Headlight LED the easy way

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Has anyone else gotten their e10 LED bulbs and tried them in their old lights? What do you think of them?
I just ordered a few more!

But... now I kinda' want an old oil lamp! With real fire and all... who cares if I can see with it, it'll be cool!
 
I transplanted the guts of one of those very bright, Cree LED (1200 Lumens) lamps into an old Miller shell. It require a couple small solder joints, a switch, and some epoxy work, but nothing too difficult. You wanna make that light really shine put a driver between the Cree and the battery pack longer life on the batteries too.... just saying.

http://www.bikeshedva.blogspot.com/2014/06/retro-bicycle-led-headlight-construction.html

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LEDs are efficient enough that if I had an old generator light - for nostalgic reasons - I'd put one of these bulbs in and hide a set of batteries somewhere rather than actually using the generator.
But to answer the question you asked, hook up a voltmeter and see if the generator makes somewhere near the right voltage. It probably does.
Or, these LEDs are pretty cheap, just put one in and see how it does, and tell us!
 
I tried an LED with a generator, it works but, the generator puts out alternating current. Fine with a standard bulb. The LED worked but got really hot from the reverse voltage. I didn't hold very long.
 
I tried an LED with a generator, it works but, the generator puts out alternating current. Fine with a standard bulb. The LED worked but got really hot from the reverse voltage. I didn't hold very long.

Need to add a simple bridge rectifier. It converts the current flow to DC and is a simple circuit to make--four diodes.

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Could just use one like this, in a discrete package. Simple hook-up and no construction required. (The wiggly lines are AC input--the +/- are the DC output.)

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Yep, just didn't want someone to burn out an expensive LED trying it with a gen.

Unless those LEDs have the rectifier built in.

With all the new LED technology getting better, brighter and cheaper, sky is the limit on what we can do.
 

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