znomit wrote: The mr11/16 replacement units are not bright enough and have poor efficiency anyway. You really need a new housing because halogens like heat and LEDs hate it. They aren't hard to build. Bikeled.org is a good start. Candlepowerforums and MTBRforums have good bike light sections.
For a 35w replacement you want three good LEDs at 1A.
Good stuff here
http://www.cutter.com.au/proddetail.php?prod=cut757

Looking at some of the photos of that type of LED setup they are rather good.

mob: I wish I understood all the technobabble though

even in USD they seem pretty good, though batteries and chargers etc would still need to be added. AYUP's still seem the best option for the electronically challenged such as myself

There is a few of us putting our mad skills together to make some, they should end up with a stylish cnc machined housing, with either 2 or 3 LEDs in each, and some cool electronics to make it all work.

Slim wrote: There is a few of us putting our mad skills together to make some, they should end up with a stylish cnc machined housing, with either 2 or 3 LEDs in each, and some cool electronics to make it all work.

If you make an extra one, I would gladly take it off your hands.

Slim wrote: There is a few of us putting our mad skills together to make some, they should end up with a stylish cnc machined housing, with either 2 or 3 LEDs in each, and some cool electronics to make it all work.

should be interesting, what configuration are you looking at using?

being a man thats just gone through the process of building from scratch. if you can afford the aye-ups buy them!!!. the lights i've made are brighter with a better spread than the aye-ups. but hell what a mission designing and buildinb them. it definatly was not easy.

the aye up light output is acceptable and they weigh almost nothing.

thorg wrote: mob: I wish I understood all the technobabble though

even in USD they seem pretty good, though batteries and chargers etc would still need to be added. AYUP's still seem the best option for the electronically challenged such as myself

with these LED set ups tho, surely you dont have to fork over the big dosh for Li Ion batteries and can just get away with a nice bullet proof smaller Lead Acid, say a 1.5 amp Hour or something, right??? even a 3 or 4 is gonna be half the weight of the brick i'm lugging about already.

Depends on what you want to carry.
I had a 3.4Ahr SLA halogen setup that was really too big to carry and gave 2HRs runtime. Cheap though. Went to a 12AA NiMH 2.5AHr pack and LED, more light more runtime much lighter but $$$.
Now running dynamos $$$$$ but never have to buy another battery and run all night every night, till my legs fall off. Probably cheaper in the long run.
Ok, still need 4AA for my helmet light.

I think trademe is good for RC car batteries. I was looking before I got the 2nd dyno and it was going to be around 150 with a charger for a decent LED power setup.

But yeah, AYUPs look like good value, as does nightlightning.

swtchbckr wrote:

thorg wrote: mob: I wish I understood all the technobabble though

even in USD they seem pretty good, though batteries and chargers etc would still need to be added. AYUP's still seem the best option for the electronically challenged such as myself

with these LED set ups tho, surely you dont have to fork over the big dosh for Li Ion batteries and can just get away with a nice bullet proof smaller Lead Acid, say a 1.5 amp Hour or something, right??? even a 3 or 4 is gonna be half the weight of the brick i'm lugging about already.

for the light i built from a cutter kit ( q5 triple@750mAh ) I used two rc car batteries wired in series to give nominal 14.4v. cheap to buy, cheap to charge and relatively lightweight compared to sla. plus a bit tougher and nicer on the discharge curve. over 3 hours runtime with 2000mAh capacity.

thorg wrote: mob: I wish I understood all the technobabble though

even in USD they seem pretty good, though batteries and chargers etc would still need to be added. AYUP's still seem the best option for the electronically challenged such as myself

If you do come to the day nighter I'll show you mine

Datsane wrote:

thorg wrote: mob: I wish I understood all the technobabble though

even in USD they seem pretty good, though batteries and chargers etc would still need to be added. AYUP's still seem the best option for the electronically challenged such as myself

If you do come to the day nighter I'll show you mine

I'll show you mine if you show me yours

Anyone know if I can buy a LED bulb unit & simply retrofit it into my old nightlightning comet- or is there some sort of obvious problem with this that electronic geeks spot in a second??
Cheers

mob: That would be ideal for me as well.

it can be done. avantibill is running such a device in his commuter light.
the big problem comes when you try to retrofit LEDs with similar output to the halogen they are replacing, as halogens like/need heat whereas LEDs need to get rid of heat and most halogen housings are not designed with much heat shedding ability.

lower powered led dropin modules are ok though, just don't expect them to compete with halogen or big gun LED setups.

so... i done write Cutter Electronics, asked 'em a little bit...
mark riley replied:

XRE are multi power devices i.e. can be run at 350mA(1.22 watt), 700ma(3watt), 1 amp(4.5 watt) or any number really dependent on your driver, however max rating is 1Amp
Q5 is is 94 Lumens per watt, R2 is 100 Lumens per watt

now i sorta need that deciphered...

basically, is that saying that if you're running 3 Q5's through an XRE, at 1 amp, the 1 amp, ie 4.5watts, is shared between the three LEDs making a total of 1.5 watts or 141 lumens per LED? or... and this where i think i'm wrong, does it pump 1 amp to each Q5, making 4.5 watts each, making 423 lumens per LED?? as in, a shit load of light, instead of just heaps.