Hi all, just to put my money where my mouth is, I thought I'd share the latest bike light I've built. It's pretty simple, but was cheap and works well:
(I tried embedding images but I just can't figure it out for this website :()
Next project will be an all-in-one bike light/ torch/ flashlight with built in USB charger, but I have some work I need to get done first. Still, at least it'll be slightly relevant to this forum :)
Very nice, matt! I would love to see a beam shot for the TIR if you have it. I have a couple of flashlights with that optic and I'm surprised they are not used more often. What are the dimensions of the finished 'box'? Here's a few pics of your finished light:
I'll be snagging the light back tomorrow to weigh it at work, so I'll hope for a nice dark night over the weekend to take a beamshot. I think the beam is just awesome, for riding or torch/ flashlight use. Lovely centre hot spot with a smooth spill and a relatively sharp cut off/ drop off for an optic. Dimensions are roughly 50x30x30mm for the housing, the spacer adds ~3mm or so.
Matt - on my phone so it's too hard to do right now, but there's several good threads on 'how to post pictures', try the search function. Maybe someone else will post the link. Can't wait to see the beam shots, does it have the typical TIR square beam?
nice light! i'll have similar one maybe next week but with ledil square oval optic and xm-l t4 5a3 (4000k), which should give me nice even elliptic flood in front of my mtb
I didn't even think of searching on here <smacks forehead>.
It has a very even round beam. In fact, the only square beams I've gotten out of a TIR are from a Laura RS and a narrow Carclo (10003?), of which the Carclo is much more pronounced. I'll be replacing the Carclo in my helmet light (LXP RS on the other XM-L) with an LC1, which I'm pretty excited about, should make a near perfect beam for me.
thanks Janko! What optic are you using, a Rose/ LXM? I've always been curious about ellipiticals - I think they'd make a perfect bar light, especially if teamed up with a conventional mid/ flood. I'd love to see some beam shots when you're done (even better, post them in the mtbr beamshot thread :))
sorry about the long delay in getting beamshots up. Here they are, with a bunch of other optics above this post http://forums.mtbr.com/9446322-post91.html
Very nice! I’m going to be buying a road bike soon (first bike since I was a kid), and I think I’m secretly only doing it so I can build a kick ass bike light to ride on the bike trails at night
Man, there are some really good builds over there on MTBR.
thanks! I just added a couple of 7135 chips to that driver you gave me, so that’ll be built up in the near future as a commuting light with USB charging. Riding at night is just awesome, especially offroad. It’s pretty much my favourite time of day to ride, which is handy given how much I like making lights
I agree about the stuff on mtbr, they really do push the limits of output and build quality, especially now the main builders have CNC lathes and anodising set ups!
