[quote=PrinceValorum]
That’s certainly one way to go about it. I’ve never seen a quality light bar “host” at that price range.
That would be like attempting to mod this into something impressive:
You have a crappy housing, no heat sinking, no room for optics, etc etc. Even if you could turn it into something impressive, is there a reason other than just doing it for the sake of it?
At least that’s my take. I could have easily overlooked an affordable decent housing, but I really question the materials, build quality, and especially waterproofness of something in that price range.
Edit: Also, thank you, X3
I'm talkin' about something like this gut'ed for a series of cree xhp50's. They are 24" long & $22.99 so to me it seems its just like modding a flashlight. i wonder if those SMO reflectors Simon is supposed to get for the Convoy L6 will work?
That has been mentioned and considered on this thread, you can guess the decision on it…
You could, however, throw in a bunch of lower power LEDs, say some XPL’s at the most, some 20 - 30mm Carclo Optics, either elliptical flood or spots or a combo. I have never seen anyone actually attempt anything like that though. The case is not water proof, they really aren’t, you go buy one and take it apart and you will see how badly made they are. And I don’t even know if it could handle XPL’s even, the thermal path is REALLY bad.
Go for it, then give us a little feed back. I’ve helped install a few on friends jeeps and trucks. Only Baja Designs and Rigid Industries looked as if the designers knew what they were doing. The cheap Chinese imports are flimsy, poorly fitted and far from water resistant. But for $22.99 you could do worse. Personally I stick to replacing the LED’s with XP-G2’s mounted on the largest copper pads that will fit. Internal shelf will probably be thin and extruded as the housing. Improved efficiency could make it worth the effort. You’ll have no room for larger reflectors, you’ll have very little room to run more wattage.
That said remember that the original poster of this thread has demonstrated a do it right from the beginning philosophy. I personally believe you get what you pay for and $22.99 might not even be worth that if you intend to actually mount it on a vehicle.
Heat is definitely not your friend in an application like this. I would venture to say one would have to be moving to keep it cool. I'm sure a solid copper board would help dissipate heat as well.
IMO this is worth the price of admission in this throwaway society in which we live. I want to support those who put in the effort to build products to last.
I’ve actually seen in the specifications on at least a couple of the cheaper bars that they clarify they’re not to be mounted in a static location, or indoors. Apparently plenty of moving air was assumed in the design specifications.
Half the fun of modding a flashlight is to see what it can & cannot do. We all have seen good/bad products from China so its fun to fix the flaws & make something better. This is true in thermal dynamics, ip rating or whatever. I would agree that the mounts that come with the China light bars are junk. Making a set of brackets is not a option, its a necessity.
I went to the off road expo yesterday & spoke to Edgar Madril of Rigid Industries. I spoke to him specifically about dealing with the issue of heat in an off road light application. He had a demo of a rigid light & a baja designs light on display for testing. He showed me how they handle the issues encountered with heat. I was impressed with how clean their designs are. Edgar is an optical design engineer for Rigid so it was refreshing to speak to the guys that decide how things get focused.
Have any of you noticed that Richard at Mountain Electronics (BLF member RMM) has announced his light bar, coming soon to market? I don’t think anybody should be worried. But, I’d like to see how these compare to his when all is done.
Richards bar has small reflectors and have one beam only.
This project using TIRs that can be ultra-narrow, narrow, medium, wide, elliptical.
Yes, lots of differences, which is why:
- There should be no worry about ‘competition’ as people will buy whichever style meets their need better.
- A comparison should be interesting, and will help people decide which style they need/want to buy.
That’s cool, do you have a link to any info about it? I went to M.E. and nothing.
Interesting. :smiling_imp:
Well I am hoping this can get off the ground before Christmas, I am about 3 months on this project. I have been screwing around with the light bar, inspecting the spot lenses and I discovered that the spots are not sitting at the proper elevation over the LEDs themselves, they need to move up 1mm+, the machined housing will take care of that, but it should focus the spots better than they are now (…tape 
)
I also decided for the sake of science to de-dome all of the LEDs on the light bar just to see, and I found out that it sucks! First, it dropped the tint to about the low 4000’s k temperature, and it seems like it dropped the lumens in half! (although it could be observational illusion) I did not expect it to have such an impact on total light output. It does, however, tighten up the spots (and floods) as expected, or rather not so much tighten as it is trimming the size of the beam down while keeping the same intensity, but again, I could be wrong, I should take some pics with the same settings as before to compare. I also decided that it is 5000k tint for me or nothing, it is the ideal color IMO for visibility and eye fatigue. Stay tuned for some beamshots.
From what I’ve seen, the first things to fail due to old age are almost always capacitors. If I knew that it was built with higher quality components & design built to last as long as possible, it’d be worth it to me to pay extra up front. Even though it might be cheap to upgrade to something brighter in a few years, I want to get to the “good enough” point and just enjoy the ride.
That said, I have a mill that needs its servo distribution board serviced with new power resistors and FET. Fortunately the capacitors that it has are huge, and less likely to dry out as smaller caps.
Yes, the electronics in an LED lighting products can be an issue, some cheap components such as capacitors having a life time shorter than the LED itself if stressed too much. Solid ceramic capacitors are a must obviously. Potting the circuits probably helps also, or conformal coating. Millitary grade something we should strive for in any product.
Any updates? Photos! haha