Some thoughts on Vistalight (vistalite?) batteries

yes you are missing something 6 2000mAh AA batteries can give you 12000mAh at 1.2V or 6000mAh at
2.4V or 4000 mAh at 3.6V or 2000 mAh at 7.2V maybe it would help if you work it out in w/h 12000mAh
at 1.2V or =14.4w/h(l think l have this right) 6000mAh at 2.4V or =14.4w/h 4000 mAh at 3.6V or
=14.4w/h 2000 mAh at 7.2V =14.4w/h

stu said:

6 2000mAh AA batteries can give you 12000mAh at 1.2V or ... 2000 mAh at 7.2V

Ahhh, of course... damn laws of physics. So I'd be wantin' 8 of "7000mAh size 'F' 1.8v"[1] to give
me 14000 mAh @ 7.2V. And maybe a trailer to carry them, how big is 'F' anyway.

[1] onlybatteries.comshowitem.aspOpen ↗

-kt

l wonder if 1.8V is a typo on there part. l thought all ni-cd batteries were
1.2V and that was it. l just finished building lights for my bike, you know the ones, 2*20W quartz
halogen down lights plus a 12V SLA battery. l used a 7.0 amp hour battery(it does weigh 2.5 kgs so
it isn't for weight weenies)
customer-self-service.comProdView.aspxOpen ↗ t=03294155 when for
my first long night ride last night and it seems to be good for 3 hours or more with one light on.
cost me less then $50 including the rear light, but l had all the wire and stuff. best $50 l ever
spent!!!!!!! great fun

"stu" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

l wonder if 1.8V is a typo on there part. l thought all ni-cd batteries

were

Quoted message said:

1.2V and that was it. l just finished building lights for my bike, you know the ones, 2*20W

quartz

Quoted message said:

halogen down lights plus a 12V SLA battery. l used a 7.0 amp hour battery(it does weigh 2.5 kgs so
it isn't for weight weenies)

Good to see that someone else has decided to build their own lights.......I still reckon they are
the best value for money. I have recently finished my fifth set of lights for which i machined up an
aluminium housing for a 35mm halogen globe (20W). I made up a NiMh battery pack in an old water
bottle using 10 x 4500mAh batteries which are 4/3 AA size (basically a bit longer and bit fatter
than standard AA batteries). These are in series which gives me a 12V, 4.5Ah battery.

I am also currently repacking a Vistalight nightstick for a mate whos old one was pretty well had
it. I am using 5 x sub-C NiMh cells (as per the original) but I have bought 2700 mAh ones from
Jaycar (www.jaycar.com.au) that cost around $9 each. This means my mate gets a new nighstick for
around $45 bucks that has around 25% higher capacity than the original!!!!! It is a pretty simple
process that only involves some basic soldering.

If you are interested in having a look at my lights, they are at
members.ozemail.com.aulights 5.htmOpen ↗

Cheers,

Gags

oh yer l should say big thank-you to you for your site. l saw fat hippys awhile ago and was thinking
about doing it, but it was your site and post that really got me off my ass. l couldn't get my
switches as neat as yours, but at least l have fuses lol 😉. Next in line is one of those dimmers or
a quick change battery, for some reason l would like more than 3 hours(not sure why lol) On my first
3 hour ride l ran the battery down to 11.11V with light on and l think that's a little to low. will
just have to see what happens and then again they are only $21 each so if they last 5 rides, it will
still be damn cheap entertainment do you really mean 35mm globes? l could only find 50mm. thanks
again stuart

"stu" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

do you really mean 35mm globes? l could only find 50mm.

Yep......you should be able to get the 35mm globes from a specialist lighting store. I have also
seen them in Jaycar. They are a bit more expensive than the 50mm globes (close to $10) but I reckon
they are worth it for the reduction in size (Especially as the aluminium rod offcut that i used to
machine my housing was less than 50mm in diameter). I guess that the downside is that they get a bit
hotter than the 50mm globes (as they are both 20W globes) but I don't seem to have a problem given
the big aluminium housing/heatsink that i mounted it in.

