[Closed] my DIY LED Light

only a mother could love it

Looks like a PS2!

Hey excellent job, get some beam pics posted! I'm converting some Lumi cans at the mo

how is the lumi conversion going nockmeister ?

Looks like a large lego brick on the front

Well been out for a quick ride out to the pirbright ranges - light works well nice and floody - lots of to the sides light in twisty Singletrack without a helmet light. Maxflex bike mode is handy like having a dip and main beam - 500mA and 1000mA at the click of a switch. Will try to get some beam shots when I can borrow a camera that works in the dark!

oops double post

what are suggested camera settings for night time beamshots?

take it a tripod will be needed for long exposure

Looks like a Roksan amplifier from the 80's but total hats off to you for a great effort. Love to see some beams shots as well.

Which leds you got in there

unofficial standard setting for beam shots are

F4 - 6 seconds white balance daylight .
yep a tripod needed.

you may need to alter the settings if you are on snow though

cool ta for the camera advice - now need to get a camera!

Trout - LED are XPG x6

o used one medium triple optic(25deg) and one spot tripeoptic (6 deg), though from reading around it seems that optics designed for XPE are 'floodyier' when used with XPG if that makes sense..

this seems to be the case with mine - might fit two 6deg spot and see.

ps yes - it is a little square shaped lol! but not got access to machines to make a nice house so has to adapt an bolt and glue one together lol

looks good to me i make all my own lights.
thwang

just order two triple spot khatod lenses as i think medium / spot combo is not as efficent and the spot still gives a wide spread

using these ones:
[img] [/img]
http://www.cutter.com.au/products.php?cat=Optics+for+XP-C%2FE%2FG&pg=2

Rootes1.

Love it ! 🙂

I admire your efforts, no access to machines, but it hasn't stopped you, excellent.

My light can use the Khatod, and I've used two triple-narrow optics. Gives a nice beam pattern, I expect you will get similar.

I hope you enjoy the fruits of your labour, and like the others here, I'm waiting for beam shots.

Well done.

😀

L.

cheers for the comments

yer think two rows of spots will be better - the medium lens seems quite inefficient - when covering over one row compare to the other against a wall.

just need to make up a new face plate to take the new lenses.

anyhow -works fine for the moment - hoping to get out on the tunnel hill trolls ride tomorrow night for some more testing.

one thing need to do is set the maxflex low voltage warning set it at 7v at the moment.

must sort out a camera as well.

As has been well documented here and other places, the XP-G appears to be quite a good flood-pattern source, and IME, development of decent, bike friendly, optics seems to lag behind actual LED development. Understandable, to a degree, but frustrating.

All that being as it may, I've used two rows of the spot and get what I feel is a good beam pattern.

This is my light using two rows of the narrow beam Khatod optic

[img] [/img]

Here is another of my lights, same design, using the Carclo XP-E optic on XP-Gs, giving a wider beam.

[img] [/img]

The pics were taken at F8, 1.3sec.

I feel that these settings, while not exactly blowing peoples socks off with the amount of light seen in the picture, do actually better represent the "being there" light level. Probably need to go to 1.6 sec though.

Are you using a 15v, 2.6Ah battery ?. If so, I'd set my MaxFlex as follows:
Low Voltage - Cutout between 10.5v and 11v, in order to protect the battery.
Low voltage warning - I think I set this to around 12.5v (got it written down at home)

Keep us posted and I hope you can sort a camera for some beam shots.

😀

Luminous

Luminous,

cool cheers for the maxflex setting advice yes i'm using a 14.8v 2.6Ah battery from Smudge

last night i had a play with the settings and discovered that in bike mode was only in 350/700ma modes upped this to 500/1000 much brighter..

also tried the 1200 mode as well!

little pic from the build - led stuck to alloy plate and linked together
[img] [/img]

crappy phone cam pic!

Rootes1.

Excellent, thats not too far from what I do when using the Khatod optic.

I set my XP-G lights to bike mode-quiet and set the low/high to 500ma/1A respectively.

Ensure you set your driver to cut out at around the voltage I suggest, otherwise you risk running the batteries down too far. But best check with Smudge for the reasons why, etc, but do not "over-discharge" the battery.

You have your cooling fins set to the same direction as the the airflow over the light, this should give you a good cooling effect, you could probably use a few fins on the top too, if possible.

Anyway, it all looks good so far.

😀

Luminous

<<You have your cooling fins set to the same direction as the the airflow over the light, this should give you a good cooling effect, you could probably use a few fins on the top too, if possible.>>

did buy a third heatsink for the top, in this whether it seemed ok, though in the house it soon all warms up so might fit it

Yeap, with current air temps, you should be fine as you are right now.

Probably don't want to fit any more cooling until you think you need it.
Just see how you get on with your current design.

Better perhaps to spend the time getting those narrow optics fitted. I reckon that'll be just right.

🙂

Luminous.

<<Better perhaps to spend the time getting those narrow optics fitted. I reckon that'll be just right.>>

yep! they are on the way from OZ, the narrow / medium combo will have to do for the time being.

cheers
Si