# Post your ugly but functional DIY projects here



## ocean breathes salty (Oct 1, 2006)

There are lots and lots of really beautiful light projects on these boards so I think it is about time we get to show all the projects that didn't quite go to plan 

I'll go first... this was my first light build and I was filled with more enthusiasm than patience, hence the sloppy joins all around ugliness 

It still works and puts out quite a floody beam pattern for the bars but I don't think i would use it in the rain!

Keep them coming people, there must be as many bad builds out there as good ones! I hope you all get a laugh.


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## Resist (Aug 13, 2008)

I notice a lot of people use this same metal tube style design. The Amoeba comes to mind. Where are you getting them?


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## troutie-mtb (Sep 20, 2007)

*Fugley*

Good idea Salty ,

I could nt resist these not really a working useable set up 
BUT FUGLY and that is just the maker


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## dmcalpin (Mar 5, 2007)

*Easy to Make But Ugly*

Aluminium boxes from www.jarcar.com.au

They boxes work great as the housing and the heat sink.

You can make them with MR11 or MR16 lens size to fit in the boxes any any number of designs. Latest is the Mr11 triple Cree R2 at 1000ma.

Cheers
Dave


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## emu26 (Jun 23, 2008)

Oh finally somewhere I can post the lights I've already built.

Will put up some pics tomorrow night, hope you're all holding your breath


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## troutie-mtb (Sep 20, 2007)

and here are my ugly real bike lights from a couple of years ago


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## ocean breathes salty (Oct 1, 2006)

>


What the devil is that  It certainly fits the FUGLY theme although you should hang onto the image in case there is a thread for "post your largest helmet light also"


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## .40AET (Jun 7, 2007)

Resist said:


> I notice a lot of people use this same metal tube style design. The Amoeba comes to mind. Where are you getting them?


Home Depot carries the aluminum tubing in 3/4" and 1".


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## msxtr (Dec 10, 2006)

ocean breathes salty said:


> There are lots and lots of really beautiful light projects on these boards so I think it is about time we get to show all the projects that didn't quite go to plan
> 
> I'll go first... this was my first light build and I was filled with more enthusiasm than patience, hence the sloppy joins all around ugliness
> 
> ...


Hi, it is a shabby Amoeba :smilewinkgrin:

BTW, great idea for the handlebar holder  

Greetings - Saludos

msxtr


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## ocean breathes salty (Oct 1, 2006)

msxtr said:


> Hi, it is a shabby Amoeba :smilewinkgrin:


I don't think scar would sell many if his quality control was this bad


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## emu26 (Jun 23, 2008)

As promised.

These were my first attempt at light building a little over 2 years ago.


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## yetibetty (Dec 24, 2007)

Made use of some spare parts, it's very ugly but works really well.


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## Kraygus (Jul 9, 2008)

emu26 Love the exposure style diy! I'm currently halfway through upgrading mine. Funnily enough I started mine about two years ago as well and have been using it as a luxeon powered torch .... until now.
How big are your neck muscles after riding with the headlamp?


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## emu26 (Jun 23, 2008)

*But wait, there's more*



Kraygus said:


> emu26 Love the exposure style diy! I'm currently halfway through upgrading mine. Funnily enough I started mine about two years ago as well and have been using it as a luxeon powered torch .... until now.
> How big are your neck muscles after riding with the headlamp?


Kraygus these didn't last long enough to build up my neck muscles. I had upgraded to a triple by April 07

Oddly enough, it too qualifies for the ugly awards. Note my obvious concern about heat with this model, triple P4

Apologies for the out of focus shot


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## troutie-mtb (Sep 20, 2007)

I love that one emu26 
it is a happy little light , kinda cute


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## hootsmon (Feb 7, 2008)

yetibetty said:


> Made use of some spare parts, it's very ugly but works really well.


Yetibetty, that's not ugly, that's industrial chic.


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## emu26 (Jun 23, 2008)

hootsmon said:


> Yetibetty, that's not ugly, that's 'industrial chic'.


Sorry Yetibetty, when I first saw it I thought it was a bought one. It took a second look after Yetibetty's comment for me to realise the mount was cut by hand (?)



troutie-mtb said:


> I love that one emu26
> it is a happy little light , kinda cute


Ah many happy night ride enjoyed with that one, nicknamed "The Rosster" for obvious reasons.

If you think that one is cute, have a look at "Yabby". Doesn't cute mean, ugly but interesting?


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## ocean breathes salty (Oct 1, 2006)

emu26 said:


> Doesn't cute mean, ugly but interesting?


That was almost the title for the thread actually


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## eddielee70 (Dec 28, 2006)

Resist said:


> I notice a lot of people use this same metal tube style design. The Amoeba comes to mind. Where are you getting them?


