# uber light got a bit carriedaway



## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

just thought i would post a couple of pic of my new light 
i think i got a bit carried away







specs
3 4up r2 cree leds from cutter electronics 
3 narrow 4up lenses to suit
3 bflex drivers( one for each set of leds) slaved
cnc machined housing roughly copied from the cateye tripple
battery 14.4v 2400mha li-po which gives me 2.4hrs on high (tested to 2hrs so far)
6hrs on what i have set to low 
lumens i think about 2500 ish
only problems is cars dont like it coming toward them and ridding buddys dont like to ride front of me now

no heat issues after 1 hr on high on the bike only a slight warm feeling

reference shot low beam on my 4wd all beam shots where taken on the same camera settings







uber light low beam







uber light high beam


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## crisillo (Jul 3, 2004)

wow! :yikes:


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## rkj__ (Feb 29, 2004)

yeah, i could not ride in front of you with my 400 lumen setup.


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## langen (May 21, 2005)

Holy sh!t!

What´s the weight and dimensions of that bad boy?


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## Turveyd (Sep 30, 2007)

Thats a serious amout of light, but it could be better, replace the R2's with P7's 

Or just 1 set, have a ULTRA HIGH mode, you know you want to


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## StevelKnivel (Jun 23, 2007)

Hell yeah, that's awesome!


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## Frs1661 (Jun 9, 2008)

epic.

Nice work! How did you attach it to the handlebars?


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## msxtr (Dec 10, 2006)

crisillo said:


> wow! :yikes:


I have though the same 

Greetings - Saludos

msxtr


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## Hack On Wheels (Apr 29, 2006)

I'm curious though, with that much light, why have all three sets with narrow optics?


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

Hack On Wheels said:


> I'm curious though, with that much light, why have all three sets with narrow optics?


i have the wide as well but there too spread it just lights up the stuff right beside the bike 
it would be better if i could get a tighter beam for one of the lights
there is enough spill and bounced light to give a realy good spread

as for weight the battery is 200grams and im to scared to weigh the light but i will tonight


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## Guest (Jun 11, 2008)

Very nice, it looks like a giant trippleshot. Did you make the housing or have it made. I bet it's not as heavy as it looks as there must be quite a bit of empty space inside. Again very nice but please change that odd screw


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## znomit (Dec 27, 2007)

harty said:


> i have the wide as well but there too spread it just lights up the stuff right beside the bike
> it would be better if i could get a tighter beam for one of the lights
> there is enough spill and bounced light to give a realy good spread


Just more evidence you aussies are nuts. :yesnod: 
Took me a few looks to notice that it wasn't just three LEDs.

I think once you get that much light the spill is significant... eyes are logarithmic so the increased spill is noticed more than the increased throw.

Good work Harty, truly impressive. 
:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## thebigred67 (Mar 29, 2005)

Got one for me!?!?! hehehe


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## Pitto (Sep 26, 2005)

thats off the charts. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

dweeby said:


> Very nice, it looks like a giant trippleshot. Did you make the housing or have it made. I bet it's not as heavy as it looks as there must be quite a bit of empty space inside. Again very nice but please change that odd screw


housing i made myself i have converted a mill drill to cnc 
it has got a bit of weight but you could run it over with a car and it wouldn't break
new shinny stainless steel screws orderd
and its about the same size as a tripple shot i will post a pic or 2 when i get home to give an idea if size

cheers
harty


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## CdaleTony (Jun 21, 2005)

dweeby said:


> Very nice, it looks like a giant trippleshot. Did you make the housing or have it made. I bet it's not as heavy as it looks as there must be quite a bit of empty space inside. Again very nice but please change that odd screw


+1
And please orient the flat heads the same way (preferably horizontally) 
CDT


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## Bryguy17 (May 19, 2007)

that is absolutely bonkers. but in a good way.

what current are you driving the emitters at? I'm guessing 300 mA.

