LED Bicycle lights
LED bicyle light projects & info for the do-it-yourself set....Skip to...
DIY Lights
- Bicycle Regulator by Pawel Danielewicz -- also has tons of useful links!
- Eigenbau LED-Scheinwerfer mit Hausmitteln by Olaf Schultz (lamp out of 2 Luxeons, in German)
- Bill Connell's Generator-driven LED headlight project
- DIY Dinotte Style @ Mtbr.com Forums Dinotte clone on a budget (archived photos here)
- Gilberto's Gallery DIY LIGHTBUILDING
- Steve Kurt's 4x CREE dynohub-powered bike headlight
- Dual Cree XR-E light at ingramtech.com
- Several DIY LED Lights at ghostgum.com.au
- Joe Gross' Schmidt hub + dual Cree LED light
- 5x Seuol SSCP4s!!! photos | CPF thread
- DLH_2xCreeXRE
- Build LED bicycle long range headlights a V4.0 -- excellent LEDs mounted on a heatsink enclosed in an acrylic tube with large reflector
- Suzy Jackson's excellent Luxeon 3W
- Konstantin Shemyak's Luxeon 3W
- Michael Carden's Luxeon 3W (lots of good construction details)
- Ultimate Night Vision Headlamp at Instructables.com
- Pilom Electronics -- Bicycle Light Projects
- How to build a simple Luxeon LED bike headlight
- DIY SuperLED Bike Lights
- Triple Cree XR-E Bike Light (more photos, CandlePower Forums thread)
- Converting a BISY-FL headlamp from halogen to Luxeon I LED
- Batteryspace.com Forums: DIY Award - For RC Batteries/Bike Light Batteries
- ktronic's LED light prototypes
- Darell's Light Page
- Vistalite Luxeon Conversion
- Andrew Stewart's Minimalist 3 Watt Luxeon Bike Light
- Jerry Scot's LED Bike light #2 and High Power LED Bike Light
- DIY TriLux3 Li-ion Bikelight using copper plumbing pipe caps
- more lights and info at the CPF bike-light index
- Dave Harris' Dual LuxIII helmet mount and Triple K2
- Sub £40 Home Made lights
- DIY Superbright Bike Light
Discussion Forums & Mailing Lists
- Mtbr.com Bike Lights Forum
- CandlePowerForums Bicycle Forum
- TaskLED Knowledge Base
- BikeForums.net Electronics, Lighting, & Gadgets Forum
- BatterySpace.com Bike-Lighting Discussions
- BikeCurrent Mailing List Archives
Technical Info
- LED Center -- good LED tutorials, info, news, calculators, etc.
- CFP Driver board list
- Cree X-Lamp XR-E & XR-C Binning & Labeling Guide
- LED Calculator Program
- LED Runtime Calculator program (Javascript, no download)
- Bicycle lighting links
- bicycle LED headlight optics info
- a comparison of beam patterns of various bicycle headlights available in Germany
- Audax.uk Bicycle Lighting Resource Page
- LED bicycle headlights (German site)
- LUXEON Portable Lighting Design Guide
- LUXDRIVE 3021/3023 BuckPuck Wide Range LED Power Module Product Overview
- Flashlightreviews.com -- Luxeon Star Kit Box Light
- Flashlightreviews.com -- Luxeon Star 3-D Cell Mod
- Ledsupply.com -- Technical Info on LEDs
- Fraen Lens Info
- IMS Reflector info
- L2 Optics info
- Luxeon bin codes explained
- BuckPuck documentation
- Lumileds Luxeon datasheets
- Lumileds K2 datasheet
- One place to get Luxeons
- A "Do It Yourself" LED Bike Light Guide
- MTBR Forums -- Input for bicycle light User Interface
- LuxDrive MicroPuck Application Notes
- "Beauty and the Beast" article at aukweb.net - part 1 and part 2
- Cree XR-E Studies and Lights
- A review of 4-AA LED Bicycle Lights
- 2007 LED Light Review at Gearreview.com
- Dynamo Lighting Links, including links to several excellent dynohub-powered DIY LED headlights
- Ledil Optics for CREE XR-E Emitters
- Explanation of a Diode Bridge Rectifier from Wikipedia -- this component is useful when driving LEDs from a dynohub.
- Bicyclelighting.com -- info and resource lists for a wide range of bicycle lighting types and systems
Parts Resources & Dealers
- Kaidomain.com
- Dealextreme.com
- Solidstate Lighting -- Flashlight and LED Modifications that Work
- Ledsupply.com
- Quickar Electronics -- led surplus
- Taskled.com -- LED drivers
- The Sandwich Shoppe
- XR-E Cree Power Leds at Cutter.com.au
- Cree Optics at Cutter.com.au
- luxeonstar.com
Design Goals for DIY Light
I'd like to build a light similar to the Dinotte 3w (single emitter powered by 4-AA NiMH battery). I think I can clone this light (using a Cree XR-E for better output) for around the same cost as the Dinotte, or slightly less. Or, I'd like to build a two-LED version of the Dinotte. I'd like to keep the battery pack constrained to 8-AA 2500mAh NiMH cells -- either configured in series for 9.6V or in two parallel sets of 4-AA each for 4.8V; this is to keep battery costs low, to leverage existing NiMH cells and chargers I already have, to keep the battery lightweight and compact, and to allow easy battery changes as cell-technology improves.Tentative Parts List for Light
- LED(s)purchased
- (2) Cree XR-E (P4 bin)
- Opticspurchased
- (2) L2 Optics OPTX 1-006 Lenses - one 8-degree diffuser and one 8x25-degree diffuser
- Power Driverpurchased
- TaskLED bFlex with bicycle-specific UI (buck) or MaxFlex (boost) bicycle-specific UI due out later this week
- Thermal Adhesivepurchased
- Arctic Silver Alumina Adhesive (2 Part Epoxy) and Arctic Silver Ceramique (I plan to use the Adhesive to bond several metal washers or other bits together to make a heat-sink slug, and also to then bond that to whatever housing I figure out. The Ceramique I'll use for thermal conductance away from the LEDs to the slug/housing; I'm going to try to screw the LED to the slug vs. permanently bonding it.)
- Battery/Chargerpurchased
- CH-V3150 Fast Smart Charger (2 hrs 4 Channels 110-240V ) + 8 AA 2500mah NiMH Batteries with 2 holders (will use my existing 4-AA NiMH charger as well) plus (1) Battery holder: 8 x AA Battery Holder With 6" Wire Leads and/or (2) Battery holder: 4 x AA Battery Holder With 6" Wire Leads
- Handlebar Mounting Clamppurchased
- Handlebar clamp
- Motor Heatsink for Light Housing?
- Google Image Search
- Source for Aluminum Tubing, etc.
- Smallparts.com
- Onlinemetals.com
- Wicksaircraft.com
- Aircraftspruce.com
- Misc
- Drill and Tap Size Chart
- ANSI Screw and Nut Threads Size Chart
- Tap Drills for Number Machine Screws
Dual Cree XR-E Light -- Finished!
