led running lights, "how to"

I thought I'd post this for anyone that's interested in adding some cheap led running lights to their bikes,
i've not yet fitted these to my bike as i'm in the process of rebuilding it, but I have the lights up and running on the bench.
this is a cheap alternative to the fairly expensive lights that are on the market at the moment (over here anyway)
I am using cut down or modified battery torches but running them from the 12volt bike power supply.
there are loads of small led torches on the market, and it is possible to run them from 12volt using small voltage regulators, available from electronic stores very cheaply
here are a few torches








I settled on a pair of these they were only £3 75p for the pair



I thought I would mount them either above or below the bottom yolk (tripple tree)





next thing to do is to determine the voltage of the torches by adding up the batteries, i.e.
AAA or AA batteries are usually 1.5volts each, so if there are 3, then the voltage is 4.5 volts.
or in my case the torches have button cells of 3volts each so 6volts.





these little magic boxes are voltage regulators. they are available from electronic stores very cheap, 99p over here



you need to select the voltage regulator that closely matches the torch battery output, i.e. a 5volt regulator will run either the 4.5 volt torch or the 6volt torch
the input voltage to the regulator can be anything up to 35 volts, so even allowing for charging voltage these things can cope with most over voltages on a bike
and if you want to do away with the battery compartment of the torch you can just use the led head,
or glue the base to the head
or just use the leds and mount them in something else






here are the regulators



sorry , scrub that last photo they are transistors not regulators



next you need to solder two wires onto the led circuit board, at the two points where the battery terminals would touch




these two wires are polarity sensitive i.e. its better to colour code the wires,
use red for the positive and black for the negative.

the circuit is very simple


nex you need to add a heat sink for the regulator as these things get very hot, too hot to touch in some cases

this heatsink will also get hot, that is normal, its best to mount the heatsink in the air flow or onto a larger metal surface like inside a headlamp bucket.


all the above lit led's are powered from either a 12volt battery charger or a 12volt battery jump starter

hope this may be of use to anyone wishing to fit some small led torch heads.

cheers

toodle pip and all that.
stu

 

nice writeup, i started making ones like yours which is really all that you need to be seen but got the "bigger is better" thinking.
single Cree on the right and triple Luxeon on the left
google docs

 

cheers Pollock,
your picture on the right, is that light mounted on the fork leg, /fender bracket?
didn't think of that, might consider that as an alternative mounting point as there wouldn't be any suspension bounce at that point.
hmmmmmmm.
stu

 

that one is on my suzuki with frame mounted headlight, the led on the fork/ fender it bolt gives a little different look as the bars turn, not better or worse just light in a different area.
the one on the fork will take a bit more abuse from road bumps. the yamaha's is hooked to the high beam, suzuki's to it's own switch.
depends on what you want to use them for.

 

Bookmarking this page! Thanks, great write-up

 

awesome. thanks for the info. I actually was researching the how to for a set up like this. thanks man

 

http://www.ledsupply.com/advanced-lighting-kits.php
some kits you might want to think about

 

great writeup Bensalf!

I have been inspired. I'm checking out LEDs now.

 

That is impressive technical work. Are they bright?

For $15, I got these from Amazon ready to install:
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=4 ... rt=15.html