[Closed] DIY Bikelights

Looking good, would like to see beam shots of the triple & mini cute. Did you make your own housings as well?

wow they look great, 😀

Neat housing. I guess you have access to a milling machine? Good work.

Wow. They lok like they could be used for shooting down space ships.

Pew pew pew!

Cheers for the good words guys..
Yes all made by myself on my milling machine..

As long as it doesnt pee down with rain tonight, i'll get the missing beam shots done..

What prices are we looking at?

Which one do you like cruz?

Cute helmet light

Cruz not sure on a price, did you need a battery and charger to go with it?
Here's the beamshots
Tripple Cute
[img] [/img]
Mini cute
[img] [/img]

oooo want,want 😛

No battery and charger, got the 900l magic light and a smudge battery. Just looking for a smaller brighter helmet light

I'd be interested in a quote on a tripple & mini cute please, they look great. If I could have a price with and without batteries/charger that would be great. It wouldnt be an immediate purchase, next month maybe depending on the pennies.

If you could mail me back on my profile address please.

Cheers 🙂

Goldigger please could you send me a price of a mini-cute package please.Email in profile.cheers. 😀

Ah i got a little problem with the mini cute, the 1370 lumen board gets very toasty. There is temperture protection on the board, but id be more comfortable using a lower powered board that puts out 1100 lumens..or the other option is to make the housing slightly longer.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this guys..I'm surprised at how many people are intetested in the mini cute..I only have one made up at present so there would be a waiting list so to speak..

Also whats peoples preference on batterys? I myself store my battery in a Lupine battery bottle in a bottle cage. Reason for this is i use a RC lipo battery 14.8v 5800mah as the tripple cute, tripple LC1 XML and tripple P7 each pull 3amps on high.
like this:
[img] [/img]
At present i dont have a solution like the little bags that strap to the stem or top tube. I could however provide an of the shelf one to suit? Or let the buyer sort that part out?

Let me know guys, this is early days for me 🙂

Thanks

Heres'a pic of the mini cute, you can see the switch that i made for it..I can also provide the switch with a flat bottom so it can be tied to the side of your helmet.
[img] [/img]

If its being used as a helmet light, then the battery can be stored in the top of a camel back, unless you have another preference?

Hi Golddigger,
if youre after battery bags I have either 4 cell Li-Ion battery pouches and I also have a large stock of 8 cell Li-Ion battery pouches coming in towards the end of next week/ start of next week.
Please email me if you need any more information.

Nice lights by the way 8)

I would also like a quote on the tripple cute and mini cute with batteries and charger please. These lights look really good, I'm very impressed. Email in profile.

Goldigger -I'm not sure if you're going into mini production -

I'd like a quote for a tripple cute head unit please.

Id like a quote for the Mini Cute too please- complete package that is (unless i can use any of my current vistalight stuff- stick nicads, chargers etc).

They are both very nice lights Goldigger 😉 and have watched the build up on MTBR .

Here is my hastily knocked up trial cutie ( though not as good looking as Goldigger`s) to get some beamshots and thermal testing from.

[IMG] [/IMG]

[IMG] [/IMG]

Here is my hastily knocked up trial cutie

Nice work Trout 🙂

First, apologies to Goldigger for a threadjack 😳

Are any of the DIY maestros considering an 'all in one' unit for production ? Looking to buy an Exposure of some sort but if there's anything home brewed in the pipeline I'll wait and support the 'men in sheds' 🙂

Those little cutie lights are gorgeous btw....

troutie - ygm

Troutie /Goldigger - would it be cheaper for you to 'mass' produce with aluminium casting vs cnc ?

Stuey - Trout showed me an attempt at a mass produced housing for one of his lights... wasn't pretty.

Basically they do the same thing though dont they, its still a machined lump of metal at the end of the day surely? The difference being mas produced, they will try and reduce the amount of machining to reduce cost.

Goldigger, I'd be interested in a quote for triple cute with battery and charger not something that I can afford straight away, but something I'll [i]need[/i] soon 😉

Email address in my profile, thanks!

Stuey and Rossi please can you provide me with an email address?
Everyone else i think i have emailed now..

Thanks

[i]an 'all in one' unit for production ?[/i]

Yeah, suppose I can divulge to the STW massive now that the S2, is coming.

[img] [/img]

😉

Could I have a price on the Tripple Cute & the mini please, no batteries as I have loads of RC batteries 😉

MilkieKula at gmail dot com

that's just the salt shaker in the pub isn't it. And you've been eating bird peanuts from the bird feeder on the left.

[i]that's just the salt shaker in the pub isn't it. And you've been eating bird peanuts from the bird feeder on the left.
[/i]
😆

Yeap, I probably is a bit nuts, but its the brightest Salt seller you've ever seen.

