What an amazing thread!! It's really interesting to see the engineering thought process behind the design of the light. I wanted to go into mechanical engineering when I was I was in college, but my math just wasn't good enough. I ended up in IT doing business software instead. (once a nerd, always a nerd).
It will be interesting to see the beam pattern once you get it all together and running at full throttle. Although your design isn't conducive to a curved light to create a wide beam, having a set of emitters at each end of the light set outwards at 20 to 30 degrees might provide more peripheral light. Sort of like a built-in cornering lights. (Please understand that I am NOT arm-chair quarterbacking! Just thinking out loud.)
Can't wait to see the pictures of it in action on your Jeep. Aren't you concerned that the light beam will catch bushes or trees on fire as you drive past?
Thanks so much for taking the time to share this process with all of us!
This thread makes me wish I went into electrical and/or mechanical engineering. For now I'm stuck flashing C programs onto assembled microcontroller boards using code developed by someone else, then wiring them into a heatsink developed by someone on the CNC and installing it into a Maglite. Makes my "modding" seem so very modest.
I can see a lot of off-road guys wanting a product like this, depending on the price. You should send one in to Xtreme 4X4 on the Power Block :)
I haven't seen any, but they're easy enough to make. MPCB's are somewhat of a sham anyway - they conduct heat less well than a thin circuit board with heavy copper and lots of via's.
Further, I've not even seen the 50mm Khatod optics for sale anywhere. You might be able to buy them right from Khatod, but I can't be sure about that. Some companies refuse to sell direct - only handling sales through distributors..
At full blast, assuming your scooter has a 12V electrical system, you'd need to supply this with about 21 Amps of current. I kind of doubt the average scooter has an alternator that could keep up with that - but I'm not at all sure.
There is, however, no reason you couldn't run something like this at less-than-full-blast to fit its output to the available power. Even at 50% brightness, which would only require about 11 Amps, you're talking about 12,000 Lumens at the emitter, and over 10,000 out the front (after Optics Loss and Protective Lens Loss). A 55 watt halogen head-light need 4.5 Amps, so 11 Amps is not a crazy number, I would assume.
Hehe - Yeah, there's been more engineering thought put into this little hobby project than there is in a lot of commercial products on store shelves. I may have gone a little overkill :) I hear you on the nerd thing - I dabble in Database Administration here and there..
I had actually considered having the outside groups of LED's pointed 30 degrees out to do just what you suggest. There are two difficulties with this plan though..
1) The front protective lens is currently very easy to make. It's flat. Having to wrap that lens around a corner means either bending plastic, injecting plastic, or using three pieces
2) Circuit boards don't bend. Well, they do, they just don't work very well afterward. Again, this means either FLEX (Expensive), Rigid FLEX (Even more Expensive), or three circuit boards (Pain in the Ass)
Neither can I! I'm quite excited to get it fired up, tested, and installed. With as much time, energy, and money as I've put into this, I'm more concerned that the light beam will not catch bushes and trees on fire :)
My pleasure. I've always enjoyed sharing the things that I'm involved in. Thanks for all your kind words!
We all have wishes about what we should have gone into - trust me :) The C programs you speak of are really not that complex - you should take some time and learn what they do. Programming a microcontroller isn't horribly complicated - especially with the fairly simple nature of what we're doing here. It's kind of fun, in fact. There are BASIC compilers for both Atmel and Microchip uControllers as well - BASIC has a much easier learning curve for a non-programmer because it's "Natural Language"
Basic Code looks like:
IF PINB.B5 = 1 (If the PIN at PORT B5 is HIGH)
BRIGHT = 127 (Set Variable BRIGHT to 127 - if we're using 8 bit variables, then this is about half)
PORTB.B3 = 0 (Set the pin at PORT B3 LOW)
END IF
We'll see - For now this is a hobby project... I haven't put a lot of thought into making this a 'product'.. I'm not ruling it out, I'm just not ruling it in...
oh yeah way too much lol..the 11 amps would probably be possible, but would be quite taxing..it runs 2 35-watts and is able to do 55's..there are even some guys with hid setups and they work quite well..10 000 lumens would be amazing..let me know what you're charging for this setup ;)
Enclosure and other miscellaneous metal bits will be back in my hands after anodizing tomorrow. This is the color scheme I decided on for the first light. I have a second one that will be a little less obnoxious - but I wanted something stand-out-ish for the first show piece :)
I kinda figured the optic couldn't touch the emitter. Obviously, I'm forgetting we're not talking about reflected light but rather, focused light? I'm still having a hard time understanding how it projects so far.
