AmericanBullDog Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 I'm looking into my options for a LED light bar, I've found the expensive ones from the reputable big name manufacturers and also the less expensive models . The only difference I can see when comparing expensive to less expensive is the quality of the light bar housing, the LEDs appear to be of the same type and if the voltage is not listed I have nothing else to go on. Some questions have come up that I have not been able to pin down an answer on so I thought I'd ask you guys who own light bars. 1. Does anyone know the lumen rating of any light bar, or have some sort of benchmark to measure them against? All I've found so far is the voltage rating on a few of them. 2. Are the light bars using SMD, or CoB? SMD vs CoB 3. Have you compared your light bar to a known lumen rated flashlight? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fly In My Soup Posted May 31, 2018 Share Posted May 31, 2018 I don't think you'll find a kelvin or lumen figure on these products. They all cost pittance to produce....that much is clear! If I had to choose, RPM light bar housing and pods then just wire up some cree/cob leds If you're after lighting up the nights sky like batman then opt for a cree light bar. Or go diy and knock something up from scratch?? This is my lads old truck with two cree panels from 2x£2 lights, they ran off the tiny 1s lipo, although you could just as easily run them off the balance tap on your lipo by tapping into one cell 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted May 31, 2018 Author Share Posted May 31, 2018 I'm very much leaning towards something diy using the CoB/cree LED. When I run at night I want plenty of light Still doing some reading on the topic but the CoB is the best emitter these days. Looking at some of the light bars on the market I am surprised to see they are using the very oldest of LED tech. and charging more than I feel is worth it. LED tech The upside to buying the commercially available bars is you get some nice scale looks to them. I think your idea of a commercially produced housing with CoB internals is going to be the best of both worlds. Thank you for those pictures, Fly 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCbutcher Posted June 4, 2018 Share Posted June 4, 2018 (edited) https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F263547299824 I just brought one of these i havent a clue if it'll work yet. 7in is big too but we'll see lol. It says 10v 1.2a so mayb a 3s lipo with 1200mah will power it some mini lipo would be cool. Ill test it like i tested everything i did lol. Plug it up and leave it to drain. £6 i dont mind either way ill use the case for diy mayb. Im thinking to try and shorten it too depending if their snip like others (Mayb not) then hoping the end cap can be refitted that could be easy tho just cut it off with afew mm then fit inserts to hold each of the halves togeher. If no better way. https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com.au%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F253302605072 Std leds work good for scale and pics with lenses to give the glare i like that. But they dont light much up. Im a big fan of the traxxas trx4 light set up. I hope that takes off. In errm china otherwise no chance lol. I already seen china copies of the trx4 kit. But i mean rolled out to all rcs. Baja pods light up a pretty good space theres a diy on soldering those up. Its pretty simple to do and work great. Two from the rx or two from a 9v no resisters needed. I would like to get some 4 or 5 led pods the size of a 1p coin at the most they would be cool. I started to buy strip leds but wasn't really impressed with them. I made a bar with U-channel, clear lexan and 12v strip leds. It worked but looked to swuare and diy i chucked it and paid £5 for one lol. Which isn't great either flashing like a xmas tree silliness. My best led hack i found was servo controlled on/off it worked really well. The one i made for us is still working now 3-4yrs on too. I used a futaba s3003 crappy servo ther common as muck. Desolderd its motor and stuck a female jst in its place. Then just made an led kit with male jst. Plug the servo JR std plug into RX then its the tedous part. Tweaking the servo pot dial and ch3 trim until the lights respond to the ch3 switch. The futaba s3003 was the best one i did bcos with a 3way switch it gave off-low-full. Reverse ch3 and they strobe. Once all responding as i wanted i sealed them up with heat shrink to try and tidy them up. I used afew of the cheap blue clear mini scale servos too which gave on/off. Was easier to make cos the servo motor is connected to the board by wires. Just be sure its the right way around lol. Both wires are white. Also it's best to 1st thing centre it powerd up with trims. Idk but sometimes tuning it took 20mins other times 2min. I thought ch3 trim 100% servo pot 50% ish mayb. Or it was the mini servos. I started to think about making a servo winch. Removing the servo stoppers so they just spin and spin then fit a line. To be used as truck bed lifter. Open with springs then the servo retracts the line lowering the bed. But never had any truck like that lol. Or an idea on line reel. It was good fun playing around with the stuff. But now their so cheap from china its usually a no brainer lol. Edited June 4, 2018 by RCbutcher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 What's annoying me about the off the shelf light bars is the lack of specs. from everyone that sells the things. If you're going to ask me for top dollar for a product then impress me with some tech. info about your product and why it's better than the other guys. After a little reading I see that some folks are asking for top dollar and use tech. that is from the 1960s. Literally. So far the only bench mark that I have found useful in comparing LED lights for my application is how many watts they will pull. Total lumen count can be very deceiving since some manufacturers will add up all the LED chips together for total lumens instead of what individual LED chips put out. Compare a high dollar flashlight with just one high lumen CoB LED throwing out light to another with several CoB (or one MCoB "Multiple Chip on Board") set in an array and you'll see how the cheap flashlights get their lumen numbers up but don't live up to the hype in real use. Today I found something very intriguing at the electronics store. This replacement bulb uses several MCoB to make up the total bulb assembly. What is very cool is that they rate the bulb in total lumens, total watts, and the watts each individual MCoB is rated at. As a bonus it is a 12V bulb ? 310 lumen 25W total 3.5W per board I'm going to see if I can gently break it down into its' individual MCoBs and rig up some DIY light bar action. