help/suggestions to increase my scooter lights

hey,
i want to increase my ridiculously low output light in my scooter. :frowning:
im thinking 2xXM-L2 with some optics like this
obviessly i will have to make it waterproof some how but i dont think it will be too hard. 0:)

so im looking for the cheapest single mod (full power only) driver, i think maybe this for 1.5A or this for 3A
this step-down modules have an adjustable volt and amp option so they can take the 12V from my scooter battery and drive the LED at any volt/amp i want…
any cheaper way to drive this?
and what about the LED/optics setup, will it make a good beam for driving a scooter at night?
any suggestions?
thanks.

as you can see, i dont have much mounting room here, but i do have this bolt i can use to hold a tiny LED bar, wich will go through the plastic where i made the cut.

What bulb does the headlight use? Maybe just upgrading this to a brighter bulb will work. The plastic headlight cover looks pretty milky too. Might want to see about cleaning that up to let more light out.

Not saying don’t go LED spot lamps, but might as well check the bits already there are working well first.

I don't know how your headlight is setup, but I had a MC-54 style 250cc scooter for a short while (before the motor shredded after about six months of use and only 5k miles). I replaced all of the bulbs (Brake/tail, turn signal, running lights, instrument cluster, & license plate) with aftermarket LEDs from DX, all of which were significantly brighter than the factory incan bulbs. This freed up enough power where I was able to replace the factory headlights with higher wattage bulbs, which made a huge difference. The bike only had 35W bulbs, and 40mph at nighttime was enough to outrun the headlights. I installed 45W bulbs and it was much brighter, noticeably so.

lol, with lens that much covered in haze, it’ll suck whatever you do. clean up the haze off first. unless you want to install a separate light bar, and leave the stock light as it is.

if you building a bar, forget the tir you linked, bad choice, use ledil iris 38mm, use the once made for mce, they work great with xml, and they are mounted with screws, and you want screws, not double stick tape or glue.

the headlight cover can’t be clean, its haze/milkye yes, and the light output was always low… but its not the only problem,
the inside reflector (not the plastic cover) got melted from the bulb hit, so there is nothing to direct/aiming the light now…
the bulb is 35W so replacing it with 45W is not an option as it will melt it even more.
buying new headlight is way too expensive, its like half of what i will get if im gonna sell the scooter :bigsmile:

so LEDs it is,
the leds will be installd on a mini bar (described in the pic) made of copper, it will be placed right on the body/skeleton of the scooter with a screw,
so the hit could go to the scooter body, and i will place a small hitsink at the back of the bar too,

alpg88, im warmly get your suggestion about the ledil iris 38mm, but this is the first time im hearing about them,
where can i bye them?
and what are the mounting holes? is it the 2.5mm screw holes metioned in this pic?
could i drill it so it can fit to a 3mm screw?
thanks.

i bought them from digikey, there are prbly other vendors selling them.
i used 2,5mm screwes with these lenses, i like them cuz you can firmly screw it to a heatsink, (just do not overtighten it, lens holder can crack, i learned the hard way).

iirc there are only 2 holes in the holder, same screw does 2 jobs here, it preses the lensholder against the led star, and it presses the led star to the heatsink, (there are some cutouts on the bottom of the holder in case yoyu want to screw the star by itself, than screw holder on top of it,) but i used just 2 screws in my builds , they seem to hold just fine, but my build was not a scooter, so you have to deal with something i did not have to, vibrations.
this is how i mounted mine.

As I saw those Bolt-holes - I immediately thought “there could fit a flashlight” - What diameter is that?

Maybe you can use two light like the Convoy S2+ or S3 - or something like that.

Saw the back of the flashlight away, solder some good cables to the LED - make it waterproof from behind (with silicone) and solder it to a 12-14V 1.5-3Amp driver.

