light bar setups wired in series

[Winstonk24]

I'm currently debating light setups. I see there are led's that are 12-80v's that would work but with not so great optics. Light bars come with different optics for a decent price, you can get two 12v-30v light bars for 30 bucks. I would go for spot light bars not flood so i dont 'blind' drivers. I would just manually angle up and down for high/low.

I was wondering if anyone has done this wired in series to a switch and fuse without a relay. I would be drawing less than 100w. I'm trying to get around buying a dc reducer to keep the price down.

I see its been done before but everything is very vauge.

 

[fechter]

What voltage is your battery?

In series, each one will see 1/2 the pack voltage, so could work in theory. The problem is during startup one may turn on before the other and cause more than 1/2 the pack voltage to hit the other one, possibly blowing it. The cheap way around this is to place a big TVS diode across each one to limit the voltage to less than the rating. The TVS diode starts conducting when the voltage reaches a certain point. They come in all kinds of different voltages.

 

[Winstonk24]

My battery is 52v. Usually hangs out around 55v.

I do like this idea to protect them. Where would I place the TVs diodes?

 

[fechter]

They go across the terminals of each light, then the lights go in series.

 

[MadRhino]

I series many LED on my street bike, all 12v. Running 24s Lipo, I used 8 LED of 3 colours: red on the rear, blue and white on the front. One toggle switch on the handlebar, no fuse, no diodes. I have done that after frying a few DC/DC converters, 3 years ago. They still work.

 

[Winstonk24]

I think thats the route im going to take. The diodes are so cheap i might still use them.

What about the dc converters from grin? There kinda pricey but im also afraid that they are going to fry.

Its either that or the cheap Chinese lights that can handle 80v

https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/Newe...id=c955af76-477f-429d-8c99-af9c91534ab3&tpp=1
https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/2pcs...id=4e3b61dc-917d-4c02-944e-37db334a12c1&tpp=1

I want to be bright! without spending 300$...

 

[amberwolf]

For CrazyBike2 I just use 12v strips and aquarium LED lights and power them off an old 15v AC adapter that's powered off my main pack (+/- from main battery to it's AC prongs). I use the same kind of lights on SB Cruiser but it has a separate battery to run them, as I haven't got a second AC adapter or DC-DC that will run them, yet. (and I have a regular car headlight and horn so I need the battery anyway)

SB Cruiser (looks a little different ATM but not much; lights are teh same):
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=67833#p1022262

Crazybike2 (looks a little different ATM but not much; lights are teh same):
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=12500&start=1025#p964467