I need a LED head light for my 48volt ebike, plenty to choose from on eBay but most have an operating voltage between 4 and 8 so they need a battery pack or a DC DC step down. but I can't seem to find a small one with a input V that high. what to do??? any ideas?
LED head lights
- Thread starter jimmyN
- Start date
ohzee
100 kW
http://www.armytek.com/products/flashlights/
you get what you pay for. I have a zebralight and armytek love them both.
you get what you pay for. I have a zebralight and armytek love them both.
bowlofsalad
100 kW
https://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=35095&start=200 This thread surely has tons of great gems and answers to your questions.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-90V-led-head-light-white-e-bike-motor-bicycle-car-truck-bus-24-36-48-60V-12W-/391097627745 < This is the one I've used on a few bikes for the past few years. Notice that the light can use a range of voltage that'll work out just fine for you. Very bright, thermal protection, can't note any problems. Plenty bright for electric bicycle speeds, I've connected these to cycle analysts. I used 'Steel Clamp Looms' to mount this light where I wanted to.
http://stores.ebay.com/Sincere-Partner/_i.html?_nkw=light&submit=Search&_sid=1008585971
http://www.ebay.com/itm/12-90V-led-head-light-white-e-bike-motor-bicycle-car-truck-bus-24-36-48-60V-12W-/391097627745 < This is the one I've used on a few bikes for the past few years. Notice that the light can use a range of voltage that'll work out just fine for you. Very bright, thermal protection, can't note any problems. Plenty bright for electric bicycle speeds, I've connected these to cycle analysts. I used 'Steel Clamp Looms' to mount this light where I wanted to.
http://stores.ebay.com/Sincere-Partner/_i.html?_nkw=light&submit=Search&_sid=1008585971
Alan B
100 GW
There are a number of good threads on LED headlights here at ES, search for them.
Note that most of the cheap headlights throw too much light into oncoming driver's eyes, very few are designed for a proper downward pattern.
Note that most of the cheap headlights throw too much light into oncoming driver's eyes, very few are designed for a proper downward pattern.
wesnewell
100 GW
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-DC-12V-85V-Motorcycle-e-bike-20W-LED-Modified-Headlight-Lamp-Gold-/151502030052
Just ordered a second one.
Just ordered a second one.
samsavvas
100 W
Alan B said:
The one you want to avoid dazzling on-coming drivers is the e-bike light made (and apparently recently discontinued) by Philips. I think bike24 may still have them.
Savvas.
MadRhino
100 GW
One of my favorite
Cheap, with integrated driver 12-80v. So you can switch it direct to your battery.
http://www.dx.com/p/exled-electric-...dlights-modification-lens-strong-light-302629
Cheap, with integrated driver 12-80v. So you can switch it direct to your battery.
http://www.dx.com/p/exled-electric-...dlights-modification-lens-strong-light-302629
Check these. Real 15W. wide beams and far beams. Very good price
http://aliexpress.com/item/eBike-El...-15W-Blue/32296477754.html?recommendVersion=1
http://aliexpress.com/item/eBike-El...-15W-Blue/32296477754.html?recommendVersion=1
Ykick
1 GW
Nobuo said:
Looks cool but what do they mean by "blue"?
LowkeeRider
100 mW
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2012
- Messages
- 49
Anyone used one of this DC to DC converter for LED lights:
I bought it off ebay. It does not work when connected to the battery not even the red power indicator light come on. Nothing.
Someone with more knowledge about electronics show me what is wrong? or I can just return it for refund.
I bought it off ebay. It does not work when connected to the battery not even the red power indicator light come on. Nothing.
Someone with more knowledge about electronics show me what is wrong? or I can just return it for refund.toshy
1 mW
2 of such lamps died in less than an hour on 48V batt.MadRhino said:
Using those, they work for a few months now, but not as "strong" as the upper one.wesnewell said:
Edit:
U can also look for this one: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=61377&p=993802#p993802 , make sure its 5w, but its atleast half as strong as the previous one.
And yeah, none of these lamps are opposite-driver friendly.
dogman dan
1 PW
It's possible to put an eye brow on the top of any of those lights, to direct more of the glare down, vs scattering it up into other drivers eyes.
Lots of other threads, discussing lights with lots to consider in them. Since riding at night is actually very rare for me, my option has been two small cree flashlights, that snap into rubbery handlebar mounts I found on Ebay. Plenty of lumens, compared to all other led lights I've had. Look for cree. With two, I can focus one very low to see that broken glass, and the other higher to see the road further ahead. Good lenses on them, so they don't scatter so much light into oncoming traffic's eyes. Definitely I don't point either one up horizontal.
What I like about the flashlights is they do double duty. They mostly get used around the house, but pop on the bike any time. The ones I chose run on two AA cells, so easy to use rechargeable nimh for them. This works fine for me, with no need to have lights most of the time.
