Make this DIY Insanely Bright LED Bike Light for Cheap! (with LED Strips too)
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- čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
- Are you tired of biking in the dark? In this video I'll show you how to make an insanely bright LED light for a mountain bike!
►►LINKS TO ALL TOOLS AND MATERIALS USED → ► www.instructables.com/Buildin...
See the Ultimate Bike Accessories Kit!→ kit.co/Yonatan24/ultimate-bik...
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The people who design LED bike bikes never use them, or design them simply to sound good on paper, I swear. Popular bike lights have a million pointless options for different styles of flashing, and every time you turn them off, they turn on on the next setting, so if I only want to turn them off for a few seconds to not blind a passerby, I have to find the mess with the switch and go through the whole cycle again which is incredibly annoying. I also find that the vast majority of bike lights allow others to see you, but don't light up your path well enough for biking safely in the city, not to mention trails. Biking is also how I find parts and materials for my projects, and I never have enough light when taking apart the things I find, and being able to simply point the light at what I want to take apart would help me tremendously. Let's not even get started on rear lights! In this video, I will show you how to make the ultimate bike light that solves ALL of these problems - front AND rear! To make it, I ended up spending only $25 in parts, but it took me 2 years to design (solve 1 problem, 3 arise!) and 1 week to build, so for a different bike it would probably take you 1-2 weeks to make a custom design, and 1 week to build it if you spend several hours working on it every day. My favorite part of the bike light turned out to be the red LED strips, but I also light the headlamp as well!
Are you working safely? → kit.co/Yonatan24/proper-ppe-s...
You can make videos just like this one! My equipment → kit.com/Yonatan24/the-camera-... #LED #bikelight
Thanks to Ampletunes for the outro music (Gold rush - Folk - Americana)
#Mountainbike #LED #Bikelight - Jak na to + styl
I've been working on it for so long and it's great to finally be able to use it, this might be my best project ever.
*Do you need a bike light? If so, what would you add to it?*
Check out the Instructable for the tools/parts list: www.instructables.com/Building-the-Ultimate-LED-Bike-Light-Ive-Always-Wa/
DIY bike horn: czcams.com/video/esBLgRfAJBw/video.html
DIY bike rack with magnetic u-lock storage: czcams.com/video/bwGzk3qUquE/video.html
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I am wanting to rig my own bike to look like a Tron bike 😋, and I think you might be able to give me some pointers... Is there a better way than another to send you a message? 🙏
@@BoMwarriorVlog Interesting idea, I have no idea how you would approach making such a project.
Bro are you from Philippines🇵🇭 bro pls I what that your bike pls buy me new blue Mountain bike pls I'm poor for it
Go to Cebu to Tagbilaran and mayuga at same house tall I get pls bro I like your skill like mountain biking like you I like mountain bike for sure
This is friggin awesome. 😁 You did a great job with the editing of the video, pace of instruction, and for me you explained it just enough (so I didn't get bored or confused). 👍
Glad you liked it and thanks for the feedback! :)
Love the bright led lights, front and back. I would use them day and night. Thanks.
Thanks. I don't know about the front LED's, but the rear strips aren't visible during the day, unlike cars. Though at night they're super bright.
Hi, interesting build... but also dangerous. The aspheric lens used on the front is among the worst types of optics for handlebar light purposes, since it has such a wide and flat beam. Like, if you aim it at a wall, it'll light up the wall nicely... but when aimed down a hallway, it doesn't go very far. This makes it good at blinding other people, but not very good at illuminating the ground along the bike's path. It also appears that several components including the battery box aren't really waterproof, and the battery cells are unprotected models used in a serial configuration, which is one of the most dangerous ways to configure them.
You could probably get better results from a regular tube-style flashlight in a cheap mount. It would focus more of the light forward into the distance, allowing for better illumination at lower power levels with less effect on other people. It would also be waterproof, easy to remove and carry to avoid theft, and can be used for regular flashlight purposes too.
