Flashlight holder

[radiant_luv]

Hello,

where can I find a flashlight holder for handlebar in Bangalore? 

Thanks,

\\radiant 

[radiant_luv]

Anyone? Or any DIY project?

Thanks,

\\radiant

[Opendro]

Why DIY? You asked only "in Bangalore". That is why there is no response. No one put flash light on bicycle handle bar in India. So, wrong place to find one.

I have this one: http://dx.com/p/universal-bicycle-mount-for-flashlights-and-gadgets-2cm-3cm-diameter-adjustable-15642

You ride any kind of road and it will hold up! Just note that the flash light need to be tubular/cylindrical shape. I usually put a cut piece of road bike tube around the flash tube and no other padding inside the holder. This makes the holding more firm.

Anyway, you can find many more designs in that web site. Shipping is free world wide and take about 10 to 20 days.

[Opendro]

If you want quick clip in and out, you might like this: http://dx.com/p/15-degrees-rotation-mount-holder-clip-clamp-for-bicycle-bike-led-light-lamp-flashlight-166615

I think Anita bought a similar one (or could be the same) and I remember her saying it holds well. Sandeep could comment here. But for this type, I would typically prefer a rubber band or a strap that would be used in case it gets dislodged in a bad thud on road.

[radiant_luv]

Thanks Opendra for the links. Yes, I could order from DealExtreme website however I wanted to find out if these items are available offline in Bangalore. Looks like not and most probably cyclists I noticed with flashlight may be they got them online.

best,

\\radiant

[Hari Krishna]

I'll make you a front light at half the cost of the holder!

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[suman paul]

I'll be interested Hari

thank you & regards

suman  

+91      9886300685

[radiant_luv]

wow, awesome! how about only the holder? 

Thanks,

\\radiant

[Abhilash Kashyap]

Even i want one :)

On Thursday, June 27, 2013 11:14:58 AM UTC+5:30, Hari Krishna wrote:

[Hari Krishna]

My light is held with a rubber band :) And it survived offroading on my roadbike without budging even a little.

--

Hari Krishna Malladi

Ph.D. Student,

Department of Computer Science and Automation,

Indian Institute of Science

Cell: +91 9945676016

Web: www.harikrishna-robotics.com

[Hari Krishna]

And yea I'll sell my lights soon. Doing the finishing touches. Removed the Arduino and installed a tiny circuit. Its now dimmer than before. The max is about the same as 10 LUX lights in market. And the brightness is adjustable with a knob. It runs for about 30 hours on AA cells and about 7 hours on a 9V battery. I prefer the 9V as its lighter. I'll replace the batteries on mine with Lithium cells soon.

[sudip mondal]

Sounds good! I want one! 

btw, any plans for solar powered? that would be great! 

\\radiant

[Hari Krishna]

Naah.. Unnecessary cost escalation.

[Abhilash Kashyap]

oh! would sure like to buy one! :P
and would also know how to build one! :) :) :)

[Hari Krishna]

Sure! Drop by IISc sometime.

[Mrinal Kumar]

I happend to see the light last week. Its indeed a very bright, compared to the best lights in the market. The only thing Hari needs to work on is the packaging (it has many wires as of now). And then its a perfect value for money.

[Hari Krishna]

But there is an obvious downside. The brightness comes at the cost of battery life. The best lights in the market use the emitted light in a better way with better optics. My light has almost no optics except for a plastic lens. Its only the sheer amount of current being pumped. But for about 100 bucks there's nothing else you'd expect!

[Hari Krishna]

By the way, the 2 wires you saw will exist. Those are the wires connecting the battery pack to the light! I'd prefer the batteries on the frame, rather than on the handlebars.

[Mrinal Kumar]

I had a torch in my childhood in which the internals were made up of mirror to better reflect light and then on the front it was fitted with a concave lens and it really had anmazing light. May be u can use the mirror technology and see. I dont think mirror should be too expensive.

This way u can keep the power output low and still get a very high light and hence use the battery a little more amount of time

[Hari Krishna]

Yea right. Thats how all lights are made. But it works for halogen bulbs, not LEDs. LEDs dont have a significant sideways light emittance. Most of the light goes to the front. Good headlights ( and floodlights) have the LEDs point back, with a concave mirror producing the beam. This is a bit hard to DIY.

[Banibrata Dutta]

While searching for a photo of the Eveready plastic torch (DL36) that I fitted in my child's bicycle using some simple iron-wires + black electrical insulation tape (will share pic sometime), I came accross this one... DL20 on Eveready's page...

http://www.evereadyindustries.com/business/flashlights/led-torches.asp

It might be not close to the high brightness LED lights, but comes with a inbuilt clamp/attachment for bicycles. Not bad for the price. DIY need not always start from scratch. It might be fun to try and rig something like the DL20 with a high-brightness LED and the 18650 rechargeable lithium cells. The only (smallish) challenge is to remove the heat produced by the high-brightness LEDs fast enough, and the standard LED heatsinks might be tad too large to fit in within the case.

As for the DIY bike light holder... there's one on Instructable or Make site, which uses few pieces of pvc plumbing pipes and the grip-wrap used on tennis racquets.

regards,
Banibrata
http://www.linkedin.com/in/bdutta
http://twitter.com/edgeliving

[Opendro]

Hari, I read your blog about the DYI light and also the bicycle computer. Really marvelous job. Proud to know that someone in our locality works on such innovative projects.

