My Homemade Bikelights - Like Daylight on bars!!

swallow

Ive recently finished a diy MTB light project and thought I would share the experience with others - total cost was about £120 for the pair. Light output is over 1000 lumens and burn time is at least 4 hours. Beats anything you can buy in the shops!
For more details, see my post on candlepowerforums - http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/sho ... p?t=166203
photos below, the night shots do not do them any justice, my camera doesnt like taking pics of light in the dark!




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xc-andy

what the hell are you waiting for ? get em patented and developed ... those look ace !!!

GT-Dave

Very nice Tom, I saw those on the cpf forums the other week.

Yellow Cliff

Seriously nice lights

I am really impressed with the wiring - where did you get this from? My wiring is always a bit easily damaged, but this looks much better.

Did you order everying in from the US? Getting the parts seems a big issue here...

Sheppy

Those are really cool lights indeed! I want some!
As Yellow Cliff asked could you let us know where you bought the components from?
I found Buckpucks at:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/buckpuck-030 ... -1374.html
Then the LEDs themselves from:
http://www.led-tech.de/en/High-Power-LE ... on,-Sel.-U)-LT-980_55_78.html
But thats coming out at just around 80 pounds already and it doesn't include the lenses, units to put them in batteries etc. So I wondered if you found a cheaper supplier?

swallow

Sheppy wrote:

Those are really cool lights indeed! I want some!
As Yellow Cliff asked could you let us know where you bought the components from?
I found Buckpucks at:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/buckpuck-030 ... -1374.html
Then the LEDs themselves from:
http://www.led-tech.de/en/High-Power-LE ... on,-Sel.-U)-LT-980_55_78.html
But thats coming out at just around 80 pounds already and it doesn't include the lenses, units to put them in batteries etc. So I wondered if you found a cheaper supplier?

Yep, most of it came from the states which cost less even with shipping and in some cases import taxes - shouldnt be like that really, but suppliers in the UK are too greedy!
Cables/wires came from batteryspace.com with the battery packs.

swallow

swallow wrote:

Sheppy wrote:

Those are really cool lights indeed! I want some!
As Yellow Cliff asked could you let us know where you bought the components from?
I found Buckpucks at:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/buckpuck-030 ... -1374.html
Then the LEDs themselves from:
http://www.led-tech.de/en/High-Power-LE ... on,-Sel.-U)-LT-980_55_78.html
But thats coming out at just around 80 pounds already and it doesn't include the lenses, units to put them in batteries etc. So I wondered if you found a cheaper supplier?

Best place for leds - dealextreme.com they also sell drivers, but not too sure how good they are.
Batteries from Batteryspace - helps if you can order with some mates to lessen the delivery charge/pain
Drivers - ledsupply.com seems the cheapest at the moment, although dealextreme could be alot cheaper
Torches - Ebay!!
Reflectors - photonfanatic (not shown on his website but he has them - MR20s)
Mounts - butchered trans-x handlebar riser from ebay plus a pair of quick releases (£7 total)
Heatsink - perfect tri star seoul from Sandwichshoppe.com
think thats bout it

formerlyknownasbonj

wow that's amazing
What did you use for the casing and the mounts?!
I bought some components with a similar aim (luxeon k2s, buckpuck, heatsink and lenses) last year but never got round to building the lights as I couldn't figure out how to do the casing and the mounts.
I was planning on having lots of AA batteries in a rucksack-mounted pack connected with a wire, but would be interested to see how you've done it....

formerlyknownasbonj

Sheppy wrote:

Those are really cool lights indeed! I want some!
As Yellow Cliff asked could you let us know where you bought the components from?
I found Buckpucks at:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/buckpuck-030 ... -1374.html
Then the LEDs themselves from:
http://www.led-tech.de/en/High-Power-LE ... on,-Sel.-U)-LT-980_55_78.html
But thats coming out at just around 80 pounds already and it doesn't include the lenses, units to put them in batteries etc. So I wondered if you found a cheaper supplier?

i got LEDs from ledtech.de.
also see http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/home/homepage.jsp

clarkson

they look very nice, but a bit heavy i can imagine?!

Yellow Cliff

Looks like it will have to be ordering the driver from the US then - a real pain as last time I did this the import duty and admin charge were really steep.

I like the look of the nflex driver at present - given that it comes with modes very suited to bike lights (even a strobe!), although it is pricy. For me multiple power levels are a must.

Thanks for the extra info!

dvatc_mark

They look really well contructed, how do you find the depth of the light beams. I built a similar config last year using 3w luxeons, but I found the light beams didn't penetrate as far into the night as halogens did. They are great for enduro riding, but for hammering it down signle tracks I find the LEDs just can't cut it.

Also out of interest what voltage and capacity battery are you using?