Lights again

[Ajax]

For Christ's sake, didn't you read what I wrote. That light probably isn't even as bright as your Wisper one and it costs £45. For a tenth of that price, you can get this one that runs direct from your battery and will be twice as bright:
http://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle-Bicycle-Assist-Lamp-LED-Headlights-Modification-Spotlight-p-919876.html

If you really need to spend a lot of money, get one with a Cree t6 XML emitter. You can pay over £100 for them, though they're just as bright as the ones that cost £8, seeing as they have the same emitter.

I've just recieved the light listed above, which is very bright when connected directly to my battery. I am thinking of taking it apart and putting the key componants inside my existing plastic headlight case.

Does anyone know if these lights really need the aluminium heat sink? It comes with thermopaste applied to gel the light circuit to the alluminum case, but i wonder if these lights get that hot in normal use.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Which one listed above?

 

[Ajax]

Which one listed above?

As quoted in my reply,

http://www.banggood.com/Motorcycle-...adlights-Modification-Spotlight-p-919876.html

Great price for a good reason, the mount is a bit shite. However the circuit is small enough to fit another housing.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Isn't there two circuit boards in that one? I thought that there was a separate DC/DC converter board in the back and the driver board in the front. I believe that the heatsink is necessary.

It's easy to make it waterproof. I made my own mounting plate for the back and sealed it with bath sealant.

For £4 you can't expect too much, but there's no other way to get that many lumens per pound.

 

[awol]

Whats the difference in the condenser and astigmatic versions ?
For the price they seem a bargain.
(I don't know much about types of lights)

 

[Deleted member 4366]

One spreads the beam more than the other. One is slightly longer than the other.

 

[Ajax]

Isn't there two circuit boards in that one? I thought that there was a separate DC/DC converter board in the back and the driver board in the front. I believe that the heatsink is necessary.

It's easy to make it waterproof. I made my own mounting plate for the back and sealed it with bath sealant.

For £4 you can't expect too much, but there's no other way to get that many lumens per pound.

 

[Ajax]

I've uploaded a few photos showing what you get for your money. There are the 4 light emiters mounted on a single round metal plate, and then there's the volatage control circuit inside the main aluminium housing.

The heat sink must be a requirement, i guess. Although my present headlamp with admitedly less light, doesn't seem to require any kind of heat sink for its emiters.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

I think mine's slightly different, but I can't look because it's sealed. I don't remember the thing in the heat-shrink being as big as that. I think mine's a single layer.

 

[Ajax]

I think mine's slightly different, but I can't look because it's sealed. I don't remember the thing in the heat-shrink being as big as that. I think mine's a single layer.

Btw , that's one of those tiny new 5p's as reference, and the circuit inside is quite small.

 

[cwah]

Is there somewhere the equivalent (and small) for rear light at 48v?

thanks

 

[mfj197]

Does anyone know if these lights really need the aluminium heat sink? It comes with thermopaste applied to gel the light circuit to the alluminum case, but i wonder if these lights get that hot in normal use.

In general LED lights do need a fair amount of heatsinking. With a halogen bulb quite a bit of heat goes out of the front of the lens, but with an LED it's all carried through the LED mounting star to the body of the lamp and then to the outside air. Any constraint to this flow of heat limits the lifespan of the LED.

The ideal surface area requirement is 10 square inches per watt of input power (assuming good thermal conductivity between the LED star and the light body). However this usually isn't practical so on a bike light there's a general rule that 1 square inch per watt works without too many problems given the movement of air over the heatsink (and our cool UK weather!). I'm running two lampheads at 8.25 watts each, and each lamphead has 14 square inches of surface area (not quite true - one has additional heatsinking for the driver, but close enough). Used them for the last few years throughout the winter and no problems at all.

Looking at the website stats of this light it says it draws 12 watts, so 12 square inches. I can't identify the type of LED to determine whether 12 watts is realistic - the only reference I can see is to "5050 LED lamp beads". If they really are 5050s then you really wouldn't need all that heatsinking as they will only take about 0.6 watts each - 2.4 watts total, plus the power dissipated by the driver, so figure 3 watts.

Any idea on what the LEDs are, or how much power they are actually drawing?

Michael

 

[Ajax]

Any idea on what the LEDs are, or how much power they are actually drawing?

Michael

The only thing on the the board is JL L3575 .
I've tried to google this but so far no results on specs.

 

[EddiePJ]

Own up, which one of you is this..

 

[Ajax]

I've just recieved the light listed above, which is very bright when connected directly to my battery. I am thinking of taking it apart and putting the key componants inside my existing plastic headlight case.

Does anyone know if these lights really need the aluminium heat sink? It comes with thermopaste applied to gel the light circuit to the alluminum case, but i wonder if these lights get that hot in normal use.

Well the experiment worked, and I now have the guts of this new lamp
housed inside my existing headlight. Wow its bright!

Compared to my old light its almost .... too bright? I know with cars there would be rules on how bright headlamps can be, and rules governing the correct position for those headlamps.

Question.Can a bike headlamp be too bright? Has anyone ever been stopped because their headlamp, on a public highway, was considered a potential danger to on-coming trafic?

 

[mfj197]

I definitely think bike headlamps can be too bright. A single XM-L LED can put out up to 1,000 lumens. A halogen car headlight bulb puts out 1,600 on main beam (and 1,000 will seem nearly as bright as 1,600 due to the way the eye reacts to lumens). Even if pointed downwards there's still sufficient spill of light to cause a nuisance to other road users.

There's been quite a bit of advancement in this area, with some bike lights starting to have specific road beams to put the light where it is needed. This has two advantages; firstly they do not dazzle other road users nearly as much, and secondly they make much more effective use of the light output from the light itself. The early Philips Saferide had from memory a 250 lumen output but it was far more effective in practice than the P7 flashlights around at the time (which had about 900 lumens).

Michael

 

[Gubbins]

I definitely think bike headlamps can be too bright. A single XM-L LED can put out up to 1,000 lumens. A halogen car headlight bulb puts out 1,600 on main beam (and 1,000 will seem nearly as bright as 1,600 due to the way the eye reacts to lumens). Even if pointed downwards there's still sufficient spill of light to cause a nuisance to other road users.

There's been quite a bit of advancement in this area, with some bike lights starting to have specific road beams to put the light where it is needed. This has two advantages; firstly they do not dazzle other road users nearly as much, and secondly they make much more effective use of the light output from the light itself. The early Philips Saferide had from memory a 250 lumen output but it was far more effective in practice than the P7 flashlights around at the time (which had about 900 lumens).

Michael

Isnt there a BS number or somesuch to make a light legal on the road?

 

[mfj197]

Isnt there a BS number or somesuch to make a light legal on the road?

There is in Germany - StVZO German traffic regulations have specific requirements for bike light beams and it is these that have driven the likes of B&M and Philips to produce good optics. I'm not sure of the situation here in the UK.

 

[Gubbins]

My solution is 2 hope vision clamped to the forks.. they are bright, reliable and robust. Easily removable for security and swapping between bikes, and work from cheap rechargeable AA batteries which are swapped in seconds with 2 extra £1.50 battery holder

 

[Martin@e-bikeshop]

View attachment 9817 View attachment 9816

Lets hope you don't bottom your forks out