I’ve put together a small GitHub repo with pictures and schematics if you want to take a closer look:
The project started like many others—by getting frustrated with the design quality and price of a commercial product. I decided to design my own solution from the ground up, including the PCB, firmware, and housing.
The current version is 3.1, and I’m starting to feel really happy with how it’s coming together. Some of the images on GitHub show version 3.0 with a single FR4 PCB, but the latest version uses a split-board design with the LEDs mounted on an aluminum MCPCB (thanks to helpful discussions with user thefreeman!).
I’d love to hear any design suggestions or feedback - anything that could make this lamp even better. This is my first high-power lamp, even though it’s been a long time in the making.
I am however doing a new design revision on version 3, returning to a ALU MCPCB and some other small improvements.
I will get the new PCBs in about a two months. Then I think I will send one unit to a testing lab and get it measured, Luminous flux and Light pattern.
After that I will probably build a small batch and put it up for sale. They will then be available here:
But right now I am traveling around the world and will be back in the end of March. So I can only do some design work on the laptop and later when I get home I can do the assembly and testing..
That is also why everything is “out of stock” on the website.
Yes, I have owned a Lumonite, had the Leader model. I also had a LedX Cobra.
I have not heard of the Lucifer. It looks kind of nice at a first glance. The high power unit seems too tall for my preferences though.
Downsides of the Lumonite leader that pops into my head is:
It requires 14.4V input. Can not run from 12V.
Lower light output.
It is also too tall, both the lamp house and mounting location.
Does not have support for handlebar bluetooth switch (I hope I can design one for AxxBeam later)
I do not think you can change the front glass easily if it cracks, that is the case with LedX at least.
I am sitting in a bookstore in New Zeeland and writing this at the moment but there are more things I do believe AxxBeam does better
Yes I use a Constant current LED driver IC.
That is really the idea behind it, do as much as possible as good as I can imagine and take it as a design challenge for myself. It will probably not have the lowest manufacturing cost but that is not the point.
If you only want to “wear it” I would go for something like this instead of a helmet: Headband LUMONITE Ergo V2
But Yes, it is not a flashlight with a integrated battery. It has another purpose.
And to be clear. It is also not useful for someone driving motorcycle on the road in traffic. Then a lamp mounted to the motorcycle is completely fine. Then the weight of your lamp does not matter as much as if you have it on top of your head.
Was actually thinking with a flat face LED like the sft42r and all spot optics they’d be a neat setup for a set of driving lights on a car. Fairly compact (depth wise), but high power and with thermal throttling.
I think the main difference to a car mounted headlight is that you can easily afford a bigger heavier heatsink and have even better cooling of the LEDs.
For this type of headlamp weight is very important and it comes in as a big trade-off on how much light one can get out of the lamp.
Small packaging size, especially depth, makes mounting significantly easier these days. Temperature management can help minimize the lamp size, while moving air from use when the vehicle is driving can help make up for limited thermal mass and surface area.
Very interesting lights, all around. I always get a kick out of people bringing their projects into reality.
Edit- if you were ever interested in pursuing a redesign, diode dynamics sells their fog/driving/spot/flood lenses seperately from their complete lamps (also many available in selective yellow filtration for high color temperature LEDs as well, if you were interested in making something more street-legal-ish. Their mounting depth and arrengment is different than your current vezel design, but they are good optics.
Looked into diode dynamics, they make some nice products! The LediL TIR lenses used today are also pretty good I think.
The small mouting size is essential for helmet mounting but also what creates the tradeoff to light output.. Once I get the new PCBs I’ll do the practical testing by riding some very wet and dark evenings and also light output tests
