Monday, June 11, 2007

A New Host for my trusty Luxeon 5W bike light

It's been a while since I first built my Luxeon 5W bike light. I was very impressed with it although it looked a bit like a hydra with it's heatsink fins...

I'd always intended to modify it and put into a better looking host and that it just what I did last night.

Specs: 5W Luxeon, 3021 BuckPuck, 4x 18650 in series.

Here it is:



If you want to see more pics keep scrolling down .

Here is what the original cap looks like... the pepper one has had the hole cut into it. This was by far the hardest thing for me to do. I used my cheap dremel like tool to cut a rough hole in the center and then ground it until I had widened it enough.



(FROM LEFT to RIGHT)
1)Bottom of the pepper shaker
2)Inside view
3)3021 buck puck
4)Wiring and switch
5)Switch and wiring from the back
6)3021 inside. Lots of room
7)Compared to an 18650 cell




Aluminium reflector from DX with threads removed.


I cut my own glass lens from a cheap $2 photo frame and hot glued into the lid. Then the Reflector was hotglued into place.



I fashioned a U style bracket from aluminium bar so that it would be a tight squeeze. It was too tight. I had to do a lot of filing but I guess that means for better contact on the edges.

The 3021 buckpuck fit's nicely into this bracket. The orange wire you see in the image below is just to help me pull the bracket out (it's that tight a fit).


Front view... here the led looks a bit out of centre.. but it doesn't seem to make much difference to the beam profile. I tried experimenting with moving the reflector around (closer and farther) but it seemed that the best profile was right up against the led.



I've got a scratch on my hand... battle scars.

More pics in case that wasn't enough:


Here together with the battery holder I built:


All dissassembled..



And now some beamshots:

First my hallway:


And now the wall (somethings wrong with my camera settings... too much noise):


The reflector from DX seems to do a good job compared to what I had previously (my camera settings are alot different):


All in all... took around 4 hrs work. I enjoyed most of it.
Now... I have a spare canister and lo and behold... a spare reflector and SSC P4... I wonder...

EDIT: Here's pics of the old 5W light:



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