[Jukka] wanted a bike light that wasn’t afraid to go into the woods during the dark winter. He put together a lamp that uses eight 3 Watt LEDs to pump out 1680 lumens (english translation). The high power LEDs were mounted on a large aluminum heat sink and use lenses to optimize the beam of light. The system uses a 2 amp driver board that he assembled himself. Power is provided by sixteen AA Nickel Metal Hydride batteries that are housed along with the driver circuit in a water bottle.
This more than doubles the output of the last bike light we thought was too bright. Where will this lumen-arms-race stop?
[Thanks Sami]
Bright is good but how long does it run?
Wow that is bright. Well done.
do want!
granted they would need to be focused, but what’s the hold-up on replacing car headlights with these? they would be more reliable than a standard or xenon bulb and use less power.
Agreed…. bright … but unless you take 20sec bycicle rides … useless
I almost hit a deer on a trail ride at night goin 25 mph because my light wasn’t bright enough! This is sick!
@Dan: he says 1.5hrs on his page. But he mentions 0.9A right after, so I’m not sure if that is at full power.
If you do basic calculations it should be under 2hrs at 24W draw. 1.2V * 16 cells * 2600mAH * 90% = ~45W/hr
@djrussell: they are just too expensive. If you googled you would find them on high end cars, or as an option.
Yeah… I wanna make a flashlight like this with a lithium polymer battery!
With the 6 AH cell from sparkfun, 8 Luxeon Rebel LEDs would last for half an hour. Not bad if I build a car charger into it and keep it in my car. It would be crazy bright too! about $90 in LEDS though!
-taylor
Plenty of cars have LED lights now. I am surprised if you haven’t noticed them because they are pretty annoying. (focused beam == ahh! my retinas!)
hmmm “its to dark i can’t see a thing” *turns light on* “AHHH too bright can’t see a thing”
btw nice
jproach: they don’t look prohibitively expensive. especially not with auto industry bulk rates.
insipid melon: as head lights? cite models please. the only ones i’ve seen are the audis with the accent strip underneath the actual head light.
Totally cool, but somehow I don’t think my hub dynamo will power this…
I’ve seen some of the higher end porsches with them as well.
Why not make a generator that is run off of the pedaling motion or the wheel to charge a battery. That’d at least make the light output constant for the life of the rechargeable battery.
if that thing gets any brighter he’ll be able to peel paint with the damn thing. wouldn’t mind have a few mounted on my bumpers, some in back for tailgaters who leave their brights on and some in front for… well seeing stuff.
Another alternative is using the SSC P7 leds that are 10w and 900 lumens each. Which might also be bright enough to be used as supplementary lights on a motorcycle, where you are still relatively limited in power.
Too bright? I say mount a 1kw metal halide on the thing. Good luck powering it though! 70,000+ lumens do not come easily…
Mount it on a shotgun and you’re all set.
IF the game warden doesn’t see you coming from three miles off.
@daddystop…i was thinking the same thing, like some kind of alternator
The tittle says hunts deers. Using bright lights not just on cars to stun a deer is illegal where I am from. Damn good fine at that.
If you think this is a high power light, then have a look at this thing (not mine):
http://fotos.mtb-news.de/photosets/view/13254
8 x 3watt LEDs? pah, mere matchstick light, how about a 100watt LED :D
http://tesladownunder.com/LEDs.htm#100%20W%20LED
On the subject of bike lights, my 300 3mm LED array bike light is coming along nicely (10.2 watts with all 300 lit).
“insipid melon: as head lights? cite models please. the only ones i’ve seen are the audis with the accent strip underneath the actual head light.”
I am not a car person and if I were I still don’t know why you’d expect me to be able to identify cars which I am complaining blind me at night when I look at them. :p
But there are enough of them in Abq. that I usually run into at least a few on night outings, and the cop cars are switching over to LED headlights as well. (they also have LED siren strips).
this is freaking awesome!
I think with a little work you could make a nice pair of rally-style lights, and if you design it right you could have an adjustable throw pattern. Never hurts to be able to see further driving on country roads this time of year.
“”Why not make a generator that is run off of the pedaling motion or the wheel to charge a battery. That’d at least make the light output constant for the life of the rechargeable battery.””
Hmm this would increase resistance which i think every bike ride tries to avoid.. how ever if there was a break system which returns energy to the rechargeable battery then you are onto a winner.. That way every time you use your brakes it would add charge to your battery. this way you will get back something from that hard earned energy you put in to get the bike moving in the first place.
@Insipid Melon
I’m pretty sure what you’re thinking of are HID lamps. very bright and (usually) focused.
I work at a bike store and I know all the bike lights. Current LED Units are pumping 1200lumins out of their highend systems with a reasonable runtime. Previously they were chucking out around 900-1000 with HIDs however the new LED stuff they are working with brings the cost down and the efficiency up drastically. Most brands have discontinued use of halogen and HIDs.
What an awesome project! This is so well done not to mention simple! This is the kind of project where necessity meets fun. You know you’ve got to feel like a bad ass when your driving down the street and your blinding oncoming cars with your bike light! GJ on this project!
@DaddyStop: You’re thinking of a dynamo hub which have been around for a while now – for example http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/schmidt.asp and from what I’ve read the resistance of dynamo hubs aren’t that noticable.
My bike has a 234 watt-hour battery onboard already for it’s hub motor, ideal for powering bright lights :)
Any advice on how to use hubs & battery in conjunction with each other to power a light? Would that be using the hub to recharge the battery or how is yours set up?
I have an older projector with lamp gone,
wold love to try and replace lamp with this
led..
