Rough Guide to DIY Luxeon Bike Lights

5 Watt SuperLED

By Paul Crouch - April 2006 www.outsider.plus.com/bikelights.html

Rough Guide to DIY Luxeon Bike Lights 5 Watt SuperLED

Introduction
This is not a step-by-step guide and is intended just to provide a little more background info, as requested by members of Knobblies MTB club.

Technical Ability
It is assumed that you have basic electro-mechanical skills and the ability to think around a problem or find someone that can help.

Basic Tools Required

You will need: 1. A drill and bits. 2. Taps (I used M2.5, M3 and M5) 3. Hacksaw. 4. Hand file. 5. Soldering iron with a fine tip. 6. Lathe (or a great dollop of luck) explained later.

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Rough Guide to DIY Luxeon Bike Lights 5 Watt SuperLED

Main Components
Listed below are the component parts of a complete light system, along with brief comments, possible suppliers and example photos. Feel free to substitute parts if you want to do things differently. 1. The emitter: The super LED mounted on a star PCB/heatsink. 5 watt. 120 Lumens. I got mine from Farnell (or The Sandwich Shop.)

Image 1: Luxeon V Star 2. DC-DC converter: I'd recommend a Downboy 1000 from The Sandwich Shop. The PCB is approx 14mm diameter. Max input voltage is 16V.

Image 2: Downboy 1000 3. Donor torch: From eBay via Hong Kong. You're mainly interested in the head assembly and reflector/lens. You won't need #6 if torch has good on/off switch. The donor torch can either be used as a whole (easiest) or cut-down (more work and plenty of room for problems). You'll get a 3 watt emitter as a bonus!

Image 3: The torch I used...

Image 4: An alternative torch with a better switch.

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Rough Guide to DIY Luxeon Bike Lights 5 Watt SuperLED

4. Heatsink/slug: A lump of aluminium to physically hold the emitter, conduct heat away and to radiate it into the air. If you're very lucky you can find a piece of round aluminium that fits snuggly inside the body of your torch. This is the most difficult component to source and is where a lathe can be very useful. It is also the part that needs the most work holes drilled and tapped etc. Can you think of an alternative way to do it? Perhaps thermally conductive epoxy resin or liquid metal poured into the body? 5. Heatsink compound (thermal paste) to provide good thermal conductivity between joints. Farnell, Maplin or computer supplies shop.

6. Switch: A small toggle switch (with a lever) is the simplest. Maplin, Farnell or model shop.

7. Cable: Has to contain two or more wires. I prefer coiled cable. I used a two core cable off of an old mobile phone charger. Maplin have a selection of wire and cable. 8. Connectors: Mini DC two pole plug and socket. You'll need a line plug (cable mounted) and a panel socket (mounted in torch body). Any miniature two-way plug and socket should do. Maplin, Farnell or model shop. CRC and Wiggle have spares for lights, see what you could use.

Image 7: 2.1mm plug

Image 8: 2.1mm socket

9. Bar clamp: Use your preferred method to fix your light to your bar I used a Vistalite Handlebar Mount from CRC (or Wiggle). A cable tie base with a re-useable cable tie works fine. Consider strapping to your helmet instead?

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Rough Guide to DIY Luxeon Bike Lights 5 Watt SuperLED

10. Battery holder: A holder for eight AA cells. Get a PP3 battery clip too. 8 rechargeable cells give 9.6v nominal. Maplin, Farnell or model shop.

Image 9: Eight AA cells makes getting and charging batteries cheaper and easier. 11. Batteries: High capacity NiMh AA cells. I used 2700mAh cells from 7dayshop.com

Image 10: 2700mAh the bigger this number the better. 12. Charger: Fast charger. Try to get one that will charge from either 240VAC mains or 12VDC car accessory socket. I got mine from 7dayshop.com

Image 11: Dual input fast charger 13. Case/holder for battery: I used a generic mobile phone case made of stretchy neoprene. Tesco

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Rough Guide to DIY Luxeon Bike Lights 5 Watt SuperLED

What You Need to Do

Remove the AAA battery holder from the torch, it isn't needed. Replace the 3 watt emitter with the Luxeon 5 watt star. The emitter should be fixed to a slug of aluminium to hold it in place behind the reflector and to carry away the heat. Fix the slug inside the torch body. Use thermal paste between all joints on the thermal path. Fit the panel socket somewhere into the torch body and the mating half (plug) on to your cable. Ensure you have the same polarity on both plug and socket. Fix your clamp to the torch body. If using cable ties, super-glue a bit of old inner tube around the bar to stop the light slipping. Wire the emitter to the converter, and the converter to the switch. The switch is then wired to the socket. Insulate all connections and stuff it all inside the torch. Take care when screwing on the cap. Join your cable to the PP3 clip. Connect PP3 clip to battery, flip the switch and say "Let there be light..."

Image 12: Here's two I made earlier... Top: Original, with integral switch. Bottom: Mark II with custom heatsink and external switch.
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