[WIP] Cree LED/Emitter on star pcb. Anyone ever use?

I have some in the mail (gotta pick them up from the P.O. this afternoon) unfortunately, the LED’s and drivers came in one shipment and the lenses and heat sinks came in another… which isn’t here yet… damnit.
I just couldn't see spending $300+ for LED lighting so I ordered some 1000LM Cree XM-L (xmlawt) and some drivers with 3 settings (low-med-high) so I don't burn the LEDs out.
My plan was to install them IN one of my roof rack cross bars. I haven't seen this done before.
I think I will make individual housings for each LED and then just drill a big enough hole for the housings to be inserted into the cross bar. The one thing I worry about though is heat. These emitters are 10V and the warning label says that they should be treated as you would a laser because they will cause retina damage if you are too close to them. (at max power). So that leaves me with adding some sort of heat sink. Ideally, I would attach the heat sink as close to the star pcb as possible using thermal epoxy… but that leaves me with heat sinks on the INSIDE of the hollow aluminum cross bar and there won’t be any moving air in there? Back to the drawing board…
Another idea would be to use RC helicopter heat sinks on the housings. I am told that a 280 motor is about the size of the housings I want to build. Unfortunately, there aren’t many RC places up here in the high desert (that I know of) so test fitting stuff before I buy a bunch of stuff isn’t going to be easy. If I used that kind of heat sink, then I would have to have the LED housings sticking out of the cross bar a little more than I wanted. It’s not really all that far… I believe they are around 20mm deep? So that makes my cross bar look something like a comb? Well whatever, I will take pics and do a write up as I go.

(sorry for the rambling, I am mentally designing as I type)

OK, I like the idea, except for what you want the light to DO.

The XML is going to throw a flood of light...and at your roof brow area, that's going to glare on your windshield and hood, reducing your ability to see out past the ball of light you'll be in.

You'll need an optic/reflector to mount with the LED...I saw "Lens"? - To get enough throw to have the angle miss the hood at least. What kind of beam coverage were you trying to get?

As for cooling, yes...that's a lot of heat to dissipate, but a hollow AL tube is actually not a bad start...maybe run a copper bar inside the tube to mount it all to/act as a large sink, and then taking advantage of the fact that you have 12 v current, leave one end of the tube as an intake and the other as an exhaust, and use a fan to ventilate/drive off heat inside the tube.

If you put (Arctic Silver, etc) the LEDS right on the copper, and the back of the Cu is exposed to the airflow through the tube, that should cool well.

I'd set the fan blowing IN to put the tube under positive pressure/reduce weather leakage.

I'd also machine some fins/fluting, etc, into the back of the CU bar to maximize surface area for heat exchange.

LOL - If you wanted to go crazy, you could run a small duct from the AC, up the pillar to the cross bar to act as the make-up air source/positive pressure source...so if its especially hot, your AC is on too.




Essentially, by being able to leave the light engine assembly inside the cross bar...you avoid the "Comb" issue you worried about, as well as reducing exposure to damage.

By ventilating the inside of the cross bar, you carry the heat in the bar, out.

By using a copper (good heat conductor) - especially with flutes/fins, etc...it will absorb the heat from the LED if its in good thermal contact with it at one end, and radiate it out into the tube's airflow on the other end.

Here are the LED's I ordered:



DX LEDs

Here are the drivers:



DX Drivers

Here are the reflectors: (lenses sorry)



DX Reflectors

And here are some baby heat sinks I got just for fun:



DX Heat sinks

I had kinda planned on using a long strip of copper or aluminum to attach the LED casings to. (at this point it would look like a comb) Then, drill the holes in the aluminum cross bar and just poke the casings through it from the inside. The casings were always going to stick out a little, I just wasn’t planning on them sticking out that far. I also wasn’t planning on having anything attached to the casings on the outside of the cross bar… but now I think I will. Either way, the RC motor heat sinks are about 20mm so that's not THAT bad. I mean compare that to having regular roof mounted lights.

I don’t want to open the cross bar up to the elements. I’m pretty sure that needs to be as water tight as possible. Well, as watertight as can be expected for a 2004 X.



