# Homemade triple Cree R2 bike light step-by-step



## blakelidge (Dec 7, 2008)

Hi all, I've just completed my first build and was wondering if it would be appropriate for me to put together a step-by-step guide with piccies, beamshots etc of how it was done? I still have two more triples and a quad light to build so I could document these if doing so is not an abuse of the forum, please advise.

The light I just completed, is comprised, three Cree R2s, Buckpuck 3023, 5kohm external pot, housed in aluminium with copper heatsink and a 50mm triple optic. I can confirm the light is v.bright and I currently have it here blazing on my desk doing a runtime test and thus far it has been running 5 mins short of 5hrs on full power and seems to still be going as strong as when it started (yep I'm really smiling) For info, I am running it from my Makita Lithium Ion 18v 3.0Ah battery (fully charged before the test started) and I have made a custom connector for attaching the light lead to the battery, this incorporates a line-fuse from the battery positive because I suspect this battery would be like a nuclear bomb if I fell of the bike and caused a short, or if not a nuclear bomb, maybe a pretty impressive ball of flame 

As I said, this is my first build and CPF has been the mine of info that has allowed me to put this dream light together, because I would never have wanted to spend the kinds of money something like this off-the-shelf would have cost. so I think it only fair of me to put something back in as a thanks if that's ok.
Regards
Dave


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## TranquillityBase (Dec 7, 2008)

Please do! :twothumbs


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## wquiles (Dec 7, 2008)

+1 

By all means, please do 

Will


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## blakelidge (Dec 8, 2008)

Thanks. Second light starting tomorrow evening, so I will be back with full details of that from start to finish. As you know, I was doing a runtime test on light one and it was still blazing at 12:45am, (having first switched it on at 4:15)so I had to interrupt it as I was off to bed, light has been back on full since 7am this morning. So, I think in total the runtime thus far (all three crees on full) is 9.5 hrs and still seems as bright as the outset, so bright in fact I can't look into the beam, amazing considering I was expecting a runtime of about 4hrs. 

Be back soon


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## blakelidge (Dec 11, 2008)

Hi again, light two is completed but I just can't seem to find a way to post any images into CPF. According to the FAQ, I should have a "manage attachments" button when I select "post reply" but there is no sign of this button, I have tried from IE7 and Firefox, any ideas please?

Thanks


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## Optik49 (Dec 11, 2008)

PM me the photo or email it and I will post it for you.


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## blakelidge (Dec 13, 2008)

http://i488.photobucket.com/albums/rr246/blakelidge/DSC_0382.jpg


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## blakelidge (Dec 14, 2008)

Apologies for taking ages to figure out how to post this lot - hail photobucket - here goes:





[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Hi, [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Got rained off this afternoon so managed some time on starting light 2: [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]*Step 1: HEATSINK*[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Salvaged a piece of aluminium heatsink from an old PII processor and cut a disk from it [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]using a hole saw. Approx 50mm outside diameter. The central hole will eventually carry [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]the LED +&- wires [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The remaining bits from the alu plate [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The housing for the light on this occasion is an aluminium tow-ball cover 1.75ukp. Ok [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I know this is not the most beautiful thing on the planet, but without a lathe (mine will [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]be here in time to fabricate light 3 though) it is a quick simple solution. The disk above [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]had its edges tidied a little until it became a good tolerance fit. The housing will act [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]as a heat sink also. Personally I think this light when completed looks pretty ok too [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]*STEP 2: Seating the LEDs*[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here are the three I will be using in this light, Cree R2s, WG fresh from DX. As you [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]can see, they are really small even when mounted on stars. Hats off to you guys [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]who work and solder with the bare emitters. On stars though, they are about the same [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]size as a 1P coin. At this point, I used two AA 1.5v batteries and a little wire to [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]check all three emitters lit up individually, just to ensure none were defective before [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]progressing, happily each one lit up brightly. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]This product I picked up from Maplin, comes in 80mm x 80mm sheet and is [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]double-sided Thermal Adhesive Tape, this will be used to mount the LEDs to the [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]heatsink [/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here is one LED mounted to the adhesive tape, soon the reverse peel will be [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]removed. [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here is the triple 30 degree optic (DX again) this thing is fantastically clear and looks [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]and feels pretty scratch resistant. Of course I need to align the three emitters with [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]the lens before I finally mount them [/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I upended the lens. You will notice I did not lay it face down on the bare chipboard [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]surface, just in case it is not as scratch resistant as it looks, and laid the emitters [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]into the aperture of each optic. The reverse side of the adhesive pad is uppermost [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]now. Carefully I aligned the heat sink with the lens and gently pressed it onto the [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]sticky.pads. [/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here is the unit righted, bear in mind the lens legs are not fixed yet so the entire lens [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]will simply lift off. But the objective of correctly centering the emitters is done. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As you can see it looks good. Apologies for that bloody penny, I wish I had removed [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]it as it seems to have crept onto nearly every picture so far [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]*STEP 3: Soldering the Crees*[/FONT][FONT=Arial, sans-serif] [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I was able to clamp the heat sink to the board for stability. Using a cheap 30w [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]soldering iron I started wiring the stars together. If you are new to soldering, I politely [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]advise that you first review some of the "soldering" videos on youtube. Cleanliness [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]here is really important, solder simply refuses to stick to tarnished surfaces. If you [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]get this part wrong, you will end up applying enough heat to melt rock and the likely [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]outcome is damage to the emitters. Soldering is really not hard for this project. [/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]You will note there are four contact pads on each star, two positive (+) and two [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]negative (-) in this wiring scheme, I will choose blue cable to join negs and Brown [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]to join positives. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Here is a pic of the Buckpuck I will be using. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I sourced these from ledsupplies. I ordered on a Saturday, they were on my mat by [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]the following Tuesday - excellent. [/FONT]




