Xtreme XB-600 (electric scooter mods) - Page 5 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

MazdaMatt · 12-10-2008, 01:11 PM

Did you do any research on brightness per watt? (I say brightness because i'm not sure if i mean lumen or lux... one of them is modified for human perception)

I want to make a kitchen herb garden using only red and blue leds (because plants only care about red and blue light, so it is more energy efficient to only give them what they need). Ideally, this would be done with the highest possible brightness per watt.

captainslug · 12-10-2008, 03:31 PM

Made a replacement brake light. Total consumption is 1 watt braking, 1/3 watt running. Outputs 130 lumens maximum. I had to sand down the lenses of these LEDs because when perfectly clear they were just too painful to look at directly.

And I got the 20 LED running light array wired and tested.

Total consumption is 2 watts. Outputs 120 lumens, but is fairly diffused since these are primarily meant to increase how visible I am to other vehicles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bennelson

Your LED headlight is cool enough that you could almost make your own thread just about the headlight!

Will do. I have a bunch more photos of the whole process and will be making a write-up in the DIY section.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MazdaMatt

Did you do any research on brightness per watt? (I say brightness because i'm not sure if i mean lumen or lux... one of them is modified for human perception)

I want to make a kitchen herb garden using only red and blue leds (because plants only care about red and blue light, so it is more energy efficient to only give them what they need). Ideally, this would be done with the highest possible brightness per watt.

The brightest (cheap) LEDs you can get are 18 lumens each at 3.3V 25mA. White LEDs come in that rating so it would make more sense to just use those.
NEW 100 Super White LED 3mm 16000mcd Free S/H - eBay (item 200286686817 end time Dec-16-08 20:17:31 PST)
I don't think it would be any more efficient to use red and blue LEDs when the white LEDs output a full spectrum. White and red LEDs come in the highest lumen ratings.

To go brighter you'd have to use High-Power LEDs.

I haven't really bothered trying to figure out lumens per watt.

bennelson · 12-10-2008, 06:28 PM

The headlight is looking nice.

Pull it off to use as part of your Iron Man costume for Halloween next year!

Glad to hear you are doing a DIY on it!

captainslug · 12-11-2008, 01:46 PM

The replacement controller came in the mail, but I was still having problems turning it on. The battery set would read 66 volts when charged, but would read 15 volts under load. And the charger would flicker when I tried to plug it into the set.
Turns out the set of batteries have a few corroded terminals, which I fixed easily with a wire brush. After that was figured out I got the controller mounted and all of the wiring cleaned up.

And then I gave the floor pan a coat of vinyl dye and cleaned off one years-worth of dirt.

The replacement DC-DC converter came in the mail too. But I'll have to wait to install it until after the LED headlight is done.

captainslug · 12-16-2008, 08:08 PM

Well, the DC-DC converter I got was DOA. Which is more annoying because I wasted half a day getting it wired in then having to undo that wiring to put the old one back in.

If the seller isn't going to send me a replacement I'll probably just try to clean up the existing cables by mounting the 12V-in-5V-out inside the gauge console.

captainslug · 12-17-2008, 12:01 PM

Replacement turned out to be dead.

So I took apart the 12V-to-5V converter and mounted it there instead. I then repinned the 6-pin connectors to forward the correct lines.

I also added some anti-slip tape to the floor pan, some reflectors to the rear fork and brake light, and change the polycarbonate brake light lens to a polethylene one to help diffuse the light better.

I'm currently contemplating whether or not I want to bother going to 72 Volts. It would involve a great deal of rewiring and soldering. I'm no longer really concerned with my range and if I want a slightly higher top speed the easiest way to obtain it would be to replace the motor.
But I'll set that idea aside for a while. At the moment I just want to get the headlight and front body panel done.

captainslug · 12-22-2008, 01:53 PM

My High Power LED arrived a week late (thanks to it being shipped from Canada).
Today was a day of strange problems.
The Negative pad on the LED dumps heat right onto the back of the LED. So lower wattage soldering irons can't overcome the heatsink effect. If you want to solder onto the trace you have to use at least a 100-watt soldering iron. This is not mentioned in the datasheet and lead to much frustration.

And this isn't so much a problem, as it is very funny. The LED is actually TOO bright.

It's painful to look at indirectly and even more unbearable to look at directly. I'm going to have to add a diffusor or at least a blinder of some kind to avoid blinding people.

Instructable will be made once I get it back in one piece and working safely enough to put it on the scooter.

Edit: And the headlight is done!

I soldered a capacitor in to bridge the positive and negative of the LED running light array so that I get a fade effect when the headlight is switched to the high beam. Here's an animation of the effect.

The switch from high beam to running light is instantaneous.

Tomorrow I'll have more pictures of the scooter with the headlight installed, as well as an output comparison between the new headlight and the old one.

captainslug · 12-24-2008, 08:19 PM

Weather is so incredibly nice out tonight. Currently 52F, Expected low is 38F.
So I went out to look at decoration and test the headlight.

Highlight works fine. Street signs are very easy to read when hit with white light. Here's a picture taken in the only part of the neighborhood that wasn't aglow with Christmas lights.