$5 Light Pretty Darn Good for Scotchmo Circuit

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Tacomancini

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Mar 18, 2010
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I have been looking for good inexpensive white wire lights. For five bucks the Eveready 3-LED 6Volt Floating Lantern can hook right up to Scotchmo's half wave rectifier system. Industrial Floating LED Battery-Powered Lantern-5109LSH15 at The Home Depot

We're only talking like 20 lumens, but for five bucks it gets the job done, and the lantern is large enough to be seen by cars. I've been experimenting with various radioshack LEDs and despite my efforts to use series circuits to share the 6 volt load I keep blowing out LEDs. I needed something that was cheap and would work with the Scotchmo circuit.

The lifepo4 batteries and the fasteners were the most expensive part of this system.

Here are some pics and my scuzzy attempt at a schematic with parts numbers.











Inspired by this thread: http://motorbicycling.com/f4/6-volt-led-headlamp-w-small-3871-6.html
 
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Tacomancini

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Ha! That's awesome, I really butchered mine. Do you have pics? I'd like to see how it turned out. I'm going to be swapping in the dorcy, but I'll try to be a bit more gentle, and seal the back from the elements some how.
 
ferball

ferball

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Apr 8, 2010
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I actually saved the back and glued it back on after chopping out the middle, I'll get you some pics tommorrow.
 
Sgt. Howard

Sgt. Howard

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Sep 28, 2010
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My first attempt at a headlight used an incandecent 6v cheapo ACE camp flashlight- useless, totally useless... BUT- I mounted the whole shebang into a PVC endcap painted to match the bike! I drilled two holes inline side-to-side, mounted them with 't' nuts that I fixed with plumbers' epoxy (a bolt through both to maintain alignment) and bent some scrap iron to make a cradle mount. Looks JUST like an old-timey headlight! I need to do pix on it...usflg
the Old Sgt.
 
Sgt. Howard

Sgt. Howard

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Sep 28, 2010
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Pulled it off in favor of a battery operated LED system- STLL not as bright as I like, That's why I'm reading this thread- the DORCY light seems a winer, and I've got the wooden battery box I bult for the 6v Lantern battry that the old system used. I will be doing pics this weekendusflg
 
Sgt. Howard

Sgt. Howard

Active Member
Sep 28, 2010
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Okanogan, WA
Here is the Wooden battery box along with the dissassembled headlight- the headlight housing is in fact a 4" PVC Pipe endcap. Use FUSION paint as anything else will not hold up too well. I'm seriousely considering my options here- you know that the home depot link touts an incandecent bulb flashlight, not an LED operation, right?
the Old Sgt.usflg
 

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Tacomancini

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Mar 18, 2010
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Thanks, I fixed that link to the 3 led lantern. Although the dorcy is absolutely worth the extra money, it's about twice as bright at least. It claims 40 lumens to the eveready's 25 lumens. Although, I have't yet tested the dorcy with the Scotchmo recharging circuit, but that would be no problem for you as you have the 6 volt battery on board. Gorgeous battery box and light mods by the way.

The 3 led eveready got me through last season, but I think it was the bare bar minimum of light that is safe, plus I live in the city so there is other sources of light. I will try out the dorcy with the recharge circuit soon. That design worked extremely well btw with the 3 led lantern. And the whole system was buffered by a couple of tiny aa rechargeable lifepo4 batteries that worked perfectly. Also they were quick to come up to Full light even when they were started up from completely discharged.
 
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Tacomancini

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Mar 18, 2010
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Then there's this light, which I've heard is a monster. Now it's more of a standard tactical torch thing, but it claims 180 lumens which seems insane. 5 hours on 4 AA batteries. Now 4 1.5v aa batteries in series, that could be also a six volt circuit. Reviews everywhere I've seen are raves. My concerns with it are that the power draw could be too much for a white wire circuit. Also, it is a much more focused beam, that means less of a spread which could be less useful as a headlight for our bikes.

Then again it could be perfect: http://www.amazon.com/Dorcy-41-4750-Lumen-Flashlight-Batteries/dp/B002OOZERY/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_c
 
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redneck82

redneck82

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May 25, 2014
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concord, nh
my old man and i are working on coming up with a lighting system... we found some really low draw usb ports on ebay for just a few bucks... my basic theory is to take the cree 5000lm headlight and figure a way to charge the battery pack from the magneto... figuring we can come up with something fed off the usb port... we are looking to put 2 of the battery packs together... i'm pretty much treating this project like a wind turbine i built... figuring a constant charge from the motor, charging the batteries, put together a charge controller, and ultimately be able to maintain (possibly charge) a cellphone for use of gps and speedo, and run a low voltage led light system... in searching ebay and amazon, i did find pressure switches for use of brake light, but they were all included in those retarded cheap kits... i'm looking to find the switch by itself... as far as the directionals... colored leds are short money at radio shack... a double poll toggle switch, same thing... there's a local truck parts store here that stocks a lot of led lighting... i'm going to see what they have there for options for orange lights to use for directionals as well as red for tail/brake... i'll let you guys know what i come up with...
 
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