If not, how are you powering them? It seems odd to me that a 14.4V 2400mAh pack would be able to drive 12 emitters for 2 hours. but then again. i suppose at 300mA each set, thats 900 mA total draw. I say, I wanna see some shots with the emitters running at 1A


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

hi Bryguy17

they are driving at full power on the bflex driver at 14.4v they draw exactly one amp on the dc clamp meter and i charge the battery after a 1hr ride it put 1000mA back in
if i run them at low i would get a week out of them
dont ask me the calculations or ohms law this is just how it works when i turn it on

I also put it on the scales 411grams she came in at 
size
114mm w
50mm h
50mm d

here is a pic on the bike


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## peterh88 (Apr 6, 2007)

Awesome light, keep up the good work.
I love this home made stuff that kills the commercially available lighting.

Cheers

Peter


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## Bryguy17 (May 19, 2007)

Something doesn't add up with that. Each bflex will have to be driving 1A each to power them. running them parallel to each other, thats 3A total draw on the pack. That would mean you'd be getting a bit less than an hour of light at full blast, and be looking at roughly 3000 lumens before lens losses.

I'm guessing that each of your bflexes are each running at the stock 330mA setting, so they add up to 1A when measure the total draw on the battery. Try reprogramming them to use the 1A setting and see what happens. and don't forget the


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## heatstroke (Jul 1, 2003)

Yup something does not add up.
Fully charged 16.4V*1A = 16.8 W
Multiply 90% bflex eff = 15.1W, divided by 12leds, = 1.3W per led. 
Looks like 350mA is your setting - that's the bflex default.


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

now im scared this thing i bloody bright now 
but i think your right it doesn't add up i will put it on the bench top power supply when i get home tonight as i dont think the lithium battery will like being discharged that quick
and do some tests 
might need a welding helmet instead of a bike helmet


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## p97z (Dec 19, 2006)

WOW! Nice job!


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## znomit (Dec 27, 2007)

harty said:


> now im scared this thing i bloody bright now
> but i think your right it doesn't add up i will put it on the bench top power supply when i get home tonight as i dont think the lithium battery will like being discharged that quick
> and do some tests
> might need a welding helmet instead of a bike helmet


Ummm, bflex not so good for driving 4LEDs off 14.4v
The driver takes over 1-1.5v leaving around 13v for the LEDs. The bflex is in direct drive mode and you're running around half power. A measly 1000lm. Yeah this thing will blaze at full power. You need an 18v battery.


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## Frs1661 (Jun 9, 2008)

Right now it's half power.......... half?

You'll be setting dry leaves along the trial on fire at full power!


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

mother of god its bright now
confirmed light was only running at 350mAh
and now its Farkin Bright ( thats the technical term)
only problem now is i have to wait till it gets dark to to do some beam shots although you can see the light during the day quite well

my ridding mates are realy going to be pissed off now

beam shots to follow soon


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## slaw (Apr 6, 2004)

I hope you're not gonna ride down a bike path with that. People are complaining about riding towards people with Ayups.


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

slaw said:


> I hope you're not gonna ride down a bike path with that. People are complaining about riding towards people with Ayups.


no people where i ride and it has a low beam 
i can just see a trail of blinded people walking around like zombies with their arms out calling for their mummies


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## Bryguy17 (May 19, 2007)

can't wait to see the full blast beam shots. Glad you worked things out. I do agree that you should have an 18v pack on there though. Either that, or change the Bflexes out for maxflexes and run a boost setup with 2S lipos of really high capacity.  

I wouldn't worry too much about drawing too much current out of lipos either. Assuming they are a decent c-rating, you can still pull 36A out of them without too much stress on them. Granted, your cell life will drop down to roughly 200-300 cycles if you run that much, but If you're pulling 36A for a bike light you're doing something wrong.

