Turbocat Triple Cree Conversion

[StevelKnievel]

Hi everyone,

Here are some pictures and beamshots of my Triple Cree Turbocat. The light is driven by a Fatman and uses the stock 6v 4Ah NiMH battery. There is a conical aluminum heatsink inside the assembly for maximum heat transfer from PCB to housing and I replaced the stock bezel with a finned one for more surface area. This solution has proven effective for drive currents up to around 800mA. Above 800mA the light will begin to get a little hot without airflow. I've run it as high as 1.2A, at which point it was overheating and shutting off if it did not have adequate airflow (keep in mind this is in 80-85degF ambient Florida weather). I've been testing this light pretty much nonstop since I finished the machining and as long as it is run at a reasonable drive current it is drop dead reliable. The entire assembly is just slightly heavier than the MR11 halogen it replaces, not enough to be noticable.

Here are some beamshots comparing the "LEDcat" running at 650mA with my NiteRider HID. Exposure for all shots is 0.4sec at f2.8 with Canon Powershot A620.

1st: Just the LEDcat

2nd: Just the NR HID

3rd: Both LEDcat and NR HID

I really like the color of the Crees, and the 10deg optic is good for a handlebar light. The throw gets better as I turn up the power, but at 650mA it is a little lacking. Most of our rides are 2-3 hours long, so I set it up to run for that long. I am thinking about making a small run of the machined parts that will allow someone to convert their Turbocat with the MR11 Cree kit from Cutter. There is room in the Turbocat housing for bFlex, maxFlex or fatman, so if you wanted to run a nice big 14.8v Li-ion for tons of runtime with bFlex you could. Hope you all like it!

 

[WeLight]

Hi everyone,

Here are some pictures and beamshots of my Triple Cree Turbocat. The light is driven by a Fatman and uses the stock 6v 4Ah NiMH battery. There is a conical aluminum heatsink inside the assembly for maximum heat transfer from PCB to housing and I replaced the stock bezel with a finned one for more surface area. This solution has proven effective for drive currents up to around 800mA. Above 800mA the light will begin to get a little hot without airflow. I've run it as high as 1.2A, at which point it was overheating and shutting off if it did not have adequate airflow (keep in mind this is in 80-85degF ambient Florida weather). I've been testing this light pretty much nonstop since I finished the machining and as long as it is run at a reasonable drive current it is drop dead reliable. The entire assembly is just slightly heavier than the MR11 halogen it replaces, not enough to be noticable.

... (Images removed by Darell)

I really like the color of the Crees, and the 10deg optic is good for a handlebar light. The throw gets better as I turn up the power, but at 650mA it is a little lacking. Most of our rides are 2-3 hours long, so I set it up to run for that long. I am thinking about making a small run of the machined parts that will allow someone to convert their Turbocat with the MR11 Cree kit from Cutter. There is room in the Turbocat housing for bFlex, maxFlex or fatman, so if you wanted to run a nice big 14.8v Li-ion for tons of runtime with bFlex you could. Hope you all like it!

Sweet light
Cheers
Mark

 

[Calina]

Nice mod :thumbsup:. Really!

But I think that in the first shot, the light is pointing a little lower than it is in the second shot so it is hard to compare the two lights.

 

[StevelKnievel]

Thanks! The beams are centered at the same target. The LEDs have alot more flood and my HID is a very narrow beam in comparison, that is why there is so much light on the ground in front of the bike with the LEDs. Both lights were mounted side by side on the h-bar and were not moved for the beam shots.

 

[Darell]

Fantastic!

WeLight... When you reply to a post, please trim out any parts that we don't need to see duplicates of - especially big pictures that we then have to scroll past every time. I'm going to take them out of your post for everybody's benefit.

 

[StevelKnievel]

Here are some beamshots from the "riders" perspective. I had the LEDcat on the bars and the NR HID on my helmet. I was standing next to the bike and wearing my helmet for these shots. The white wood lattice is 50ft away from the front of the bike. Both lights were aimed at the lattice. All shots 0.5sec f2.8 Canon Powershot A620.