I got the idea to use the RC motor heatsinks from this guy's bike LED design:



bike light

Just a quick search online finds all kinds of heat sinks in various colors and so many hues.

My goal is a flood'ish pattern... not really going for long distance. I found quite a few actual glass lenses and secondary optics that form the beam into a perfect circle or spot or flood or really whatever kind of beam pattern you want. I just figured I would use the reflectors first and see what kind of beam that gave me and go from there. If it makes my hood too bright (which I'm kinda afraid already that it may) Then I can always mount the lights somewhere else... down lower on the front bumper or somewhere?

Not to advertise another website (especially a shopping site) but that DX site is crazy. And I only say this to anyone that thinks they may want to buy something from there. Free shipping yes but you have to wait FOREVER!!! (especially if it is close to the Chinese New Year) The stuff they sell is super cheap and they even give a bulk price, but you better not need whatever it is that you are buying tomorrow or even next week. I placed my order on March 9th and I am just getting the first shipment today... April 5th.

A lot of guys I know order from there, and yeah, it can take a month or more to get something similar to what you ordered, or completely different, or maybe even what you ordered, etc.

A warning - there's a TON of knock off stuff on there, so the specs are FUDGED. Sometimes its the right part, but factory seconds or recycled returns, etc. Lots of things will be advertised as SUPER DEATH RAY 3000 MegaLight - The Worlds Most Powerful Light! - And its barely a light, etc.

Other times, its more like getting a Rollex Watch, or a Guchi Purse, or a Sonny Camcorder, etc.





If you want more throw, those little domes to disperse the light over the LEDs are just typically held in place by soft silicone, and you can pry them off. I have a De-Domed SST90 LED in a search and rescue light I use, and it increased throw from ~ 112,500 lux at one meter to 203,000 lux at one meter, ~ 80% improvement.


The XML is kind of a large die for throw, a smaller surface area LED would typically throw more as well, etc...for the same reflector.

But as you HAVE them, you could de-dome them, or say a few in the middle, to get the distance out there a bit further.

It made my SST90 LED go from being able to light stuff up well ~ 400-500 yards away, to being able to see stuff 800 yards away.




As for the color of the heat sink: The side attached to the die is using conduction, so the color doesn't matter, just getting a good thermal bond. The side that has to RADIATE the heat should, ideally, be FLAT BLACK. Flat black radiates the most heat...even in the dark, and you can't SEE what color it is.

And so it begins!

I received the LEDs and drivers in the mail today. I don't know when the reflectors or heat sinks will get here. (last I checked they were in damn New York) Anyway...

Took a little trip to my favorite (only) parts store up here in the high desert. Stood and stared at the copper pipe and fittings for a good 30 - 45 mins; playing with stuff and fitting stuff together and looking crazy. But, I do that often enough that the store workers don't even ask if I need help anymore.

Since I don't have all the pieces yet I could only buy a little bit of everything. I only got enough stuff to make two lights for now.

Here's the LED



Here's the driver



Here is a copper 3/4" copper end cap



I had to grind down the PCB a little...



to make them fit in the end cap



Here the LEDs are hiding in the end cap (I don't have thermal epoxy yet so this is just a test fit)



Soldered the driver and LEDs. The driver is meant to be used in a flashlight so that was fun to solder.



Wires attached, holes drilled, LEDs in the end caps

Light pics that don't do it justice...







From about 10' At this point the LEDs are only sitting inside the copper caps, there are no reflectors inside. Not a bad spread really?





I even found this copper piece that I have NO idea what you would even use it for (because I'm not a plumber?) I think it will help me evenly space the lights. The only problem is that they are about 3~7mm too tall to fit inside the cross bar. Going to have to find some way to either cut or bend it to fit. I would rather bend it so I can use it for support but that may be easier said than done, given the shapes?







OH... and I am crazy or something. I swear I ordered drivers with low, medium, and high. Nope. These are DAMN!!!, Oh ok, and seizure inducing fast strobe! This is going to be FUN!

I think I mentioned that you don't always get exactly what you ordered?



Can you use a round hammer to gently fold the back Cu plate to match the interior curve of the cross bar?

