I have spent a few hours and some $$ on lighting lately. Here are some of my
thoughts.

Try and get Phillips, GE or Osram. The Jaycar bulbs and light assembly are
quite poor. Poor light output, Poor colouring. Basically junk. If anyone is
looking at using bi pin bulbs (I haven't tested assemblies yet) then GE is
the
way to go (34715 Is what I tested). Nice white light. I would then go for
Phillips and Osram in that order. How do I know this ? Well I have just
finished building some lights using small car spotlights (Don't waste your
money of cheapies) and custom bulb holders. It works very well. I spent MANY
hours testing differing bulbs, filament types Ect. side by side. I am
currently looking for some projector bulbs to test them. If they can cope
with the vibration
then I will probably stick with them. 25% brighter than the brightest bulb I
can find with the usual reduced life.

I know that Osram make a assembly that uses an Xenon bulb (IRC). I was not
overly impressed with these (Actually disappointed). Not as bright as they
should have been until over voltaged. (I know that someone in Adelaide is
currently looking at using these to take a product to market with.)

There is a HUGE different in light output, colour and quality between
different bulb's/housings. For the people who have built them I would
recommend looking at what they are using and if they can get an additional
performance increase for little outlay.


I hope this is of interest and help to a few of you. It was not posted to a
relevant post in this thread as I could not decide which one.




AJS



P.s I am looking at setting up an light meter and measuring the output and
spectrum of different lights. If I do I will post URL for interested
parties. If anyone know where I can get HID 10-20W bulbs for a decent price
let me know, this is my pet project that is just a little to expensive to
finish at the moment




"kingsley" wrote in message
newsan.2003.07.02.21.46.21.258743@maddogsbreakfa st.com.au...

Have you ever seen the discharge graph for NiCd batteries?

It goes roughly:

|...............
V | :
| :
+====================
time

I can tell you that NiMH feels about the same.

The problem is that, as Murphy would have it, that
abrupt turn in the graph corresponds to the curve
you're riding down, in the rain, on the commute
home from work. You've just about got time to to
think "Hmmm, that light is looking a bit dull", and
then a minute later it's just about out. Maybe it
had been a bit duller earlier, but riding in those
dawn/dusk times it's impossible to tell.

This has led me to thoughts of other batteries. IMHO the
vistalight 'nitestick' is not too bad, and I think
for it's price it's good, I'm happy with mine anyway.
I must remember to charge it every couple of days though.

But each battery is only 2200mAh at 7.2V. Why is it
such a bulky battery supplies only 2200mAh? I must be
missing something. I know a photo shop that sells 2000mAh
'AA' batteries - admittedly AA is only 1.5 volts (which is
really 1.2V talking NiCd/NiMH).
Wouldn't 6 of these ganged together give me 12000mAh and
probably weigh the same as a nightstick?
Have I missed someting here?
Can someone suggest a better SLA alternative?

A nightstick battery (NiMH) costs about $70,
a pack of 4 2000mAh AAs (IIRC) about $50 with a charger.

cheers,
-kt