Also, if you're worried about your cells, take care of them. balance charge (if you don't already), and only discharge to 80% capacity. follow those and you can easily see 500 cycles at high amp draw  (I've seen it done)


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

new beam shot
at 1000mAh








i dont think its running at full tilt still only drawing 1.9ah on high might need a few more volts will make up a new battery pack with an extra cell over the weekend and see how that goes

Bryguy17 i do balance my cells but i dont know what c rating they are there cheap ones from china 5 bucks a cell

cheers
harty


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## znomit (Dec 27, 2007)

Getting there, you need to squeeze another amp out of it!


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## dazzat3 (May 4, 2008)

*bloody ripper*

Shear (aussie) brilliance!!!! Amazing...and only about 600 grams. The tech heads at Lupine/dinotte/niterider must be shaking in thier boots.

What have you got planned next???


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## Turveyd (Sep 30, 2007)

Well I hope he upgrades it to P7's, over doubles the output if not triples and in the winter it'll be like lugging around your own personal heater


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

Turveyd said:


> Well I hope he upgrades it to P7's, over doubles the output if not triples and in the winter it'll be like lugging around your own personal heater


lol
it already turns black bitumen white 
new bike helmet needed for the new light:thumbsup: 








cheers
Harty


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## poobardog (Mar 2, 2007)

Nice job Harty 
Don't go over your 20V in the bFlexes.
Can you replace the 4up with 3up? -Have you got the quad LED MCPCB's in there? -would be easier to replace them with the 3 LED board than to change to using maxFlexes.

Cheers
Dom


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

Hi poobardog

yep will keep an eye on the 20v thanks 
in reality i wont run the light at full power there is just no needed to but i do need to how bright it can go
I dont think the maxflex can be slaved so it might not be any good anyway (could be wrong on this)
the run time is a bit crap at full and you start to loose efficiency i will probably run it at 500mAh for my normal ridding and racing even at that its brighter than my mates lupine betty12 and a lot cheaper 
i have got the LED MCPCB's in so i could swap to the tripple in a matter of minutes but then there would only be 9 leds in there and 12 sounds more impressive 

cheers
harty


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## poobardog (Mar 2, 2007)

LOL -true - 12 is more impressive.
Yes -no slaving on the maxFlex yet -but i don't see why not hey GEORGE! hehe
500ma is plenty power still 

Really nice job -and i think yours is the first with double slave that i've heard of -actually -i haven't heard of anyone with a single slave happening yet!

EDIT: I see the newest bFlexes have 25V input now -cool

Cheers
Dom


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## notaknob (Apr 6, 2004)

*New bFlex*



poobardog said:


> Nice job Harty
> Don't go over your 20V in the bFlexes.


Based upon this: http://www.taskled.com/bflex.html, I think the new one supports up to 25v input.


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## Cheers! (Jun 26, 2006)

harty said:


> i have the wide as well but there too spread it just lights up the stuff right beside the bike
> it would be better if i could get a tighter beam for one of the lights
> there is enough spill and bounced light to give a realy good spread
> 
> as for weight the battery is 200grams and im to scared to weigh the light but i will tonight


200 gram battery? How long does that last powering three triple cree setups?

Even with Lithium Polymer battery flat packs in parallel at 14.8V and 3000 mhA is 400+ grams.


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## znomit (Dec 27, 2007)

notaknob said:


> Based upon this: http://www.taskled.com/bflex.html, I think the new one supports up to 25v input.


Good spotting notaknob. Gives a bit more headroom for quads, especially useful with the new MC-E if we ever get our mits on it.


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## WeLight (Aug 12, 2007)

*Awesome Light*

Dont know what you were thinking at the start but I loved where you got to.
We have some early bflex in stock with the 24vin if required.
I hope to have MCE in stock in July so would love to see what this MondoUber would look like with multiple, multi chip


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

WeLight said:


> Dont know what you were thinking at the start but I loved where you got to.
> We have some early bflex in stock with the 24vin if required.
> I hope to have MCE in stock in July so would love to see what this MondoUber would look like with multiple, multi chip


