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#1
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Nice mount for home made lights.
I found a 'good design' (http://www.hyperactive.oz.nf/Lights4/Luxeon4.htm) for mounting Luxeons. It's a simple but neat design. -- Treadly |
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#2
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Nice mount for home made lights. and a question for Suzyj
On 04/05/06 at 21:44:55 Treadly somehow managed to type:
I found a 'good design' (http://www.hyperactive.oz.nf/Lights4/Luxeon4.htm) for mounting Luxeons. It's a simple but neat design. I've seen that one before - pretty neat. BUT. Last night while I was looking around for Luxeon lighting ideas [1] I stumbled across this http://www.pilom.com/BicycleElectronics/LEDhead.htm [1] For the last month or so I've been messing around with PIC micros for another purpose and spotted a bike light thing spread over two issues of Silicon Chip mag - Apr and May 06 [3]. It's vastly over-the-top for straight bike lights what with a charging circuit, more "modes" than you can shake a stick at, need two of 'em (front and rear) etc. so I figured that I'd rat their design and make actual bike lights, front and rear drivers in one unit. For tail lights I reckon a couple of red 1W Luxeons - one flashing, one steady (mounted as far apart as possible) should do the job. For headlights I figured a 3W white luxeon for "low" beam and a 5W jobbie for "high" beam and both the 3W and 5W Luxeons on for a "super high" beam. All managed and driven by a PIC micro to get the last bit of usable charge from a power source of between about 5 and about 16 volts. Thoughts anyone. [2] http://www.microchip.com/ [3] http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_106372/article.html The question for Suzyj - or anyone else come to that. Do you have any recomendations for PCB layout software ? GPL for preference but cheap will do if it has to...:-) Linux, doze or even OpenVMS is fine. -- Humbug |
#3
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Nice mount for home made lights.
Humbug Wrote: On 04/05/06 at 21:44:55 Treadly somehow managed to type: I found a 'good design' (http://www.hyperactive.oz.nf/Lights4/Luxeon4.htm) for mounting Luxeons. It's a simple but neat design. I've seen that one before - pretty neat. BUT. Last night while I was looking around for Luxeon lighting ideas [1] I stumbled across this http://www.pilom.com/BicycleElectronics/LEDhead.htm [1] For the last month or so I've been messing around with PIC micros for another purpose and spotted a bike light thing spread over two issues of Silicon Chip mag - Apr and May 06 [3]. It's vastly over-the-top for straight bike lights what with a charging circuit, more "modes" than you can shake a stick at, need two of 'em (front and rear) etc. so I figured that I'd rat their design and make actual bike lights, front and rear drivers in one unit. For tail lights I reckon a couple of red 1W Luxeons - one flashing, one steady (mounted as far apart as possible) should do the job. For headlights I figured a 3W white luxeon for "low" beam and a 5W jobbie for "high" beam and both the 3W and 5W Luxeons on for a "super high" beam. All managed and driven by a PIC micro to get the last bit of usable charge from a power source of between about 5 and about 16 volts. Thoughts anyone. [2] http://www.microchip.com/ [3] http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_106372/article.html The question for Suzyj - or anyone else come to that. Do you have any recomendations for PCB layout software ? GPL for preference but cheap will do if it has to...:-) Linux, doze or even OpenVMS is fine. -- HumbugThe problem with the Silicon Chip one is that not only is the design over the top, but the reliability of the circuit board too. The Luxeon pucks are sealed and I've only ever had one fail was when I connected the power up to it reverse polarity. I NEED reliability. -- Treadly |
#4
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Nice mount for home made lights.