Anyone know how i can fool projector to start
without lamp?
via this thread saw a link for a 900lux $85 bike light
http://www.geomangear.com/
On a side note just found out my surefire L2 lumamax has been upgraded to put out twice the power, twice the runtime, in a smaller package, for the same $! L2’s aren’t even in surefire’s vocabulary anymore! Only dif is mine goes 33ft, the lx2 does 3ft. L2 = 6W, 100lux, 1hr, or 15L/18hr ~.
I was thinking of running one from the bike motor (1000W ecospeed) battery (15A 38V), but will wait & see as I want a 12V jack regardless.
I’d like to put a pair of these on my 1200N.
@Abbott
I agree Inspid Melon is probably thinking of HID headlights, but the Audi R8 and Cadillac Escalade Platinum already have full LED headlights (both high and low beams.) Manufacturer Hella says standard cars will get LED headlights in about 18 months: http://http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2009/05/20/46132/led-headlights-within-the-year.htm
Er, let’s try that link again:
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2009/05/20/46132/led-headlights-within-the-year.htm
OK, so when can we start signaling the shuttle astronauts and the space station with this thing?
Laser pointers are illegal at airports now, what would this sucker do?
dude, homemade photon cannon ftw!!
nice for a ride though the woods or as brights, but not so much as lights on roads with oncoming traffic.
round reflectors throw light in a circular pattern in all directions, not just down, also up –not a problem with a couple leds: if a car gets a surprise, fine with me.
but at this brightness, and if you really want to use it as headlight, one should have a look at headlight patterns: if you shine your car lights on a wall you notice two things:
1. the beam isn’t round but forms a bar
2. there is a clear cutoff line just above this bar.
this cutoff line is basically required everywhere, and the bar-shaped beam directs the light to where you need it. it’s not total lumen that makes the light, it’s lux on the road. and with a good design you can save about 1/3 and get the same brightness.
here a couple links:
how to measure it (german bicycling club, go half way down the page): http://www.fa-technik.adfc.de/Komponenten/Scheinwerfer/index.html
a commercial reflector that can do that:
http://www.4sevens.com/product_info.php?products_id=486
a homemade attempt:
http://www.enhydralutris.de/Fahrrad/LEDWerfer0402/p1130815_s.jpg (the led is actually not mounted in the reflector but on the aluminum sheet)
– done by this guy:
http://www.enhydralutris.de/Fahrrad/LEDWerfer0402/index.html
more here:
http://wandinger.pfaffenwinkel.de/led_fahrrad/prototypen/LED_Scheinwerfer_Touchdown.html
one of course could also add an anti blinding shield and point some of the reflectors downward.
personally, i like elliptical lenses on a couple leds combined with a led in a modified spot (led with aluminum shield on one side)
the whole problem got extensively discussed in germany (more bikes there), but to some degree also at candlepowerforums
@rob
some guy did tests with dynamos and got surprisingly good results:
http://www.led-treiber.de/html/dynamo-treiber.html#LED-Standlicht
go down to #5 to get the circuit
by removing the zener-diodes (over-voltage protection) in his wheel dynamo, he could power 4 white and 1 red led at 280ma while going 11mph.
the text in red on top is a warning: if you do this with a hub dynamo and your leds get disconnected while your supercaps are still charging, you have to discharge them before reconnecting the leds or they will be toast.
what surprised me: dynamos are apparently very good current sources and can drive leds directly, he got this graph http://www.led-treiber.de/assets/images/Dynamo-LED.gif on his page
wow, that’s effing bright…
Running no light on your bike is a offence here in the Netherlands. I’m afraid that having this much lumen will also attract the attention of the police. :P
Where will this lumen-arms-race stop?
At Third-degree burns.
I’m not convinced the (only) way forward is a lumen-arms-race – if you’re not looking for real-colour vision at night, would it not make more sense to run lower power red lighting to maintain night vision AND illuminate the trail effectively? The one thing I hate with super bright lighting on bikes (and I currently have it) is the fact that you need to carry stupid amounts of battery power and several lights to create a fake-sun system, yet you still can’t look to your sides, and more importantly if something is slightly out of the side of your beam pattern it’s basically invisible because teh white light is trashing your night vision. With red (or to some extent blue, which I’ve tested) you can still see where you’re going just fine but you can also see everything around you like you’ve been in a dark room with the lights off, it means you can have much longer runtimes and if your pack does go flat you can still see where you’re going without waiting 10 mins to adapt!
Not for everyone though, I’m aware.
Why aren’t projectors powered by LED’s now? Oh yeah. £300 bulbs.
What about a version that was powered by the act of biking? Might need a little rechargeable battery so you can get started, but then…
@James
That’s fine until a car runs by and trashes your night vision anyway.
@alex – you don’t use this sort of bike light in a place where there are cars – a) you’d dazzle the car driver b) you’d be risking being pulled by the cops and c) its totally overkill – this kind of light is off-road only! I get flashed by annoyed cars with my 50W halogens, let alone mental LEDs!
however if you rode in a group and others had white lights you’re buggered. I tend to night-ride alone, but like I said, depends on peoples uses.
Don’t you guys know that you’re supposed to wear an eye patch to preserve your night vision while you ride? duh.
Mommy says: “Don’t look directly to the sun or your bike light.”
Plenty of people used to use yellow/orange glasses to preserve night vision, and subs use red lighting when surfacing at night to maintain night vision for ships/ice/etc :)
Actually, there is a very high power bike generator you can get – rollergen. You can engage it when convenient (going downhill) and disengage it otherwise. Puts out 30W.