What do you guys think of this light design?

[Bryguy17]

I've been playing with the design of my custom lights, and i figured I'd see what you guys thought. specs will be:
CNC body, molded carbon fiber rear shell
cree R2 on stars
bflex
carclo 20mm optics with holders
1/16" lexan lens and full water-tightness (hopefully)

onto the pics. First one is the clearest i could show off the contours, and what it will likely end up as. the other two are potential annodizing schemes







thats pretty much it for now. I'm torn between this version with the heatsinking, and a clean design that just has a chamfer around the edge. more along the lines of this:



peace,
Bryan

[Rob]

I like the heatsink design. Looks like it reduces weight too.

[RidetheRAAM4]

looks like a pirated version of solidworks, i think i am going to have to report you to the MAN!

But maybe you want to incorporate some sort of adjustability in the x-direction of the lights. So you can turn them wider or closer together maybe. Or the y-direction to see more of a further or closer view. I am talking about each light individually, not both together.

[Pain Freak]

Funny, we had a guy show us a part very similar in design a few weeks ago. He's also considering making the body of a nylon/carbon fiber composite. We helped him a little on the design and sent him to a molder friend of mine to get some drawings and such for a mold to be made. He's independant and tried to sell his lighting idea to a few companies, but they weren't interested as the profit level was considered to low.

[Bryguy17]

yah, this is mostly making myself a bling light that works well. I'm able to make everything in-house using my school's machine shop/ composites lab, which makes things a good bit cheaper for me. I'm probably going to sell a few housings if they come out well, and at least try and break even on tooling.

ridetheramm: It would be pretty difficult to make something with the individual optics pointing different directions (since i think thats what you were suggesting). let alone make them end-user adjustable. Its too complicated to machine/design, and it adds weight.

the light itself should be pretty light. according to the volume solidworks gives me, the heatsinked version shown weighs in at ~27g, and that is lacking 4 screw holes and a groove for an oring. the carbon shell will probably be ~10-15g, and then there's all the electronics. Hoping to get the light under 100g, but we'll see.

a 3 emitter might also be in the works, but i would be making that exclusively for other people, so who knows.

[Bryguy17]

did a bit of work last night, and was able to add 3 sq. inches of heatsink area to the light, and to design the carbon shell for the back. looks pretty sweet if i say so myself.



35g of aluminum, ~12g carbon on the back, not including hardware (4x M3x6mm aluminum screws) and all of the electronics.

[Abui]

Originally Posted by Bryguy17

did a bit of work last night, and was able to add 3 sq. inches of heatsink area to the light, and to design the carbon shell for the back. looks pretty sweet if i say so myself.



35g of aluminum, ~12g carbon on the back, not including hardware (4x M3x6mm aluminum screws) and all of the electronics.

Switches? Battery? Wires? Does it all fit? How does it mount?

[Bryguy17]

its not finalized as far as volume in the back, but it will definitely fit a bflex or similar, and probably at least a wired buckpuck. that is including a momentary contact switch, and a cable gland. There's a lot of room inside that shell. its one inch deep beyond the plate that mounts the LEDs, ~1.1" tall, and 2.1" wide. If needed, i can expand the shell to make it fit larger drivers and equipment, with very little weight penalty.

battery will be external. for me, 11.1v 4300mAh li-ion packs, coming in at 250g and giving me 5+ hrs at full power.

there's a tapped hole in the bottom center of the front housing section. It's currently an M3 tapped hole, but it could be easily changed so that a QR adapter or thumbscrew will fit. a rubber washer between the mount and the housing should keep things tight, and still allow aiming from side to side

[BrewMaster]

I think the weight penalty of having an all aluminum housing is worth it. LEDs can run hot and you want to dissipate as much heat as you can as fast as possible.

[Bryguy17]

in some ways its true. It is, however, a pain in the ass to make a shell-type housing out of aluminum without going to a cylindrical design. i personally would like to shy away from mr-11 type lights.

I'm going to try the composite back. If thermal management is a problem, it will be pretty easy to either 1. dial back the drive current to an acceptable level
or 2. redesign the housing to be full aluminum (not particularly hard, the design was formulated while i wrote this )

only thing is, if the housing is full aluminum, it makes it difficult to fit in different drivers, as the housing needs to be tailored to the driver intened to be used. While this is fine for me, i was hoping to offer the housings to DIYers who would like something professional looking. Having a voluminous shell allows people to fit a wide array of drivers, switches, cables etc. without having to modify a machined part.

i'm going to go ahead and make the carbon shell version and see how it manages the heat. If its not working acceptably, I'll go with the full aluminum housing.

[Rockinthecasbah]

you can use an all aluminum clamshell design just split the rear shell its easier to mill/cnc/dremel if your crazy out

[BrewMaster]

I don't think the thermal management issues will be something you notice initially. however, your brightness will decrease over time with higher operating temps. also, you may cook your driver if it really gets hot in there. i recommend running a driver with an auto temp sensor so that it protects the guts of your light. I think the bFlex is one of many drivers with a temp sensor.

so Bryan, we've seen a bunch of housing designs from you. when you are going to build one buddy? as the saying goes, shit or get off the pot.

[Bryguy17]

ya you caught me brewmaster. Just figured I'd see what people thought of the heatsink design over the straight one. I could order aluminum and build this housing as soon as it gets here, but i think its worth the time it takes to design a good product.

i do plan on using a bflex for my light, so i'll be able to control the temperature better.

dont worry, it will get done. I've got a 24hr race in april that i'll need a light for. I do have to juggle designing things, riding, and doing that school thing on the side so I do what i can

when i get time ill try to mockup an all-aluminum design and see how it goes

[Bryguy17]

Partially to show off, and partially to annoy brewmaster, i feel compelled to share the latest details on my light.

I finally got around to making everything fit together, so now i have a complete light design. Just needs a little bit of tweaking and tolerance changes and its done. Everything fits, except the actual LED stars, which will need slight trimming to fit right (just the stars though).

Its also a full aluminum housing. ~12.5 sq inches of surface area. 62g of aluminum, probably 80-90g complete. Sealed to IP67 standards.








And don't worry brewmaster, i should be able to start cranking these out within the next few weeks. I'll be making extras as well in case anyone is interested

Peace,
Bryan

[BrewMaster]

I'll believe it when I see it! (just messing with ya B.)

You may want to design a mounting system into your lamp. That has been the hardest part of light building for me, getting it to mount where I want (helmet or bars) and still be adjustable.

[Bryguy17]

right now, theres an M5 hole in the bottom so you can screw it onto something. For my personal use, I'm thinking of talking my LBS into ordering some spare mounts for Hope lights, which use roughly the same interface. Should give me a secure bar and helmet mount. Seems like a pretty adjustable system.

[FyrFytrRyn]

thats awesome. ill take one.