😀

Any idea of run times on your lights goldigger?

Stuey and Rossi please can you provide me with an email address?

email should appear on my profile.

I can get around 2.5 hours on high with the tripple cute with a 14.8v 5800mah lipo. The tripple cute uses a taskled H6flex driver it does however have different levels of brightness and different levels depending on which user interface you use:
They are as follows
[u][b]4.1 Fixed (UIF)[/b][/u]
Intended for lanterns, household and automotive lighting. Eight brightness levels. Ability to turn on at
lowest setting, and quickly change to highest setting without scrolling. Press while on to scroll all
levels. Click turns on, and click turns off.
[u][b]4.2 Portable (UIP)[/b][/u]
Intended for hand-held torches. Five brightness levels. Ability to turn on at lowest setting. Ability to
switch directly to high setting from any other level. Press while off to scroll all levels. Click turns on,
and click turns off.
[u][b]4.3 Bicycle (UIB2/UIB2Q)[/b][/u]
Intended for bicycle lighting. Separate modes for constant and strobe (two, three or five levels each).
From off, a click turns on to constant mode, and a long press turns off. From off, a press turns on to
strobe mode, and a long press turns off. Constant and strobe modes are identical in operation and
Menu choice – except for the click or press to enter the individual modes. In the 2-level Duomode,
brightness changes are controlled by clicking to toggle between the two chosen levels. In the 3-level
Threemode, clicking increases brightness to the upper two levels and then toggles between those two
levels, a press will dim to the lowest level and further pressing will turn the light off. In the 3-level
Trimode, clicking toggles through the three levels and wraps back to the lowest level.In 5-level
Multimode, clicking increases brightness and pressing decreases brightness.

Troutie was kind enough to publish the current draw based on the max level of 3amps
level------draw amps------------ watts
1------------0.03 ---------------0.444
2------------0.12 ---------------1.776
3------------0.40 ---------------5.92
4------------1.14 ---------------16.87
5------------2.14 -------------- 31.67

As for the mini cute i use a 7.4v 5800mah lipo, this again should see about 2.5hours on high that is based on the 1370lumen board which i do not think is suitable for this housing.
I recommend the 1100 lumen version which will see a little longer runtime and the thermal properties will be much better.

Hope that helps

Goldigger my email is in profile too - (couldn't see yours)

macky65 ?? gmail dot c0m

Longtime lurker here and had to signup to get some details from you guys as nights are drawing in
and need some lights soon

Very interested in the S2 from Luminous as was considering the Exposure stuff what is it I have looked at your site and seen the S1
But want some details from Goldigger and Troutie Also please

[i]Very interested in the S2 from Luminous as was considering the Exposure stuff what is it I have looked at your site and seen the S1[/i]

The S2 will be an evolution of the S1.

[b]S[/b] series lights are bar mounted LED lights with rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries contained inside.

The S2 will be an evolution of the S1.

Thanks Luminous but what makes it different or better than the S1

Hi Golddigger,
can you please email with prices of your lights and also a battery and charger. oh, preferred payment and lead time.
ta

Not sure who took up Goldiggers offer to build some of his lights for your winter riding, Well I did and I took delivery of a Tripple cute XML - 2925 lumens U2 bin and a custom Mini cute..XPG R5 1370 lumens run at full lumens so has a very slightly longer body at just under 5cm long, I use this mini on my helmet with a custom made helmet mount made for £8 by Goldigger.

Well I can say that the performance is nothing short of fantastic producing near daylight conditions enabling me to scream downhill at just short of my daytime speeds!! The flood produced is huge, the build quality and look is stunning and Goldigger is a top bloke answering all my questions and I paid him via paypal gift so he could have kept the money and not delivered! The 2 lights with Li-ion batteries and and chargers from smudge (mtbbatteries) cost a total of £415 and I consider this very good value for the quality of the build and light produced. I would recommend anyone to email Goldigger if you are in the market for new lights as these are amazing and are of Troutie quality but much cheaper.

If you want new lights visit Goldigger!

ruscle nothing against Goldigger and his stuff. as he is doing a fine job
but your sweeping statement does hurt a little and on another thread too

is your fine light anodised and lazer etched and you dont state which capacity battery
and how do you know what price my triple will be as it is not yet decided.

Whilst the running gear for the triple is the same
you also have the lumens a bit out.
Mine has been measured at 2700 out the front lumens .
so i guess Jays light will be the same coming out the front,

Your lights are very nice trout and you seem to have a large faithful following, I'm just trying to give a little well deserved credit to Goldigger. If the lumens are out its still bloody bright as you know with your tripple which does look nice btw. The batteries were bought direct from smudge and lasted for a 3hr night ride handsomely but I don't think they are the same capacity as the enduro, 14.8v and 7.4v 5200Mah if memory serves me. I also like that their is no name attached and I'm into silver components presently.

