DIY Bikelights

Not sure who took up Goldiggers offer to build some of his lights for your winter riding, Well I did and I took delivery of a Tripple cute XML – 2925 lumens U2 bin and a custom Mini cute..XPG R5 1370 lumens run at full lumens so has a very slightly longer body at just under 5cm long, I use this mini on my helmet with a custom made helmet mount made for £8 by Goldigger.

Well I can say that the performance is nothing short of fantastic producing near daylight conditions enabling me to scream downhill at just short of my daytime speeds!! The flood produced is huge, the build quality and look is stunning and Goldigger is a top bloke answering all my questions and I paid him via paypal gift so he could have kept the money and not delivered! The 2 lights with Li-ion batteries and and chargers from smudge (mtbbatteries) cost a total of £415 and I consider this very good value for the quality of the build and light produced. I would recommend anyone to email Goldigger if you are in the market for new lights as these are amazing and are of Troutie quality but much cheaper.

If you want new lights visit Goldigger!

ruscle nothing against Goldigger and his stuff. as he is doing a fine job
but your sweeping statement does hurt a little and on another thread too

is your fine light anodised and lazer etched and you dont state which capacity battery
and how do you know what price my triple will be as it is not yet decided.

Whilst the running gear for the triple is the same
you also have the lumens a bit out.
Mine has been measured at 2700 out the front lumens .
so i guess Jays light will be the same coming out the front,

Your lights are very nice trout and you seem to have a large faithful following, I’m just trying to give a little well deserved credit to Goldigger. If the lumens are out its still bloody bright as you know with your tripple which does look nice btw. The batteries were bought direct from smudge and lasted for a 3hr night ride handsomely but I don’t think they are the same capacity as the enduro, 14.8v and 7.4v 5200Mah if memory serves me. I also like that their is no name attached and I’m into silver components presently.

I like that their are people out their like yourself and Goldigger trying to compete with the big brands, and you have to start somewhere so any good word helps…

Hi can you give me a price for one of your tripple cute lights please with a battery & charger email in profile cheers.

cheers

nige.

The-milkybar-kid I know for a fact he is on holiday but should be back in a week. I will forward his email to you as I know he has responded to me while away.

Cool cheers ruscle

Anyone going to post a link to this quality light ?.

Just curious like.
😉

Link for the tripple cute XML:

http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/another-cute-tripple-xml-727664.html

Also a link for the mini cute I purchased:

http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/tripple-cuboid-has-had-baby-682068.html

Cheers Ruscle.

I’ll take a look.

OK, question then.

How big are the batteries required to get a 3 hour run time while pumping 3A to the LEDs ?.

That lupine bottle battery looks quite large and I’m now thinking what is the total system weight?.
You know, light unit, bar clamp, battery pack.

🙂

My DIY helmet light was fairly straight forward.

LED/driver and optics from lux-rc:
http://lux-rc.com/view.php?p=content/products/light_engines/3UP&_sx=0&_sy=100
http://lux-rc.com/view.php?p=content/products/secondary_optics/L333_20mm&_sx=0&_sy=100
I went with an XPE for a tighter beam.
I think they do silicon cables now as well.

Housing from Easy2led:
http://www.easy2led.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=181&zenid=d8a653bad00545f2616913c95e174364
I bought a mount from them too.

Switch and cable grommet from Farnell
IP67 momentary tactile switch and glue in grommet.

Magicshine extension from ebay chopped up for power lead.
Lipo battery and charger from a magic shine rear light.

An absolute doddle to build – about an hour. Drill two holes in rear cover for switch and gland. Glue them in place, Wire up the button and power cable to the light engine. ‘Pot’ the rear cover with silicone. Bit of thermal paste on the light engine and install screw in lens with a bit of silicon grease to keep water out. Same again with rear cover.

No pictures yet, but may try and get some of it before I go out tonight. Up against my P7 Bastid it completely outclasses it!

I know it’s not in the same league as some of the DIY here, but it suits people without access to mills and lathes, and let me reuse batteries and chargers I already had.

It’s that time of year again…wooohoooooooo 😛

ndg.

Would love to see your light once its finished.

😉

I got Li-ion batteries from smudge, did the usual of switching between settings as when needed to get 3+hrs of use, I did leave it in the full power setting for longish periods of time but when running both lights together it was only really required when hooning downhill and twisty single track. The battery I use on the bar light (tripple cute) was a 14.8v 5.2Ah Li-ion battery and for the mini cute it was 7.4v 5.2Ah Li-ion battery. I never once felt under powered with light. The tripple cute unit weighs around 210g and the mini cute is roughly 100g and battery weights are 480g and 240g add around 80-100g per lead. I used the battery bag for the bar mounted light strapped to the frame. I never noticed the weight of this setup and I do have a thing about trying to save weight on my bike, also didn’t notice the weight of the head unit at all. So although it is a fairly heavy setup its worth it for the light produced imo.

Ruscle.

Thanks for that. I’m now kinda interested to see what others are getting from a 14.8v, 5.2Ah battery, with the triple turned up to max.
Theres a fair few lights going around now using the triple XM-L at high currents.
Goldiggers and Trout’s being just two of them.

Infact, surely the bunch who are running Trout’s triple, must have an idea of runtime while set constantly to Max ?.
(assuming they are using a 5.2Ah battery)

Trout.
What battery did you release your loan cutie with ?.

Tried to email the OP but the mail keeps bouncing back to me, can you contact me with a price for a both types please? Battery and charger also required.

Thanks

ndg – nice one I didn’t realise you could buy the housings like that!

