucky and be able to attach the wire elsewhere on the board.

Yep got your mail Ta .
will be posted tomorrow snow permitting .

Has anyone done a batteries inside as per the original post then ?

i’d like to do ‘batteries inside’, but i want to use 4 18650’s.

still need to get a hammond case, the local maplins was out of stock.

Hi there, I’d like to build a couple of these lights with my son. I’ve read through the thread as best I can, and I think I’ve got my shopping list down to the following:-
Toutie
4 regina reflectors
4 XPG R5 20mm Star LEDS
2 ally angles
2 ally slugs for driver to endplate
2 welding glass lenses

BlackCat
2 1A drivers
2 switches, boots and resistors

Is that about right? Would I be able to get the Bastid connectors from Deal Extreme or Geoman?

Great thread, I’ve really enjoyed following it, or trying to.

Sorry chaps, let my attention wander a bit there and haven’t checked the forum for a few days…

The new driver does have the resistor shown on the diagram built in. The 1,C,2 terminals now replace the ‘A’ terminal. New C = Old A and it goes to the common terminal on the switch. 1 and 2 go to NO and NC on the switch. 1>C turns the driver off, 2>C enables low power mode, about 40% on the new drivers as many people were commenting that 50% was too high.

spacehopper – what sort of soldering iron are you using?!? PTH pads are pretty hard to destroy.. As has been posted earlier, put a picture up and it may be possible to suggest an alternative soldering point. Which pad did you damage by the way?

If anyone is still after a kit the single-pole switches turned up last week to I can go back to supplying them, only got 14 left though and apparently they only got a few in so they are now on back order until something daft like the middle of next year.

I’ve also changed the power socket I buy. The new one has a plastic body which will eliminate any problems with the back plate being live. It’s slightly bigger though, I think about 1mm greater OD.

Kit sales have nearly stalled so I’m considering listing the kit on eBay as well. Still available direct to you lot at the bargain price of £8 per kit plus £1 P&P. Also got the 18650 holders still, again I’ll be putting them on eBay soon as I need to recover the purchase cost so if anyone wants to secure them let me know before I open the market up.

Regarding clips, this is a big hassle with AA holders. The pre-wired ones use fairly thin wire, those with solder tabs generally end up as a mass of melted plastic and PP3 clips fall off… Rapid do sell this:
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electrical-Power/Batteries/Contacts-Clips/PP3-Battery-clip-ndash-no-leads/82072
but there is no obvious solder point, you seem to have to solder to the tabs themselves.
They’d be a hassle to wire up but the best solution would be these clips:
http://www.rapidonline.com/Electrical-Power/Batteries/Contacts-Clips/Snap-In-battery-clips-Keystone/62287

Greasy Rider
Looks about right though I also chuck in a cable gromet and half a bar mount per light .

Drop me a mail if its all systems go

greasyrider – and you’ll need a couple of Hammond cases to put it all in! 😆 What you thinking of powering them with?

BCT – I take it you can still use the “C” terminal with an external resistor to PWR- to choose any other level? Is the range of available input voltages the same ….. or did you manage to lower the minimum? What did the new board size end up as?

BCT is right in saying the pre-wired PP3 clips are not up to this job …. but honestly, if you can make one of these lights you can easily make a darn fine clip yourself as I described in an earlier post, for next to nothing. I used this type of DIY clip for my earlier halogen lights (as the back-up battery) and have had no problems with it on these new lights.

Yup, the C terminal is as good as the same as the old A terminal. You could also add an extra resistor from the 2 terminal to add to the 110k fitted as standard if you wanted to increase the dim setting current.

The 1A version is still 7V minimum as even with the bigger PCB the cheaper chip wasn’t good enough. At least the chip will run cooler now! The lower current ones are 8V minimum but I could build them with the original chip if necessary.

830/980mA ones are 24 x 19.7, 670 and lower are 20.5 x 19.5.

Oh, and as a cheeky way to grab 1000 I’ll just remind people that if anyone has sent payment and not received anything to let me know as occasional emails still appear to be going adrift.