Lots of other threads, discussing lights with lots to consider in them. Since riding at night is actually very rare for me, my option has been two small cree flashlights, that snap into rubbery handlebar mounts I found on Ebay. Plenty of lumens, compared to all other led lights I've had. Look for cree. With two, I can focus one very low to see that broken glass, and the other higher to see the road further ahead. Good lenses on them, so they don't scatter so much light into oncoming traffic's eyes. Definitely I don't point either one up horizontal.
What I like about the flashlights is they do double duty. They mostly get used around the house, but pop on the bike any time. The ones I chose run on two AA cells, so easy to use rechargeable nimh for them. This works fine for me, with no need to have lights most of the time.
speedmd
10 MW
The standard round lens reflectors profiles need more than just a simple top brow to keep light out of oncoming traffic field of view. The bottom of the reflector also lifts light up. Some polarizing needs to be done to make it more thorough. Thinking old school idea would work. Mabe adapt a junk car air vent assembly to try out before going a more fancy route on the concept.
friendly1uk
1 MW
The reflector don't do much, it's more cosmetic than anything. The led sorts out the dispersion angle.
A brow works, but I put mine inside, right above the led, and made it from a mirror. Some really good results. Shine it at a wall and you see a clear line, below which is light, and above which is dark. I don't dazzle anyone.
I have seen many blinding lights come towards me, yet they don't light up the road aheaed of them. While I paint the ground with light for some distance ahead. A full 10 count at 20mph.
A brow works, but I put mine inside, right above the led, and made it from a mirror. Some really good results. Shine it at a wall and you see a clear line, below which is light, and above which is dark. I don't dazzle anyone.
I have seen many blinding lights come towards me, yet they don't light up the road aheaed of them. While I paint the ground with light for some distance ahead. A full 10 count at 20mph.
arkmundi
10 MW
I was in home depot today and ready to check out when I saw one of these: http://www.niteize.com/product/TwistLit.asp and bought one. Also at Amazon, in blue, red or white for about $8. These little dodads are great - just twist tie them on and push on/off, bright. Put'em anywhere on your bike.
Alan B
100 GW
friendly1uk said:
The reflector focuses the side light from the LED and makes the beam's hotspot that generates the pattern's central long distance "throw" of the light, the unfocused "spill" around that comes direct from the LED.
friendly1uk
1 MW
Mine don't even have a reflector
The rear one does, and it is very well designed indeed. It chucks all the light that hits it way forward, but very little hits it.
I love my rear light. People comment as I pass. It's over there >>> It puts out a deep crimson red to the rear, a normal red at 45 degree's which fades to orange and finally white viewed from the side. As you can see where it illuminates my white counter.
Edit: you can't see the crimson well, it looks black, as the camera can see the white and is balancing the crimson to black. Also, you can see the mirror I put in my headlight, it's not a second led
The rear one does, and it is very well designed indeed. It chucks all the light that hits it way forward, but very little hits it.
I love my rear light. People comment as I pass. It's over there >>> It puts out a deep crimson red to the rear, a normal red at 45 degree's which fades to orange and finally white viewed from the side. As you can see where it illuminates my white counter.
Edit: you can't see the crimson well, it looks black, as the camera can see the white and is balancing the crimson to black. Also, you can see the mirror I put in my headlight, it's not a second led
Alan B
100 GW
Eliminating the reflector just throws away a lot of the power LED's output, depending on the LED's built in lens and the depth of the reflector it could be half the output, and is a much higher fraction of the central beam. If you look at the beam of a flashlight, almost all of the bright center "hotspot" portion is from the reflector, and the large dim "spill" part of the beam comes directly from the LED and its lens. Moving the reflector forward and back as is done in Maglites focuses the central hotspot without affecting the spill.
friendly1uk
1 MW
That is a cree t6 xm-l I believe. A typical led used in lights. There is nowhere to put a reflector, as the divergence angle is not great enough to light the inside of the unit. If it were an incandescent lamp with a parabolic reflector then your description would fit perfectly, but leds used in these lights often don't put out any light to the side. Or very little. Many oldskool leds have beams as narrow as 5 degree's.
I have two flashlights here. One has a reflector, one doesn't. Like with my bike lights. I guess the lensed one's are less likely to want one, while a standard flat glass varient will likely be engineered to use one.
I have two flashlights here. One has a reflector, one doesn't. Like with my bike lights. I guess the lensed one's are less likely to want one, while a standard flat glass varient will likely be engineered to use one.
Alan B
100 GW
Lensed LED lights waste a great deal of light from the LEDs, but they focus the LED element very effectively at a distance, capturing the portion of the light that reaches the lens and producing a die shaped image downrange. But when you put them in the integrating sphere and measure their total lumen output you find that a great deal of the LEDs total output has been lost compared to a reflectored version of the same LED.
The reflector focusing effect with a tungsten filament is much greater (than on an LED), as only a very small fraction of the light is directly radiated forward from a white hot filament. But even with power LEDs the output pattern is spread over most of the forward half of the sphere. The flux is higher near to on-axis, but the integral of light at wide angles that hits the reflector is still a large fraction of the total. Take a reflectored LED flashlight using a power LED, observe the pattern, and then remove the reflector. Most of the central beam will disappear, the lens on the power LED doesn't make a strong beam like pattern. What's left is a really broad swath of light missing the bright long-range central beam.