Cheers,

Gags

"Gags" <drgagnon@nospam_ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...
: housing/heatsink that i mounted it in.
:
: Cheers,
:
: Gags
:

Dont suppose you have pictures

Pete

l must be going blind they are on jaycars web site, missed them when l looked. l wish they made them
in 10w but stuff it l am not a weight weenie l will just get another battery. thanks

to save gags the trouble, here it is members.ozemail.com.aulights 5.htmOpen ↗ or you
could read his first post!! stuart

"stu" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

l must be going blind they are on jaycars web site, missed them when l looked. l wish they made
them in 10w but stuff it l am not a weight weenie l will just get another battery.

You can get MR11 (35mm) glass fronted bulbs from K-mart for about $6. However these are a fairly
wide beam - either 38 deg or 60 deg, and as such aren't really fantastic for night riding. I was
running one of those until recently, and on tar you couldn't go much over 30km/h before your
reaction time had to be very good... Off road with a helmet light it wasn't bad as a fill light.

I'm now running a 20W MR16 (51mm) globe with a 12 deg beam. I've also got a PWM set up at a 50% duty
cycle, with a remote switch mounted to my right grip. That way I can flick from 10W to 20W
instantly, with my hands on. Not too critical for commuting, but handy off road when you realise
you're going a tad faster than you thought you would. I may change that globe for a 38 degree beam
for off road, since peripheral vision is a bit more important.

Dave - who should update lights.hired-goons.netlights.hired-goons.netOpen ↗

--
Dave Hughes [email hidden] "Forty-two" -- Deep Thought

thanks for that dave l will pick up a 10W one next time l am at kmart. "PWM set up at a 50% duty
cycle" did you build this yourself? l have see the light brain on hippys site but while l could put
it together, l couldn't do the code(l dont think)

now, is 3 lights to many? l am also working on an mounting a couple of leds so l can see my HRM and
speedo, and maybe even what gear l am in(but l think that would be a little over the top, but how
much could 4 leds and 2 AA batteries weigh?)

stuart

"stu" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

l must be going blind they are on jaycars web site, missed them when l looked. l wish they made
them in 10w but stuff it l am not a weight weenie l will just get another battery. thanks

They do come in 10 watts. I got some 10 watt globes from a lighting place in Thornleigh. I suggest
trying a lighting specialist if your after them.

A friend is using some 5 watt and 12 watts they got ordered in (i'm not sure from where exactly).

I found 10 watts heaps for most off road riding - then again I'm not very fast. Hooked up to a 7.2
Ah brick I've managed 9 hours of it and they were still bright. The next step is to go for a lighter
weight NiMh battery pack which isn't such a pain to mount on the bike.

Andrew

You could always go to a hobby store that sells bits for radio controlled cars, and buy a set of
Sanyo RC-3000HV 3000 mAh NiMH cells for use in radio controlled cars.

The advantage with these is they're the same size as the 2200 cells that your nitestick uses, so you
could simply replace the cells and be on your way.

Regards,

Suzy

"stu" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

"PWM set up at a 50% duty cycle" did you build this yourself? l have see the light brain on hippys
site but while l could put it together, l couldn't do the code(l dont think)

I was slack and got an off the shelf one from [censored] Smith - it's labelled as a motor controller, but
it's a PWM that works fine with lights. It's got a soft on feature, but Space Cat lighting (
spacecatlighting.comdesign resource.htmOpen ↗ ) have some designes using a basic 555 timer, or
some LM 324 op amps. 555s cost about $1 each, 324s are about $1.50, and the rest of the components
would be well under $10, assuming you've got a soldering iron. The kit I got was $25, and was an
impulse buy. Whoops. Works really nicely with a remote bypass switch mounted on the handlebars (10W
or 20W levels with hands on the bars).

Quoted message said:

now, is 3 lights to many?

Only 3? :-)

Quoted message said:

l am also working on an mounting a couple of leds so l can see my HRM and speedo, and maybe even
what gear l am in(but l think that would be a little over the top, but how much could 4 leds and 2
AA batteries weigh?)

4 AAs, wires and 32 LEDs didn't add much weight to my rear wheel when I turned it into the
mindwarper for the last 2 24Hrs. Didn't actually ride it on the course because I built it into the
spare bike, but it was fun around the camp ground.

