the never ending quest for proper lighting.....

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outlawbiker

Member
Mar 15, 2009
282
0
16
Chicago NW Suburbs
i know there is a alot of threads on this,sorry for posting another. you guys all contribute all good tips and advice here,but i can not find an adequate solution for headlights. first off im on the road all night long,and last year ive spent over a hundred dollars trying all kinds of different methods for lights.

i must be blind as a bat cause every piece of advice i have found here (besides norm's light or the mini gen on ebay) has led me to a dead end, none of the lights are nearly bright enough to light up the road in front of me or the ones that will,run off rechargeable batteries and die quickly,im on the road for hours at night and i cant keep pockets full of batteries on me.

i could be happy with something 3/4 to 1/2 the brightness of an automotive/motorcycle headlight.i just need something that i can maybe use the 12 volt min gen found here 12 VOLTS MINI-GEN MAX For Motorized Bicycle Lighting - eBay (item 400108733087 end time Apr-10-10 22:17:08 PDT) and a brighter bulb.i dont know what a 12 volt 10 watt bulb they sell also with the mini gen will do for me in brightness but im afraid to loose the money on another attempt at this. when your doing 30 to 35 down a dark bike path for miles or road and u cant see all the potholes and whats in front of you kinda ruins the trip.

someone please step in here and save me the time,aggravation and the waste of money for me to hammer this out, thx
 

outlawbiker

Member
Mar 15, 2009
282
0
16
Chicago NW Suburbs
right now im using a Union bottle generator that puts out 6v at 3 watts,it came as a kit with a matching headlight,which worked out the best. the head light is visible at a distance if your in a car coming at me,but it just dont throw enough light for me to see the road. the bottle gen is excellent,it puts out power just by pushing the bike,not like the old cheap ones that would wear a tire down and barley put out power at low speeds.

prior to this i tryed the 6 volt rectifier,6 volt battery and white wire trick with no luck. also tryed a light from boy go fast on my buddy's MB only to watch it blow up and smoke all the LED's with in a block and not be able to throw enough light either.

the dynamo u have suggest sounds good,but i think im already getting the same kind of output on my bottle generator.
 

hiker472

Member
Nov 6, 2008
653
3
18
Ontonagon County,Upper Michigan
Look into the flashlights that have the Cree R2 bulbs in them. They are good for 3.5v - 9v and put out 270 lumens per bulb. The best bet for these is out of China where they are cheaper ($15-$20 a bulb). They are just starting to hit the US market, but here they are a lot more pricey. The surefire and xenox lights have these and they are very BRIGHT.

I got a flashlight with this bulb in it for $22 out of China and hooked it up direct to my white wire and it blows away anything I have used so far.

Of course, Cree's come in a variety of different types, but for the voltage capacity along with the lumen output, the Cree R2 fits like a glove for these bikes.

Also, these bulbs have a 50,000-100,000 hr lifespan.

.wee.
 

outlawbiker

Member
Mar 15, 2009
282
0
16
Chicago NW Suburbs
how far ahead and wide can you throw a beam with those cree LEDs? ive seen some super bright LEDs but as far as throwing a beam and illuminating the road ive never seen any do that.
 

hiker472

Member
Nov 6, 2008
653
3
18
Ontonagon County,Upper Michigan
how far ahead and wide can you throw a beam with those cree LEDs? ive seen some super bright LEDs but as far as throwing a beam and illuminating the road ive never seen any do that.
This thing is bright, but yeah, off the flashlight the beam is more contained with a light path of about 7-8' wide and about 100' out. What I'm going to do is put that bulb in my regular bicycle bullet headlight to let the light splash wider. I may lose some distance with that, but my light splash will cover more road area.

My bullet headlight has the standard bulb in it and lights well for city driving, but this Cree blows that thing away. One thing I'd like to change though is the color of the beam from white to yellow, like regular bulbs, but I haven't gotten that far yet.

