Steve's Homemade Lights

[steve30]

It isn't finished yet, but I thought I would make a topic about my lights so far.

I found a lot of cheap commercially available lights are either too dim, or the batteries run out quickly, or the flimsy plastic clip breaks. Expensive commercially available lights are just, well, too expensive

I bought two bulbs to try out. Both are MR11 type, available from Maplin. I got 5 Watt and 15 Watt bulbs. The 5W bulb has an angle of 10 degrees. Probably OK to let someone coming in the opposite direction to see you, but it doesn't light up the road very well. The 15W bulb has an angle of 30 degrees and works nicely . It illuminates the road as well as all the reflective road signs.

MR11 Bulbs: http://www.maplin.co...?ModuleNo=25844

The bulb is held in this bulb holder: http://www.maplin.co...?ModuleNo=24252, which is attached to the handlebars with masking tape. This isn't permanent - I'm thinking about possibly using Velcro or something to attach it, but in the meantime, masking tape works.

It is then connected to a switch, and the cable runs along the top tube, and is terminated in a couple of crocodile clips - again, temporary. I will make a better method of connecting up the battery eventually, but the crocodile clips work.

The battery is a 12 Volt, 3.2 Amp-hour Yuasa valve regulated lead acid battery. I bought this from a company called MDS Battery who have a shop on ebay, in addition to a website. I think it was around £16. This is just small enough to fit in my small saddle bag. I need to buy a bigger saddle bag. I found the battery lasted about 2 hours with the 15W bulb, but that was when I bought it, and I don't think it was fully charged. This was a few months ago, and it was only now that I finally built a charger, based around an L200 voltage/current regulator IC. I built it according to this website: http://myra-simon.co...e/charger.html.

I think I have just managed to get the battery fully charged, so I will go out for a ride this morning. Rather than take my usual early morning journey to Sheffield, which is quite well lit, I think I will go to Doncaster, which will be pitch black. Should be a good test.

I am still yet to come up with a way of dimming the light. I don't want to keep changing the bulb, and 15W is not required all the time in well lit areas, so I still need to come up with a way of dimming it. I also need to build a rear light. Currently I have a commercial 5 LED one (which is quite bright), but it is powered by 2 AAA batteries and is held onto my rack with masking tape. I haven't yet decided if I will use LEDs or a bulb for the rear light.

Photographs to follow when I have taken some.

 

[amaferanga]

Why did you use a heavy lead acid battery instead of a much lighter and smaller lithium-ion that'd give longer runtime anyway?

FWIW I considered making my own light a while back, but soon realised that I could buy something that looked better, worked better, was more robust, was weatherproof and was almost as cheap. I bought a Magicshine

 

[markg0vbr]

Why did you use a heavy lead acid battery instead of a much lighter and smaller lithium-ion that'd give longer runtime anyway?

FWIW I considered making my own light a while back, but soon realised that I could buy something that looked better, worked better, was more robust, was weatherproof and was almost as cheap. I bought a Magicshine

similar set up.
led mr11 x2 the rear light is a 12v led strip 30cm long from e bay £1.99 I can run the lot on a 1.5 ah 12v battery for at least a weeks worth of riding.

 

[guitarpete247]

There are several ideas similar to yours on instructables.com. There are also some ideas for battery systems you could use. I'm keen to try one of the LED designs on there soon.

 

[tyred]

I'm thinking along similar lines. I will be using a larger 6v 12AH battery which is quite heavy but I don't mind the weight penalty as the bike I'm putting it on is no light weight in the first place. I will be using a 1970s SA headlight (I think these have excellent optics, and I have a few of them in my bits box so they don't cost. They are ugly though...). I've modified the bulb holder so it will take a standard dynamo type bulb (only I will use a 1.7A 10w halogen version) instead of the unique and now unavailable SA 1.5w bulb used with the SA dynohub. This has the further advantage of having a light with built in switch. It also has a nice bracket to mount to the brake caliper mounting bolt (I believe headlights are better lower down). I will put a standard dynamo tail light fitted with 0.3A  vacuum bulb which will be (in theory) 3 times brighter than a standard dynamo tail lamp. A total of 2 Amps so I should have a run time of around 6 hrs, more than sufficient for my needs.