Personally, I've been using a Convoy S2+ triple that I modded with a Carclo 10510 optic for a wide flat beam... or sometimes a BLF FW1A that I put a XP-L HD 3D emitter in to make the hotspot a bit wider than usual. But you could also get an off-the-shelf Sofirn SC31 Pro 5000K with battery and charger built in, for less than either of those. It even has a special biking mode, if you don't feel that a regular mode is visible enough, and thermal regulation in case it gets too hot.
Not sure what mount would be good though. I've been using some twofish lockblocks I got from Dealextreme for about $1.50 each, but it looks like they don't carry those any more. It's just a shaped piece of rubber with some velcro straps, but it works really well and makes it easy to angle the beam up/down when necessary.
Anyway, be careful with this design. Bright wide-beam bike lights like this are blinding for other people, and illegal in some places.
Thanks. Do you know of any other lenses for this type of LED? I'll lower the LED soon so it's less blinding.
I haven't waterproofed it yet, I want to use it for a few more weeks before I reopen everything and seal everything.
What's wrong with wiring the 18650 batteries in series? I checked their capacity and it's almost the same (just over 3000mah each).
@@Yonatan24 I wouldn't recommend using a giant COB LED like that either. They're nearly impossible to focus. Big LED means big optics. Small LEDs can make just as much light as that 20W one, or sometimes even more... but they're much easier to focus, and they're easier to find optics for since focusability is kinda the point of being small. Big flat LEDs like what you used are mainly meant for wide area lighting, like light bulbs.
The flood-vs-throw ratio of a light is measured as candelas per lumen. Candelas (cd) are the intensity of the hotspot, like a laser, and lumens (lm) are the total amount of light produced, like a light bulb. For a bike handlebar light, the ideal ratio seems to be approximately in the range of 5 to 15 cd/lm, ideally with a gradual blend from edge to center and no sharp edges. This keeps most of the light focused on the road ahead, illuminates the road more evenly, makes it more power-efficient, and makes it less blinding to others... but still allows it to be seen from all angles.
I've used bike lights as floody as ~3 cd/lm, but they don't shine far enough. And as throwy as 25 cd/lm, but the hotspot isn't wide enough to see well; it tends to produce tunnel vision. I tried measuring some of my aspherics similar to what you've got, and they measured anywhere from 0.7 to 2.4 cd/lm.
Yours looks like it's probably close to the bottom of that range, like 1 cd/lm. If you switched to a comfortable ~8 cd/lm light, you'd be able to see just as far while using just 1/8th as much power... so 1 cell would be enough instead of 6, and then it'd be easy to fit the whole thing into one waterproof tube.
One popular solution is to take a slightly throwy light, like 15-20 cd/lm, and put some DC-Fix on the lens to make the beam wider. This gets it to the right cd/lm ratio, and also extends side visibility to 180 degrees. Or, instead of DC-Fix, some people use a bit of hair spray on the lens, or frosted glass, or a frosted optic. Or a ribbed optic, to make the beam wide and flat.
About putting the cells in series, it's not necessarily dangerous, but it's far less safe than having the cells in parallel. Parallel cells constantly equalize each other. However, serial cells can get unbalanced over time and eventually catch fire if the balance gets too far off. It helps if the cells have protection circuits on them, but laptop pulls don't. The protection circuits are aftermarket items, and notebook batteries almost always use bare cells.
Anyway, if you want to find out a lot more, take a look at reddit's /r/flashlight for quick questions, or BudgetLightForum for more in-depth discussions.
@@ToyKeeper my favorite style of bike light are the StVZO German style reflectors, those work really well against blinding people while you can still put out tons of light
i'd recommend buying one of those really cheap XML T6 Xanes ebike lights, they've always been pretty bright if you power the leds of them properly by a proper CCCV circuit and if you mount them to a heatsink and keep it cool, they're certainly much brighter per watt than their "XHP50"
I was kinda disappointed by their XHP50 flashlight as it seems to be much less efficient and the light output per watt is much worse than their T6 lights, the T6 also seems to be a proper cree ripoff while their chinese XHP50 is kinda bad
I love how you don't give a F... about the looks and only consider the way it's helpful to you.
