Integrated helmet lights

[Raph]

I got fed up with faffing about with various helmet lights, taking them off when I lock the helmet to the bike so as not to carry it about town, so I fitted some integrated lights. If I lock it to the bike facing downwards I reckon only a close look would reveal anything, and anyone nicking stuff off it will have to wreck it as most of it is glued in place.

At first I tried a 2xAA maglight which wedged quite nicely into the middle gap but stuck out a bit too much, also it was too narrow a beam (even when spread out) to be useful for map reading, and not powerful enough to see at a distance. Then I tried various proper bike lights on helmet mounts, which were plenty powerful enough but bulky and heavy so the helmet took on a life of its own when I went over bumps, not to mention my neck was starting to notice the extra weight...

So finally I got some 3W drivers, about the size of a 1p coin, they work off a single 18650 battery that fits in the central "rut" of the helmet, I've fitted one Cree XM-L with a 10deg lens in the front, a bare Seoul Z-led in the bottom edge, and a switch either side, one for each LED.

The lower LED has no lens so has a very wide angle, for map reading etc, the top one throws a long beam, comparable to a Lumicycle LED3 on medium.

Waterproofing it all is going to be another challenge, but for the moment I'm pretty happy with it. When I've tested it all a bit I'll fit some rubber switch covers and probably splodge the lot in silicon gunk or bitumen. Both LEDs are fitted on heatsinks, though I reckon I can't drive the XM-L to its full 3amps unless I put it on a bigger heatsink (got one coming in the post...) and fit a second battery in parallel, so for now it's on an identical 3W driver (700mA I think) as the Seoul. I also have to tidy up the wiring.

The switches protrude a few mm from the helmet and are easy to use with gloves - a potential problem would be them being accidentally switched on when I'm not wearing it, especially if it's in a bag, and risk of melting if left on inadvertently when there's no airflow - I don't know yet how hot they'll get but the heatsinks are fairly minimal. I reckon I'll put a concealed safety switch on the battery holder.

The drivers have a rather over-the-top 5-stage sequence of high-med-low-flash-SOS, but it re-sets after five seconds so most of the time it'll come on at high, and if you want another setting you re-switch immediately. The only time I can see I'd want that is to leave light on for a while and therefore choose a lower brightness to save the battery.

The switches are mounted on large washers which are simply embedded in the helmet. I realize the ventilation is compromised, not sure how that'll be when the weather gets hot.

The weight is negligible, the 18650 battery is probably the heaviest bit. I haven't yet managed to wedge the battery holder in the other way round, but if I do (so I can get the battery out without taking the holder out), then I'll glue the holder into the helmet. Or fit a charging socket so the battery doesn't need removing regularly...

Costs were (very approx):
Seoul Z-led: cannibalised from an old light I upgraded but should be about £3-4
XM-L: £7-8ish
Drivers: £6 for three
Heatsinks: £2 each
Lens: £3
battery holder: £2
SPST switches: £1-2 each
Washers: only sold in 10s or 50s, might be cheaper to use 10p coins! Depends on the gaps in the helmet.

[Mike Sales]

Careful you don't invalidate the guarantee.

[Raph]

Careful you don't invalidate the guarantee.

Joking aside, I was wary of cutting into the helmet in terms of weakening it - but the worst bit is where the washers are wedged in.

[edocaster]

Outstanding! But be careful of that 18650 - landing on it would hurt it and you.

Do you plan to make it waterproof?

[Raph]

Yes I'm aware the battery is less than a centimetre from my bonce. I might see if I can fit it in one of the vents at the back.

I'm going to try to make it waterproof with rubber switch covers and everything else smudged with silicon sealant. I don't want to use casing of any sort as it could end up in my skull if I have a crash, same as your point about the battery.

[CJ]

Sorry to rain on this parade but I'm not a fan of headlights on heads. A little light is harmless enough, and useful to illuminate signposts or mend puctures in the dark. But hundreds or thousands of candle-power bearing down into the eyes of every other oncoming cyclist or pedestrian: that's plain antisocial.

[foxyrider]

Sorry to rain on this parade but I'm not a fan of headlights on heads. A little light is harmless enough, and useful to illuminate signposts or mend puctures in the dark. But hundreds or thousands of candle-power bearing down into the eyes of every other oncoming cyclist or pedestrian: that's plain antisocial.

+1 and unless you have fixed lighting on your bike its not road legal either

[AlaninWales]

Sorry to rain on this parade but I'm not a fan of headlights on heads. A little light is harmless enough, and useful to illuminate signposts or mend puctures in the dark. But hundreds or thousands of candle-power bearing down into the eyes of every other oncoming cyclist or pedestrian: that's plain antisocial.

