For sure, but a more capable driver with several output levels would be interesting.
…just keep the speed up on the highest level for forced cooling :sunglasses:
Wow I wish I’d seen that earlier! I didn’t know the spec’d drive current could be exceeded on a continuous operating basis. The drivers will go to 3A with a sense resistor change. The heat sink will probably be insufficient, but I’ll set up a test and find out. I might be looking at excessive losses in the 14ga 12ga wire from the battery too.
Yeah, you could probably increase that wire size several gauges higher, and go ahead and up the current to 3A max. Since you’re using DTP copper MCPCB’s I don’t think that would be a problem. But then again, I could be wrong. I’m looking forward to results from your testing! :partying_face:
Thanks for posting, build threads are the best 
That is pretty darn AWESOME.
Very nice work. You have plenty of heat sinking to drive those emitters pretty hard.
No. Build quality is good. All worked. I fried two playing with their PWM hookups, but that was my fault. I ordered three batches. Took about 4 weeks to deliver each time.
Not yet. Many projects in the queue still.
Actually I think the vertical beam angle could be narrower. I’d like less light on the ground in front and more in the distance, so I bought some XQ-E Hi emitters to test. With the same lenses, they should get more Cd per lumen and the vertical should decrease from 13 to 8 degrees, per Carclo.
This bar might be obsolete very soon.
Man what a sweet build!
Welcome to BLF. I can’t explain how but someone reading here certainly can tell you how to set up your high beam vs. El Jefe shots either as an alternating GIF or even cooler is the hover-over trick so when you hover over it with your cursor it switches between high beams and El Jefe. It doesn’t matter if you do that or not it just sounds cool. Anyway, well done. I love the stealth factor. That straight on shot looking into it looks awesome. Looks literally like one solid bar of light. :+1:
It’s long, thin and cute :heart_eyes:
Awesome work
Thank you for sharing
Nice light and some good welding.
Wow this is super sweet.
Great idea! Done and done.
Nice!
Way to take advice and go beyond. :+1:
The smooth transition is a very nice touch. :+1: :+1:
This is truly awesome! I’ve been wanting to do some DIY lightbar for a while now with all the available options being extremely expensive or just plain crap.
Do you have a link for the optics?
Very nice work, thanks for sharing! I am planning a similar project myself…… if I ever get caught up on things.
Frankly I don’t think the $2000 light bars are all that either. Bling seems to be the primary goal over function. But then again, image is everything. No one would want to buy a plain black rectangle.
I got the optics here:
http://www.ledsupply.com/led-optics/10003-l25-carclo-lens-20mm-elliptical-spot-led-optic
Good work mate you beat me to it. I’ve starting modding a small light bar for my girlfriends car. It’s 12 inches so it sits inside the bumper. Output aim in 10-15k lumens I was going to go crazy and use XHP70s but it will cost to much. I made my own heatsink also. I am not sure about where to mount my driver.
I am more worried durability then output I think.
excellent build …I run ebay cheapies they leave a bit to be desired…
thanks for posting
I’m sure you can make a better light bar than what you can get off the shelf. You can space 20mm lenses and star boards 25 mm apart, so 12 LEDs in 12 inches, you can easily get 12,000 lumens using XM-L2s. http://www.ledsupply.com/leds/cree-xlamp-xm-l2-leds?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIya2939Wy1QIVkTRpCh3ohQAwEAQYASABEgInw_D_BwE
The Carclo website has beam patterns for their lenses with practically every LED available. You can get lenses for the XM-L2 in spot, flood, or elliptical and design it how you want, for example: http://www.carclo-optics.com/optic-10003l25?opticfamily=20mm Once you find the pattern you want, you can get them from LED Supply or Mouser.
I’m looking forward to seeing your build!