Have 20 Volt Dewalt LiOn Battery and a Dirt Bike

Flashlight Modding and DIY Parts
1

Hello, I’m trying to make a headlight for my dirt bike. I have an 20 Volt (18 V ??) Dewalt drill battery to power it. It is the smallest 20 Volt model. It has a capacity of 1.5 amp hours. They make an adapter mount that I could Mod to hold the battery and have it snap in place. I could get DC output from this.
I’d like an LED light that I could mount to the front of the bike that would give me a decent spread of light. If it had a flash function that would be a bonus. The amount of choice is dizzying and I don’t have a clue what might work with this voltage or be of decent quality (Take vibration). Looking for something that would light up about 100 yards or so, with the sides being lit up too (Not a spot light).

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

2

Does you dirt bike have a 12v system? If so this might give you some ideas

If not, you might still be able to use some cheap mr16 bulbs with you 20v DeWalt if the bulbs are non dimmable
That is if they can operate on 12-24v

3

My bike has no charging system as it is a Motocross racing bike. (Yamaha YZ 250). Thanks for the reply, Bob

4

I think it would be easier to not use the drill pack.
Light: http://kaidomain.com/p/S026104.KDLIGHT-BL70s-Cree-XHP70-White-6500K-3000-Lumens-4-Mode-LED-Bike-Light-Black
and one of the linked battery packs in the description, depending on how much runtime you need.


but you will have to make some other mounting for it - it’s made for bicycles and not for moto-cross, so you need a bit more foothold






Edit: Or you use a Buck-Converter to get the 20V down to 7.4V.

5

I would look at some of the mountain bike lights. You may need to do a driver swap to use the 20v pack though, most of them are running 7.4v packs (2s2p).

6

I would recommend getting one of the waterproof cases that you can load your own 18650’s into (safer and better quality cells).

Example:
http://www.dx.com/p/upgraded-18650-dc-usb-double-connect-battery-case-dark-blue-396773#.WTg-0uvythE
or
http://www.gearbest.com/diy-parts-and-tools/pp_119294.html

7

KD uses NCR18650GA cells to make those bat-packs - can’t go much higher quailty :wink:


I have one of those Solarstorm cases for 4 Cells - mine has a pretty high self-discharge and emptied my cells in a week down to 2V.
But it works and it is waterproof - you just have to know about the self-discharge. (also mentioned here: Review: New "Solarstorm" 2S2P 8.4V "water resistant" 4 x 18650 battery case for bicycle lights under “Standby current”)
so just detach the top from the pack if you don’t use it.

8

NCR18650GA cells? impressive. Nice change from the xxxxfire brand that used to be standard fare for those bike packs.

9

It has a stator though. You could replace it with a lighting stator and run a headlight.

10

That would be quite expensive and add more weight I would think. I think the bike light makes the most sense though, as these usually have a flasher function. Thanks for the suggestions.

11

I gave you a 2 part answer in post #2. I think you may have read right over it.

An MR16 non dimmable bulb that will run on 12-24V will work great with your 20V DeWalt battery.

Here are a couple of things I did with an 18V Ryobi, DeWalt calls theirs a 20V, and some 12-24V MR16’s

A really, really easy 10 minute 18V power tool flashlight mod.

42 Emitter Flashlight mod. UPDATE, Now running on 18V and FINISHED

To mount the MR16’s you could do something like this.