DIy 700 lumen batteries inside light

Thanks spacehopper. Its quite hard to tell if the oval optic is doing a good job. Do you think with one regina and one oval there would be too much of a loss of forward throw, and is there enough flood around the front wheel to justify it do you think?

Are you going to be running 2 drivers for the x3 and 2 seperate leds?

its doing an ok job as far as my eyes could tell.. just filled in a bit more detail on the edges of the beam and made it a bit less of a hard edge to the beam.. though the colour of the LED (warm white as opposed to cool) made the most difference.. making the light feel more natural.

If its only a double i wouldnt bother with an oval to be honest as youd lose a fair bit of the throw.. and one thing it doesnt do really is provide anymore illumination around the front wheel

The oval optic is a 5 degree vertical beam (same as the regina) and 21 degree wide.. id maybe try a wide or medium ledil optic.. or try a reflective hood over the LEDS to reflect light downwards.. (something i also plan to try..)

one thing that did dawn on me while looking at the pattern the light made on my desk was that having the 2 regina reflectors spaced at either end of the three LEDS and 20mm or so further apart than they would be in the smaller hammond case created a broader beam spread and thus slightly less of a narrow spot

and yes i plan to run it with 2 drivers.. 🙂 im going to get a couple of b2flex drivers from taskled.. one will go in this light, so i can up the power to 1.5amps..! 👿

and then use a b2flex on the triple and the 1 amp teapot driver for the 2 regina spots.. in the mark 3!

Jammy yes I have your mail Just resurfacing from the dreaded flu

Bloody post office I will send you some more and try and claim from the PO

Good to see there is a lot of activity on here still I have lost count of how many of these lights there must be now .

If you want a bit more spill from your light get some Ledil Laura optics need a bit of trimming slightly but throw nearly as well as the regina without that hard cutoff at the edges

cheers troutie. if you don’t have a proof of postage then get one with the parts you send out now and claim off that one instead, and you are more than welcome to exaggerate the cost of the parts as they deserve it with the complete hash they have made of the post this crimbo.

Finally got round to finishing this light build,thanks trout and bct for your help.
http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac306/bluepikerman/IMG_0119.jpg?t=1294876192

And it works off my drill battery.
http://i910.photobucket.com/albums/ac306/bluepikerman/IMG_0118.jpg?t=1294876192

Now this will be my last question,is this battery suitable and how long would it last.
Is there a better option available for the price.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Portable-12V-li-ion-Rechargeable-Battery-Pack-9800mAh-/120472040107?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item1c0cb172ab

nice build piker 🙂

cant get on ebay at work.. but looking at the link if the battery is an actual 9800mah it should run for at least 9 hours on high with your light.. it might be a bit bulky though..!

Ive built my own battery out of Nimh rechargeables but everyone recommends smudge… 🙂

Smudge – Mtbbatteries.co.uk[/url]

OK so the battery linked to is a bit overkill,just trying to get set up as cheap as i can.Only need battery to last for about 3hrs max.Just cant afford to spend £60+ for a battery and charger.
Is this a better option,how long would it last.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Powerful-12V-li-ion-Rechargeable-Battery-Pack-4800-mAh-/170547980937?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item27b573aa89

battery holders and a few 18650’s off ebay will set you back less than £20. You just need to figure out someway of waterproofing them. Im planning on putting mine in a water bottle with the cable coming out of the mouthpiece…

OK so the battery linked to is a bit overkill,just trying to get set up as cheap as i can.Only need battery to last for about 3hrs max.Just cant afford to spend £60+ for a battery and charger.
Is this a better option,how long would it last.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Powerful-12V-li-ion-Rechargeable-Battery-Pack-4800-mAh-/170547980937?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item27b573aa89

I have one of those. I’ve only used it a couple of times for under an hour a time so don’t know if they have the capacity they claim, but seems OK so far. Very cheap. Not sure what your build draws but if the 9600 would be good for 9 hours, that would do 4.5. They don’t deliver 12v for the bulk of their discharge curve by-the-way, but 11.1v (no idea if that makes any odds to your setup).

