DIy 700 lumen batteries inside light

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 .

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 FIRST and SECOND. 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 BATTERIES 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.

Jazid:

HAMMOND BOX

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!

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Orangebike.jpg

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 THIS

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.

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….