The B-29, my light project

[spookydave]

I am building what I'm going to call the "B-29" light set. I was going to call it "The Trail Poacher" but for some reason I thought it might not go over very well. lol
This is really 4 lights in 4 housings mounted on a comon mount. Kinda inspired by what I see on sand cars and off road trucks.

I also have a need for a bunch of of task lights around my shop and these little housings should work out real nice. For those I will used cheeper LEDs and wide angle optics and just a resistor to limit the current from a fixed DC power supply.


Ok, I have all my junk ordered and I'm waiting like junky for my LED fix.

I ordered 4 Cree XRE bin R2 LEDs.
Optics are the 20mm round Carclo deals. I went with 2 each of 8.4 degree and 10 degree. Both have a 91% eff. If I need a wider angle it's just pop the lens out of the holder and pop in the new one.

Now the tricky part. To drive 4 Crees would take well over 14.8V (using a buck type of driver as I don't want to go boost) and those batterys are getting heavy. So I am using 2 b flex drivers and a much lower voltage battery. Still 7.2Ah so the candels should burn bright for a long time even running both sets at 1A.
The other advantage is I will have control over the wide and narrow beams. I plan to set the wide beam set up with 3 brightness levels and the narrow up with just a high and low.

The bflex drivers will not be in the light housings. My nightrider digital deal has the control right by my shifter pod and I like it. I plan to make a mold so I can pot the driver, switch and low voltage led in a nifty little package so I can fiddle with it with out taking my hand off the grip.

What's nice is that once it's all figured out it will be real easy to do light sets with any number of lights from 1 on up.

[Dino Brown]

How soon before we see the finished product? Three weeks? Four?
Can't wait!

[spookydave]

I have no idea. I am not making the housings until I get the LED's. They just did not have good detail drawings of the star so I want one in my paws first. I might make a little pocket in the housing to locate it. Then again I might not.

I think the drivers will show up first so I'll get cracking on the mold for it right away.

[BrewMaster]

7.2 V is not enough to drive 4 LEDs, even if you have 2 pairs in parallel. You need at least 1V extra since they are 3.7V each in series. LEDs are not exact with their voltage drops.

Won't your current will be split in half when you run it in series, so you would actually run 500mA each?

I look forward to seeing your results Dave.

[spookydave]

Ok, now about the housings. I really like some of those 3 bangers I see on MTBR. And I could do it like that but would have to use my engine lathe. Of course I want to use my cnc swiss screw maching instead so I'm limitted to 1.25" round max. I can mill the cooling fin slots on the housing on the lathe as well. That way when they drop off they will be complete. And I feel it will make the system very flexable. It would be easy to do 1 ~3 led's with the same control.

Anyway sorry for the 2D ACAD drawings but that's how I roll. The holder for the 4 LED system will be 4.25" long by 1.2" tall. The bottom will be drilled and tapped for set screws to hold the light housings and drilled and tapped for mounting brackets. I have an old and I mean very old NC mill that I'll use to make the holders.

Originally Posted by BrewMaster

7.2 V is not enough to drive 4 LEDs, even if you have 2 pairs in parallel. You need at least 1V extra since they are 3.7V each in series. LEDs are not exact with their voltage drops.

Won't your current will be split in half when you run it in series, so you would actually run 500mA each?

I look forward to seeing your results Dave.

I'm not using a 7.2 v battery. But it does have 7.2AH or 7200mah.
and no, it would drive them at 500ma if I only used one driver. But by using 2 drivers I can run both strings of LEDs at 1A (or what ever I want). Now that's 2A coming out of the battery.

I already make parts that are pretty close. This is one half of a hose seperator. I'll pretty much to the same thing but it won't be spit in half.

[BrewMaster]

You are beast Dave. I am really looking forward to seeing your results.

[Chewyeti]

nice work dave.... im lovin your thinking.

So how many six packs will it take to finish em?

[boludo]

Thanks for that morning wood. I cant wait to see the results. I have my lights all planned out in my head. I'm hesitant due to the battery/voltage/etc that i'm not strong on. good luck and please post as much info as you can for the rest of us.

[spookydave]

Originally Posted by Chewyeti

nice work dave.... im lovin your thinking.

So how many six packs will it take to finish em?