Thiis the wiring almost complete, just the LED + (White) & - (blue) from the buckpuck to connect.




*STEP 4: Connecting the Buckpuck driver:*
Feed the blue and white wires through the heatsink and solder the white to a remaining positive 
and blue to a remaining negative contact. IMPORTANT NOTE: Really you should first insert a rubber grommet
to isolate the wires from the raw-metal edge of the hole through which they pass, I didn't because I had none
handy, but I will at some stage open the thing up and correct this, you may as well do it properly first time around




Here I joined the blue and brown wires that will be the main feed from my battery, approx one meter long, 
to the black and red wires from the buckpuck (red-brown, black to blue) I simply twisted them tightly 
together then soldered them, and insulated them. though you may prefer to use cable connectors or blocks.








*STEP 5: Installing the potentiometer (for dimming)*
The potentiometer acts as a variable resistor, the one I chose from Maplin is a 4k 7 pot with a 50mm rotary shaft
I noticed that when installing this into the unit, the solder prongs sat very close to the metal edge of the housing. 
To prevent any problems, I used long-nosed pliers to curl them and crimped them onto my wires before soldering




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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It is important to temporarily make a test connection to determine the correct orientation of the yellow and grey[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]wires before soldering. In my case, the yellow went to one outer prong and the grey to the centre. I found that by [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]moving the yellow to the opposite prong reversed the action of the pot E.G. rotating the pot clockwise caused the[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]lamp to dim (you may prefer this) but I made sure to wire so that clockwise rotation reduced resistance and made[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]the light brighter. And hellish bright it is, usually after tests I had to wait a minute before my vision returned to normal [/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Using a 10mm bit, I drilled through the rear centre of the housing to accomodate the pot[/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]*STEP 6: FITTING A BIKE MOUNT:*[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I was lucky to have a few old bike lights hanging around from which I was able to liberate the mounts[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]these worked perfectly, but I know you can source just the mounts from places on the net[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I drilled a .5mm hole so the self-tapper screw would bite, applied some clear adhesive and fixed the mount[/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]What you can't see in these pictures is the other part of the mount which is attached to the handlebars[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]At this point, I also drilled a 3mm hole for the main battery cable to pass through, again, a grommet must be used[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]here to protect the cable[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]*STEP 7 ASSEMBLY:*[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I measured the depth of the lens from the face to the end of the legs[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I cemented the buckpuck driver into the housing so it would be stable, not good to have this rattling loose[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]in there. I then applied a ring of clear sealant at an appropriate depth to hold the heatsink correctly,[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]please note, this sealant only forms a ring BEHIND the heatsink, it is important that the heatsink is a good[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]tolerance (tight) fit to the metal housing to help dissipate heat.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I then applied model adhesive to the lense legs and carefully installed the heatsink and lens.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I then applied a neat clear silicone bead around the lens to provide a watertight seal[/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]*STEP 8: WATERPROOFING:*[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]No piccies for this bit, sorry, but simple all the same. I bought from Maplins a rubber switch boot[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]cut the 50mm shaft from the pot down to about 15mm, removed the nut from the pot and installed the [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]rubber boot and refixed the pot using this waterproof boot. (you will see this in final pics) now I was [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]unable to find anywhere a rotary rubber boot, but you will find that you can grip the rubber, twist and [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]release and the pot shaft turns and the rubber springs back to its normal position, I was suprised how well[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]this thing worked. I also put a dab of clear silicone around the grommet where the battery cable leaves the[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]housing. I am confident this thing could be used underwater without any fear of leaks - Having said that though[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I hope I never fall into water on the bike, but for riding in the rain, I know this thing will be spot on.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]*STEP 8: NOTHING TO DO BUT ADMIRE YOUR WORK AND TAKE IT FOR A SPIN*[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I am fortunate in so much as I own the amazing Makita battery tools for my day-to-day work[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]this gives me access to three of these brilliant batteries[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]For connection to my batteries I have fashioned a connector that slips in great and fitted an inline fuse to protect it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]as you may have read above, runtime on full power was in excess of 10.5 hours so I can't give you a figure here[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]as I dare not leave it on unnatended. I know draining Li-ion batteries fully is not good but I am more than happy[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]with the runtime.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I will post some beam shots soon (just waiting for the rain to stop here in UK) but I can confirm the light is very bright[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]and when testing the runtime, after several hours running, in a centrally heated room, the casing was only mildly warm[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]and certainly not hot so I think I got the heatsinking right. Making this light has been immense fun and the end result[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]far beats my expectations. Of course, I cannot accept any liability for any problems or unpleasant suprises you may face[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]if you attempt to build something similar, I only post this information to show what I did.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Final note: This is my first ever build of anything electrical or illuminated and I express thanks to all at CPF for their[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]experience which gave me the confidence to try stuff for myself.[/FONT]