I think that 2 COnvoys with XM-L2a @ 3A are brighter than your normal light - and you have your normal light as well - so you double that up - and if the police is searching for tuned up scooters they are not that easy to find (if sqitched off, of course :P)

alpg88, i think i may go with the cheapest option atm, i mean i can get 5 realy cheap lenses and find a way to mount them, just for start, after all its my first try, i dont even know what beam angle would be best.
then if it will work fine i may upgrade. (i couldnt find the ledil lenses less then 6.5$ each) and i may want to install more then two on my scooter…

L4M4, your idea is realy great, but after installing, i cant see an easy way to “aim correction” (if the beam will not be where i want it on the road)
with the copper bar i can just bend it to where i want to on the road… 0:)

thanks guys :beer:

It looks like you’ve thought this through pretty thoroughly, and IMNERHO made some pretty good decisions.

I tested a standard XM-L based P60 against the stock headlights on a Toyota pickup, and the P60 blew the headlights away, by a lot. 3A may be more than you need. If you use one of the drivers & wire the LEDs in Series (set your output voltage to 5 or 6) you’d only need the one.

That first optic you linked is 25°, and its holder has to be glued down. Maybe a bad choice for the holder, but I think, given that scooters aren’t able to go ‘that’ fast, the 25° beam will be hard to outrun. You’re correct that the 2.5mm holes on the drawing are for mounting screws, as alpg88 illustrated. Your cheapo optics also come with glue-in holders. The screw-hole ones would be the easiest on you, if only because you won’t have to glue them down, even though you’ll have to be careful to get a “star” (LED heatsink) which fits it properly.

Since you’re using holders, you could, say, put the 25° optic on the “traffic side” and get a 10° for the “shoulder side” to get a better look at approaching danger. With holders, you get to experiment with them easily. The optics just pop in and out. And the existing headlight will take care of the close-in things.

The copper bar is going to be your Heat Sink, of course, so you’d want it at least 25mm wide (that optic is 21.3) and 4+mm thick to get the heat away. A modern PC video card comes with a nice round Al heat sink you might use… See if your local computer repair store will let you raid their trash for the cheapest ones. At 3A, you’re going to need all the help you can get.

If your bar is wide enough, once you get everything working you could “pot” the optic holder in epoxy or silicone caulk. That would be more decorative than useful, though…

Other than for that driver, you won’t really need much for waterproofing; but you will need to put a layer of Thermal Compound between the LED’s “star” and your copper bar, to both transfer heat and prevent (or at least delay) the inevitable bi-metal electrolysis that will occur there. Potting the optic will help here too, but all you’d really need would be a thin bead where the “star” and the bar come together, and something to seal the solder joints on the “star”.

I’m looking forward to following this thread! Nice ideas!

Dim

hey dim, thank you for your replay,
i just placed an order for 15 degree and some 30 degree optics,
i know this type of holders will not be easy to mount and i hate to glue them down, but i think i may go with some bracket like this one . will have to make a 21mm one, and thanks to you, i can even start working on that now as you just gave me the “real” Diameter (21.3) it will be some like this: (and it could act as a hitsink if properly pressed on to the bar)

The problem I have always had with CAD drawings is a lack of machine tools at my disposal. YMMV…

OTOH, you could use Common Off-The-Shelf components like this 1-inch Copper End Cap and drill a 21mm hole… Your mounting tabs could be soldered on as needed, and the mouth could be trimmed to whatever appropriate length you need, all with “normal” household tools like sandpaper, propane torches, drills, etc.

its google SketchUp 8 hehe. simple and easy to use.
and yea, this sketch is only the idea, i will find some copper caps at our factory no problem, we manufactor of air conditions/radiators, so should be easy to get something.
and soldering should be easy aswell, i even thinking about an Oring at the top, might be even waterproof without any silicon :slight_smile:
thanks :beer:

Actually it can be cleaned, more correctly it can be sanded and polished with a headlight restoration kit such as the one in the link below.

Amazon.com

the link dosnt work, but its good to know.
in my case tho, the plastic was melted from the inside of the reflector,
thanks.