Well I don't really drink so if that's the motivation it could take awhile. But I do have other vices so all is not lost. lol

The hold up is getting parts from Cutter. I paide via Paypal and received confirmatoin from them. But I have heard nothing from Cutter. So at this point I'm hoping the stuff shows up. I'm sure it will.

Task LED has shipped the drivers. Batteryspace.com has shipped the battery and some water tight connectors.

Originally Posted by boludo

Thanks for that morning wood. I cant wait to see the results. I have my lights all planned out in my head. I'm hesitant due to the battery/voltage/etc that i'm not strong on. good luck and please post as much info as you can for the rest of us.

It's really simple. Let us know how many LEDs you are using (and what ones) and we'll fix you right up.

top plan view of the housings in the mount. Sorry, it looks bad after I converted it to jepg.

(not to scale)



And if I feel like getting frisky here is a 6 banger.
I kind like it but it sure would be power hungry.

[BrewMaster]

How are you planning on mounting the stars to the housings? I like your design and I may have to bribe you to make me one...

EDIT: I ordered square optics so I may not be able to use your design. Still, it looks very good.

[hack job]

damn dave thats some pretty nice stuff. cant wait to see the finished project. i have been waitin to see the boat for like 6 years now lol. you know iam messing with yah. keep up the good work.

[spookydave]

Originally Posted by hack job

damn dave thats some pretty nice stuff. cant wait to see the finished project. i have been waitin to see the boat for like 6 years now lol. you know iam messing with yah. keep up the good work.

come on over Brah, I'll open the door so you can sit in the seat. You can make vroom vroom noises while I work on my lights. lol

Originally Posted by BrewMaster

How are you planning on mounting the stars to the housings? I like your design and I may have to bribe you to make me one...

EDIT: I ordered square optics so I may not be able to use your design. Still, it looks very good.

I might make a little pocket for them to center in. Or I might just pot them to the lens holder and then just AA the backside of the star and stuff them in the housing.
I plan on having to tweek things slightly before I start making chips.

[boludo]

Dude, you rock. I want to do a 4 LEDs. Cree P5 or R2. I've got my brain around the light, buck puck/booster, but the battery is where i'm not sure. went into Battery Plus store the other day and they said they'd hook me up once i have the light done and know the power needed.

So I'm wanting to do 4 LEDS, all together or 2 on each side of my helmet. the battery(ies) will be stored in my pack. I'd love to do the 6 led like cutter has on one board, but the heat problem...

So i think the 4 similar to yours or 2 x 2 would be best. I will be using aluminum or copper tubing. i've got all the machinary to get the job done.

so there you go. if you want to spend time letting me know what holes i've got or what exactly i'll need, you'll have one more friend in the world and someone that will like you very much for at least one day.

And on a 2nd thought, I've also been thinking of getting and MR11 or 16 halogen from Lowes and building a light with 35 or 50 watts. Cheap and easy.

[CalEpic]

I was thinking of upgrading the light on my KTM to an HID but now you have me thinking about something like this and tapping into 12V power supply. hmmmm

C

[ghixon]

Nice setup. Are you planning on making these available to the STR crowd after final tweaks are made?

[spookydave]

Originally Posted by CalEpic

I was thinking of upgrading the light on my KTM to an HID but now you have me thinking about something like this and tapping into 12V power supply. hmmmm

C

I plan on making sets for the Moto and ATV crowd. I will use different LEDs though. I think these bike lights would be easy to out drive on something with a motor. And the mega bright LED's are to power hungery to lug around the required battery for bike use. So if you would like to be the test guy for my moto light let me know.

They should be small enough to mount low on a moto helmet too. Like down on the full face part. Getting the light below your eye sight really helps with keeping shadows from getting washed out.

Originally Posted by ghixon

Nice setup. Are you planning on making these available to the STR crowd after final tweaks are made?

Only if they pass the Dino Brown stress test.

[boludo]

hay Dave, are you in S. OC? I'd love to join the party some night and throw in help.

[spookydave]

Originally Posted by boludo

hay Dave, are you in S. OC? I'd love to join the party some night and throw in help.

no way man, I don't live in the gehtto. I live in Anaheim! haha

[BrewMaster]

Dave, which battery are you using? Got a link?

[Chewyeti]

Originally Posted by spookydave

no way man, I don't live in the gehtto. I live in Anaheim! haha

Joo mean, AnaCRIME?