Dave - who might get some 324s today.... Hmmm....

--
Dave Hughes [email hidden] "Remember - if all you have is an axe, every problem looks like
hours of fun." -- Frossie, ASR

Dimming halogen lights, even by pulse width modulation, reduces the efficiency lots - you'll use
half the power to get a quarter the light. It's all to do with not running the filament white hot,
thus producing more heat (infra-red) rather than light in the visible spectrum. On top of this the
PWM circuit itself will lose a little as well.

Much better if you can get hold of a 10W halogen and switch between the 10W and 20W lamps - try
Koala lamps in Melbourne CBD - they have had 10W 35mm (about 12 degree I think) units at about $10
ea; there is a specialist lamp supplier in Hawthorn also. I use a 20W 50mm, a 10W 35mm, and a sanyo
dynapower headlamp with a 5W halogen bulb from a Holden map reading light. This gives a range of
lighting power to suit conditions and enable maxing the battery life.

Another interesting point is that one 20W halogen will give you more light than two 10W halogens of
the same diameter. It seems efficiency is not so good with the lower power units, although still
better than running 20W unit underpowered.

Generally if you can get 50mm rather than 35mm, you will be getting more light - more reflector area
is better - ask a lighting engineer. I haven't found a 50 mm light less than 20W yet though.

Best of luck and have fun! It's great having lights which are so much much better than commercial
units that cost 5 times as much! Steve

Random Data wrote in message ...

Quoted message said:

"stu" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

"PWM set up at a 50% duty cycle" did you build this yourself? l have see

the

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

light brain on hippys site but while l could put it together, l couldn't

do

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the code(l dont think)

I was slack and got an off the shelf one from [censored] Smith - it's labelled as a motor controller, but
it's a PWM that works fine with lights. It's got a soft on feature, but Space Cat lighting (
spacecatlighting.comdesign resource.htmOpen ↗ ) have some designes using a basic 555 timer,
or some LM 324 op amps. 555s cost about $1 each, 324s are about $1.50, and the rest of the
components would be well under $10, assuming you've got a soldering iron. The kit I got was $25,
and was an impulse buy. Whoops. Works really nicely with a remote bypass switch mounted on the
handlebars (10W or 20W levels with hands on the bars).

Quoted message said:

now, is 3 lights to many?

Only 3? :-)

Quoted message said:

l am also working on an mounting a couple of leds so l can see my HRM and speedo, and maybe even
what gear l am in(but l think that would be a

little

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

over the top, but how much could 4 leds and 2 AA batteries weigh?)

4 AAs, wires and 32 LEDs didn't add much weight to my rear wheel when I turned it into the
mindwarper for the last 2 24Hrs. Didn't actually ride it on the course because I built it into the
spare bike, but it was fun around the camp ground.

Dave - who might get some 324s today.... Hmmm....

--
Dave Hughes [email hidden] "Remember - if all you have is an axe, every problem looks
like hours of fun." -- Frossie, ASR

"Steve" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Dimming halogen lights, even by pulse width modulation, reduces the efficiency lots - you'll use
half the power to get a quarter the light.

Because I can get a 20W 50mm 12deg globe easily, it slightly outperforms my 10W 38 degree 35mm globe
when it's running at the same input current (.85 A). That's based on eyeball measurements, but it
seems to give a bit more *useable* light, and it means I can go to full power without needing more
handlebar space.

If I felt like it I could put an external adjuster on the variable resistor to make on the fly
adjustments simple, but ~10W and 20W works well enough. At ~99% efficiency I'm not worried about
what the PWM sucks up. Wow, 1-2 minutes of extra light out of a conventional battery pack.

You're right, but I think you're overstating the disadvantages.

Quoted message said:

Best of luck and have fun! It's great having lights which are so much much better than commercial
units that cost 5 times as much!

Amateur. It's only really fun when you've sunk enough money into R&D versions that you could have
bought a rather spiffy set of Vistalights, etc. Of course, performance wise I think mine are nicer,
though they're still a little less than perfect aesthetically...

lights.hired-goons.netlights.hired-goons.netOpen ↗ for more info. Not everything is up yet.

