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MR 16 LED Bulb for DIY Light

4K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  sean newell 
#1 ·
#3 ·
Can we trust their advertised lumen output. It's 3 1w LED's. I bought a small 10 dollar LED flashlight to attach to my helmet thinking I'd get off cheap. No way that thing is 3w. Probably closer to 1 or a half however, all I needed was to look around the corner on single track as I have lots of light on the bars. It just barely does that. Better than nothing.

MB
 
#4 ·
Probably quite close to the rated output with those. The problem is that the beam angle is pretty rubbish for use on a bike (the first one doesn't quote it, but it will undoubtedly be a wide flood for the intended application). Also bear in mind that you need to have good heat transfer from these if you are putting them in an enclosure.
 
#6 ·
super-fast said:
When I would want to use an MR16 Led I would choose this one:
Ebay

With that bulb you are sure you have something that is usefull on a bike and I have good experiences with the seller. He sells only quality stuff and the shippingcosts are really low.
If I went with a bulb similar to this one and have a 12 volt battery pack, do I need to worry about overvolting the LED?
 
#7 ·
A few things about LEDs:

1. Not all are created equal even when they have a wattage rating that is similar.
2. 3-watts is not 3-times brighter than 1-watt. It's only a little brighter LED to LED.
3. Reflection and focus of the light makes it more usable than pure output.

Power output is power output. Doesn't matter whether it is light, electricity or air. To effectively gain an output advantage you need roughly 10 times more power to make it really noticable. So 1watt -> 10 watts will be much brighter. 3 watts isn't going to be 3 times brighter. You are just burning more energy for less than a 15% gain. That's if you are comparing two exactly same LEDs.

LED ratings right now are really loose. Output maybe be 3 watts, but the birghtness may be different. Pure white, original white, blue, red, green all can be 3 watts, but pure white will have the most lumens. Look for a lumen rating on all LEDs. That will give you an idea of usable brightness.

Now, if you mount an LED flush on a surface, the light scatters everywhere. You need to really focus LEDs. Normal bulbs in flashlights can use shallow reflectors to focus the light. LEDs are not the same. If you look at really good LED flashlights, you will see that their LED is set very far back with a long, narrow reflector. Focusing that light power makes a huge difference for everyday use and especially on a bike, flashlight or car headlight.
 
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