I paid a fiver for the battery in a sale when a local electrical shop was closing down, I have the light units, I have lots of 0.3A bulbs as I ended up buying a box of them from ebay when I was restoring the Rudge, I have lots of wire the only other expenditure was the 10w bulb and a bulb holder from Mpalin. So for about a tenner, I should have a practical and pretty bright lamp setup with a long run time. The only possible issues I foresee is the small possibility of the headlight melting when using a much larger bulb than it was designed for but I doubt it. It'll be cheaper and brighter than replacing the old Union dynamo with knackered bearings which currently power the lights on this bike.

 

[andrew_s]

Filament bulbs aren't very good for dimming, in that although they get dimmer you don't save very much power. OK to avoid dazzling someone, but to get more runtime you want to turn extra bulbs off rather than run the bulbs dimmer.
With LEDs half brightness means half the power consumption (a bit less even, as they are more efficient under low power).

 

[tyred]

I don't want to dim them. The headlight will be mounted low down on the fork crown and won't be in the driver's normal line of sight anyway. I will also have it pointed low as I want to be able to see potholes etc as the roads are in an awful state around here.




I'm not a fan of LED lights. They are very bright but the light from any I have seen is of poor quality with a blue tint. Good for taillights admittedly, good for being seen but not a substitute for a nice white halogen headlight on an unlit road IME.

 

[amaferanga]

I'm not a fan of LED lights. They are very bright but the light from any I have seen is of poor quality with a blue tint. Good for taillights admittedly, good for being seen but not a substitute for a nice white halogen headlight on an unlit road IME.

Lights like the Magicshine can't be compared with cheap be-seen LED lights. Totally different. I don't even use mine on the high setting on the road because its just too bright.

 

[tyred]

Lights like the Magicshine can't be compared with cheap be-seen LED lights.  Totally different.  I don't even use mine on the high setting on the road because its just too bright.

I'm not questioning the brightness, just the "colour" of the light. 


The top of the range ones are very impressive without a doubt but just way to expensive for anyone who operates on a modest budget.

 

[downfader]

I'm not questioning the brightness, just the "colour" of the light.


The top of the range ones are very impressive without a doubt but just way to expensive for anyone who operates on a modest budget.

Thats the thing about LED lights.If you want quality it does cost. Even the LED on its own will cost a fair bit if you want a decent one. I think companies like cateye have lead to an inappropriate image for how lights can be.

I still like the idea of using motorcycle reflector parts to build some cycle lights. You'd have to build a mount so the LED fires off at an angle into the reflector cup rather than being straight out of the unit.

 

[Scoosh]

Much discussion about home-made lights here a while back .....

These seem to be a neat package, not too heavy ........ BUT (there's always one with lights ) battery life/run time is always an issue ....

 

[steve30]

Why did you use a heavy lead acid battery instead of a much lighter and smaller lithium-ion that'd give longer runtime anyway?

My knowledge of lead acid batteries is a bit better than that of Lithium-ion batteries. Also, there is the small matter of finance. If I had a lot more money, I probably would have opted for litium-ion.

I'm not questioning the brightness, just the "colour" of the light. 

I'm not really a fan of the colour of white LEDs. I much prefer the yellowness of fillament lamps.

 

[tyred]

I'm not really a fan of the colour of white LEDs. I much prefer the yellowness of fillament lamps.

I'm just glad I'm not the only one. I'm sure that in time, they will fix this issue but for now, halogen is preferable and cheaper

 

[steve30]

Here are some photographs of the lights: http://stevecoates.net/bikelights/

They didn't all come out very well due to the flash.

This is the light switched on:

 

[andrew_s]

Even the LED on its own will cost a fair bit if you want a decent one.
I still like the idea of using motorcycle reflector parts to build some cycle lights. You'd have to build a mount so the LED fires off at an angle into the reflector cup rather than being straight out of the unit.

The LEDs cost something like £5.50 each for the brightest single core LEDs currently available (Cree XPG R5).
Having the LED pointing backwards into a reflector, IQ fashion, definitely seems the way to go, but it isn't really available to the home builder as the LED and reflector positions would have to be bang on,requiring just the right housing. The reflectors aren't available anyway. Out the front units with torch style reflectors are a lot easier.

I don't want to dim them.

It's not your topic. Steve30 was interested in dimming.