I've tried regular LED's and those thing aren't worth a dime.
 

aspireonescs

New Member
Jan 4, 2010
63
0
0
38
Saint Marys county, Maryland
i just tore this apart for the bulb. battery and elctronices: Amazon.com: Stanley SLM09 2M Series Spotlight: Automotive mounted the refelctor and bulb on my hanledbars, and ill tell ya that thing is bright. 530 lumens 12 volt 75 watt bulb and 12 volt 3ah battery, was on sale at wall mart for 18 bucks last night. my hand gets real hot when its in front of it and boy it throws a good beam, ill upload pics later, camera batteris are dead :( ive been going through bike lights like a kid goes through candy on haloween too lol
 

outlawbiker

Member
Mar 15, 2009
282
0
16
Chicago NW Suburbs
thanks for the advice guys,but i dont think the spot light is gonna work. 12v @ 75 watts sounds plenty bright,but if use the mini gen,i dont think it is gonna dump that much power back into the battery pack.the idea here is to get as bright as i can get while holding a steady charge while driving or idling . in other words a charging system that works like a car or motorcycle.

sorry im a little tired right now if this dont make any sense. im leaning pretty hard on buy this mini gen,seems to me it puts out the most power and is great cause its separate from the magneto. i find it really hard to shell out over a 150 bucks for their complete set up,but if thats what its gonna take to get brighter lights i may have to.

im pacing back and forth undecided if i want to waste the money to find out their 12volt 10 watt light hardly lights up. or worse yet... i fry something.

obviously i have a extreme obsession with finding not just the brightest headlight to work on a charging system on the bike, but one that floods the street ahead with plenty of light to see obstacles in the road. if i do get this kit,i will report back to you all here how good it works and give you all my fair unbiased opinion.
 
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Cabinfever1977

New Member
Mar 23, 2009
2,288
1
0
Upstate,NY
Heres what i use for my lights:

1 18volt cordless drill battery and 1 18volt 1hour quick charger(walmart $54)
(you could get a 12v battery and charger)

1 front 12volt led headlight with low and high beams(walmart $5)

1 rear red dome taillight, like those used on trailers,came with one 12v bulb and i added a second 12v bulb in the housing(napa $6+ extra bulb)(no need for second bulb when using 12v battery)(I'll probally replace this with a led version)

1 110volt on/off switch(mine came off fan)(u can use 12v toggle switch with 12v battery)
1 fuse housing + fuse of proper rating(radio shack $5)

The 2 12v tail light bulbs are hooked together in series to = 24volts
The 12v head led light is run from 18volts

These lights are very very bright and lights up the road and can be seen around 1,000feet away. Battery is 2years old and works like new and last for many hours. Total price around $70 and has been working for 2years.
 

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mountain80

Member
Aug 8, 2008
260
4
18
Red Deer, Alberta
Outlaw biker, I bought one of the 12V mini gen max off ebay from wonderful creations. The first one only put 13.8 v @ 6000 rpm and the second about 14V at redline as well, Nate is the guy who builds them and after sending me the second one mentioned that my tach was out which wast true but only by 250 rpm or so. I must say he was a stand up kinda guy as I shipped both back to him and he built a heavier revised version. The revised version is putting 14.5VAC @ 3500 rpm and about 24VAC at redline. Now that that problem is solved I have ordered his reg/rect which is good for 1-1.25 amps but he does include a fuse holder and recomends a 1A fuse. I will be using it to charge my 7AH sealed battery and it will extend my use of my headlight. I run the same mr16 bulb as he does but picked a set up lights for 20$. However I run a 35W mr16 and it positively lights up the night, I can see 40 or 50 ft in front of me no problem. I realized it will not keep the battery at full charge but it will be better than nothing. Hope this helps.
 

outlawbiker

Member
Mar 15, 2009
282
0
16
Chicago NW Suburbs
Outlaw biker, I bought one of the 12V mini gen max off ebay from wonderful creations. The first one only put 13.8 v @ 6000 rpm and the second about 14V at redline as well, Nate is the guy who builds them and after sending me the second one mentioned that my tach was out which wast true but only by 250 rpm or so. I must say he was a stand up kinda guy as I shipped both back to him and he built a heavier revised version. The revised version is putting 14.5VAC @ 3500 rpm and about 24VAC at redline. Now that that problem is solved I have ordered his reg/rect which is good for 1-1.25 amps but he does include a fuse holder and recomends a 1A fuse. I will be using it to charge my 7AH sealed battery and it will extend my use of my headlight. I run the same mr16 bulb as he does but picked a set up lights for 20$. However I run a 35W mr16 and it positively lights up the night, I can see 40 or 50 ft in front of me no problem. I realized it will not keep the battery at full charge but it will be better than nothing. Hope this helps.
thanks alot for your personal review on the mini gen. i hope some other people could mention their experience with one,this sounds like the way to go aside from having to send em back and get a better built one.hopefully soon i will have the money to order one
 

wildemere

New Member
Feb 12, 2008
269
0
0
Newcastle
If you combined the output of the bottle dynamo and white whire you will have a similar output as the mini gen thing.

