Custom High power LED light bar

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Hey guys, I just wanted to post a quick pic of the preliminary light bar design. First and foremost, the optics are TIR lenses by Gaggione, the two large ones are the 67mm LLC56N, 12 degree spot with a XHP-70, or 9 degrees with a XHP-50. The 4 smaller ones are an elliptical 45mm LLC49E, 40 degree wide beam and only 14 degrees vertical beam, it’s a wide flat flood, which is what you want in an automotive light.

The floods HAVE to be the XHP-50 as the 70’s are too big for them. But the spots can take 70’s, and I will go with that as they would both have the same lux (~90,000 candela), only the 70 has a larger 12 degree beam over the 50, so I figured why not.

The heatsink on the back is 350mm x 100mm x 48mm, it has 33 fins (3mm to 1.5mm tapered fins) with a thicker 4mm straight fin on each end. Made by Conrad Heatsinks in Australia.

The LED housing is 15mm wall thickness, there is no point in making it thinner as it has to be machined from a solid block of aluminum anyways. And since this is custom, it would only cost more to do more machining. There is an o-ring trench top and bottom, against the heatsink and against the lense… the front bezel pushes down on the lense, onto the o-ring trench.

The LEDs will be driven at 100%, so 18,000 Lumens combined. They will be the top binned chips so expect pretty close to that number. The drivers will have several modes, so no need to blind people 2 miles away if you don’t need to. :slight_smile:

The spots and floods will have individual controls as well, so if you don’t need spots, turn them off, and visa-versa.

Let me know what you think.

2

Yikes, that looks like a lot of $$$. Pretty cool, though. Was hoping this might be something budget I could incorporate on my zero-turn, but I’ll pass :-/
You mentioned automotive light…what are you planning to put this on?

3

With a couple people I have in on it, it looks like around $300 - 350. But you couldn’t buy a more compact, more powerful light bar that is built as good as this. :slight_smile: If that puts it into perspective. I found that you can’t make a cheap light bar, if built properly, so I said what the hell, spend a bit more and get alot more…

I will put it on my CRV of course! :slight_smile: Saskatchewan roads with lot’s of wildlife running around needs some light I think!

Cheers.

4

I think it’s real cool to see those Gaggione optics put to use. Also I like the design. The heatsink portion being made from an off the shelf extruded profile is nice for cost reduction. The protective lens looks easy enough to replace by the user. Of course if your chosen led’s don’t work out as intended, as far as the beam goes, you can always try others. Same goes for the optics. :beer: It could be made cheap(er) in bulk if the machined aluminum portion were an extrusion. Then it would only need tapped holes and the O-ring Groove machined. Well, mostly.

5

That’d be pretty easy on the eyes with some nice warm tints like http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60_114&product_id=456 or http://www.mtnelectronics.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60_114&product_id=641 to match the headlight tint.

6

That looks really good, would be perfect for the front of my car. Will be keeping an eye on this thread even if it is far out of my price range. Vibration resistance and water ingress will probably be the biggest issues. If it turns out as good as it looks from the specs $300-350 seems like a reasonable price compared to other high end lightbars.

I wouldn’t go too warm with the tint. It’s personal preference but I like aux lighting to be as close as possible to headlight tint.

7

I like the design, it’s just about what I was wanting to build myself. I’d be more interested in just buying the shell+optics to fill with my own driver and emitter choices.

8

Yeah, I like these optics too, but the only thing I am wondering if they are missing, is beam ‘field’, which there is a lack of with TIRs, it puts the light where you want it… do we need a beam field, I don’t know. I will find out when the LEDs come in. Yes, everything will be changeable, including the optics, but I am going to do alot of playing around with them on their own before I am sure they are going to be used.

9

5000k LEDs is what I am getting, it is the optimal color temp for visibility and eye strain/fatigue. It is just a touch warmer than direct sunlight.

10

I think it will look good too, thanks. Vibration is my only thing to workout, as far as the optics go, securing them is one of the only things I am still working out, but I will figure it out when the LEDs come in. The LLC56N is light for being a solid piece of plastic, as it’s PMMA, but relatively heavy for a lense of it’s size, compared to a reflector I think?

Yes, you compare it to a standard 50” amazon.com light bar, it would probably outperform it, in light quality (color temp), as well as beam profiles, so puts the light where you need it, and thus probably providing more light. Those light bars only run at 60% LED power, they rate the light bars based on the max LED wattage/lumen rating.

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If anyone is interested in possibly going in on this project, let me know. The more the better.

12

You have a driver lined up?

13

I was thinking THESE, 2 drivers to run 4 xhp-50s, and one for each 70.

Or a couple of Taskled drivers, but the Taskled doesn’t have direct switch activated modes, only click modes, which you don’t want on an automotive light.

14

Too bad that this manufacturer does not have a nice boost circuit (or at least the eBay seller doesn’t seem to carry one). OTOH I’m pretty sure that I don’t need modes in that application anyway, so TaskLED would be fine.

15

Would the Taskled handle the so called voltage spikes from the charge system on a car?
What area are you from zpinch.

16

It’s worth looking at DIWdiver’s linear automotive drivers. They can be customized a bit. 1, 2, 3.

17

Sweeeeet! your design looks better than mine for sure. $350 would be a steal for that unit. Would that heatsink be able to handle that much XHP? what kind of wattage are you planning?

18

Wight, what do you need a boost circuit for, do you think that maybe the 12v system wouldn’t have enough voltage when the alternator isn’t turning? For 100% power that is.

MRsDNF, I don’t know if it could handle the voltage spikes, but I don’t know much about the TaskLED drivers, nor do I about the other drivers that I posted above… I have a 3 amp and a 2.4 amp unit from them coming in the mail, however. To test. I am from Saskatoon, SK, Canada. eh

Hoop. I checked out those drivers, they look pretty good, I might snatch one up to test.

foolio, thanks, glad you guys like it. $350 would be a nice price point, I would like to keep it under $300 though ideally. I am almost certain the heatsink can handle 140watts of heat, it’s pretty hefty (1.6 kg/3.5 lbs), and is rating at 0.28C/W, that is 40 degree rise at full power. I am not sure if that is rated for a small amount of airflow across the fins, or merely natural convection, but either way, that is pretty good.

The front lense will be an AR polycarbonate 0.25 Inch sheet. That is abrasion resistant, not anti-reflective, if you are wondering.

19

Interesting, I’d be keen but I’ve seen these type bars come and go on here, none very successful so far…

20

$350 is out of my price range… I have really wanted to build one like this too, but dont have the resources for the housing. If it was closer to 200-250 I would be in for sure.