The big power LEDs put out quite a bit of light at wide angles, unlike the small encapsulated LEDs that have built in lenses. Here's a graph of a Cree XP-e:
http://reefbuilders.com/files/2013/05/XP-E2-Color-viewing-angle.png
It is fine to throw away some of the light in order to control the pattern, but this loss in efficiency will either require more power or result in less range.
The real trick here is the quantity of light needed at different angles is different. Close in it doesn't take much light, at a distance it takes a lot more light, and above the horizon you want no light. It is not an easy pattern to generate. A lot of lights put out so much light on the ground in close that your eyes de-sensitize and you can't see the main beam very far out. It needs to be dark enough in close to allow you to see farther out, but not so dark that you miss important things in close.
After a lot of on-road commuting experimentation I have removed all the extra lights on my eBike and now use only the Fenix BT20. It works best by aiming it slightly down so the central beam gives good light at a distance (beam pattern just below the horizon), and the fresnel section in the upper lens cuts the upward spill that would be in the oncoming driver's eyes and directs it instead downward to fill in the darkness between the front tire and the lower spill directly from the LED die. What I find is that of the several other lights I tried only the Fenix lights up near and far without a lot of lumens, and without throwing a bunch of light upward where it doesn't belong or lighting up the ground too brightly in close. It doesn't seem super bright, but it allows good light near and far and allows seeing effectively farther than other apparently brighter lights. I ran both after adding the Fenix, then I tried turning all the other lights off and only running the Fenix. I found I could see the road debris in the bike lane farther out, and that the light was well controlled below the horizon. I kept the other lights for backup temporarily, then removed them. I carry an extra set of 18650's for the Fenix, later I will run them from an 8V regulator and do away with separate batteries. An ideal setup might be two of the Fenixes, I haven't tried that. One seems to be enough, a second would be primarily for redundancy.
The reflector focusing effect with a tungsten filament is much greater (than on an LED), as only a very small fraction of the light is directly radiated forward from a white hot filament. But even with power LEDs the output pattern is spread over most of the forward half of the sphere. The flux is higher near to on-axis, but the integral of light at wide angles that hits the reflector is still a large fraction of the total. Take a reflectored LED flashlight using a power LED, observe the pattern, and then remove the reflector. Most of the central beam will disappear, the lens on the power LED doesn't make a strong beam like pattern. What's left is a really broad swath of light missing the bright long-range central beam.
The big power LEDs put out quite a bit of light at wide angles, unlike the small encapsulated LEDs that have built in lenses. Here's a graph of a Cree XP-e:
http://reefbuilders.com/files/2013/05/XP-E2-Color-viewing-angle.png
It is fine to throw away some of the light in order to control the pattern, but this loss in efficiency will either require more power or result in less range.
The real trick here is the quantity of light needed at different angles is different. Close in it doesn't take much light, at a distance it takes a lot more light, and above the horizon you want no light. It is not an easy pattern to generate. A lot of lights put out so much light on the ground in close that your eyes de-sensitize and you can't see the main beam very far out. It needs to be dark enough in close to allow you to see farther out, but not so dark that you miss important things in close.
After a lot of on-road commuting experimentation I have removed all the extra lights on my eBike and now use only the Fenix BT20. It works best by aiming it slightly down so the central beam gives good light at a distance (beam pattern just below the horizon), and the fresnel section in the upper lens cuts the upward spill that would be in the oncoming driver's eyes and directs it instead downward to fill in the darkness between the front tire and the lower spill directly from the LED die. What I find is that of the several other lights I tried only the Fenix lights up near and far without a lot of lumens, and without throwing a bunch of light upward where it doesn't belong or lighting up the ground too brightly in close. It doesn't seem super bright, but it allows good light near and far and allows seeing effectively farther than other apparently brighter lights. I ran both after adding the Fenix, then I tried turning all the other lights off and only running the Fenix. I found I could see the road debris in the bike lane farther out, and that the light was well controlled below the horizon. I kept the other lights for backup temporarily, then removed them. I carry an extra set of 18650's for the Fenix, later I will run them from an 8V regulator and do away with separate batteries. An ideal setup might be two of the Fenixes, I haven't tried that. One seems to be enough, a second would be primarily for redundancy.
Another very good deal
12W real, 12V--80V, balanced beam (wide and enough far). 100% aluminium
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mood...eshipping/32230237843.html?recommendVersion=1
12W real, 12V--80V, balanced beam (wide and enough far). 100% aluminium
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mood...eshipping/32230237843.html?recommendVersion=1
Alan B
100 GW
Nobuo said:Another very good deal
12W real, 12V--80V, balanced beam (wide and enough far). 100% aluminium
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mood...eshipping/32230237843.html?recommendVersion=1
Low $7.59 quality, no beam shaping, dangerous to use on the street, guaranteed to blind oncoming eyes and create ebike haters everywhere you go.
cjh
100 W
Modbikemax
1 kW
cjh said:
Finally something new and original in bike lights. I will be ordering a few.
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