It could be done with electronics (bridge rectifier to DC) or a transformer (remaining AC)

You should get roughly 12v and half an amp to play with.
 

Dan

Staff
May 25, 2008
12,765
115
48
58
Moosylvania
An off the wall thought would be solar. This is an upper end one but looks perfect. Amazon.com: Concept SL-100 32 LED Solar Security Light with Motion Detector: Home Improvement Entire search results; solar powered security light - Google Product Search

The panel detaches so could be permanently mounted where bike gets parked during the day. They have many versions of this. I tried cheap yard ones and were not bright enough to see by. But looking at these at Home Depot, mega bright. Mine had removable, rechargeable batteries so could charge a set while using another.

Not sure most folks like the way it looks on their baby, but is fun telling folks who ask that it's a solar powered lite.
 

mountain80

Member
Aug 8, 2008
260
4
18
Red Deer, Alberta
One thought to ponder is the quality of the ht windings. Lets face it they are not the best would it be possible that drawing more current out of them for a lighting system would cook them quicker?? That was one of the reasons I choose to go with a seperate independent charging system.
 

mountain80

Member
Aug 8, 2008
260
4
18
Red Deer, Alberta
My reg/rectifier came in today and the weather looks like it will be a garage working weekend. Picked up a few things to build the wiring harness so hopefully by Sunday we should have a full generating system that chareges the battery, stay tuned.
 

outlawbiker

Member
Mar 15, 2009
282
0
16
Chicago NW Suburbs
ok, looks like this weekend ill be ordering the mini gen off ebay. now here comes the tricky part. i dont know if a 10 watt halogen is going to cut the bill on brightness compared to super bright CREE LED or LUXEON rebel star LED. i have absolutely no experience with LED'S and ive seen they can produce alot of light for low amps, the mini gen is sposed to put out up to "1.5 amps or more" as quoted from their AD. any one got any ideas if those LED's would be better, if so, whats the ones i should buy and how do you wire em up? id like to make sure im not wasting my money and time, i dont know where to find '12 volt 10 watt LED headlights' thx for any help.
 

outlawbiker

Member
Mar 15, 2009
282
0
16
Chicago NW Suburbs
Read this forum:-

CandlePowerForums

Then you will know it all.
not trying to be rude but, im asking the question here in case anyone knows, i really dont feel like having to sign up for another forum and burning my eyes out by dredging thru thousands of posts and searches. thank you for the link,it maybe useful over time.

im looking for a super bright LEDS that i can run up to a total of 10 watts @ 12 volts,how to wire it,and how to put it in a heat resistant bezel/lens so it functions as a headlight.

and by "headlight" i mean a light that mounts on the bicycle itself, not on to someones head.

also i wanted to post this here for other MBer's to find if they wanted to do the same.
 
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wasabi805

New Member
Jun 2, 2010
34
0
0
Santa Barbara, CA
"i really dont feel like having to sign up for another forum and burning my eyes out by dredging thru thousands of posts and searches."

im looking for a super bright LEDS that i can run up to a total of 10 watts @ 12 volts,how to wire it,and how to put it in a heat resistant bezel/lens so it functions as a headlight.

and by "headlight" i mean a light that mounts on the bicycle itself, not on to someones head.

also i wanted to post this here for other MBer's to find if they wanted to do the same.
Seriously, if anyone can give a straight forward answer to outlaw's straight-forward question, you'd be doing a great public service.

A for effort on trying to help but, some of these suggestions get us nowhere.

I have the exact same problem of trying to find a legit lighting solution.
Correct me if I'm wrong outlaw, is this what you're looking for?
High power LED bike head light with integrated heat sink

I understand that copper is a good choice because it dissipates heat pretty efficiently.
The link above is the direction i'm leaning towards but, I'm looking for some ideas on a less labor intensive way to make the housing. I'd also like to know if it would be possible to power this set up on something other than a battery: (i.e. the eBAY generator or a Hub Dynamo)

I apologize for sounding brash but, it's frustrating to be told to search the forum before you ask a question only to realize that your searching yields fruitless due to answers that don't even address the initial question.