Here's one for you all. Going out on a night ride and can't remember the optimum set-up for the old light's. Is it spot ahead then flood or vise-versa?

Reason can't remember - too many Banana Beers.

I always put mune in a figure eight (if you know what I mean). Spot ahead of the flood.

Flood should light up the front of the bike and a little bit more in front. The spot i find should be a little further ahead to pick up anything obvious before you get into trouble.

Thats my own personal setup anyhow.

On the subject of lights but a little off thread, however I won't apologies as I believe the original question was answered very well by Jon & Hobo...

I have just aquired a cheap set of Cateye HL-RC230 Dual Front lights...

YES I KNOW... the battery is cr@p!!!

I have heard great things about DIY upgrades to L-ion and rapid smart chargeers for cheap, anyone know what spec I might need and where to get it? I am not great at electrics!

Cheers

Daz

Darran

If you are happy to order from the US, check out

www.batteryspace.com.

Make sure you get a UK spec (240V) charger though - The america mains is 110V so a US charger won't work over here.

Oh yes, and the Flood/Spot question has been answered perfectly.
Flood close, Spot ahead.

thanks Gary (and Roger for letting me hijack his thread!)

Do you know what voltage and current ratings are required?

Cheers

Darran

The lights are 6V, so you should really stick with the same voltage. If you over volt the lights, then you run the risk of running them too hot, and that can lead to damaging the housings or wiring, you will also reduce the bulb life.

As for current rating, just go for the highest mAh value you can. The higher the number, the longer the battery will last.

You can work it out using the following formula.
Power = Volts x Amps.

So a 10W bulb, when used with a 6V battery will give you -

10 = 6 x Amps

Therefore

Amps = 10/6 = 1.666

The bulb will draw 1.666 Amps

1 Amp = 1000 mA (milliamps)
so
1.666 A = 1666 mA

The battery rating is in milli Amp hours.
So a 1666 mAh battery would power the 10W bulb for 1 hour.
To double the time, you would need a 3332mAh battery and so on.

So in short, look for a battery of the same voltage, and with the highest mAh value you can.

Cheers
Gary

gary,

Withoout bigging you up too much, thats perhaps the greatest forum reply I have ever read!!!

Cheers

Daz

/me puts hand up in back row to disagree very slightly..

Good and very helpful advice Gary and I'm not disagreeing. But I'd definitely go for a 12v set of lamps with either a 14.4v or 13.2v battery. You can get plenty of power into that case (around 4Ah in NiMH in most of mine) but with 12v you have more lamp options and they are cheaper. Plus you can overvolt just a little to 13.2v with minimal (in the scheme of things) loss in lamp life.

Done several RC230 conversions now - been posting and emailing advice on this for the last couple of years and now thinking of writing a little online guide with photos. Anyone think it's worthwhile?

Queeg

I obviously would be well interested

Daz

I totally agree with you Queeg, but you have to remember I was answering Darren's question regarding upgrading the battery on his RC230's.

I also agree that over volting a 6V system to 7.2V would be absolutely fine (some of the guys I ride with use 7.2V Radio Controlled Car Barttery packs)

How much are you looking at spending to get a big performance improvement out of the RC230s, and set it up for 12V plus?

I had to replace my whole light set up (10W, 6V Smart with bottle Ni-Cad) after this years Saab Salomon Mountain Mayhem, and a after bit of surfing I stumbled across the www.batteryspace.com website.

Their prices seem ridiculously cheap.
I managed to get a Trail tech HID, with helmet mount, for £134 including delivery.
And we are talking over 40W (equivalent) of bright white light and 4 hours from the 4000mHa 14.4V Li-Ion battery (which is very small as well).

Gaz

Yup - I've got the same Trailtech setup as my main bar mount. Bargain innit? :) They also sell via Ebay so you can save a few quid more. Looks like you got away with Customs & Excise on it at that price - nice one.

The only downside was when I managed to spear my battery pack with a branch and killed the LiIon pack which was all of 2 weeks old. I could've cried I tell you. No damage to the pack but half the cells shorted out and died. Built a new one with an old laptop battery pack.

All that said, the 14.4v batteryspace pack on a 12v 20w halogen is very little different to a HID power - I built precisely that for a mate and he's well chuffed. So with the RC230 as a base all Darran needs to get HID-like output (admittedly for twice the draw of HID) is a 14.4v pack and a couple of lamps.

I've also got a 20w IRC lamp (MR16 unfortunately) which kicks out the equivalent of 35w. When overvolted at 14.4v it completely blows both my HID lamps away......

spot ahead flood close , Nahhh get a Hid it's so damn bright it'll set light to the trees an then you can even see round corners ;-)

Darren

There you go, I reckon you should have enough information to help you sort out your lighting issues !

Queeg has made some good points, and some good recommendations - I'll pass his info on to the guys that I ride with.

Cheers Queeg

Gaz

hmm how come I never thought of that? used to race radio controlled cars and should still have a few nicad and nimh 7.2v batteries lying about, 3300s hm. Will do some hunting around now, and start playing with the old soldering iron :)

I won't go into too much at Gary and Queeg have covered most things, just.
Overvolted MR11 lamps work really well just remember though the run time will be reduced by adding another 1.2v battery.
You will also need to charger the NiMh cells with the RC charger as the Cateye one is for lead acid cells.
Li ion cells and chargers are too expensive for DIY at the moment.

If you have a Maplins near by try to get one of their 6V6W MR11 spots it's great at 7.2v and is as bright as my 10watt lamps running on 13.2v.
I have also upgraded my RC230's but it's not really worth the effort as new cells, lamps, charger and decent batteries cost about £80 - £100 and the plastic lamps will melt if you use more than 20watt. As for bulbs, using 4500mAh at 13.2V I like a 12w GEC spot (10 degree) and a 20W GEC mid (18 degree) flood.
Sorry, I did go on a bit!!