Awesome. I have looked at LED lightbars and damn are they expensive.

LOL

I think that's why he wants to MAKE one.



The LEDs put out a lot of light, and use very little current to do it. They also produce a lot of heat to draw off to keep from frying the electronics.

When you add together the combination of driving the LEDs hard to maximize the light out put, and using components that can stand up to the performance, its going to get more expensive...but, for a fraction of the amps, you can get a ton of light.


A 3-5 watt LED might put out more light than a 35 watt HID, and much more light than a 150 watt halogen, etc. The LED light, for the same output, can be a lot smaller and lighter.

For some applications, the price/performance ratio tips things in favor of the HID's over halogens for example, but after a certain point, the scales tip to the LEDs...

...Hence the attraction, and, the justification of cost....to do HIDs over halogens, and LEDs over HIDs' and so forth.



For myself, as to ME, an LED was traditionally one of those teeny "shower head" type lamps that put out a feeble short range pool of light - but for practically forever.... The idea of using a high performance version that can over power an HID, etc, is attractive just for the CONCEPT to me...like winning the King of the Hammers in an Xterra.




For perspective, those Giant Spot Lights you see in the Big Box Stores that put out a "Million Candle Power", or even "5 Million Candle Power", etc...can be shamed by an LED light in real out put.


ANSI started requiring lights to be labeled wit LUMEN output ratings...not what the emitter itself made, but what the lighting device actually projected out the lens "Out The Front" lumens, or OTF Lumens, etc.

For perspective, a 5 MILLION Candle Power Spot Light might be rated at 675 Lumens.

I have a 4" long LED FLASHLIGHT in my pant pocket that puts out 750 lumens.


I have an LED driving lamp on my bumper that pumps out ~ 9,000 Lumens. (~ 6" diameter, round light) That's ~ 9,000 Lumens from ~ 90 watts.

One 150 watt halogen driving light (KC, etc) might put out 3-400 lumens, etc.


To get ~9,000 lumens from halogen driving lamps, I might need 20 of them....and a lot of amps being generated to power them....

If you figure you need ~ 25 amp fuse for each pair of 150 W lights, and so forth...

...But one 15 amp fuse can handle your one 90 watt 9,000 lumen LED light.

If I add a second light, I could have 18,000 lumens lighting up the area in front of me.


I got mine from a mining truck that needs to get in/out of the strip mining areas at night, where a misstep can plummet a truck over a 100' cliff, etc....so they kind of want to see a lot of detail about the path they are on before they are on it and it gives way, etc.

So far, I am in my project for about $110.00.

(8) cree LEDs
(4) drivers
(8) reflectors
(8) baby heatsinks
(2) long copper strips with holes in them?
(2) copper end caps
(2) copper pieces of pipe.

I haven't really shopped around to get the best price at all, just saw stuff that I thought may work and got it.

I am building as I go so I am wasting more money there... When I buy stuff I end up not needing.

So far I don't need the (2) pieces of copper pipe. The drivers will power (3) LEDs but I am only using (2) each. Don't know about the reflectors and heatsinks yet... They have only made it Colorado so far. Somewhere, there is a dude walking down the highway (cross country) dragging a big wooden cross... And in his pocket are my reflectors and heatsinks!

SS - this is an interesting project. Not sure how it will end up, but interesting if for nothing more than a mental exercise.

BTW, and the real reason for my comment, the copper strip I believe is used for hanging pipes, lots of them. I may be wrong, but I think they are mounted on the joists/rafters and the pipes are then run through the holes.

But then again, I've been accused of smoking crack with some of the crap I come up with sometimes...

Good luck and keep us posted!

-G

God I did a lot (a lot more than it looks) on this project today. I really could/should have done more planning before taking on this but I was excited and bored and wanted something to do… something to do I got.
Oh, and there are some serious things I need to add to my garage. Like a drill press. I could have knocked a few HOURS off of this today if I had one of those. But, as it stands, I don’t so I used what I had. A dremel. Let’s just say that some of the holes aren’t “perfect” but they are as good as I felt like getting them today.



