Triple Cree XR-E Bike Light

[aljsk8]

i know this is an old thread but i just wanted to thank niterider for this light

your information has helped me a lot and im well on my way to having a sweet light (here...https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/166804&highlight=bike)

thanks again

Alex

 

[greenlight]

Great job with the square optics.

 

[Krit]

OH, you can blind the truck for a while. Very bright.

 

[crislight01]

Very very nice. Excellent evolution in design simplicity, too.

yes i agree it also looks powerfull and tough, amazing light.I would personaly use it as a power lamp carrying the batteries in my bacpack,Congrats:twothumbs

 

[nightrider]

Hey guys. I haven't logged in to CPF for a while. Thanks for all the kind words. This Triple Cree is now accompanied by a Triple Seoul p4 (U-bin) that's even brighter. And now with the Cree XR-E (Q5 bin) available, might have to upgrade this one. (It currently has XR-E P3 bin, still a good light though).

Thanks again!

 

[pinkrobe]

I built up a 4-LED Cree Q5 light based on nightrider's design. It's pretty sweet, and when I get enough voltage, it should outshine my HID at 750mAh. I'm ordering another batch of LEDs, lenses and driver this weekend to make a second light.

 

[nightrider]

A quad Q5 should be really bright! What are you powering it with in terms of driver and battery?

 

[gubawatts]

Nightrider, (or others);

When you order your Cree XR-E LED's, what tint do you specify? I see the Q5 is available as WH Tint (Soft White), WC Tint (Cold White), and WG (Tint) Cold White.

Forgive me if this is a very basic question, I'm still coming up to speed on this technology, (This board is a great resource), but I'd like to understand what the preference is in terms of tint.

Thanks,
Mark

 

[nightrider]

Nightrider, (or others);

When you order your Cree XR-E LED's, what tint do you specify? I see the Q5 is available as WH Tint (Soft White), WC Tint (Cold White), and WG (Tint) Cold White.

Forgive me if this is a very basic question, I'm still coming up to speed on this technology, (This board is a great resource), but I'd like to understand what the preference is in terms of tint.

Thanks,
Mark

It's really a matter of personal preference. The WH (soft) will be more towards the color of a halogen (more yellow) while a WC (cool) will be more pure white hopefully, but can have some blue tint in it like an HID. I generally prefer either WC or WD (which is sort of between the two). Most likely, unless you were comparing them side by side you might not notice the difference... but it is easy to see differences in the color temps of LEDs side by side comparisons. I've have some that I thought were fairly white until held up next to another which made the original look yellowish, or greenish, or blueish.

To really understand the color binning you need to download Cree's binning & labeling documentation and also find an x,y chomaticity space chart (in color).

 

[gubawatts]

Nightrider,

Thanks for the reply. I've downloaded the spec sheet and binning info for the Cree XRE, so I'll be studying that a bit.

I'm quite sure I'll be modeling a light after your design, the documentation you've posted on your builds are excellent.

Mark:thumbsup:

 

[Zero_Enigma]

Nightrider,

Just got the dual LED light almost done. I'm about 90% on the housing. I'm curious, you said you're planning on upgrading to the Cree Q5's. How do you plan on upgrading? Is there a easy way to remove the LED's from the ASA epoxy? I didn't go cheezewhiz crazy when I applied that on my testing heatsink. BTW you rock for sharing the design with the community. I always plug your designs and ideas when people check out my ghetto bones light setup (in prototype a la I'm still finishing up my housing) while riding and I comment on how I built it and always pimp your site and give you full credits so they know how to build thier own. :thumbsup:

 

[nightrider]

Nightrider,

Just got the dual LED light almost done. I'm about 90% on the housing. I'm curious, you said you're planning on upgrading to the Cree Q5's. How do you plan on upgrading? Is there a easy way to remove the LED's from the ASA epoxy? I didn't go cheezewhiz crazy when I applied that on my testing heatsink. BTW you rock for sharing the design with the community. I always plug your designs and ideas when people check out my ghetto bones light setup (in prototype a la I'm still finishing up my housing) while riding and I comment on how I built it and always pimp your site and give you full credits so they know how to build thier own. :thumbsup:

Hey, thanks for the kind words.

It's pretty easy to knock off an AAA'd star. I just take a utility knife and wedge the blade between the glued side of the star and the light body, then bump the back side of the knife with a small hammer... the star will pop right off, usually without damaging it.
[Edit] In fact, I just popped off two Luxeon V stars the other night (my original Dual Lux V light) and replaced them with two Cree XR-E (Q5s). Now that light has twice the output at about 2/3 the power consumption! I hated to do it to those Lux Vs since I paid about $40 each for them... oh well, I'm sure I'll find a use for those LEDs elsewhere

 

[znomit]

It's pretty easy to knock off an AAA'd star.

This is very true. As I found when putting my quad together :https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/174539
I stuck them all onto an aluminium plate and then bent it to give a good light spread(I had already bent the plate to approximately the right angle). The plate flexing poped one of the stars right off. The arctic epoxy is quite brittle and not too hard to scrape off to get back to bare aluminium.

 

[sandiagan]

Nice documentation, you've inspired me too build my own bike lite.
Will you share your source for the battery pack?

Thanks

 

[nightrider]

Nice documentation, you've inspired me too build my own bike lite.
Will you share your source for the battery pack?

Thanks

I usually buy packs from batteryspace.com or all-battery.com, which ever has the best deal at the time... look for sales. Li-Ion packs seem to be more expensive now than a couple of years ago

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=3600

Above is the pack I've used for a few years. I bought a couple for 59.00, now they are 73.50.