Onlinemetal.com

they are local in Seattle. I don't get charged shipping fee. I have alot of 1x 2 housing with L braket for mounting the led left and back alu plate, so if you want a set and willing to pay postage shoot me a email.


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## eddielee70 (Dec 28, 2006)

copperhead 2 inch square all around for handlebar, helmet ones are 1" x 2" x 1.7 inch in length for each 2 led setup.
http://forums.mtbr.com/showpost.php?p=4141771&postcount=6
http://forums.mtbr.com/showpost.php?p=4081148&postcount=14
http://forums.mtbr.com/showpost.php?p=4026434&postcount=48
http://forums.mtbr.com/showpost.php?p=4141763&postcount=5

use this to seal it all up to be weatherproof, not waterproof.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showpost.php?p=4181503&postcount=175


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## mnmountainbiker (Oct 12, 2008)

emu26 said:


> Oddly enough, it too qualifies for the ugly awards. Note my obvious concern about heat with this model, triple P4
> 
> Apologies for the out of focus shot


I almost fell off my chair when I saw the mint box! Great minds must think alike! They hold a switch and buck puck with plenty of working room.

I'm ashamed to post these here, but this is what happens when you don't have proper tools and two days before a special night ride! JB weld is my friend or NOT! My new years resolution is to work on my patience.

Now you know what all my model cars and airplanes looked like when I was a kid.

I made a double set that looks the pretty much the same with 25deg lens for floods on my bars. They may be ugly, but they work perfect.


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## eddielee70 (Dec 28, 2006)

whatever works? I use my own build light (lighter weight, brighter then OEM and lower profile on helmet). and the best is the beam pattern I like. and I use them if there is no chance of rain. yes, I don't trust my light to be weatherproof. I have 800L, Trinewt, two NITErider HID, and 400L and the big 30W HID. I perfer my own led lights bc of the beam pattern is so much better then any of the OEM lights offers.


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## adrenalnjunky (Jul 28, 2007)

Resist said:


> I notice a lot of people use this same metal tube style design. The Amoeba comes to mind. Where are you getting them?


Resist - that's the Acesalot DIY design. Simple, raw materials are easy to find, and building doesn't require a lot of fabrication tools. They're all self-fabricated from Achesalot's instructions, modified as each builder sees fit.

His website is here: http://bikeled.com/


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## msxtr (Dec 10, 2006)

Here the mine 

Triple Cree led 2 Q5 and 1 P4 with optics of 35mm










Greetings - Saludos

msxtr


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## hootsmon (Feb 7, 2008)

*"Currant-sauce" helmet-light*

After blowing-up my nice-but-somewhat-expensive MaxFlex3 driver, I cobbled-up this cheap 'n cheerful LM317-based 'current-source' driver, just for a laugh. Hence the title. Surprisingly enough, the LM317 seems to be driving the MC-E just fine, though it's probably woefully inefficient. Even so, with an 11.1V LiPo battery, I've seen over 9-hrs battery-life so far, and it's still going strong....









So here's my fugly helmet-light; it's just a shortened version of my older Dinotte-style light, that I fried a few months ago. If anything, it's even uglier than ever now ...


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## znomit (Dec 27, 2007)

hootsmon said:


> After blowing-up my nice-but-somewhat-expensive MaxFlex3 driver, I cobbled-up this cheap 'n cheerful LM317-based 'current-source' driver, just for a laugh. Hence the title. Surprisingly enough, the LM317 seems to be driving the MC-E just fine, though it's probably woefully inefficient.


You can do reasonably well if the battery/led volts are appropriate (so not much power is burnt off in the driver). I think 3 leds in series off 11.1V would work well. 2 is not so good.

Whats with the diodes?


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## hootsmon (Feb 7, 2008)

Thanks znomit.



znomit said:


> Whats with the diodes?


Hee hee! Well I'm a hopeless newbie, but I'm always keen to learn. So as a bit of an experiment I just wired up 5 zener-diodes in parallel, on the input-side of my circuit. The _intention_ was to protect the LiPo (nominal 11.1V) battery against over-discharging (below 8.8V or so). But I'm embarrassed to say it doesn't work, 'cuz the 'knee' resistance of the diodes is so high that no current flows at all. So those zeners are just shorted-out now, in order to make the thing work.

By the way, I'm still awfully curious how to do simple battery-protection circuit? Maybe something that beeps when the battery voltage falls below a certain threshold. That would be useful I think.


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## HuffyPuffy (Jun 9, 2008)

hootsmon said:


> By the way, I'm still awfully curious how to do simple battery-protection circuit? Maybe something that beeps when the battery voltage falls below a certain threshold. That would be useful I think.


I'm not sure how the pro's do it (fellow electronics noob here), but I found a neat battery monitor circuit that can be modified using different resistors to create a high and low voltage limit indicator here. It is very simple and just uses a couple comparators with some resistors and pots. Seems like it would be simple to change it to actually cut power based on a high or low voltage condition. I ended up not using it, but I did test it and it seemed to work OK with my 18v battery. You can also buy pre-made battery protection boards from battery-space.com.