+1 and unless you have fixed lighting on your bike its not road legal either

OTOH when you do have fixed lighting on your bike it is road legal.

Helmet lights (or headband lights) can be very useful in ensuring that the driver who was about to pull out actually notices you and stops. You need to be aware where it is trained and practice aiming it exactly where you want to, but I started with a mini-maglight (AA type) on a home-made headband and found it very useful for this reason. Poor usage practice doesn't detract from their value as a safety tool.

[Raph]

Hey guys, calm down. I never suggested this was my only light. Maybe ask a couple of questions before unleashing self-righteous flatulence. Just so you know, I have lights on the bike, I wouldn't consider riding without them - I share your dislike of helmet lights that dazzle you when the rider looks your way. This is only for short stints to see road signs, after all a single 18650 battery isn't going to last more than 1/2 hour driving an XM-L so wouldn't be much use as an only road light. You didn't pick up on that, never mind.

A little light is harmless enough, and useful to illuminate signposts or mend puctures in the dark.

That's exactly what this is, so it's "harmless enough", and not "plain antisocial" - by your own standards. Those two purposes already need a completely different light from each other, hence two different LEDs on the helmet - a narrow beam that illuminates a signpost 50yds away is useless for mending a puncture, and a map-reading light doesn't reach more than a few feet. My experience of trying to read a map or fix a puncture with a fixed bike light is that you get a tiny dazzling dot of blinding light, not an even spread.

I'm intrigued by one thing though: like I said the brighter one is like a Lumi LED3 on medium - so if I ride with that on the bike I'm dazzling as much as this helmet light would but you guys would be ok with it? Distance from the ground would be an issue if a helmet light were the only light, but that wasn't your objection.

I use a two-light system on the bike with a dip switch precisely to avoid dazzling oncoming traffic. As custodians of impeccable standards of socially responsible bike lighting, I assume you do too - I'd love to see what you use.

...which might also be of interest... it's a Supernova E3 1260 (the German regs version with a dipped cut-off beam) alternating with a Nightlightning 3xXP-G with the fancy electronics removed and a simple 1A driver fitted, and a big rubber-covered toggle switch on the bar. I got this setup together because I found more and more cyclists are dazzling me these days, and I didn't like being one of them. Means I can point the main beam almost straight horizontally ahead, or wherever, cos I flick the switch to the dipped light whenever there's oncoming traffic, just like when driving. The switch is big enough that there's no faffing trying to find the switch in the dark, any vague swipe across it dips the light.

[Raph]

PS before I get asked how long it takes to put all that on the bike and then take it off... it's all bolted to a Minoura bracket, so the lot comes of as one (.... well, the switch is separate but still very easy as it slips off the end of the extension bar - see pic!) There's just one "input" socket to the battery, so it's almost as easy as putting one light on the bike (just the switch to slip on and tighten). The angle between the two lights is set, so I just get the top of the lower beam lined up a bit below horizon and the main beam takes care of itself. Give or take the odd tweak I've been using this for a couple of years now, still love it.

As cycle lights get brighter and brighter, a dipped light becomes more and more relevant - at the moment I think I've had the vibe that it's a nerd's amusement or a childish desire to have your bike set up "just like a grown-up's car", but already I find many bike lights dazzling on the road. Helmet lights included!

[SA_SA_SA]

Isn't a 3W symmetrical LED in such a small lens going to be rather dazzling:
its more powerful than front dynamo led lamps which do need a dipped beam?

Or are you running it at tens of mA only?

[CJ]

My sincere apologies to Raph. You are evidently exceptionally responsible in your use of lighting and have lights on your head only for the purposes that I suggested they were good for (apart from shining at side-road emergent drivers, which I'll speak more of later). But this thread will be read by any cyclist who likes to mount a light on his or her helmet, and it is my observation that many of these cyclists either have not thought or do not care about dazzling others. So a little of what you call "flatulence" is perhaps justified, welcome though it may be, as a fart in a spacesuit!

Echoing SA's thoughts, just posted, I nevertheless remain sceptical that this lighting is of such moderate intensity as you suggest. According to Cree's datasheets, an XM-L typically emits 300ish lumen when suppied with 3W. 300 lumen concentrated into a 10 degree cone of light averages about 12000 candela. Even if we assume that the optical design of this assembly is so inefficient that most of the available lumens are absorbed internally, the intensity of light emitted seems likely to amount to more than a thousand candela. That's plenty enough to dazzle, especially at the close distances other cyclists and pedestrians eyes are likely to come to the head-mounted lamp of a passing cyclist.