Sorry for the late reply on this. I’ve got the 4800mAh version of that battery, works well for what I do with it. I had two of the 1.8Ah versions which I’ve been using for a couple of years. The charger on those went (exploded actually…) so I got the higher capacity version.

I’d be surprised if the run-time is as quoted, I only seemed to get maybe 3-4 hours of light from 2x 300mA LEDs which is less than expected. I’ve not yet used the light enough to run the 4800mAh battery down.

One possible problem, I found I couldn’t use the 1800mAh ones to test the 970mA drivers even with a single LED as the power drain was too much for the battery – kept triggering the short circuit protection. Not tried to see how much the higher capacity one can give out.

So i would be ok with the 4800mah set up,i will only need 2.5 – 3 hrs use.

You’re on a budget …. yeah?

Got 8 NiMH AA’s laying around? Already got AA charger? That would be cheap ….. get an 8 AA holder and with 2500 NiMh’s you’ve got 3+ hours on full 970mA. 8 x Eneloops give about 2.6 hours. 8 good top rank AA’s maybe 3.5 hours.

Buying from new … I can highly recommend ….

8AA Holder – Maplin – £1.29
8 x Eneloop AA 2000mAH – 7Dayshop – £12.98 inc p+p and free cases
or
8 x Goodtogo 2100mAH LSD – 7Dayshop – £8.78 inc p+p and free cases
or
8 x Vapextech 2900mAH standard NiMH – Vapextech.co.uk – £11.45 inc p+p and free case

Just a very good working alternative to the 18650 route!

4x these:http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-UltraFire-3000mAh-18650-Protected-Li-ion-Battery-/110576073884?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item19bed8fc9c#ht_1315wt_907
(they accepted an offer of £12 for 4 batteries when i bought them)

A 4x 18650 holder from BCT (if he has some left still) for a couple of quid.

Chop the holder in half, add a few bits of wiring etc to run the batteries in series. Stick the resulting product in a water bottle with the cable of your choice coming out of the mouthpiece through a drilled hole. (Tesco value water bottle for £1.25 worked perfectly for me). Pad out the space with bubblewrap to stop the batteries shaking about inside.

bobs your uncle 😉
EDIT: you’ll want a charger as well

Thanks for all your help,gone down the route suggested by bobblehat and gone for a 8x AA battery holder and duracell 2450mAh rechargeable AA batteries.
Gone for a long AA holder thats 4x sticks of 2 batteries,should fit in a wide neck bottle.

Trout kit £20
BCT kit £9
maplin box£9
Battery holder and pp3 clip £3.79
8x AA duracell 2450mAh batteries £8.75
Total £50.54

A bit more if battery charger needed but i already have that.
How addictive is this,next winter this lamp will be on my helmet and something more powerful on my bars,not that i need more power but like i say it is addictive.

Nice one piker! Should be good for 3 hours on full.

If you find the pp3 clip or its thin wires prove to be a little lightweight, have a look on page 25 for a DIY version that really is robust.

Couple of old innertube “elastic bands” around the batteries in the holder and it’ll be shake and bump proof.

Quick report for anyone experimenting with dynamo version of the Troutie/CK/Hammond light.

I increased the smoothing cap from 2200uF to 4700uF and can definitely see improved low speed lack of flicker. At first it looked like there was no difference, but that was just the initial charge up of the cap,(first couple of turns of the wheel). Once you are on the move, you can drop back down to a lower speed before you see the flicker with the 4700 than the 2200 (e.g creeping up to traffic lights when you suspect they are about to change from red to green!)

Also, to get a good compromise of where I place the main beam hot spot (20-30ft out) and the anti-dazzle effect of the little hoods I made (bottom page 29) I had to alter the angle of the hood from perpendicular to the front of the light to a slightly acute angle.

Fine tuning, but worth it.

i’m a bit behind lol. just ordered a hammond case from maplins, i was thinking of machining a case, but decided to keep it simple for the first one. might machine my own next time and have a bar/helmet combo

troutie- any chance of an update re. my missing parts? sorry to pester you, buts its been nearly two months now.