Hi WeLight 
thanks 
I think the v2 white boards which i got from you can handel 25v as notaknob pointed out
I am open to donations when you get the MCE's in 

cheers
harty


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

*got full power*

well I added an extra cell to my pack which took it to 20.1v fully charged
hooked it up and got full current draw was 3amps and here is a beam shot
same camera settings as all other shots and i have included a beam shot of my 4wd on high beam this time

light running at full power drawing the full 3 amps








4wd on high beam







my 4wd is only 3months old so the light are pretty good(untill i compare them to the uber light that is)

cheers
harty

ps thanks for the help sorting this out


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## MaximusHQ (Aug 6, 2007)

Okay now I am getting upset. My uber expensive Lupines are being made to look like a joke compared to your light. Excellent job!:thumbsup:


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## WeLight (Aug 12, 2007)

harty said:


> Hi WeLight
> thanks
> I think the v2 white boards which i got from you can handel 25v as notaknob pointed out
> I am open to donations when you get the MCE's in
> ...


I think your right, I did get the later version
Cheers
Mark


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## WeLight (Aug 12, 2007)

harty said:


> well I added an extra cell to my pack which took it to 20.1v fully charged
> hooked it up and got full current draw was 3amps and here is a beam shot
> same camera settings as all other shots and i have included a beam shot of my 4wd on high beam this time
> 
> ...


Thats not a light.....now thats a light......


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## dazzat3 (May 4, 2008)

harty,

Is your 4wd on low or high beam it he lane way, image?


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## comptiger5000 (Jun 11, 2007)

Whoah! What'd that cost to build? I gotta get working on one...


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

dazzat3 said:


> harty,
> 
> Is your 4wd on low or high beam it he lane way, image?


in the last shot its on high beam
to look at both the 4wd and the bike light are actually brighter than they look in the pictures but i needed to have a control the camera setting are the same on all shots from the first to the last and in basically the same position

cost to build was about $400 Australian other rider envy priceless

cheers
harty


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## Cat-man-do (May 16, 2004)

*It's now Official...*

....night time has now been turned into day.  I suppose this means that we might as well close the Bike lights forum as there is nothing else that can top 2000+ lumens on the bars...:shocked: ...or is there(?) :skep: . *Harty*, I credit you with building a very nice light. However I'm not sure just how useful having 2000+lumens on your bars is going to be. The photos you gave of your lamp in the 3amp mode shows that the output light almost completely washes out ( ..or melted ) the bumps in your driveway compared to the photo from your 4WD's headlights. You might actually have built the first bike light that requires wearing sun glasses..( I kid you not..)  . Nevertheless, I believe your light is still salvageable. You must do two things to fix it. # 1 ) consider replacing the current LED's with a more "Warmer bin".(..or at least two of the quad sets ) then adjust the Current (amps) down to a more usable level. If you do this two other things will happen...first, you will keep all your riding buddies happy. Second, no one in your area will be reporting UFO's going thru the woods where you live.  Oh, I forgot to mention you will not need corneal transplants in two years either. Of course if you decide not to take my advice you will never have to worry about getting an X-ray again. Your bones will absorb so much excess spill light that they will start to glow.    Oh damn, I almost forgot the last requirement to fix your light....*Give it to me NOW!!*  :ihih:


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## comptiger5000 (Jun 11, 2007)

Well, I will probably build something like this during this coming winter. We'll see how it goes and how bright I can make it.


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## Katzenjammer (Jun 12, 2007)

Wots going on here, a "light array arms race"?


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## Bryguy17 (May 19, 2007)

lipos tend to be a pretty high C rating, even on the cheap cells. You can probably bank on 5-10C out of them.