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fly In My Soup Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 Mount to roof, use of sunglasses necessary...... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 17 minutes ago, Fly In My Soup said: Mount to roof, use of sunglasses necessary...... In the words of Tim the Tool Man Taylor "Arrhhh arrhhh arhgh" Is that a high pressure sodium bulb? I'd run it on my buggy if I could make that happen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 On a more serious note: The bulb assembly de-soldered easily and the independent MCoBs are evel marked with positive and negative terminals. Here is a quick and dirty test on 2S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 Since I hadn't let the magic smoke out of anything I did the only logical thing. I gave 'er more power. Gentlemen, behold! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fly In My Soup Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 Cool, what V are those rated for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 12Volts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 I can gut this light and maybe fabricoble an attractive light pod for a bumper mount light. The light is rated for 10 to 24 volts and 10watts, it puts off a clear white light that I think will give the most long distance light. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fly In My Soup Posted June 6, 2018 Share Posted June 6, 2018 1 hour ago, AmericanBullDog said: 12Volts I see, they look a lot like auto bulbs, led festoon bulb with the caps removed Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 6, 2018 Author Share Posted June 6, 2018 1 minute ago, Fly In My Soup said: I see, they look a lot like auto bulbs, led festoon bulb with the caps removed I did a quick google for LED festoon bulbs, all the ones I found were .5 watts, or listed as 54ma. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCbutcher Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 Very cool stuff mate. I just received that 7in light bar and its probably too big as is and very chunk it works from a 9v bright but i think it could be glowing. Idk if i dare try my 3s so will wait for small mah. Its a 1.2a dpes that mean 1200mah minimum? Ill show pics of it tomo. Its perfect for a baja 5t front bumper, instead of the pods. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fly In My Soup Posted June 11, 2018 Share Posted June 11, 2018 That could work, how about you get 2 and just use the boards, maybe mount them them in a custom made housing/s?? What are you're fabrication skills like?? Oh well at least you're not sorting this lot of LEDs... Or try a set of 1.99 Xmas lights Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 12, 2018 Author Share Posted June 12, 2018 37 minutes ago, Fly In My Soup said: That could work, how about you get 2 and just use the boards, maybe mount them them in a custom made housing/s?? What are you're fabrication skills like?? I was mostly just joking when I took that picture. Mostly... I actually like those LEDs since they are rated for 12 to 24 volts and 10 watts. The size of the board and the arraignment of the LEDs is the only draw back to them, maybe I'll come up with something but I can't see them being fitted into a bar. They may be perfect for a 1/8 scale buggy as headlights? I have not run them on 12v yet but just for the grins I will take some comparison pictures between them and my other options. I found those lights at a second hand store for 6 euro and have no problems tearing them down to experiment with. As for my fabrication skills; I have a dremel and I'm not afraid to use it! I'll be doing a custom light bar for my buggy. After doing my research and some shopping there is no way I could settle for what is sold in shops. I'll sort out a testing standard for comparison pictures, check the actual current draw and share what happens. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 12, 2018 Author Share Posted June 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Fly In My Soup said: Oh well at least you're not sorting this lot of LEDs... I'd be very tempted to rip all of that mess out of there and start over again! It's probably not all that bad, it just looks terrible in the picture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fly In My Soup Posted June 12, 2018 Share Posted June 12, 2018 7 hours ago, AmericanBullDog said: I'd be very tempted to rip all of that mess out of there and start over again! It's probably not all that bad, it just looks terrible in the picture. Its as terrible as it looks. I'm just playing " which wire goes where " game before I make a loom up and solder it all up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomzac66 Posted June 14, 2018 Share Posted June 14, 2018 (edited) I use the pro-line 6” curved on my gelande it’s so bright it hurts got to be around 800 lumins, don’t plug it into the Tx it’s very dull, give it its own 9v supply and your away. Edited June 14, 2018 by tomzac66 Added pictures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 On 14/06/2018 at 11:12, tomzac66 said: I use the pro-line 6” curved on my gelande it’s so bright it hurts got to be around 800 lumins, don’t plug it into the Tx it’s very dull, give it its own 9v supply and your away. What type of LED is that light bar using? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fly In My Soup Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Boggo superbriight LEDs, they look around 8-9000k Why not try make your own?? Maplin was once a great supplier of varied LEDs, where talking almost 15 years ago since I last bought them from there though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 12 minutes ago, Fly In My Soup said: Boggo superbriight LEDs, they look around 8-9000k Why not try make your own?? Maplin was once a great supplier of varied LEDs, where talking almost 15 years ago since I last bought them from there though! I believe I will make my own light bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomzac66 Posted June 16, 2018 Share Posted June 16, 2018 (edited) I I got them from RC mart USA ?? $50.00 all in. Shame about Maplins They had a store near me got some great bargains near the end. Edited June 16, 2018 by tomzac66 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmericanBullDog Posted June 16, 2018 Author Share Posted June 16, 2018 tomzac66, do you have a voltmeter? It would be nice to test one of the expensive name brand light bars to see what kind of amps. it pulls on the voltage you are using. Judging from the pics I've found of that light bar it looks like it is made with the DIP type of LED, can you confirm that for me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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