Well, it is still reflected light for all intents and purposes.. It's just that it's reflected inside the optic rather than off the edges of a reflector. Both types of optic have their merit. Light inside a TIR optic is reflected not necessarily just once - think of it like a diamond. It's shaped so that light continually bounces around until it comes straight out the front. The multiple reflections is what allows the optic to be smaller.
As for the two being built - I always build at least two of everything I do. This way, I have one to put in my collection of 'cool stuff I've made' and another to actually use. It's also a bit safer since if I happen to blow one up, the whole project doesn't die. (not that I've ever blown something up [Big Smirk])
Well, there's always risk when pushing the envelope and the diamond analogy helps because I do understand that. A TIR specifically magnifies the light.
Enclosures and metal bits are back from the Anodizer. They did a great job, as usual.
Pics of the enclosure:
The double layer acrylic protection lens is also done:
As are the mounting brackets, cable grip and bezel surround
Back-Side shot:
Since this is going to be used on a vehicle, I designed the enclosure to IP67 Standards (impervious to dust, safe to submerge up to 1M). This is the custom 100% silicone (good to over 500 degrees F) seal for the front bezel.
One last shot.. The markings on top are just dust - the anodizing is quite flawless..
This is the show piece for my collection - The second one will be the one that goes on the Jeep. I haven't decided on a color for that one yet - It probably won't be silver because I want it anodized for corrosion protection. I suppose I could do clear anodize, but that seems so boring :) I'm kicking around the idea of having it done in a dark blue to match the jeep with the accents (bezel, brackets) in chrome or silver (just like the accents on the Jeep). Undecided though..
The shop I use for anodizing does an incredible job. They're certified to do MIL-Spec Anodizing and Chemical Conversion Coatings (MIL-A-8625 Type I, II, IIB and III and MIL-DTL-5541 Class 1A and 3) so they're work is pretty top notch. Amazingly, they're really quite reasonable if I'm willing to wait for the next batch they do of the type I need. They did my enclosure for 40.00 USD and the accessories in black for an extra 10.00 USD. It would have been even less expensive if I would have chosen a more common color like Red, Blue or Black. The enclosure is type II, Class 2 and the accessories are Type III, Class 2. Type III doesn't dye well with bright/light colors, which is why I went with the lower type on the main enclosure.
First of all.... Kudos for an excellent showcase of your design skills here! Thanks for threading it here on these forums, for all of us to view.
I see that some of the individual optics sit in a black outer housing (like the 38mm ledil you show in a previous photo), but these 3-up optics don’t have a housing around them? I understand that optics are different from reflectors, but some of the light has escape out of the optics just because they are clear plastic, does it not? I wonder what would happen if the backside of these optics were coated with a silver coating (even if it was only something like chrome paint), so that no light could escape through the sides of the optic? Any idea on that?
I believe the optics work on the same principle as fiber optics. As long as the angle of incidence occurs within a certain range, then ALL of the light is reflected. Of course, nothing can be manufactured perfectly and I'm sure there are other variables that cause small losses. So then painting the exterior of the optics probably wouldn't do much for it. Seems kind of counter-intuitive though, huh?
I have to admit, I am just airing my thoughts and I could be completely wrong. But while I'm at it, I must express my appreciation of PilotPTK's awesome design. I wish I had the skills and knowledge to pull off something like this.
PilotPTK, let me get this straight: you've designed the heatsink enclosure, drew it all out on CAD 3d, probably programmed the CNC machine, completed some kind of CAD heat analysis, designed the specialty PCB, did all the layout, probably did some electrical simulations, etc... That's a LOT of skills. Anything I missed?
For people who just do a piece here and there, it probably is a bit more costly.. I'm lucky that through work, I do a LOT of business with this shop, so I get their 'large volume customer' pricing. It's not at all unusual for us to send 10 or 20 thousand dollars of work to them in a month.