I like that their are people out their like yourself and Goldigger trying to compete with the big brands, and you have to start somewhere so any good word helps...

Hi can you give me a price for one of your tripple cute lights please with a battery & charger email in profile cheers.

cheers

nige.

The-milkybar-kid I know for a fact he is on holiday but should be back in a week. I will forward his email to you as I know he has responded to me while away.

Cool cheers ruscle

Anyone going to post a link to this [i]quality[/i] light ?.

Just curious like.
😉

Link for the tripple cute XML:

http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/another-cute-tripple-xml-727664.html

Also a link for the mini cute I purchased:

http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-diy-do-yourself/tripple-cuboid-has-had-baby-682068.html

Cheers Ruscle.

I'll take a look.

OK, question then.

How big are the batteries required to get a 3 hour run time while pumping 3A to the LEDs ?.

That lupine bottle battery looks quite large and I'm now thinking [i]what is the total system weight[/i]?.
You know, light unit, bar clamp, battery pack.

🙂

My DIY helmet light was fairly straight forward.

LED/driver and optics from lux-rc:
http://lux-rc.com/view.php?p=content/products/light_engines/3UP&_sx=0&_sy=100
http://lux-rc.com/view.php?p=content/products/secondary_optics/L333_20mm&_sx=0&_sy=100
I went with an XPE for a tighter beam.
I think they do silicon cables now as well.

Housing from Easy2led:
http://www.easy2led.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=65&products_id=181&zenid=d8a653bad00545f2616913c95e174364
I bought a mount from them too.

Switch and cable grommet from Farnell
IP67 momentary tactile switch and glue in grommet.

Magicshine extension from ebay chopped up for power lead.
Lipo battery and charger from a magic shine rear light.

An absolute doddle to build - about an hour. Drill two holes in rear cover for switch and gland. Glue them in place, Wire up the button and power cable to the light engine. 'Pot' the rear cover with silicone. Bit of thermal paste on the light engine and install screw in lens with a bit of silicon grease to keep water out. Same again with rear cover.

No pictures yet, but may try and get some of it before I go out tonight. Up against my P7 Bastid it completely outclasses it!

I know it's not in the same league as some of the DIY here, but it suits people without access to mills and lathes, and let me reuse batteries and chargers I already had.

It's that time of year again...wooohoooooooo 😛

ndg.

Would love to see your light once its finished.

😉

I got Li-ion batteries from smudge, did the usual of switching between settings as when needed to get 3+hrs of use, I did leave it in the full power setting for longish periods of time but when running both lights together it was only really required when hooning downhill and twisty single track. The battery I use on the bar light (tripple cute) was a 14.8v 5.2Ah Li-ion battery and for the mini cute it was 7.4v 5.2Ah Li-ion battery. I never once felt under powered with light. The tripple cute unit weighs around 210g and the mini cute is roughly 100g and battery weights are 480g and 240g add around 80-100g per lead. I used the battery bag for the bar mounted light strapped to the frame. I never noticed the weight of this setup and I do have a thing about trying to save weight on my bike, also didn't notice the weight of the head unit at all. So although it is a fairly heavy setup its worth it for the light produced imo.

Ruscle.

Thanks for that. I'm now kinda interested to see what others are getting from a 14.8v, 5.2Ah battery, with the triple turned up to max.
Theres a fair few lights going around now using the triple XM-L at high currents.
Goldiggers and Trout's being just two of them.

Infact, surely the bunch who are running Trout's triple, must have an idea of runtime while set constantly to Max ?.
(assuming they are using a 5.2Ah battery)

Trout.
What battery did you release your loan cutie with ?.

Tried to email the OP but the mail keeps bouncing back to me, can you contact me with a price for a both types please? Battery and charger also required.

Thanks

ndg - nice one I didn't realise you could buy the housings like that!

Do you have a rough total cost in £? I'm always hesitant to order stuff from the US having being shafted by tax before.

Luminous
the triple draws from a 14.8 v power supply. on full 3amps. 2.2 amps

so for it to last 3 hours it would need a 6.6 ah battery ( this does not take in the sag in the battery )

I think I have sent out the demo with a 4.4 ah pack
so 2 hours would be expected. approx

the demo is set up at the full whack as is the spidereyes demo

they can be programmed to any output.

Trout.

Yeah, thats along the lines I was thinking, and as others have posted, one may not need Max for 100 % of the ride.

Be interesting to see the finished cutie (or whatever you end up calling it) with its smoothed off housing.