Great project.
I think it looks fantastic 😂
i learn many new things Thanks
Glad you liked it!
Eata tuanyy broo❤
That is cool, very inventive. They can't say they didn't see you. Nice job.
Thanks!
Very cool!
Thanks,
Nice work, I rarely ride at night but have come to understand that the cheap lights we buy are to be seen and not see with, lol.
Yeah, they're generally ok for being seen, but completely useless if you actually want to see where you're going.
Well that quite interesting implementation. I'm to make mine as well . Great video
Thanks, let me know how it goes.
@@Yonatan24 I will give some clue. It will be base on some led bar but just the outer case will be use . For the led I will go with pirahna led
Thanks for sharing, brilliant idea I must say. How do you charge the battery?
I charge it simply with a 12.6v power supply
2:57 What is that odd looking vise you are using to hold the parts for soldering? It looks like it has some kind of hose clamp?
I made it a few years ago. It's a small vise I connected to a heavy transformer from a microwave: www.instructables.com/WAVE-the-Ultimate-Helping-Hands-Device/
I also added a solder dispenser and a magnetic mount for cleaning the tip.
Since then I had flux pour on it and it rusted. I've been wanting to remake it.
What does the heat sync do with the led lights? And do you know other uses for heat syncs? Thanks for the video. Id like to build a charging bank for my waeco fridge in my truck. And add led lights also. Thank you
The heat sink is used to absorb the heat from the LED and dissipate it. Good luck with your project!
Freaking awesome DIY!! I love riding at night but I'm also sick and tired of lights with bogus lumens claims or that don't have enough battery life as they claim.
Thanks!
Kindly mention main LED light watt and required volt and amp.
All of the information is in the Instructable, linked in the description
how waterproof are the rear strips? In my country is rains 66% of the year
More expensive strips probably have better waterproofing. You can also purchase diffusing channels and glue them inside to waterproof them completely.
1:18 only time will tell. 🤣 Lmao
They still work!
Impressive! Looks crap but still, very impressive nonetheless, specially the switches. Those were awesome!
Thanks!...I guess
I did led strips down my back and front of my bike and got stopped all the time by other cyclists about the lighting. Used a 11.1volt drone battery to run it
Awesome! Same here!
This is probably a time-bomb lighting system... but it has "Walking Dead" or "Mad Max" vibes to it... so I can't deny I love it.
Resourceful execution on a budget ! Now you can design project v2.0 where you round it off and address some points people have already pointed.
But it works and it works well!
A great project indeed 👍 but I feel like it has taken out the simplicity
It was a very complicated project indeed! What part did you have in mind that made you feel it was complicated? I believe much of this project could be simplified but it just wouldn't fit my needs as well.
This is nice but it's useless if you don't share which parts you used. For example the most important part, the LED, your instructable link shows 5500 different LEDs!
How about linking to the actual parts you used, that we can buy? Please?
I used to do that, but the eBay listings keep getting deleted unfortunately. Now I just link to the eBay search, plus most people don't buy components on eBay anyway. Also the exact components don't really matter
@@Yonatan24 Fair enough, thanks for the info!
That front bright light can be dangerous for drivers and pedestrians, can dazzle or blind people. So i don't recommend it. But good idea!
This is why I made the control box, everything is easy to turn off, I wrote more about this in the intro of the Instructable :)
Yeah and how about the stupid lights on the cars now? There over bright and blind us bicycle enthusiasts...
Now your cycle looks like a spaceship
I've had people say it looks like the cockpit room thing in an airplane.
Please, use that only off-road, and never when it would blind an oncoming cyclist. We already have far too many mega-lumen bike headlights with terrible optics. I've been blinded both on bike trails and on residential streets by timid bicyclists who think they need the light of the sun to be visible. For anything other than mountain biking on trails, a headlight should have a beam shaped like an automotive headlight: bright in a narrow strip pointed at the horizon, for good "throw" down the road. mostly cut above the horizon to avoid blinding others. Diminishing brightness below the horizon to avoid over-lighting the pavement directly in front, because that ruins your night vision. Lights meeting German StVZO standards are _best_ for the cyclist to see the road surface, like the excellent Busch & Muller lights sold by Peter White Cycles. Please don't be the bicyclist equivalent of idiot motorists who always drive with high beams.