Got my reflectors and baby heat sinks in the mail finally



Reflectors fit pretty well but…



They are pretty small. I will probably have to cut some of the enclosures to fit. Then again, I may leave them so that more of the light goes forward and not on my hood.



Here’s these bar things? (I agree, they look like they are made to hold pipes. Funny, cause that’s kinda what I’m doing and why I got them.)



Have to trim a lot of it, length-wise and depth-wise.



This is why.



And this.

This cut was NOT fun.

Nor was this.

This is what I ended up with. Not much left huh. Seemed a little flimsy in spots so…



Broke out the ‘ol torch and used the pieces I cut off to make it a little more sturdy.



I REAAAAALLLLY need to clean my work space!!!



I spent SO freakin long cutting these holes with a dremel. (metal cutting diskS and grinder. Those damn disks are Xpensive!)



Soldered the enclosures into place.



And this is what you get.

High makes my camera freak the hell out! LOL



Low isn’t so bad (to the camera)



I haven’t attached the LEDs with thermal goo yet because one of the wires was shorting out to the enclosures… grrrrr (If I ever do this or something like it again, I will use smaller LED PCBs)

I SHOULD be done tomorrow. God I HOPE I’m done tomorrow. I still have to run power up to the roof of the X. That’s going to be fun.

As the large aluminum cross bar itself can be a decent way to heat sink...are you thermally bonding the copper to the cross bar?

What are you doing to avoid the copper and aluminum from not playing well with each other/galvanic corrosion?

You want them to be able to exchange heat via conduction, which is best done via direct contact...but direct contact itself will typically create a galvanic condition.

I was thinking about looking for a rubber grommet to put on the holes in the cross bar then sliding the copper enclosures into them... But 1. Finding exact grommets to fit would/will be hard (haven't given up on that idea yet) and 2. Just getting the enclosures to fit into the holes, from the inside, is hard enough. Again, another one of those things that would have been MUCH easier had I planned a little more. This project is more of an experiment / R&D type. I just wanted to know if it could be done cheaper than buying a pre-made and at the same time I wanted custom lights IN the cross bar because I have never seen it done before. I really like the idea of them there but the effort it is taking to get them there is growing more and more. Would help if I had the right tools... No suprise there at all... Said that a bunch of times in life already.

As far as galvanic corrosion... Never thought about it before you mentioned it. I had to google that to refresh my memory of what that even was. (I own a swamp cooler lol) I don't really know what I'm going to so about that. I currently live in the desert, so corrosion doesn't usually matter out here. But, I am moving in less than 3 months. Don't know where to yet, but I bet it rains more.

I have 5 kits of arctic alumina thermal epoxy. I was going to use that to attach the LEDs to the inside of the copper enclosures. I suppose I could use that to attach the enclosures to the aluminum cross bar but that is rather expensive.

This whole project is getting more and more Xpensive. I guess that's part of R/D though. Lol i'll bite the bullet on this one.

You are starting to realize where some of the $ being recouped by the commercial products came from.



R&D is one of those invisible categories....like pharmaceuticals...people are outraged that a little pill that costs $1 generically is $50 for the brand name.

The brand name company spent 7-10 years developing the drug, doing FDA trials, etc...and then has to recoup all of that $ (Typically a minimum of a $ half billion) investment...within the ~ 7 year window remaining in their patent protection period.

To make it WORTH them spending all that time and $ in the first place, they want a ROI that makes sense, hence the $50/pill to get paid enough to be worth it.

When the protection expires, a generic company can simply MAKE the pills, w/o needing any research or trials, etc...and CAN sell it for $1 and make money doing it.


Same with other products...someone has to design not only the light, but the machinery to make it, and the packaging and distribution, etc all tweak each other.

If YOU make a light, you DON'T need to sweat details like that...and you figure if a change needs to be made after seeing what works/doesn't...you'd just take it off the roof, fix it, and put it back (Rinse/Repeat)...until its the way you like it.

THEY need to make sure its ALREADY that way before it gets put into a box.




For me, this sort of project is great though, because the satisfaction of doing it myself can outweigh the disadvantages of it being better but from a mass producer.