Do you have a rough total cost in £? I’m always hesitant to order stuff from the US having being shafted by tax before.

Luminous
the triple draws from a 14.8 v power supply. on full 3amps. 2.2 amps

so for it to last 3 hours it would need a 6.6 ah battery ( this does not take in the sag in the battery )

I think I have sent out the demo with a 4.4 ah pack
so 2 hours would be expected. approx

the demo is set up at the full whack as is the spidereyes demo

they can be programmed to any output.

Trout.

Yeah, thats along the lines I was thinking, and as others have posted, one may not need Max for 100 % of the ride.

Be interesting to see the finished cutie (or whatever you end up calling it) with its smoothed off housing.

Of course, I don’t need to remind you to post a thread of the finished cutie, when you have them.
😉

Enjoy your hols

Cheers.

😉

Any recommendations of where to get drivers from?

I burnt out my last ones from that diy build thread on here.

Preferably ones which aren’t current specific

Preferably ones which aren’t current specific

Not sure what you mean, but I have a few spare MaxFlex and I’m sure Trout will have stock too.

ones which don’t burn out if i wire them up wrong, like the last one.

How much are the drivers?

Thanks for the good words Ruscle..
Troutie is correct about my prices being cheaper as they are not anodised lazer ettetched with a logo or made in batches by CNC..
To be honest the time it takes me to make the lights is not worth me quitting my day job for the price they go for.
Its just early days and i want to get some of my lights out there and see where it takes me 🙂
Heres some pics of the latest tripple cute and mini cute

PS my email address is in my profile..

Luminous – Member
OK, question then.

How big are the batteries required to get a 3 hour run time while pumping 3A to the LEDs ?.

That lupine bottle battery looks quite large and I’m now thinking what is the total system weight?.
You know, light unit, bar clamp, battery pack.

I just use the bottle as i dont like a battery in a battery bag swinging about and rubbing away my lovely paint work..
Besides i use a 14.8v 5800mah lipo battery, so its an easy solution for storage for me..
As for runtimes i should get around 2.5hours on full out of the tripple cute (XML@3amps)
🙂

Besides i use a 14.8v 5800mah lipo battery, so its an easy solution for storage for me..
As for runtimes i should get around 2.5hours on full out of the tripple cute (XML@3amps)

Hhmmm. Interesting.

5.8Ah
supplying upwards of 2.5 Amps.
runs for 2.5 hours.

A Model 701:
5.2Ah
supplying 1 Amp.
runs for 2.5 hours.

That looks like upwards of 2 x the current draw from the battery for the triple, on only an additional 800mah.

Is your runtime an actual measurement, or an estimate.

Just asking like.
Cheers.

😀

Just an estimate with these figures

14.8v 5800mah
14.8×5.8=85.84watts

3 XML 3.3v @ 3AMPS
3×3.3=9.9v
9.9×3=29.7watts

85.84/29.7=2.89hrs
minus 10% for driver ineffeciancey roughly 2.5

Using trouties measured 2.2amps pull we can calculate like this
5.800Ah/2.2Ax60mins=158.18mins
Use the 80% disharge rule
158.18*0.8=126.54mins

So just over 2hours that way

When i’m back from holiday i’ll measure it with a lipo and again with some Lion cells (the li-on cells are just cheep surefire’s so that might not be a great test)

🙂

Goldigger please could you send me a price of a mini-cute battery and charger package please.Email in profile.cheers

Goldigger,

Do you sell the remote switches separately? if so how much do they cost?

Bigjim,

the two main components came from Russia, and neither attracted the attention of HMRC (i think the housing was below the £18 limit anyway).

Luminous, here’s a couple of photos:

Performance on Tuesday was brilliant (pun, much!), combined with the magicshine on the bars I was going down at least as fast as I would have in the day. The tighter beam from the XPE’s worked well for a helmet light, and the outdoor colour balance was much easier on the eyes. The only thing I want to modify is to add an on/off switch in the cable – the momentary only controls the mode.

N.

You’re all trying too hard, with your columater lenses and CNCd bodies 😉

Tonight’s bodge: a lamp for the pub bike, to run from a a smudgepack that I run a troutie from on the main bike

Take:
1x 1 1/2″ compression connector
1x MR16 lamp connector
1x 12v 35w Halogen bulb

some bodgin tools and hey presto:

thanks for using my comps, just a minor note about L333 light engine. In fact it can be switched ON/OFF just with a mom button, just keep to pressed for 2sec in any mode to switch off (standby). In standby mode it flashed each 5 sec with a small red led.

Also you can program low mode, just keep the button pressed for 4 sec and release when the desired level is reached.

Good luck with your night rides

-Serge

Thanks for the info, could do with an updated data sheet for these things really! I do like the blend from full to low, works very well, easy on the eyes, but not to slow (like the DX lamp)

N.

jere – Member
Goldigger,

Do you sell the remote switches separately? if so how much do they cost?

Hi Jere,
Please send me an email, email is in my profile.

Thanks

I agree with Stoner. I do like your slot design for the handlebars.. Nice!

My version is here.

http://www.mtbarena.com/2011/09/nights-drawing-build-recession-beating-mountain-bike-lights/

I’ve used this for loads of night riding and never failed. Also the light escapes through the plastic making a nice side on safety measure.

ha! nice one tractorman 🙂

@stoner. ha ha. I might paint them in John Deere colours 😉

Did you see my riser bar – bar end nightmare from 2003 🙂

Did you see my riser bar – bar end nightmare from 2003

nope. ❓

the horror 😉

I apologize to those who will be blinded….;-)

2003?

that was legal back then.

Few!, thats Ok then 🙂