led headlight

[nortnlvr]

Anyone know a source for a good LED headlight?

[JimF]

I'm not sure that LEDs have come so far as to be DOT approved for headlight use. I know it's coming, but when the LED headlight arrives it will certainly be a 12-volt item and not low power.

You could experiment with the bulbs from those LED flashlights, particularly if you trying this on a 6-volt bike. You could look for a 6-volt flashlight (something that would likely use four 1.5V batteries.)

You'll only have one beam (not a highbeam/low beam; only a single intensity.) Also flashlights don't have to worry about voltage regulation. The dry cell battery is going to deliver 1.5V of pure DC, four of them in series will supply 6.0 Volts of pure DC. Your motorcycle may deliver somewhere between 6 to 7.5 volts depending on engine RPM and the flashlight LEDs may be intolerant of the higher voltage. Also there may be voltage spikes on the motorcycle's power line that could damage the LEDs. You really should regulate and condition the motorcycle's power to protect the LEDs.

You'll need to perform some tests to see if the beam is useful for night riding and while it may be powerful you may quickly get up to a speed where you overrun the illumination, and you'll have to deal with everything that using a non-DOT approved headlight brings down upon you.

These are only my opinions. Maybe someone else on the list has more useful information.

[DewCatTea-Bob]

Anyone know a source for a good LED headlight?

____ Unless you're asking specifically about a ready-made headlight that's all-ready to install within a stock DUKE headlamp, this subject has already been touched-on within at least two other threads... The thread titled: " Wiring My Duc (from Welcome thread)" , -(which is currently now found near the bottom of page-5), is one of them.
__ I wouldn't be too discouraged with much of the non-positive "opinion" given in Jim's post above. _ As it seems to be somewhat out of concert with that which I've come to understand about L.E.D.-lights. ...
__ I'm no L.E.D.-expert but it's my understanding that a typical white-led needs nearly 4-volts and a red-led requires just nearly 2-volts,, and to keep one from burning-out, it needs to be connected in series with a resistor to limit current (that would otherwise overheat the led).
So there are not only not '6-volt LEDs', there aren't any "12-volt LEDs" either... However there are many 'LED-units' (pre-built with appropriate resistors) intended to run with 12-volt systems, such as those made for use by moble-home electrical-systems.
Also, much unlike standard filament-bulbs, LEDs don't dim-down (relatively) very much when they are run with much less voltage than is optimum, so a 12-volt LED-unit can still make almost as much light when connected to just 6-volts, for instance.
On the other-hand, LEDs can handle a bit more voltage than they're rated to handle but, it's doubtful that a 12-volt LED-unit would work long connected to a 24-volt system. _ But on a 12-volt system that doesn't produce way more power-juice than it needs, a standard-sized 12v battery will prevent overpowering of a 12v LED-unit, as the battery will then prevent system-voltage from exceeding 14-volts, (well enough, without a voltage-regulator).
__ Here's a link to a w.site which has a great selection of LED-bulbs that could be adapted to work in a headlight ! ... http://www.ledlight.com/s25-24-led-light.aspx
Check for 'lumen' ratings, I believe a 55w-std.headlight is good for about 600-lumens.
__ For the older DUKEs with non-battery lighting-systems, the following link shows on the top of it's page what seems like a very good choice of LED-unit, which could be adapted for use in the headlight. ... http://www.ledlight.com/s25-30-led-light.aspx
However, since LEDs consume very little power-juice, the 30-volt limit may be exceeded (unless the load on the alternator's lighting-coil is increased).


Hopeful-Cheers,
-Bob

[nortnlvr]

I've got a 1972 Norton Cafe bike with an H4 headlight socket with a battery eliminator that I'm building, I understand they are not DOT approved, yet. Just wondering if anyone has experimented and founed one that worked well/ok.

Bob,

Has anyone put together the wiring diagram for the 12v. conversion you coached me through? I got my mark 3 running with a battery eliminator, but the voltage is not being regulated correctly as I blew the headlight bulb at high RPM.

[DewCatTea-Bob]

" Has anyone put together the wiring diagram for the 12v. conversion you coached me through? I got my mark 3 running with a battery eliminator, but the voltage is not being regulated correctly as I blew the headlight bulb at high RPM. "

____ Well Mike, that system (as it was meant to be wired-up), was meant to be run with a 12v-battery ! _ You & I hadn't ever-before considered using that intended charging-system with a bat.eliminator of any kind. ...
With a bat.eliminator (and no battery), ya then need to include a voltage-regulator.
__ What wattage headlight was burned-out? _ I suspect it must have been 45-watts or less, cuz the lights shouldn't blow-out if the wattage-use of your load-system is equal or greater than the max.wattage output of the charging-system.
(I suspect that with just a bat.eliminator-cap, your system-voltage may have reached near 16-volts when your light burned-out.)
So you ought to try using a 55/60-quartz-bulb (as I believe I had suggested), so that your lighting-system then consumes more of the power-juice from the charging-system, which will then help prevent build-up of excess juice that otherwise causes the system-voltage to raise & exceed the limit which your chosen loads can handle.
(I thought you had been considering a charging-meter for that system !?)
__ A battery also acts like a load and thus helps to consume excess power-juice, and it fortunately does so in such a way as to conveniently act very much the same as a voltage-regulator ! _ So you need a 12v-reg.unit if you don't use a battery (when your total load-system is much mismatched with your charging-system output).

____ I hope to sometime create a diagram using two bridge-blocks (like your system has), and insert it into the thread which I started concerning w-c charging-systems. _ However YOURs has the advantage of an added 4th-wire so that you actually have a TWIN charging-system (which actually can't be done with just the stock 3-wire alt-cable).
__ You never informed me as to how you chose to 'switch' your extra charging-circuit... Did you install a Jap-type light-switch, or just add a toggle-switch for the extra charging-circuit ?
Or wire-up the lights to be on at all times ? - (Which wastes your work of creating your twin charging-system!_ And would also make starting without a battery rather difficult.)
__ Glad to finally get word that you got your rare w-c Mk3 going ! _ Got any pix?


DUKE-Cheers,
-Bob

[Afro]

I am searching for a set of different reviews for LED headlight. I hope I can find one here. I am also looking for a tutorial on how to install the headlight.