Last year I successfully made a 1000 lumen head lamp for use while riding. I also attempted to build a 3000 lumen handle bar mounted light using Cree XML-2 Leds. That light was a failure it lasted for about a half hour till it over heated and died.
This time I’m starting by sizing the heat sink properly instead of modifying a cheap ebay light. Before I get ahead of myself. I’m going to be using cree XHP 50.2 leds this time since the have a light output of 2500 lumens and only draw 1500 mA. Thus I won’t need quite such a massive heat sink. To drive the Lights I’m going to use TaskLED’s HB Flex driver. This board offers many options. Including a mode specifically for bikes. And I’m going to use calcio medium spot optics.
After deciding on the components. I started the 3D modeling process. Using Fusion 360 I started by sourcing models of the components and modeling what I could not find. To find the models I use grab-cad or go directly to the manufactures website. From There I just started modeling some people say its better to start with a sketch but I prefer just to go off the design in my head.
On to the build process I First mounted the LEDs using thermal epoxy and a KSD9700 100 degree thermal switch in order to prevent me from frying the LEDs again. The Thermal switch was not necessary since the drivers offers thermal overload protection but I would rather be safe. After the epoxy fully dried the driver was mounted and the wiring commenced.
This proved to be difficult since I was using way to large of wire. I was using 18 AWG I only needed 22 AWG. After powering it on I put the driver into bike mode and found out immediately that I was locked out of the menu system. Which meant contacting the manufacture and getting a replacement. Turns out there was a bug in his most recent firmware that caused the problem.
While waiting on the replacement printing of the case started. After printing the case I drilled and tapped holes for the case to mount to and test fitted everything without the driver. There was problems with the depth of the stand offs and a problem with the holes for the front to bolt on. After redesigning and printing the case again there was no problems.
at this point I still have not received the replacement driver So this is where I’m going to end this post here.
Newton HQ 