I see. I'll adjust it, thanks for the reference. I googled what you sent, and from these: www.google.com/search?q=StVZO+standards&rlz=1C1NHXL_iwIL720IL721&sxsrf=ALeKk01ZObkKhqaioaln8oWZsa6E_i9_Vw:1615410281222&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwil3emf0KbvAhXOwAIHHcp_BOEQ_AUoAXoECAgQAw&biw=1779&bih=830#imgrc=PCG0yhW8cSvtfM
The LED shines like the middle one. I'd like to adjust it so it's like the top, but the wheel casts a shadow. That's something they're missing in the picture.
@@Yonatan24 A very long reflective hood worked for me. I got a very nice beam cutoffs, but it looks like my light is wearing the world's longest baseball cap.
@@difflocktwo I took a pipe and carved it nicely, but that's to stop the lens from blinding me when I look over the handlebars. But I still need to lower it to not blind people.
Now i think to build lights for my bicycle instead of buying them.
Excellent!
@@Yonatan24 thanks
That main light is going to be really troublesome to oncoming vehicles. It's just a big glaring orb of light, there's no pattern. So you haven't really addressed the issues of safety for you or anyone else. I spent ages to find a proper set of SAE/DOT certified LED units for my motorcycle because 90% of what other guys are using is crap. Scattering light everywhere. Mine cut off hard on a horizontal band that stays below eye level as straight as a row of bricks on a wall.
Charlie, what did you end up getting, where, and how much was it?
I'll lower it, thanks. What did you end up buying?
@@Yonatan24 What's a good way to share a few images of the results?
I looked up my order from 2019 and forgot I paid about Cdn $140 for the pair. But I was tired of buying cheap stuff that let me down by breaking too easily or being low output. The motorcycle is a vehicle and I do a lot of night riding hours from home on my own so I approached it that way. The first evening I had them on, there were two different incidents where a deer crossed the road in from of me and the improvement in visibility gave me much more time to react without even being that concerned. So IMO the lights paid for themselves right there.
I don't want to turn your channel into a plug for the seller but look up on Amazon.ca: "Swatow Industries 2PCS 3 Inch SAE Compliant Fog Lights DOT Approved"
Maybe on your DIY project at least change out the lens for a good cut off pattern.
I think you can upload picture to imgr and link them here, Thanks.
Those are quite expensive. I spent $25 on all of the components combined. I'm willing to spend more because I use the light a lot, but that's too much. Are you aware of any other lens for this type of LED? The 60 degree lens I bought is quite cheap, indeed.
@@Yonatan24 just get yourself an off the shelf LED light, a full set with front and taillights costs $40 at Decathlon.
Putting aside all the technical faults. You are never going to wash or service your bike??
I've never washed my bike, but I waterproofed it. I've already biked in the rain with it. What faults?
@@Yonatan24 Nice, toykeeper explaind it well.
cool but please tone down the brightness, i am often temp blinded by over the top lights like this.
I need to angle it downwards slightly, then that shouldn't happen
@@Yonatan24 yeah that will work. over here in colombia people use halogen car lights and have them blink. one person at a time i guess.
@@peteslamm944 Why blink?
@@Yonatan24 got me. i try to give them suttle hints by covering my eyes but i doubt they get it. it's maddening.
I bet that bike weighs a bit. Nice lights tho.
Not too much, thanks.
well if you're DIYing this then you're not exactly in the most competitve peletons running full carbon now are you?... this Weight is negligible when not competing, besides some folk train with heavier bikes
i guess the reason not to do this DIY is the weight is heavyyy
It's not too bad and worth it. Maybe 1kg.
This is sooo cool, i acctual have an light at my bike too and it's auto generating light but idk how to use it 🥲
A dynamo type generator light?
@@Yonatan24 yea, I watched a tut how to activate it but I just can't, it's way tooo hard to press