Damn I've been busy! I got orders to recruiting school. I leave in 6 days! 8 weeks of school and then I'm off to God knows where. (Did I already mention this? I can't remember.) Anyone wanna buy a house in Yucca Valey, CA? I have 8+ weeks to sell!

So needless to say I haven't exactly had the time to work on this much. BUT, I did get a little done tonight.



Had to cut my nylon washers down so they would fit around the solder joints on the sides of the PCBs.



Pretty hard to tell but this is what they look like with the washers.



This is kinda what I am going for. The holes in the cross bar aren't EXACTLY where they need to be. In fact, I had to seperate the two long copper pieces of... pipe holder? Apparently I didn't realize that the cross bar is NOT flat/strait. They bow, I am assuming so they can hold more weight? Anyway, my light bar was strait and did not fit right inside the bowed cross bar. So, no big thing, I seperated them. Now there are 4 lights on one side, 4 on the other...



But from the outside you would never know.

I do have a little bit of a problem now. The holes I made for the enclosures are ugly. I need to patch the ugly. So I was thinking about filling the holes with either JB weld or this thermal epoxy I got, but 1. I would need to be able to sand the stuff down and make it pretty and 2. that thermal epoxy is expensive. (I know I've said that before )

What color does JB weld dry to and can you sand it down and it still be strong?

You might consider a bezel to hide the hole edges as easier/neater than putty, etc.

Right now, the pipes sticking out like that kind of remind me of the machine gun barrels that stuck out of the wings on WWII fighter planes.

(Which I like)

TJ - Never had the thought of the machine guns image, but now that you mention it, they do. Now you can tell people your truck KILLS JEEPS! LOL.

And I agree. A bezel would look better. I've seen plastic ones at Lowes, but plastic would never do for this. Metal ones would look and work much better. Plus, they could also help lock them in place and help eliminate any vibrations. Another thought would be grommets.

Which brings up a question. Will rain get in the holes and collect in the crossbar as you drive? How will it get out? Are there any drain holes on the ends? (Since the crossbars are bowed, any water will run down to the ends.) Will any rain short the lights out? Will you have it grounded well too, just in case? Sorry, just some random thoughts...

And please tell us you didn't drill the holes in the crossbar with that spade bit in the last pic...

Keep up the good work SS! Looking good!

-G

I hope rain doesn't get in, but so far most of my electronics (the drivers and LEDs) are coated with thermal epoxy and joints are coated with liquid electrical tape. But, I can't imagine the cross bars were THAT water tight to begine with.

There aren't drain holes per say, but the sides of the cross bars aren't exactly sealed either. I will take pics of the actual cross bar when I get home.

Grounded yes... hell yes.

And spade bit, ROFL no. I just have a DAMN messy work space right now.

Fighter Plane machine Guns All the Way.



IIRC, you have drivers with strobe mode...so the machine gun effect with the strobes firing would be pretty cool.



Grommets might not be a bad way to close the hole gaps.

Wow.. you have been a busy little beaver

Sorry I haven't any updates lately, I get to come home this weekend... Tonight actually, so I should get to work on this some more. To be honest, I am missing being able to work on my projects!

I need to find a way to seal the front with glass. Do you think that a glass shop can cut circles smaller than 3/4"? It's either that or cut my own lexan... I have some at home but cutting that small of a circle may be "fun"!

Punching lexan might be easier than cutting it...a smidge wide, and hit the ends with a wheel to smooth them out again.

Can you find a hole saw that small? How about a dowel cutter (a device used for making your own dowels)? Dowel cutters are used by wood workers to cut dowels that match the wood they are using. Just a thought.

-G

Well damnit... Didn't really get a chance to work on them. Sorry. Buddy of mine, today, asks if I want to go for a drive up Gold Mountain and then to John Bull in Big Bear, Ca... So of course I say yes. Didn't get a chance to do JB because there was a line of rigs waiting to go up and I have to drive back down to San Diego in a few minutes actually one thing though, and I know this is off topic (my own damn topic) but, I guess I drove too close to a tree? I reall don't even know how it happened but it did. Not really mad about the glass, more mad about the metal around the glass. Grrrrrr. How much does this cost to fix?

You still fix stuff like that?