Dave - who needs to update the site.
--
Dave Hughes [email hidden] "...and trogdor smote the kerrek. And all was laid to
burnination." -- Strongbad

Quoted message said:

Because I can get a 20W 50mm 12deg globe easily, it slightly outperforms my 10W 38 degree 35mm
globe when it's running at the same input current (.85 A). That's based on eyeball measurements,
but it seems to give a bit more *useable* light, and it means I can go to full power without
needing more handlebar space.

Fair enough. Eye ball measurements are what counts in the real world. 12 degree vs 38 degree would
be significant influence here, as would the larger reflector. It is hard to find less than 20W
globes in narrow angles - I'm not that impressed with the uneven beam patterns on some 10-12W globes
I've tried.

If only a 12V, low wattage (say 3 to 7 watts) *very* compact flouro and suitable reflector were
available - still more efficient than Luxeon LEDS, halogen etc. HID lighting efficency is impressive
but even the stuff for caving lamps is several hundred dollars.......

If you are looking for more R&D to soak $$ up, what about the 5W Luxeon V-star with collimator
and suitably machined alum bracket to heatsink via handlebar? I think they are about $75+ on the
ATA website.

- Steve

I have spent a few hours and some $$ on lighting lately. Here are some of my thoughts.

Try and get Phillips, GE or Osram. The Jaycar bulbs and light assembly are quite poor. Poor light
output, Poor colouring. Basically junk. If anyone is looking at using bi pin bulbs (I haven't tested
assemblies yet) then GE is the way to go (34715 Is what I tested). Nice white light. I would then go
for Phillips and Osram in that order. How do I know this ? Well I have just finished building some
lights using small car spotlights (Don't waste your money of cheapies) and custom bulb holders. It
works very well. I spent MANY hours testing differing bulbs, filament types Ect. side by side. I am
currently looking for some projector bulbs to test them. If they can cope with the vibration then I
will probably stick with them. 25% brighter than the brightest bulb I can find with the usual
reduced life.

I know that Osram make a assembly that uses an Xenon bulb (IRC). I was not overly impressed with
these (Actually disappointed). Not as bright as they should have been until over voltaged. (I know
that someone in Adelaide is currently looking at using these to take a product to market with.)

There is a HUGE different in light output, colour and quality between different bulb's/housings. For
the people who have built them I would recommend looking at what they are using and if they can get
an additional performance increase for little outlay.

I hope this is of interest and help to a few of you. It was not posted to a relevant post in this
thread as I could not decide which one.

AJS

P.s I am looking at setting up an light meter and measuring the output and spectrum of different
lights. If I do I will post URL for interested parties. If anyone know where I can get HID
10-20W bulbs for a decent price let me know, this is my pet project that is just a little to
expensive to finish at the moment 🙁

"kingsley" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Have you ever seen the discharge graph for NiCd batteries?

It goes roughly:

|...............
V | :
| :
+====================>
time

I can tell you that NiMH feels about the same.

The problem is that, as Murphy would have it, that abrupt turn in the graph corresponds to the
curve you're riding down, in the rain, on the commute home from work. You've just about got time
to to think "Hmmm, that light is looking a bit dull", and then a minute later it's just about
out. Maybe it had been a bit duller earlier, but riding in those dawn/dusk times it's impossible
to tell.

This has led me to thoughts of other batteries. IMHO the vistalight 'nitestick' is not too bad,
and I think for it's price it's good, I'm happy with mine anyway. I must remember to charge it
every couple of days though.

But each battery is only 2200mAh at 7.2V. Why is it such a bulky battery supplies only 2200mAh? I
must be missing something. I know a photo shop that sells 2000mAh 'AA' batteries - admittedly AA
is only 1.5 volts (which is really 1.2V talking NiCd/NiMH). Wouldn't 6 of these ganged together
give me 12000mAh and probably weigh the same as a nightstick? Have I missed someting here? Can
someone suggest a better SLA alternative?

A nightstick battery (NiMH) costs about $70, a pack of 4 2000mAh AAs (IIRC) about $50 with a
charger.

cheers, -kt