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.