Fresh air mod

At this point I still have to paint, possibly add more heat sinks, and get glass cut (or something?) This was recorded with my phone so the refresh rate doesn't do the strobe justice. (Doesn't do the brightness justice either!)

LOL

No, I think I get it, it looks awesome.



You can get glass lenses on DX for example.

Do you have a bezel/rim, or something, to hold the lenses on?

Haven't been home much lately. Almost finished with my school. Almost finished with this project. All I need now is glass lenses cut. Called around but no luck as of yet. Went ahead and sealed, sanded, and painted the cross bars. (Sanding would have been nice if done FIRST!!!)

Well, it's finally finished. (I hope it is anyway) Took WAY longer, due to getting orders and having to go to a school and trying to sell my house...

So if I had to do it all over again I would but it would cost about 1/3rd the price as it cost me. If anyone wants to try and take something like this on, it would REALLY REALLY REALLY be nice to:

- sand/media blast the bars first. (any powder coater should be able to media blast them)
- own a drill press
- own a hole saw
- have time

And sorry for the filthy X. Went offroading a while ago and haven't had the chance to clean it. It's nice and baked on now!















Will post the video in a minute, and day/night shots tonight.

Here is a not great video of the lights in action. I don't know what is up with the camera when I turn the lights to the low setting (the second setting) But whatever it is, the camera does NOT like it? The lights do NOT blink in the low setting. Also, the strobe setting is MUCH faster than this video shows.

Ok so if you have ever taken pics at night, through a dirty windshield, then you know these just don't do it justice. I can tell you that the color the LEDs produce is SOOO white! Like the background of this page white. They make my normal OEM headlights (that cause me to get bright-lighted often) look brown. I set the white pot out 25', then the ladder 25', then the red box 25', then the Titan is another 8-10'... from the front bumper of my X. If you have never seen white LED light, I just can't explain how chrisp the light is. I see more LEDs in my future. Oh, and I am pulling less than 15 amps (fuse is 15A) I don't know how much I AM pulling?


Control shot


Normal headlights


Normal headlights high


Just lightbar high


Just lightbar low


Normal headlights high and lightbar high

Moved the X into my carport beside the house. The lattice hangs down below the height of the lightbar so much of this gets blocked.


Normal headlights


Normal headlights high


Just lightbar high


Just lightbar low

I see what you mean by the quality of the light itself...very nice!

That flashing that you saw on camera, but not in person was probably due to pulse width modulation (PWM) by the driver.

The frame rate for the video, and the pulses of light, were in/out of synch...causing the camera to see no light in between pulses, and for the LED to send no light between some frames, etc...so an either on or off effect was observed.

Some drivers/LED combo use PWM to make the LED run cooler/use less power, by essentially turning the light off for periods so brief, that you don't see it go off and on again...much like a fast enough frame rate looks like a continuous picture, like a movie, rather than looking like a slow flip book, etc.

Moving your hand, a rotating fan blade , etc, rapidly between your eyes and the LED can also reveal PWM effects.

PWM makes perfect sense, didn't think of that even being an option. The "low" setting is SUPPOSED to just lower the amps to the LEDs (not change the volts) but whatever... in real life you can't tell at all. On camera... lol it looks like I'm casting a spell or something? Like close your eyes because some ghosts are going to come out of the ark of the covenant and melt you!

I'll try and take better pics/vids this weekend.

So, can any of the mods re-name this post? I don't want to start a new one just because this turned into more of a build thread than the question it started with? If so, how about "DIY LED lightbar"? If not, ahh well... I'll think farther into the future next time.

[Should have called it, I have an idea that I'm going to dump a bunch of money into and hope it works!]

The lattice hangs down below the height of the lightbar so much of this gets blocked.





-------------------
led light bulbs
led lighting downlights
LED Fluorescent Replacement

Sorry this isn't really much of an update. Moved from Cali to Michigan and started a new job, usually only get one day off a week so working on my truck is low priority.

Shipped my X here and one of the lights got smashed in shipping. I didn't notice until after delivery of course...

The lights ate bright as hell. I don't know a way to take a good pic. I snapped two the other night with my phone. It was raining and my windows were dirty


Normal X headlights.