Bits arrived this morning. thanks troutie. time to crack out the soldering iron 🙂

That reminds me, BCT or anyone else, are there any of the 4 way 18650 holders left at all or where can I get one from please ?

Thanks

try looking at black cat tech’s ebay page or getting in touch with him from here. I stuck two of the 2 holders together for a nice block.

Sorry Jammy I have been a bit slack . was hoping the first lot would arrive Bastard Post office .

where does all this lost mail end up

Finally got round to putting my mk2 together with 1 regina and 1 3up using the same case. Took it out tonight for a test and love it, compliments the standard one perfectly. Temps seem fine at 1.5 amps whilst moving although it was a bit nippy tonight. I’ll try to take some beam shots over the weekend.

On to my next prob now, the second mk2 I built isn’t turning on ha, multi meter at the ready.

Ok tried to get some pics tonight not quite sure if I had to right camera settings as they seem much darker then they were in person.

Anyway this is the standard Hammond by itself 2xregina @ 1amp:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/mCGAq1iF6R6bHWXcN5edAij9yM0O5P77fEpJHLihDbI?feat=directlink

This is the 1xRegina & 3Up @ 1.5amps:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/EMplO2FwDuCuI8ti-OTkFij9yM0O5P77fEpJHLihDbI?feat=directlink

And this is both lights together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/7S24uZhxCNLVy8qTcg2itCj9yM0O5P77fEpJHLihDbI?feat=directlink

ok… finished my build (first attempt) and i dont seem to have much of a different (if any) between high and low beam.

im putting this down to low power. its still pretty bright though.

so my next Q. im currently running an 8 pack of AA (only Duracell ultras at the mo as i wanted ot test the circuitry)

above its mentioned that the 2700Mah AA (8x) will be ideal…

can someone advise if this is the case? and if the high/low issue i have currently is indeed a low power thing?

low power doesnt seem to do much on mine either but there is a differance on the trails with throw etc. but its not massive

most of hte time mine is on half power as i forget to turn it up.

I noticed with my driver that when the voltage dropped to just above the level the LEDS where drawing (about 10 volts) that the high / low power stopped working.. so yes it is possibly a power issue!

I first noticed this when i managed to kill a cell in my 14.8 volt nimh battery which resulted in some odd behaviour and much lower than usual voltages…!

i dont think the difference between power levels is that different (to my eyes anyway..) even when using a 110k resistor..!

with a double LED the voltage level should be about 6.6 + a bit for the driver so around 7.5 / 8

an 8 Pack of AA’s should give around 9.6 volts so there is plenty of headroom there..

managed to get my MK3 finished over the weekend and took it out for a ride on monday to test along with the MK2.1…

3000 lumens is *quite a lot of light* 😀

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the 20mm Carclo triple optics lack the outright punchy throw of even a single XPG + Regina but the flood and general mid to long throw are amazing!

and to anyone wanting a bit more flood to a double / triple Regina setup the Ledil Laura Medium optics are pretty good (with a regina as a spot..) dont bother with the wide though… they’re RUBBISH!

the Laura optics are a little shorter than the Reginas though… so to get the full benefits of the flood on either side youll need to put some sort of spacer (i used a square piece piece of aluminium the same sizeish as the LED that i arctic silver epoxied to the heatsink) underneath the LED.. 🙂

Spacehopper – That twin triple looks pretty impressive, can you give any more details on it?

joec1 …. if your 8 Duracells are fresh primaries than they’ll give at least 12V and should be able to supply the approx 600mA draw to deliver 970mA to the LEDs with no problem. A simple multimeter should tell you if something is not right …. first measure your on-load voltage (should be not too much under 12V if the batteries are good’uns) and then set the multimeter for current and see if you’re drawing around 600mA on full power. If all seems OK then I would suspect your switch/resistor wiring. What value resistance are you using for your “low” setting? Try leaving the resistance and dim switch out the circuit …. does the light get brighter?

I have two lights, one set up for 25%/50%/100% and one set up for 0%/33%/100%. It’s very easy to see the differences at each setting on each light.

