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I have a vintage front headlight that came with a 2.5v 1 watt with an E10 base and I want to kick up the brightness using an LED bulb. It uses 2 D batteries for power. Can I click up the voltage and watts on this light? Any recommendations?


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You could get a straight replacement 3V E10 LED, which would run more efficiently and probably brighter than what you have as they seem to come in a very similar form factor as the incandescent it was designed for (you want it to light up in a way that's as close to the incandescent as possible to work with the reflector and lens properly—for example, you wouldn't want a bulb with a single LED projecting straight out the top in a narrow cone where the original shined in a 180* spread from its base). If you want to keep the headlight as original as possible, that's your best route and you probably won't find too powerful a light in E10 size anyway. You could probably get one that would run at 9V. Not sure how heavy gauge and number of strands the wires are in the headlight, but I think you'd probably be OK as there's not a lot of power and I would guess that they're at least 24 ga., which should be fine for the small kind of bulb you'd find in E10 (however, I am not an electrician nor do I know the particulars of your light!). What I don't like about disposable 9V batteries is that they have a short life span. You can connect two or three in parallel to get some decent life or get a rechargeable 9V pack (or 6V, or whatever if you go with that). If you're willing to butcher the guts of the headlight, you can do whatever you want. I always go with 12V because it opens up pretty much any automotive or motorcycle LED light, which are cheaper, brighter, and more varied than specific bike lighting (they don't have to be LED, but running a high power halogen requires a large battery that can take a big current draw and is kind of overkill for a bicycle). However, you already have the light housing you want, you just need the bulb.
 
Yeah there are basically two types of lights I am looking at. One is a torch light with one led in the center of a concave bases that is advertised as a 180 degree light coverage. The other is a tower like light with led lights on the sides. It runs on D batteries. Which light would you recommend?


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I don't know. Do you mean convex for the first bulb? I'm having trouble visualizing it having a 180* spread unless the base is a reflector. If they both look like they'd approximate the light output shape of the original bulb, it depends on which is higher wattage and what you want—greater light output or longer life. I don't think either way that you're going to get enough light output to see really well by, so maybe the lower wattage rated bulb for longer life? Either way, I'm sure either one would last a while on D-cells as I just don't see an E10 being big enough to eat a lot of power.
 
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The second looks more like the incandescent bulb's form, but I think the first one would function similarly with that LED array. I don't think it's really going to matter too much.
 
The second looks more like the incandescent bulb's form, but I think the first one would function similarly with that LED array. I don't think it's really going to matter too much.

Do you think they would crank out brighter light than original bulb? Lamp is mostly for decorative purposes but I would like some more light.


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The other popular and effective solution for that is to use so called "Power Leds" and step-down module, for example LM2596S to power them. Together they make power efficient, very bright (you can adjust the brightness by changing the current on the module) and cheap scheme for your lamp. There are a lot of videos online about them. The other plus of that way of powering your leds is that you can use almost any kind of current input, many different combinations of batteries/accumulators/dynamo are possible.
 
I needed a new light for the tank on my Monark. Rather than spend a lot of time and money on original parts I decided to make my own. I used two LED flashlights. Made a bracket to hold them to the tank and wired both to work off the original switch in the tank. The new shroud is aluminum diamond plate from Home Depot and some scrap perforated metal from an old desk organizer. Smooth aluminum would work as well, but I thought the DP had more of a rat rod vibe.
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I needed a new light for the tank on my Monark. Rather than spend a lot of time and money on original parts I decided to make my own. I used two LED flashlights. Made a bracket to hold them to the tank and wired both to work off the original switch in the tank. The new shroud is aluminum diamond plate from Home Depot and some scrap perforated metal from an old desk organizer. Smooth aluminum would work as well, but I thought the DP had more of a rat rod vibe.
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That's some "handy" work
 

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