7 out of 8 LEDs

Since this was a prototype, the lights aren't easily removable. You would pretty much have to take the whole thing apart to work on the insides. I think the 8th LED is repairable, I just haven't tried. Hopefully the solder just came undone. The lenses I made are cheap acrylic that I cut and glued on. Two of the lenses have fallen out, the rest are nasty on the inside.

A future design I am thinking about just buying Cree t6 flashlights and taking them apart somehow. Maybe drop-ins? Would be a lot cheaper, comes with a housing, drivers, lenses, and the LEDs... Another thing I was thinking about using were elliptical lenses. They make round ones with waves in the reflector or even square ones that are... well they are strange looking.

I definitely want to make them easily repairable. Oh and another thing, and this has only happened twice that I can remember, since I am running 4 drivers they somehow got un-synced. It was like most of the LEDs were on high and two were on strobe. LOL I just turned them off for a minute and they all reset. I would love to find a way to use just one driver or buck puck.

I do drive with the LEDs on almost every night on my way home from work (deer spotters) and I haven't seen any signs of heat damage so the little baby heatsinks seems to work well enough. Then again I don't live in the Mojave Desert anymore. The absolute white light these things put off are amazing. It's like daylight. Curious what more than 8 (7) would look like!

Sucks on the shipping damage...but the light cast looks great either way.



Zebra Light and a few others make angle lights, so the heads are designed to be 90º to the power source, etc...if you went with flashlights inserted into the holes, etc.

If you want some drop ins, a guy I know in Washington (State) does some really strong ones (Over 1,000 lumens from single LED std P6 sized drop ins, and you can ask for whatever drives you want like multiple levels of brightness, in different orders, strobe or beacon, etc), I'll hook you up...otherwise, you could do the DX roulette wheel etc.

If you want more throw, you could make some of them use an aspherical lens. I have some small aspherics that can light things up over 800 yards away....on a single 18650 cell.

The pattern thrown is the shape of the die itself, SUPER tight focus.

Too bad on the damage. Good luck fixing it.

One word of caution though since you're now in Michigan (I'm in Battle Creek - south-central lower). Lights on the top of your truck (what Michigan defines as OFF-ROAD lights) are illegal on the road. I looked into this when I made my lightbar and added my driving lights on the front. Michigan only allows 4 white lights facing forward at a time, and they must all be below the hood. Oh, and 2 of them must be your headlights. This is probably true in most states. So you can run with your headlights and fogs or driving lights. That's it. That's your choice. And they must all be 55w or less (high-beams are 65w and are the exception in that they must be dimmed for on-coming traffic).

A cop can AND WILL stop you for running your off-road lights on the road if he catches you. Michigan doesn't play with this.

I understand the desire to watch for deer. They're a real problem here. That's why I "modified" the bulbs that are in my Hella 500's on the front. Those come with 55w bulbs but will also take the 100w H3's. There's a tang on the side of the bulb so it won't fit in a 55w socket. THAT'S ALL TO PREVENT IT... (And yes, I made sure my wiring can handle the extra load and the Hella 500 housings can too.) This way they are much brighter (they're REALLY bright) and if I were to get stopped, you can't tell the bulb mod without taking them apart.

Anyway, a word of caution...

-G

Wow, I didn't know that. Guess they (thepolice) wouldn't be too happy if I accidentally flicked them on to strobe. Hmmm, wonder if they care about yellow? Could always put lens caps on them...

Thanks for the heads up!

Some of the regs are in terms of bulb wattages.

If so, your LEDs use very few watts....a possible loop hole.



Otherwise, you could make a rotating collar that covers the lights you need to cover, the way a lawn sprinkler is adjusted to vary the width of the spray pattern, etc.

In Michigan, lights up on top are OFF ROAD lights. It doesn't matter what color they are. They could be green, but because of the wattage (or equivalent wattage for LED's) and their location (above the hood) they're off road lights and are illegal on the road.

That being said, I do turn mine on (the ones up top) while on the road on occasion. And even then, I usually have my finger on the switch! The ones on the front I use regularly. Anytime I can use high beams.