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## Jim Z in VT (Sep 9, 2007)

Here's a very simple battery warning circuit I bookmarked a while ago, but still haven't got around to trying.

JZ


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## hootsmon (Feb 7, 2008)

Thanks guys; both those 2 ideas look like something I could try.


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## G_Mozz (Sep 4, 2008)

If you are looking for a TL431 for that circuit, and can't find any locally for an acceptable price, you can get them on Ebay.

Cheers


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## Jim Z in VT (Sep 9, 2007)

G_Mozz said:


> If you are looking for a TL431 for that circuit, and can't find any locally for an acceptable price, you can get them on Ebay.


I found a couple in an old computer power supply that was collecting dust in my basement 

JZ


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## bwilli (Apr 3, 2006)

*My fugly light*

Here's my light. Let's get to the pics, shall we? The 1st beamshot is the light I built driven at 1A, the 2nd is a 25W halogen setup I had purchased a while back as a comparison. The white shed is 60' away and 10' wide. BTW these pictures look quite a bit darker than it looks in real life. The 25W halogen set up makes plenty of light for riding, while the double-triple LED makes more than I need.

The light body is a 30mm cantilever scope mount. The heads are 1.5" OD 1.384 ID aluminum pipe. The heat sinks are 1.5 OD bar stock shaved down on the table saw to fit snugly in the back of the heads. Everything was brazed together.

The guts are two bFlex drivers, one for each head. The bFlex boards are nicely cradled in holders that Don mailed out to me (Thanks Don!). The bFlex units are controlled via momentary switches mounted on the grip. They are connected via telephone handset cable. The LEDs are Cree Q5's. The optics are Khatod medium and narrow.

The mount is a Cateye mount with a bit of Weaver rail bolted to it. The scope mount bolts to the Cateye base plate.


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## yetibetty (Dec 24, 2007)

bwilli, it's not really that ugly infact I quite like the "means business" look but it does appear from the pics like you've got a lot of weight going on there.
Is it as heavy as it looks?


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## bwilli (Apr 3, 2006)

yetibetty said:


> bwilli, it's not really that ugly infact I quite like the "means business" look but it does appear from the pics like you've got a lot of weight going on there.
> Is it as heavy as it looks?


Thanks! I posted it here 'cuz the build quality is not quite on par with most of the stuff on here. The cuts aren't straight. The brazing is ugly. The switches are potted in hot melt glue. It has a lot of... character.

Including the mounting hardware it weighs just under 300g, so it is a bit heavy, but I don't really notice it when I ride. It also does OK with heat management (I think?). I can run at 1A in still air for about 9 minutes before it gets to 60C (this is where I turned it off). It reaches 45C in about 20 minutes at 350mA and holds there. The entire assembly heats up, all the way to the mount.

The learning curve on this whole project was pretty steep!


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## whattingh (Jan 30, 2009)

First off sorry for bad pics, was taken with my phone.

The other day I played around with some CHEAP 5mm high brightness LED and slammed a light together with them. It has 19x 5mm LED running straight off 3x AA batteries. Housing is plumbing pipe pieces. I must say it gives more light than I expected. They are bright enough that you can not look straight into them from a 1m away. I have a 20w halogen down light i compare it to and is not too much worse, the beam is just very narrow. I mount it on my helmet tonight and while try it when I can. Cost wise, well not sure as most of it was stuff around the house. I know you can het a 25pack of 5mm led as DX for $2.60 I think.


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## HuffyPuffy (Jun 9, 2008)

Holy PVC Batman! The last time I saw that many lights was when the mothership dropped me off 

The 5mm LEDs are a bit underrated, well really they can't hold a candle to a high power LED, but with that many you must have a nice flood light.


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## whattingh (Jan 30, 2009)

HuffyPuffy said:


> Holy PVC Batman! The last time I saw that many lights was when the mothership dropped me off
> 
> The 5mm LEDs are a bit underrated, well really they can't hold a candle to a high power LED, but with that many you must have a nice flood light.


Actually not a nice flood. The standard 5mm LED is a very narrow angle. I think is it something like 10 or 20 degrees. It is a ok spot. Will try to take some beam shot tonight.


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## cycleboy (Mar 10, 2008)

JimZinVT said:


> Here's a very simple battery warning circuit I bookmarked a while ago, but still haven't got around to trying.
> 
> JZ


I was starting to consider allowing some scope creep on my 2nd and 3rd lights and putting in a low battery indicating LED. (I got packs from batteryspace that have the protection board on them already)

Then I got to thinking. Dangerous, huh?

My Li ion drill runs at pretty much full power and then dies suddenly in about 5 seconds.