LEDcat only:

NR HID only:

LEDcat + NR HID:

 

[mofiki]

I now have an empty Turbocat head because I recently burned out the 6v 15w bulb. I keep burning out bulbs because I'm over-powering them to 7.4v with a Li-ion pack. I have been through three bulbs this year and at $25 a pop I'm not buying anymore. The thing worked well as long as I didn't put a full charge on the battery pack ( 8.2v ). If I charged it to long and trie to run it, Poof!!!. So I am going to mod the head for LEDs. I like that bezel you fabbed. Is it possible to get you to make more and what kind of price are you hoping to get? And if you could add some more details to how you fit everything inside (w/pics) would be great. Afterall, we are here to learn, not just bragg. Good job on the mod.

 

[StevelKnievel]

Thanks for all of the compliments, I'm glad people like the conversion. When I get a chance, I'll post some pictures of the internals of this conversion. I'm going to start running the numbers to see if I can do a small production run of the 2 machined parts. You guys don't want to pay as much as it would cost for me to make these on a manual machine (3 or so hours of machining @ $60/hour). There is a shop in town with a CNC lathe, so I'll get them to give me a quote this week. I'll try to design a universal heatsink slug that has internal bores to fit both bFlex and fatman drivers, that you can choose whether you want to run a stock battery (fatman) or a 14.8v uber battery (bFlex). As soon as I know more I'll post in this thread!

Steve

 

[greenLED]

Very cool, Steve!

Wait until turbodog sees this - he recently did a "nuclear" upgrade on his turbocat setup.

 

[lexina]

one of the nicest I have seen so far!

 

[StevelKnievel]

I will have heatsinks and finned bezels in stock and ready to ship by Nov.20. If anyone is interested in converting their Turbocat to LEDs PM me for more info.

I don't want to step on anyone's toes or upset the moderators, so please let me know if I need to post this in the marketplace instead. Thanks!

Steve

 

[mofiki]

Yes, I definately want two. I can't seem to figure out how to PM.

 

[Flash Harry]

A mod that ticks all the boxes! I'm tempted to buy a turbocat just to try it.

 

[StevelKnievel]

I've been modding a some of the local guys' Turbocats and I finally remembered to take some before and after beamshots. Sorry about the picture quality, the second shot is a little blurry and they are both underexposed and don't really represent what the lights look like to the naked eye, but they do illustrate the difference in output pretty well. Both shots 1sec, f2.8, Canon A620

15w Spot Turbocat MR-11 Bulb:

LEDcat conversion 700mA:

 

[chris_m]

I've seen plenty of mods, and that is right up near if not at the top (would have to see the insides to know which)! Makes me very tempted to get a Turbocat head to mod!

 

[Chris2000]

Steve,
I got my MR11 kit from cutter (quad cree, fatman and medium optic) plus your turbocat retrofit parts all together and on Monday night I sat down to put it all together. I am a rookie when it comes to soldering so the job took me way longer than is probably should have. The quad cree has it's solder points and access hole on the edge of the disk not the middle so I used a hack saw and cut a slot down the side of the heat sink to the fatman. I bought a cheap multimeter to turn down the fatman. The resistance I measured was about six thousand ohms high on both the top and bottom end of the adjustment so I just added that amount to the resistance I got off the fatman website for about 500mA. I have no idea how close the actual value is. Then is was time for the test.. I hooked up the stock 6v battery, hit the switch and it worked! It was time to hit the trail. I rigged up my bike with my bar mount stock turbocats (just in case) and mounted my quad cree to my helmet. I was expecting a light brighter than the sun. My expectations may have been a little high. I started with all my lights on. The cree was much whiter than the stock turbocats with I liked, however the hotspot of the stock turbocats seemed to be brighter than the cree. Then I turned off the stock turbocats. The cree with the medium optic has a great beam pattern for technical single-track. The beam is wide enough that turns of my head don't leave the trail in the dark. Also, there is no hotspot. I didn't realize how important that is. When I ride with my stock turbocats, the hotsopts kind of dance down the trail and my eyes kind of follow the spots. This can be very distracting and at times when I am riding at the edge of my skill level, it has caused crashes. The cree (especially when mounted to my helmet) provides even, consistent and uninterrupted illumination of the trail. I love it!

Thanks for your help with the project, it is a success!

Chris

 

[270winchester]

sweet.

btw single speed eh? I'm running around on a SS Chameleon myself. I just use a FireLion as my light, lacking skills and all.

is that a 1.5 inch headtube I see? the top cup on the headset is quite a bit bigger than the Thompson stem, and nice wide bar for torquing up the hills.:twothumbs