Humbug Wrote: On 04/05/06 at 21:44:55 Treadly somehow managed to type: I found a 'good design' (http://www.hyperactive.oz.nf/Lights4/Luxeon4.htm) for mounting Luxeons. It's a simple but neat design. I've been using reflector brackets for my homemade lights. They're pretty adaptable. Another sort of bracket I've used for rack mounting and map holder mounting is one that I got from a marine supply place (Elizabeth St, Mel). They're for mounting things to railings on boats so they can do a fair range of diameters. Strong nylon and two screws. About $9 a pair. I've seen that one before - pretty neat. BUT. Last night while I was looking around for Luxeon lighting ideas [1] I stumbled across this http://www.pilom.com/BicycleElectronics/LEDhead.htm [1] For the last month or so I've been messing around with PIC micros for another purpose and spotted a bike light thing spread over two issues of Silicon Chip mag - Apr and May 06 [3]. It's vastly over-the-top for straight bike lights what with a charging circuit, more "modes" than you can shake a stick at, need two of 'em (front and rear) etc. so I figured that I'd rat their design and make actual bike lights, front and rear drivers in one unit. For tail lights I reckon a couple of red 1W Luxeons - one flashing, one steady (mounted as far apart as possible) should do the job. For headlights I figured a 3W white luxeon for "low" beam and a 5W jobbie for "high" beam and both the 3W and 5W Luxeons on for a "super high" beam. All managed and driven by a PIC micro to get the last bit of usable charge from a power source of between about 5 and about 16 volts. Thoughts anyone. [2] http://www.microchip.com/ [3] http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_106372/article.html The question for Suzyj - or anyone else come to that. Do you have any recomendations for PCB layout software ? GPL for preference but cheap will do if it has to...:-) Linux, doze or even OpenVMS is fine. -- HumbugNot sure about mixing Luxeon wattages. Since they need different currents you might need separate drivers for each type. -- slaw |
#5
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Nice mount for home made lights. and a question for Suzyj
Humbug wrote:
The question for Suzyj - or anyone else come to that. Do you have any recomendations for PCB layout software ? GPL for preference but cheap will do if it has to...:-) Linux, doze or even OpenVMS is fine. Suzy's praises are being sung on http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000273073676/ There's the odd bit of leching going on too Graeme |
#6
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Nice mount for home made lights.
On 05/05/06 at 07:07:31 Treadly somehow managed to type:
snip The problem with the Silicon Chip one is that not only is the design over the top, but the reliability of the circuit board too. The Luxeon pucks are sealed and I've only ever had one fail was when I connected the power up to it reverse polarity. I NEED reliability. I can't see why a well put together controller would be any less reliable than the Luxeon pucks. A well designed controller would've had reverse polarity protection built in. -- Humbug |
#7
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Nice mount for home made lights.
On 2006-05-05, Humbug wrote:
On 05/05/06 at 07:07:31 Treadly somehow managed to type: The problem with the Silicon Chip one is that not only is the design over the top, but the reliability of the circuit board too. The Luxeon pucks are sealed and I've only ever had one fail was when I connected the power up to it reverse polarity. I NEED reliability. I can't see why a well put together controller would be any less reliable than the Luxeon pucks. A well designed controller would've had reverse polarity protection built in. Indeed. Diodes are dirt cheap; sure, you lose a little power (0.7V drop, IIRC), but if you're going to blow out the entire board if somebody does the wrong thing, it's well worth the cost. I'm reminded of the tale of a guy who was designing systems to be installed by drongos out in the middle of nowhere. The first lot was wired up with reverse polarity, so the next revision had the terminals shaped: positive was a square; negative a circle. The second lot was wired up with reverse polarity: they'd hammered the connectors to fit the wrong terminals. I seem to remember that there were a couple of other similar instances before they finally built in a bridge rectifier, and accepted the 1.4V drop in available voltage. -- My Usenet From: address now expires after two weeks. If you email me, and the mail bounces, try changing the bit before the "@" to "usenet". |
#8
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Nice mount for home made lights.