Are my Li ion lights going to do the same? I thought that was one of the characteristics of Li ion - they give full power right up until they shut down.

If that is the case w/ the lights, there's not a lot of point to a warning light because I won't be able to do anything about it anyway. I'd be better off just learning the run time I get on full power with a full charge and just monitoring ride times.

But then I wondered if the power coming out of the pack does actually slowly decrease such that a warning light would provide benefit, maybe let me know in time to switch packs or flip over to Low to conserve.


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## bwilli (Apr 3, 2006)

I built a pack using parts from Batteryspace and am using the "fuel gauge" that they sell. The gauge has 5 LEDs on it. All 5 are lit up at full charge (~16.8V). The number of LEDs lit goes down as the battery is discharged. It goes to 3 LEDs before the PCB shuts the battery down at about 11V. You should have enough room to hack together a decent warning circuit!

Just be sure and share anything you do! :thumbsup:


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## Leopold Porkstacker (Apr 21, 2010)

It’s not that I’m one of those people who likes to bring old-as-sheeit threads back up from the dead, rather, WATCH THIS SPACE! I’ve got a ghetto-tech light setup in the works, should be done in two days. Spoiler: involves two 1000mA Buckpucks, each driving their own triple CREE XP-G, stuffed into a pretty small package, powered by a 14.8 volt 4400mAh Lithium Polymer Ion battery pack, and has those really admired ghetto-tech looks everyone loves. :thumbsup: Stay tuned! :drumroll:


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## pepko (Feb 1, 2008)

:lol:


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## johnny dollar (Nov 17, 2009)




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## Toaster79 (Apr 5, 2010)

2x XPG R5
10417 carclo 10mm
[email protected]

Eyepiercing little beast


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## chelboed (Jul 29, 2005)

MaxFlex is in the switch housing?


Sweet!


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## Toaster79 (Apr 5, 2010)

Yep. With a little heatsink glued on the uC and glued to the bottom of the housing, wich is mounted on stem, so there's no heat issues even in overdrive at 7.5V


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## BrianMc (Jan 5, 2010)

*Toaster79 *& *pepko* : too nice not fugly enough ! :thumbsup: 

I have one but the qualification of 'functional' is an issue. Is about 90-100 lumens functional? Ugly is No problemo!


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## cam999 (Apr 17, 2010)

*My kind of thread*

Thanks for posting this guys.

I was starting to feel like nearly everyone had a CNC milling machine in their shed.

Or could turn any block of aluminum into a work of art with a drill press and hacksaw.

dmcalpin thanks for the tip on the Jaycar boxes


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## klohiq (Mar 22, 2008)

This is my simple setup. It's based on the Dual Copperhead design.


































Larger photos at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/sets/72157624054294000/

*
PARTS LIST*
*LED/optics* - purchased from ledsupply.com

8.7 degree lens (plain - clear)
 12 degree lens (frosted)
 2 x optic holder
 2 x Luxeon EndorStar Rebel LED (5000k color - bright white; 105 lumens at 350mah)
 1000mah buckpuck w/ dimming option
 *adhesives/lubricants/tape* 

electrical tape
 welder contact adhesive
 high temp silicone 
 silicone-based heatsink compound
 *housing/mounting* - purchased mostly from Lowe's

4 x 1" sections - 3/4" copper piping
 6 x copper endcaps (3/4")
 2 x copper couplings (3/4")
 2 x 3/4" 1/4-20 bolts
 4 x 1/4-20 nuts
 2 x 1/4-20 wingnuts
3.5" 1/4-20 threaded rod
 r/c battery connector (sourced from a parts bin)
 waterproof switch (sourced from a vistalight roadtoad)
 3 way switch (center off with double pull double throw) - from radioshack
 mounting bracket (sourced from a parts bin)
 ~4" section 3/16" fuel tubing (auto/motorcycle parts store)

*RUNTIMES* - estimated using https://www.kenworster.com/ledcalc/ (will update if these are correct)

5xAA

~2.5 Hours (NiMH)
 ~3.5 Hours (alkaline batteries)
 9xAA

~5.5 Hours (NIMH)
 ~6.5 Hours (alkaline)
 19.2V NiCad drill battery pack

~5.5 Hours

_I'll post some better beam shots at night when I can. With the switch on the left tail cap I have 3 output options, right tailcap is an on/off for the right light. Output is ~300 lumens, perhaps more._


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## El34 (Jan 11, 2009)

This light was not all that ugly, it was just a bad design for small rodents.

Found out after several customers purchased them that they could be spotted more easily at night.

You can see the effects of this in the photo below.
This light is now out of production and there is a recall campaign


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## dsut4392 (Mar 9, 2007)

Here is my effort:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=3769551#poststop


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## bryceorama (Jul 14, 2009)

Here is mine...it definitely fits this category best. 

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?p=7041107#post7041107


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