A battery ? and Halogen vs LED

Hi Everyone,

Time to get the light going again. I have a few questions:

I have a Silva 480 10w/20w halogen headlight with a 6V 4.5aH battery. I
can't find the charger. It's here someplace, but I don't feel like
rummaging around for it. It's not a smart charger, it a
burn-down-your-house-if-you-forget charger. I have access to a charger
made for my son's Lego Dirt Crusher r/c car, that may work just fine.
Can someone with knowledge of such things help me out? The r/c car has
a 7.2 volt, and on the charger it says the output is 6-9.6V 550mA. It
would be nice to be able to use if for convenience, and because it has
auto shut-off. The polarity is correct and the connector is the same.
But is that shut-off calibrated to 7.2V? Will it fry my battery or burn
down my house?

Also what are the advantages of LED set-ups? The Silva 480 has a range
of 120 meters according to Silva. It's pretty bright. I am comfortable
going up to say 30km/h with it. Would some LED system give me more
light?

Thanks!

Joseph

In article .com,
wrote:
Also what are the advantages of LED set-ups? The Silva 480 has a range
of 120 meters according to Silva. It's pretty bright. I am comfortable
going up to say 30km/h with it. Would some LED system give me more
light?

I don't think any LED bike lights can match the output of a 10W halogen light.
The main advantages of LED systems is that the batteries and bulbs last much
longer.

wrote:
On 10 Nov 2005 10:32:32 -0800, wrote:


Hi Everyone,

Time to get the light going again. I have a few questions:

I have a Silva 480 10w/20w halogen headlight with a 6V 4.5aH battery. I
can't find the charger. It's here someplace, but I don't feel like
rummaging around for it. It's not a smart charger, it a
burn-down-your-house-if-you-forget charger. I have access to a charger
made for my son's Lego Dirt Crusher r/c car, that may work just fine.
Can someone with knowledge of such things help me out? The r/c car has
a 7.2 volt, and on the charger it says the output is 6-9.6V 550mA. It
would be nice to be able to use if for convenience, and because it has
auto shut-off. The polarity is correct and the connector is the same.
But is that shut-off calibrated to 7.2V? Will it fry my battery or burn
down my house?

Also what are the advantages of LED set-ups? The Silva 480 has a range
of 120 meters according to Silva. It's pretty bright. I am comfortable
going up to say 30km/h with it. Would some LED system give me more
light?

Thanks!

Joseph


You should be fine with the charger *IF* the battery is a gelled lead-acid type. These are
very forgiving of input voltage. Although the battery states it's a 6 volt, it normally operates
higher and will take a good 7+ volts to charge. My charger puts out 7.5V when it's connected to my
battery (also 6V, 4.5 AH gelled lead acid)
I have a 10 watt halogen and I've tried the LED Luxeon lights. They're getting there but have a
way to go yet. I have a cheap one on my helmet as a backup (I ride the Trans-Canada trail to work
and it's pretty dark in the morning). It's a 3 watt Luxeon from Radio Shack (now 'The Source')
which at least lets me stay on the trail if my main light dies). Keep your eye on the new LED based
lights as I'm sure it won't be long before they deliver the brightness of your halogen.

have to agree - I run a 3 watt L.E.D off my hub dynamo - it's 90%
adequate but won't be as bright as a 10 watt halogen. The next year or
two should see the release of new L.E.Ds which will be adequate for
bicycle head lamps - looking forward to this personally

tspoon wrote:


have to agree - I run a 3 watt L.E.D off my hub dynamo - it's 90%
adequate but won't be as bright as a 10 watt halogen.

Can you give us details? I'd be curious. Thanks.

- Frank Krygowski

On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:16:34 -0800, frkrygow wrote:

tspoon wrote:

have to agree - I run a 3 watt L.E.D off my hub dynamo - it's 90%
adequate but won't be as bright as a 10 watt halogen.

Can you give us details? I'd be curious. Thanks.

I'm curious too. I wonder if the rectifier you'd need to convert the
dynamo's output to DC for the LED would waste more power than the LED
would save (vs. a halogen). It would be nice not having to worry about
bulbs burning out though.

Matt O.

On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 16:09:03 +1300, tspoon wrote:

I have a 10 watt halogen and I've tried the LED Luxeon lights. They're getting there but have a
way to go yet. I have a cheap one on my helmet as a backup (I ride the Trans-Canada trail to work
and it's pretty dark in the morning). It's a 3 watt Luxeon from Radio Shack (now 'The Source')
which at least lets me stay on the trail if my main light dies). Keep your eye on the new LED based
lights as I'm sure it won't be long before they deliver the brightness of your halogen.

have to agree - I run a 3 watt L.E.D off my hub dynamo - it's 90%
adequate but won't be as bright as a 10 watt halogen. The next year or
two should see the release of new L.E.Ds which will be adequate for
bicycle head lamps - looking forward to this personally

I use a 5w LED and find it as good as a 15w halogen. the halogen was
brighter in the center of the field, but the light dropped off quickly
giving you tunnel vision. The LED is a bit more spread out, and gives
about the same amount of total light. It is also brighter to oncoming
traffic, since the light source is so small and is not so focused as the
halogen.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Let's be straight here. If we find something we can't
_`\(,_ | understand we like to call it something you can't understand, or
(_)/ (_) | indeed even pronounce. -- Douglas Adams

On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 19:02:48 +0000, C wrote:

In article .com,
wrote:
Also what are the advantages of LED set-ups? The Silva 480 has a range
of 120 meters according to Silva. It's pretty bright. I am comfortable
going up to say 30km/h with it. Would some LED system give me more
light?

I don't think any LED bike lights can match the output of a 10W halogen light.
The main advantages of LED systems is that the batteries and bulbs last much
longer.

That is no longer true. I claim the 5w led is brighter.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Enron's slogan: Respect, Communication, Integrity, and
_`\(,_ | Excellence.
(_)/ (_) |

On 2005-11-10, C wrote:
I don't think any LED bike lights can match the output of a 10W halogen light.
The main advantages of LED systems is that the batteries and bulbs last much
longer.

By far not true as of year 2005. Even mainstream CatEye has
3x3W "Triple shot" lamp, which is certainly brighter than 10W
halogen. More advanced manufacturers like Lupine have 4x3W lights
(http://lupine.de/en/products/komplett/wilma8.html), which they
say is between their 16W and 25W (properly driven) halogens.

Konstantin.

C wrote:
In article .com,
wrote:
Also what are the advantages of LED set-ups? The Silva 480 has a range
of 120 meters according to Silva. It's pretty bright. I am comfortable
going up to say 30km/h with it. Would some LED system give me more
light?

I don't think any LED bike lights can match the output of a 10W halogen light.
The main advantages of LED systems is that the batteries and bulbs last much
longer.

The 10W setting is useless on a bike in my opinion. I need to use the
20W setting. The battery seems to last about 2 hours, which is fine for
my needs. The only thing is it would be nice to have even more light
further, so I am not in danger of out-running my vision range. What
about HID lights?

Joseph

wrote

I ride the Trans-Canada trail to work

That's one long commute!