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## TranquillityBase (Dec 14, 2008)

Great job Blake:twothumbs

Nice totorial too

Get out and ride


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## trout (Dec 14, 2008)

I use one of those batteries have a look on the sandewiche shoppe 
they do an adaptor for the makita batteries


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## adirondackdestroyer (Dec 14, 2008)

Very impressive homemade light! I can only dream of doing something like that by myself. Awesome work... now where are those beamshots?


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## wquiles (Dec 14, 2008)

Great photo sequence - nice job 

Will


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## dsvilko (Dec 16, 2008)

Wow! Looks wonderful! Can't wait for the beam shots 
I am planing on making a similar bike light (3x Cree R2) and am in a process of deciding which reflector/lens to use. I would rather have a bit wider beam (30 degrees you mentioned sounds about right). Which reflector are you using and are you satisfied with it?


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## blakelidge (Mar 3, 2009)

Hey, I'm back. Sorry that I never did get round to posting them beam shots. Sometimes real life tends to get in the way of stuff. 

Good news is though, I was so impressed with the few lights I built, for me and a couple of friends, that I have since setup machining and tooling for another project, but co-incidentally, this allows me to do a proper job (or nicer job) of some more lights using my lathe etc. 

I am in the process of building my first quad Cree headlamp, the body is built, just waiting on supplies of R2's from DX so I can complete it. Full run-down in the next day or two and this time there will be beamshots, promise.

I am also in the throes of designing helmet/body mountable spots. I'm hoping to run these on a single R2 via direct drive off AA batteries if feasible, early stages yet, but I have some stock of 1" aluminium rod to play around with so I'm sure some sort of creation will be born soon enough

Since building the original lights, I can confirm they are great on the night trail. A weird thing is though, riding along at night, surrounded by blackness in the forest path, it is so odd to see the grass, rocks, water etc looking the same as it does in daylight, it took my brain ages to accept the light/dark contrast. Also makes the darkness behind you look truly (spookily) black, hence I never look back cus it just makes me want to go even faster to outrun the imaginary ghouls. Or at least I hope they are imaginary.

Seeya soon


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## ICUDoc (Mar 4, 2009)

Terrific tutorial and a nice way to come up with the housing. Thanks.


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## ryan5779 (Oct 15, 2011)

hi really like the thread! it's gave me insparation to try making my first bike light. if it goes well i'll hopefully be showing it off on here


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## las3r (Oct 15, 2011)

very nice mod love to see some beam shots


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## Justin Case (Oct 16, 2011)

If the OP is still around, did you drill three shallow holes for the ends of the legs of the optic to sit in? Is the model adhesive that you used to glue the optic to the heat sink toluene-based?


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