But if one is looking for a really usable light at best value for price, buy the following:
http://dx.com/p/ultrafire-wf-502b-ssc-p7-bin-c-5-mode-800-lumen-led-flashlight-1-18650-39737
http://dx.com/p/ultrafire-protected-18650-3-7v-2600mah-lithium-batteries-2-pack-26247

And corresponding charger and holder if for bicycle.

I will describe how good they are:
I don't have inverter in my home. So, when power goes away in the night, I just put this flash in mode 3 pointing up to white ceiling. The spread of the reflection from the ceiling gives an area of 100 sq.ft. good enough for reading a story book font for kids or cook and dine. One battery will last about 13+ hours in mode 3. I ride my brevets on highway in mode 3 when speeds aren't above 25 and pitch dark. In mode 2, it is quite bright and good enough for speeds upto 35 plus kmph and battery last for nearly 4 and a half hours. I never use mode 1 as it heats up and batter lasts just about 100 mins.

A lot of my friends also bought this light on my recommendation. Half of them had issues with the switch. After ordering spare switches that ill-fit, I opened up and fixed it in a few possible areas. After a couple of no so successful fixes, now I know the exact reason why some of them gave problems. It is one or a couple of very minor issues. I can explain on how to fix it if anyone here faces the same issue.

It is 100% water proof, solid body, feels nice to hold. At present, this is the best value for money I had experienced.

On Thursday, June 27, 2013 11:14:58 AM UTC+5:30, Hari Krishna wrote:

[suman paul]

How do you fix it on bike Opendro !

thank you & regards

suman  

+91      9886300685

[Opendro]

I already mentioned. I use http://dx.com/p/universal-bicycle-mount-for-flashlights-and-gadgets-2cm-3cm-diameter-adjustable-15642 and a road bike tube, not cut open flat, worn over the torch body. This is to increase grip and also to reduce harshness in the contact.

[Hari Krishna]

An 800 lumen flashlight might not mean anything. Lumen is a deceiving term. It's the amount of light the LED emits, not the amount of light that's being used. Even if you seal your light off with a black cap, it can still be sold as a 800 lumen light. That's why most reputed light makers use Lux or Cd as their unit.

2700 mAh is about the same as AA cells. When a 3 watt LED is completely being used the running time would be a couple of hours with that 2.7 A-h battery. And the LED heats up like crazy and it's efficiency falls. It's because of this very reason that I dimmed my light to about a third of its rated capacity. It still heats up in minutes.

[Opendro]

On Thursday, June 27, 2013 5:18:45 PM UTC+5:30, Hari Krishna wrote:

An 800 lumen flashlight might not mean anything. Lumen is a deceiving term. It's the amount of light the LED emits, not the amount of light that's being used. Even if you seal your light off with a black cap, it can still be sold as a 800 lumen light. That's why most reputed light makers use Lux or Cd as their unit.

I understand that point. That is why I never talked about lumens. I rather gave what I do or can do with each mode.
 

2700 mAh is about the same as AA cells. When a 3 watt LED is completely being used the running time would be a couple of hours with that 2.7 A-h battery. And the LED heats up like crazy and it's efficiency falls. It's because of this very reason that I dimmed my light to about a third of its rated capacity. It still heats up in minutes.

Yes, I understand that alkaline or lithium-ion AA would provide that. But that would be expensive. I don't think any Nickel based rechargeable AA batteries can give that much Amperage. This model I mentioned does not heat up in mode 2, which is still very bright. It does heat up in mode 1 and yet lasts for 100 mins, which is still darn good.

I'm not promoting anything here. I see that many people are struggling with lights. In every brevet rides, I see people very poorly lit, hanging a light for names sake, people spending a lot of money for seemingly higher quality light, not even sure how long each battery would last in those ones. So, it is upto people whether they can trust me on this review or not.

For those riding upcoming brevets, I'm riding the 400K next week (plan to carry two batteries), 1200K four days after that and I plan to carry 4 batteries and 600K in first week of August (plan to carry three batteries). You should check out the efficiency of this piece by riding with me (as I cannot lend it :-P)
 

[Opendro]

I was wrong about the cost of the AA cost. http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-NiMH-Precharged-Rechargeable-Batteries-8-Pack/dp/B0030T1NFO/ref=pd_cp_hpc_0 gives 8 batteries of NiMH 2000 mAh batteries for a mere $18. That is nice price :-)

[Hari Krishna]

I'll ride with you :) I never claimed my light to be a replacement of the commercial ones. It's just an avenue to look into :)

And I use Sanyo 2500 mAh AA cells on my light at times. NiMH cells do give high amperages. And you get local NiMH  AA cells (Everady etc.) for a fraction of that $18.

[Opendro]

Hey, I never meant to discourage you from what you are doing. As I said, it is marvelous project. I just gave what is practical and usable for now for people.

[vivek]

If you want anything to order from India here is a great site run by one of the members on BZ I think - http://lightorati.com/accessories/mounts. I had plans to order one but ended up buying a local cheapo light set.

Regards,

Vivek