hello peeps,
I've been looking into led lights for my scooter. and wow they are expensive!
the cheapest i can find are about £50 and for the scrooge that i am thats way too much.
considering I haven't brought the new headlight housing as its £60!
so ive been keeping my night driving down to well, none as i dont have to go out at night and legally i don't have to have headlights till its dark.
( during the day i have my main beams on as its day and doesn't dazzle anyone )
so i have been looking at different ways to make them.
it's fairly simple so this is what i've come up with.
based on the fact the bulb housing is melted to buggery and i'm handy with a dremel.
i'm going to source the parts off e-bay.
the basic parts are:
a heat sink
bigger leds do get warm and need cooling but no where near hot enough to melt any more of my headlights, it just to keep the led from damaging its self.
and make it last longer.
so a 12v cpu cooler will be more than enough.
the L.E.D
as i cant be arsed soldering loads of 1 watt leds im going for a 12v 10watt led
of course in white im going for cool white but thats my personal choice any white will do.
a resistor.
since even tho your bike runs at 12v it is really running at 14v as thats at full battery.
so a 3.3 ohm is needed again you strictly dont have to have one but it really makes sure the led lasts as long as possible and thats what i'm after.
leds usually have the minimum life of 50.000 hours so around 6 years of constant use. while standard bulbs only have around 150 ish hour.
conductive paste or thermal paste.
this will bond the led to the heatsink and draw the heat away from it.
I have purposely chosen 12v as its what my lights run on, some are ac so you would need to get a rectifier thats for some one else to do as mines not :)
since i have air vents on the sides of my front fairing i most likely won't need a fan operated heat sink but i dont want to take any chances of it overheating and the led breaking on me in the middle of nowhere as all lights seem to.
the only other thing i need is some shrink wrap to cover the resistor but i have some kicking about as well as the soldering iron and solder.
the led i have ordered has an out put of 900 lumens which isnt the best but certainly better than the stock one which is about 300
and i dont want to have a beacon of light blinding traffic as i pass by.
hope this is helpfull to someone :)
I've been looking into led lights for my scooter. and wow they are expensive!
the cheapest i can find are about £50 and for the scrooge that i am thats way too much.
considering I haven't brought the new headlight housing as its £60!
so ive been keeping my night driving down to well, none as i dont have to go out at night and legally i don't have to have headlights till its dark.
( during the day i have my main beams on as its day and doesn't dazzle anyone )
so i have been looking at different ways to make them.
it's fairly simple so this is what i've come up with.
based on the fact the bulb housing is melted to buggery and i'm handy with a dremel.
i'm going to source the parts off e-bay.
the basic parts are:
a heat sink
bigger leds do get warm and need cooling but no where near hot enough to melt any more of my headlights, it just to keep the led from damaging its self.
and make it last longer.
so a 12v cpu cooler will be more than enough.
the L.E.D
as i cant be arsed soldering loads of 1 watt leds im going for a 12v 10watt led
of course in white im going for cool white but thats my personal choice any white will do.
a resistor.
since even tho your bike runs at 12v it is really running at 14v as thats at full battery.
so a 3.3 ohm is needed again you strictly dont have to have one but it really makes sure the led lasts as long as possible and thats what i'm after.
leds usually have the minimum life of 50.000 hours so around 6 years of constant use. while standard bulbs only have around 150 ish hour.
conductive paste or thermal paste.
this will bond the led to the heatsink and draw the heat away from it.
 |
| so hooked up a 12v 10watt led i had, yes its blue but its just to see if it works |
I have purposely chosen 12v as its what my lights run on, some are ac so you would need to get a rectifier thats for some one else to do as mines not :)
since i have air vents on the sides of my front fairing i most likely won't need a fan operated heat sink but i dont want to take any chances of it overheating and the led breaking on me in the middle of nowhere as all lights seem to.
the only other thing i need is some shrink wrap to cover the resistor but i have some kicking about as well as the soldering iron and solder.
the led i have ordered has an out put of 900 lumens which isnt the best but certainly better than the stock one which is about 300
and i dont want to have a beacon of light blinding traffic as i pass by.
hope this is helpfull to someone :)
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