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The Classic Biker Bar / Re: 6volt LED replacement bulbs
« on: April 14, 2008, 12:38:32 AM »
Good to see people finding something useful in my article but please don't get confused by it.
The LED bulbs supplied by the excellent Goffy are designed as direct plug-in replacements for standard incandescent bulbs. They consist of a cluster of small LEDs and the associated ballast resistors, mounted on a standard bayonet base. They can be used on any battery-backed lighting system of the appropriate voltage, just take the incans out and plug the LEDs in.
The system described in my article is a bit different. I am not using plug-in bulbs because part of the objective of the system was to eliminate all non-soldered connections in the MZaquaria light fittings, and another objective was to make it look as far as possible as if it still had normal bulbs in it.
So my system uses special "Lumiled" high-power LEDs which are bright enough that you only need one of them and not a cluster. The original bulb holders are removed from the fittings and the Lumileds are mounted on brackets made to fit the space, and the supply wires are soldered to the Lumileds - no more contacts to corrode.
Unlike Goffy's cluster units, Lumileds are sold as plain bare units without any ballast resistors or other control circuitry, and so an additional device is required to stop them blowing up. The range of voltage variation which is observed on the MZ 6V system is such as to make a constant current regulator a better option than a ballast resistor, as the resistor would result in large brightness variations with engine revs and electrical load.
The improved tolerance to voltage variation from the use of a constant-current regulator means that it is possible (although I haven't tried it) to use my system on an unregulated direct-lighting bike, although it won't run on raw AC, so it would be necessary to fit a bridge rectifier and smoothing capacitor in the supply to convert it to reasonable DC.
The need for a different flasher unit is a separate issue and is occasioned by the much lower current consumption of LEDs compared to incandescent bulbs, which disrupts the flash rate of conventional units. The flash rate of the flasher unit described in my article is independent of the current consumption of the load, and can be used equally well with LEDs or with incandescent bulbs.
The LED bulbs supplied by the excellent Goffy are designed as direct plug-in replacements for standard incandescent bulbs. They consist of a cluster of small LEDs and the associated ballast resistors, mounted on a standard bayonet base. They can be used on any battery-backed lighting system of the appropriate voltage, just take the incans out and plug the LEDs in.
The system described in my article is a bit different. I am not using plug-in bulbs because part of the objective of the system was to eliminate all non-soldered connections in the MZ
So my system uses special "Lumiled" high-power LEDs which are bright enough that you only need one of them and not a cluster. The original bulb holders are removed from the fittings and the Lumileds are mounted on brackets made to fit the space, and the supply wires are soldered to the Lumileds - no more contacts to corrode.
Unlike Goffy's cluster units, Lumileds are sold as plain bare units without any ballast resistors or other control circuitry, and so an additional device is required to stop them blowing up. The range of voltage variation which is observed on the MZ 6V system is such as to make a constant current regulator a better option than a ballast resistor, as the resistor would result in large brightness variations with engine revs and electrical load.
The improved tolerance to voltage variation from the use of a constant-current regulator means that it is possible (although I haven't tried it) to use my system on an unregulated direct-lighting bike, although it won't run on raw AC, so it would be necessary to fit a bridge rectifier and smoothing capacitor in the supply to convert it to reasonable DC.
The need for a different flasher unit is a separate issue and is occasioned by the much lower current consumption of LEDs compared to incandescent bulbs, which disrupts the flash rate of conventional units. The flash rate of the flasher unit described in my article is independent of the current consumption of the load, and can be used equally well with LEDs or with incandescent bulbs.