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## Calina (Apr 8, 2008)

Cat-man-do said:


> ....night time has now been turned into day.  I suppose this means that we might as well close the Bike lights forum as there is nothing else that can top 2000+ lumens on the bars...:shocked: ...or is there(?) :skep: . *Harty*, I credit you with building a very nice light. However I'm not sure just how useful having 2000+lumens on your bars is going to be. The photos you gave of your lamp in the 3amp mode shows that the output light almost completely washes out ( ..or melted ) the bumps in your driveway compared to the photo from your 4WD's headlights. You might actually have built the first bike light that requires wearing sun glasses..( I kid you not..)  . Nevertheless, I believe your light is still salvageable. You must do two things to fix it. # 1 ) consider replacing the current LED's with a more "Warmer bin".(..or at least two of the quad sets ) then adjust the Current (amps) down to a more usable level. If you do this two other things will happen...first, you will keep all your riding buddies happy. Second, no one in your area will be reporting UFO's going thru the woods where you live.  Oh, I forgot to mention you will not need corneal transplants in two years either. Of course if you decide not to take my advice you will never have to worry about getting an X-ray again. Your bones will absorb so much excess spill light that they will start to glow.    Oh damn, I almost forgot the last requirement to fix your light....*Give it to me NOW!!*  :ihih:


 If you attach your light a little lower it will cast more shadows and you wouldn't have to give it to Cat-man-do  . :thumbsup:


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

hi all

I have now done a few night rides with the light on full tilt 
the end results are 
the only time you need to run it on high is for real fast down hill runs or to scare small children
it doesnt washout the track or hide the bumps there is just that much light bouncing around its like ridding in the day would not like to use it when it was dusty but then again no one want to ride in front of me so may not be a problem
the colour temp is ok i have the warmer leds in the helmet light and there isnt much difference to look at. Its a lot colder in the pic
I have run it at 500mAh and that seems about spoton for general trail ridding while still being able to anoy my ridding buddies might make another one and mount it under the seat facing backwards just for fun 
cat-man-do i would love to give you my light but its power is not for the novice:nono: 
blinded people leads to angry people:madmax: , anger leads to hate, hate leads to the darkside (when they take your light away)

cheers and look forward to the arms race (I have another housing on standby 24 cree r2s and a realy long power cord look out)
Harty


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## Bryguy17 (May 19, 2007)

harty said:


> cheers and look forward to the arms race (I have another housing on standby 24 cree r2s and a realy long power cord look out)
> Harty


Holy crap sir. I was going to throw in my setup running 10x R2's at various places around the light. 4 on the helmet, 2 on the bars, 4 on the fork lowers  that is, when I get them all built

That will be an interesting setup, even if I only use it once. It'll be fun figuring out how to power it all. lets see...3S 4300mAh powering the low beams and the high beams, and some 3s 2100's running the bars should do the trick for about 3 hours


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## biketavioumaximus (Jun 28, 2007)

"With great power comes great responsibility"

I'm a VERY responsible person!!!:crazy: :yesnod: 

Let the LED wars begin........


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## Pete N (Jan 22, 2008)

Just read through this forum and after looking at the first set of beamshots I thought they looked good without being amazing. When you got it going on full power I couldn't believe it, it must be no different to riding in the day. I just hope that nobody you ride towards looks directly at it as I honestly think permanent damage to their eyes will follow. An incredible amount of light. You will have to work on a helmet light now.


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## SkUG (Feb 19, 2008)

damn!


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## .40AET (Jun 7, 2007)

WOW! I'm a little late reading this, but non the less, very impressed. We all need to get busy to step the lighting game up another notch. 

Great job!


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## harty (Apr 16, 2008)

*update*

latest update

hi all 
just thought i would give you all a update on how the light has performed
i have about 100hrs of night riding including several night races now with the uber light and i must say it realy is absolutly unbelivable brilliant to ride with 
I have the light set to 750mah and use the 2 mode setting on the bflex set to level 3 and 5
realy only run it on high when hammering along through the tight stuff and i get about 2
+ hrs from the pack

cheers
Harty


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## HEY HEY ITS HENDO (Feb 23, 2008)

*Farkin Bright ( thats the technical term) uber light*



harty said:


> * i must say it realy is absolutly unbelivable brilliant to ride with *


........ lol  yep i can honestly say i thought it would be too,
VERY nice piece of kit you got there harty :thumbsup:


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