LED spot/flood lights

decided it was time to change my roof lights. i have 4 bosch 100w floodlights on my roof at them moment and felt that they used a lot of current and were bulky for the light they produced.

so knocked up a prototype light to try out with the thought of making 2 more if it was good because i thought it would look weid with just one spot on the front..

bit of 4" billet







mounted up with lens, reflector, current limiter and 100w cree xpg chip





Had high expectations for it, data sheet on the chip is 13000 lumins.

All i can say is that im staggered how bright it is!!!!

its a spot and flood all in one! its definitely 10x brighter than all my original roof lights and headlights on full at once. once its on i cant even tell when i put the roof lights on or flash my full beams.

Obviously it will be used for off road only and im in the process of making a PWM circuit so a will draw less current / heat up less but will also have the feature of dimming it.....

mikeyt said:

decided it was time to change my roof lights. i have 4 bosch 100w floodlights on my roof at them moment and felt that they used a lot of current and were bulky for the light they produced.

so knocked up a prototype light to try out with the thought of making 2 more if it was good because i thought it would look weid with just one spot on the front..

bit of 4" billet

mounted up with lens, reflector, current limiter and 100w cree xpg chip

Had high expectations for it, data sheet on the chip is 13000 lumins.

All i can say is that im staggered how bright it is!!!!

its a spot and flood all in one! its definitely 10x brighter than all my original roof lights and headlights on full at once. once its on i cant even tell when i put the roof lights on or flash my full beams.

Obviously it will be used for off road only and im in the process of making a PWM circuit so a will draw less current / heat up less but will also have the feature of dimming it.....

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looks nice that mate.

That looks real good!

Where did you buy the leds?

Good work. Id like to know where you got them LEDS tooo!!

The led is just one chip with 100 1w leds on it i got it from led, led light, loose led, high power led, led strips, pre-wired led, car led light, home/garden led light, led dimmer/controller, power supplies, computer accessories --topledlight make sure you buy a decent one ive bought the cheap ones and there **** basically factory rejects (some of the led dies not working/ not efficient eg a lot of heat and have to put a lot of current into them to get the same light output)

They need to be heat sinked very very well!!!!!!!, they dont like much above 130c and on there own with no heatsink gets up to this temp in about 20 seconds! (i tried it on a **** one i bought)

They also need around 35 volts at 3.5 amps so you need a step up dc to dc converter and current limiting.....also pulse width modulation is a good call as it allows it to be mounted on a smaller heat sink because you can pulse it faster than the human eye can see therefore less current and less heat and same brightness visually.....

Great, so now I definitley wont be able to see when your behind me!!

Looking good though, nice lathe work there, makes me want to get another one and start making bits again. They look like they could be quite beasty, retina burners by all accounts!

100W LED Fook me, that'll be bright!!! approx the same light output as a 500W halogen!

can wait to see pictures of your portable daylight

jon dont worry i wont be using these behind anyone! lol i stood infront of it tonight to take a pic and could see spots for quite a while after stupid idea really!

anyway took some pics all the same iso and shutter speed

full beam headlights



Full beams + my 4 bosch roof lights



The led on its own with no other lights on!!!









Full beams headlights



Full beams + 4 bosch roof lights



Again just the led on its own with no other lights on!!!

You'd better notify the Civil Aviation Authority before you turn that on again ... you'll be blinding airline pilots with that puppy!

brian47 said:

You'd better notify the Civil Aviation Authority before you turn that on again ... you'll be blinding airline pilots with that puppy!

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lol i recon it could be dodgy if you had it on while climbing something steep! luckly it has quite a sharp cutoff (kinda like proper hid headlights) but round..cant make it out in the pics tho...

Will have to be used with responsibility!!

Looks like you've got a whole bucket full of bonnet glare. You don't seem to have any with the bosch roof lights.

Is that down to position or lens?

Fook!

Tis a little bright.

Just a little bit OTT, as you would expect from you.

Too much tech talk for lz mickey

Knowing you did you get that lump of billet cheap or for free

Very nice fella.. the old mans been making all sorts of stuf with leds for the house ect recently.. brilliant what leds can do these days!

Jesus christ! That is portable daylight!

Nice job!!!!

U wanna make some and sell em on ere???

how well does the heat dissipate from these? I know they don't take kindly to over temp

Tungsten Halogen is roughly 24 lumens per watt, so 100 = 2400 lumens.. Cree claim 160 lumens or more per watt so you light should be giving around 16000 lumens, about 7 times your old 100 watt lamps Lots of different calcs available for lumens so they are only rough figures.
I bought a couple of CREE LED torches from China. One of them, running on 3 AAA batteries, produces the same level of illumination as one dipped beam on my Transit with much better definition and fewer inclusions, incredible!

If you are going to make your own PSU, PWM is the way to go, I would add a thermistor temperature sensor on the heat sink to reduce the duty cycle above a set temperature.

Currently I'm switching all the lighting in my house to LED. The lamps are dirt cheap direct from China.

blue beasty said:

Looks like you've got a whole bucket full of bonnet glare. You don't seem to have any with the bosch roof lights.

Is that down to position or lens?

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The bonnet glare isnt as bad as it looks in the pics because its near the cutoff of the beam.. and the light thrown out is so much brighter in comparison!

I would prefer no bonnet illumination so i may remake the lens holder with a shade. its also mounted on the very front of my cage for testing and the bosch lights are mounted on the rear hoop pointing fowards. so i may just mount it further back.

666 george said:

Just a little bit OTT, as you would expect from you.

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What ya trying to say Graham lol

pressbrake said:

Too much tech talk for lz mickey

Knowing you did you get that lump of billet cheap or for free

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clive you love the tech talk! billit was cheap loads of people selling offcuts on the bay! bought the 4x5 and the 3x3 for £18
the 3x3 didnt machine very nicely but then again the coolant pump has packed up on the lathe so i was drip feeding with cutting fluid.

timtheenchanteruk said:

U wanna make some and sell em on ere???

how well does the heat dissipate from these? I know they don't take kindly to over temp

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At this point im not looking at making any more to sell i have sold 2 and taken a deposit and haven't even started them yet (waiting for the aluminum) but this is for a mate, unless i had the aluminum parts made i just don't have enough free time off work.

As for heat dissipation ive had it on for a hour while taking readings and converting that into a simple chart the temp of the heat sink leveled out at 72 degrees But it was only 5 degrees outside. so as for summer temps i don't know as yet.

This is without the pwm so the heat generated can be cut down dramatically once Ive implemented this circuitry.

Ive tested waterproofing as well i built up the light without the chip and pressurised it to 120psi through the cable gland in a bucket of water and had no air leaks
its all sealed with grooves in the mating faces and viton o-rings

Datatek said:

Tungsten Halogen is roughly 24 lumens per watt, so 100 = 2400 lumens.. Cree claim 160 lumens or more per watt so you light should be giving around 16000 lumens, about 7 times your old 100 watt lamps Lots of different calcs available for lumens so they are only rough figures.
I bought a couple of CREE LED torches from China. One of them, running on 3 AAA batteries, produces the same level of illumination as one dipped beam on my Transit with much better definition and fewer inclusions, incredible!

If you are going to make your own PSU, PWM is the way to go, I would add a thermistor temperature sensor on the heat sink to reduce the duty cycle above a set temperature.

Currently I'm switching all the lighting in my house to LED. The lamps are dirt cheap direct from China.

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Lol great minds think alike!
Thats exactly what i was thinking. would be the ultimate protection for the led