Of course, I don't need to remind you to post a thread of the finished cutie, when you have them.
😉

Enjoy your hols

Cheers.

😉

Any recommendations of where to get drivers from?

I burnt out my last ones from that diy build thread on here.

Preferably ones which aren't current specific

[i]Preferably ones which aren't current specific[/i]

Not sure what you mean, but I have a few spare MaxFlex and I'm sure Trout will have stock too.

ones which don't burn out if i wire them up wrong, like the last one.

How much are the drivers?

Thanks for the good words Ruscle..
Troutie is correct about my prices being cheaper as they are not anodised lazer ettetched with a logo or made in batches by CNC..
To be honest the time it takes me to make the lights is not worth me quitting my day job for the price they go for.
Its just early days and i want to get some of my lights out there and see where it takes me 🙂
Heres some pics of the latest tripple cute and mini cute
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

PS my email address is in my profile..

Luminous - Member
OK, question then.

How big are the batteries required to get a 3 hour run time while pumping 3A to the LEDs ?.

That lupine bottle battery looks quite large and I'm now thinking what is the total system weight?.
You know, light unit, bar clamp, battery pack.

[i]Besides i use a 14.8v 5800mah lipo battery, so its an easy solution for storage for me..
As for runtimes i should get around 2.5hours on full out of the tripple cute (XML@3amps)[/i]

Hhmmm. Interesting.

5.8Ah
supplying upwards of 2.5 Amps.
runs for 2.5 hours.

A Model 701:
5.2Ah
supplying 1 Amp.
runs for 2.5 hours.

That looks like upwards of 2 x the current draw from the battery for the triple, on only an additional 800mah.

Is your runtime an actual measurement, or an estimate.

Just asking like.
Cheers.

😀

Just an estimate with these figures

14.8v 5800mah
14.8x5.8=85.84watts

3 XML 3.3v @ 3AMPS
3x3.3=9.9v
9.9x3=29.7watts

85.84/29.7=2.89hrs
minus 10% for driver ineffeciancey roughly 2.5

Using trouties measured 2.2amps pull we can calculate like this
5.800Ah/2.2Ax60mins=158.18mins
Use the 80% disharge rule
158.18*0.8=126.54mins

So just over 2hours that way

When i'm back from holiday i'll measure it with a lipo and again with some Lion cells (the li-on cells are just cheep surefire's so that might not be a great test)

🙂

Goldigger please could you send me a price of a mini-cute battery and charger package please.Email in profile.cheers

Goldigger,

Do you sell the remote switches separately? if so how much do they cost?

Bigjim,

the two main components came from Russia, and neither attracted the attention of HMRC (i think the housing was below the £18 limit anyway).

Luminous, here's a couple of photos:

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

Performance on Tuesday was brilliant (pun, much!), combined with the magicshine on the bars I was going down at least as fast as I would have in the day. The tighter beam from the XPE's worked well for a helmet light, and the outdoor colour balance was much easier on the eyes. The only thing I want to modify is to add an on/off switch in the cable - the momentary only controls the mode.

N.

You're all trying too hard, with your columater lenses and CNCd bodies 😉

Tonight's bodge: a lamp for the pub bike, to run from a a smudgepack that I run a troutie from on the main bike

Take:
1x 1 1/2" compression connector
1x MR16 lamp connector
1x 12v 35w Halogen bulb

some bodgin tools and hey presto:

[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

thanks for using my comps, just a minor note about L333 light engine. In fact it can be switched ON/OFF just with a mom button, just keep to pressed for 2sec in any mode to switch off (standby). In standby mode it flashed each 5 sec with a small red led.

Also you can program low mode, just keep the button pressed for 4 sec and release when the desired level is reached.

Good luck with your night rides

-Serge

Thanks for the info, could do with an updated data sheet for these things really! I do like the blend from full to low, works very well, easy on the eyes, but not to slow (like the DX lamp)

N.

jere - Member
Goldigger,

Do you sell the remote switches separately? if so how much do they cost?

Hi Jere,
Please send me an email, email is in my profile.

Thanks

I agree with Stoner. I do like your slot design for the handlebars.. Nice!

My version is here.

http://www.mtbarena.com/2011/09/nights-drawing-build-recession-beating-mountain-bike-lights/

[img] [/img]

I've used this for loads of night riding and never failed. Also the light escapes through the plastic making a nice side on safety measure.

ha! nice one tractorman 🙂

@stoner. ha ha. I might paint them in John Deere colours 😉

Did you see my riser bar - bar end nightmare from 2003 🙂

Did you see my riser bar - bar end nightmare from 2003

nope. ❓

the horror 😉

I apologize to those who will be blinded....;-)

[img] [/img]

2003?

that was legal back then.

Few!, thats Ok then 🙂