On 05/05/06 at 14:20:23 Stuart Lamble somehow managed to type:
snip I'm reminded of the tale of a guy who was designing systems to be installed by drongos out in the middle of nowhere. The first lot was wired up with reverse polarity, so the next revision had the terminals shaped: positive was a square; negative a circle. The second lot was wired up with reverse polarity: they'd hammered the connectors to fit the wrong terminals. As someone once said - "never underestimate the power of human stupidity". The biggest bang I've seen was at the RA transmitter site at Shep. Someone (NOT ME) tried (accidently) to see how low the impedence of a 22KV line was by switching a BIG genset in out of phase. The gen stopped and the big ex-ship diesel flung itself off its mountings. BIG BANG followed by SILENCE. The answer to the impedance question is VERY bloody low indeed...:-) You can save the voltage drop by putting a fast blow fuse between the power supply and the equipment. The first thing AFTER the fuse is a hefty diode connected across the supply rails. Connect it up the wrong way and the diode conducts and kills the fuse - hopefully before any damage is done. -- Humbug |
#9
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Nice mount for home made lights. and a question for Suzyj
Jaycar have a LED driver Kit for Luxeons which is a lot simpler, it drives
up to a 5W from a 12v supply with low battery cutout so you don't damage your batteries. I think it was Silicon Chip Nov 2004. If you look at the latest article you will see they use a ex CPU heatsink to cool the Luxeon. so keep that in mind when developing your setup. The older article goes a little way to explaining how the choice of heatsink was done. It also used a CPU heatsink. The article basically said the CPU heatsink was marginal. but a moving bicycle should provide some airflow in the absence of a fan. It also discusses the option of driving a 3w LUXEON at 700ma instead of 1000mA to extend the life and decrease the intensity falloff due to running near max output. Still 20 000 hour is probably enough but 50% reduction in intensity is probably not and would be the limiting factor. I am going to try the simpler circuit out with a single 3W LUXEON. Wilfred "Humbug" wrote in message ... On 04/05/06 at 21:44:55 Treadly somehow managed to type: I found a 'good design' (http://www.hyperactive.oz.nf/Lights4/Luxeon4.htm) for mounting Luxeons. It's a simple but neat design. I've seen that one before - pretty neat. BUT. Last night while I was looking around for Luxeon lighting ideas [1] I stumbled across this http://www.pilom.com/BicycleElectronics/LEDhead.htm [1] For the last month or so I've been messing around with PIC micros for another purpose and spotted a bike light thing spread over two issues of Silicon Chip mag - Apr and May 06 [3]. It's vastly over-the-top for straight bike lights what with a charging circuit, more "modes" than you can shake a stick at, need two of 'em (front and rear) etc. so I figured that I'd rat their design and make actual bike lights, front and rear drivers in one unit. For tail lights I reckon a couple of red 1W Luxeons - one flashing, one steady (mounted as far apart as possible) should do the job. For headlights I figured a 3W white luxeon for "low" beam and a 5W jobbie for "high" beam and both the 3W and 5W Luxeons on for a "super high" beam. All managed and driven by a PIC micro to get the last bit of usable charge from a power source of between about 5 and about 16 volts. Thoughts anyone. [2] http://www.microchip.com/ [3] http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_106372/article.html The question for Suzyj - or anyone else come to that. Do you have any recomendations for PCB layout software ? GPL for preference but cheap will do if it has to...:-) Linux, doze or even OpenVMS is fine. -- Humbug |
#10
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Nice mount for home made lights.
Humbug wrote:
On 05/05/06 at 07:07:31 Treadly somehow managed to type: snip The problem with the Silicon Chip one is that not only is the design over the top, but the reliability of the circuit board too. The Luxeon pucks are sealed and I've only ever had one fail was when I connected the power up to it reverse polarity. I NEED reliability. I can't see why a well put together controller would be any less reliable than the Luxeon pucks. A well designed controller would've had reverse polarity protection built in. I think for a road bike it might be ok but for a mountain bike it would be too fragile. |
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