You can use any NiMH’s (or even NiCd’s) that can deliver up to 800mA (virtually all!) …. they’ll settle down to about 1.2v each, or 9.6V for the pack after a few minutes use. NiMH rechargeables are lower voltage than the Duracell primaries, so the draw is a little higher …. about 750-800mA. The mAh rating of the cells (milli-Amp hour) will just determine how long they will last (run-time). Eneloops at 2000mAh last about 2.6 hours, Good-to-go’s (2100mAh) about 2.8 hours, 2700mAh cells about 3.6 hours and 2900mAh about 3.8 hours (all approx at full power).

If accidently let my 8 Eneloop pack discharge as low as 7V on load (not recommended for long life) and didn’t notice any strange effects regarding the dim settings not doing what they ought to!

I guess it’s possible that exhausted Duracells might give some funny effects when pushing the driver around its low voltage limit.

I’ve mentioned this before ……. if in doubt about your power pack ….. test the lights using a car battery … the 12 to 13.5 volts is fine for the driver (Teapot’s) and you know that whacking big battery will deliver the amps even when virtually clapped out! Again, a multimeter is good to measure what the draw from the battery is and can help diagnose problems. Just make sure you get the + to the + and – to the – right :-))

Twin Triple..

same small hammond box as people have been using for the twin Regina builds.. but with an old cut down and shaped VGA heatsink on top to help cooling.. it got REALLY hot after about 5 minutes when i was testing it inside

but it didnt feel hot at all when i had it on full for about 45 minutes on monday night when out on the bike..

copper/aluminium Heatsink For the LED’s

Lumicycle mount with an aluminium spacer added so it fits over the stem..

the LED’s are triple XPG boards from Cutter with a 20mm carclo frosted medium optic on one and a 20mm carclo narrow optic on the other

and it uses 2 970ma teapot drivers so i can run it with my 14.8volt batteries and turn each triple on/off/low/high

hope that helps! 🙂

So I’ve finally gotten around to making a start on my light, after being messed around when buying a battery pack/charger/charging bag from HK. It took nigh on fifty days of waiting and arguing before finally getting a refund from the seller and acknowledgement that Customs had sent the item back to him for some unknown reason.

Anyway, I have now purchased 4x18650s along with a SoShine SC-S1 Max charger from the UK but I’m at a loss as to where I could get a battery holder from. I’ve emailed BCT to see if he has any left but I’d greatly appreciate it if anyone either a) has one to sell or b) knows where I could get one from.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks Spacehopper, now it’s got me thinking… 🙂

had another ride last night with the MK3.. the flood is fantastic.. great for technical stuff.. but im not very impressed with the throw of the spot optic.. its not narrow enough and the light seems.. doesnt seem anything like 1000 lumens..

i think if you are using the smaller hammond case, a triple flood and a single XPG with regina reflector as a spot would work much better..

but I’m at a loss as to where I could get a battery holder from

http://www.luminousdiy.com – very fast service in my experience.

Thanks for the recommendation, I have looked at their site before but was trying to find somewhere to get them from in the UK.

Thanks for the recommendation, I have looked at their site before but was trying to find somewhere to get them from in the UK.

Let us know if you find anywhere. I’d be interested in a UK source if you can find one. I couldn’t!

Right, just when you all thought this thread was over I’ve finally soldered it all together (all work = no play time) 🙁

So, picture the scene. Gathered my family round the kitchen table to witness the illumination extravaganza …after months of unnecessary faffing and deliberation 😀 😀 ……………………………….

….nothing 😳 😥

I would have settled for at least a flicker, fizz, bang or ‘chip toasting’ but a resounding void of inactivity?

So;
1) Anyone have 3 spare LED’s, I’m using a Lumi Li-ion pack (centre –ve)
2) A replacement (new) driver.
3) Do the maplin switches (little red ones) have a min-voltage?

Pickies

PS: I am gonna do this…..before next winter
😆

bobblehat – Yes ok will check all of the readings tonight.

when you say the resistor value? what do you mean by the %ages? i have the two kits (BCW and Trouts) wires as per the diagram on p25.

cheers

Buy tickets here : http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/win-trout-lights-for-5-support-team-bulheart

if you win you can then scratch them up a bit so they look home made and pretend they are yours