If asked, I would suggst an upper limit of 100cd on the intensity of head-mounted lamps. It's the same as the maximum intensity permitted from a motor vehicles's front position lamp (commonly called a 'sidelight'). And since driving on sidelights only is permitted in a 30 limit, that amount of light is clearly adequate. Cyclists want more, only because other road users concentrate on the stuff that's likely to hurt them, and cyclists are mostly harmless, so can safely be ignored. So I don't think it helps for one's frontal approach to be unmistably that of a cyclist! (The rear situation is totally different, by the way.)

Raph did ask, so I will tell, that I have a reasonably large and bright headlamp mounted centrally on my bike, where at fleeting glance it may initially be confused with an approaching motorbike. And although drivers do also pull out on motorcyclists, they don't do it with the same carefree abandon as they pull out on cyclists. Anyway: I find it works. Since street-legal dynamo headlamps have gotten so much brighter (thanks to LEDs and the continuous upgrading of German cycle lighting regulations) I've not had any trouble with drivers pulling out on me. And by the way, those regulations mandate a dipped-beam style cut-off to ensure that a sensibly mounted lamp does not dazzle.

[Raph]

Whoops, sorry Chris, I didn't mean to kick off quite so badly, tit-for-tat apology!

In practice the Z-led seems about right for map-reading; the XM-L is definitely dazzling within the beam, same as a normal un-dipped bike light (of which most are), but only about as bright as the Z-led "off-axis". I wouldn't intentionally shine it directly at anyone same as you wouldn't go out with a torch and point it in oncoming drivers' faces, but with either light I suppose I might be checking my route by the side of the road - this is where the side-light brightness rule is reasonable, I suppose I should compare it to a 5W light on my car. I don't think the principle is any different to buying a screwdriver and being responsible not to poke someone in the eye with it.

I can't imagine using it to prevent a driver cutting me up out of a side road (that was someone else's suggestion), as there wouldn't be enough time to reach up and switch it on - and to be honest, braking would be my priority at that moment! Also it would be a sort of "escalation of hostilities" which I'm not really into - dazzling the driver isn't likely to make them accurately aware of where you are, dazzling by its very nature means they can't gauge your speed or distance, whether or not they bothered to beforehand!

Just had an idea - a (hinged?) cover for the lower light - like a number plate light, it could even be a reflector, so no light escaping directly forwards, and more shining downwards. Hmmm... gonna go away and work on that.

I realize this is all very heath robinson, but I'm hoping eventually Lumicycle and others will come out with well-designed and well-made lights with switchable dipped beams. I asked Lumicycle about this before embarking on the system above (the one on the bike), they said there were no plans to do a dipped beam, but as bike lights get into the several thousand lumens (already quite normal nowadays), dipped beams are going to become essential. Before the Supernova I had two B&M Cyos side by side, they work well on the 14.8V of the Lumi gear but were cumbersome having to be used as a pair. Schmidt insisted that their Edelux isn't suitable for DC use, I took their word for it (and certainly wouldn't want to buy a second one to use with 14.8V)

I am slightly mystified though at how much concern or even horror is expressed about the dazzling potential of a helmet headlight, whereas lots of people are cycling around with much brighter lights on their handlebars without dipped beams. Close-up, as CJ mentioned on another thread, it's a real pain, but when driving and dazzled from a distance I find it makes zero difference.

On which subject:

Isn't a 3W symmetrical LED in such a small lens going to be rather dazzling:
its more powerful than front dynamo led lamps which do need a dipped beam?

Or are you running it at tens of mA only?

As has been copiously mentioned by now, this is not for constant use as a headlight. Also worth mentioning the driver has 3 levels, though it always starts at max - the lowest level is probably tens of mA but it has to scroll through the other two first. 4th and 5th settings are strobes - totally useless! Must find simpler/more useful drivers...

PS when thrashing about in the woods at night, a powerful headlight is a good thing, though even then I find it has to be in addition to a fixed light on the bike, so the direction you're going is always lit!

[Raph]

Sorry, me again...

When I first got a Lumicycle HID, I found on narrow roads drivers were stopping and pulling over half a mile away and waiting, especially embarrassing if I was winching up a hill at 3mph - they'd obviously assumed something massive was approaching. OTOH if you have a feeble front light, drivers assume you're not really human and you can simply be driven over.

at fleeting glance it may initially be confused with an approaching motorbike.

Seems to me like that's probably the best compromise, as you're not dazzling anyone, but they don't assume you're part of the gravel.

[TonyR]

Sorry to rain on this parade but I'm not a fan of headlights on heads. A little light is harmless enough, and useful to illuminate signposts or mend puctures in the dark. But hundreds or thousands of candle-power bearing down into the eyes of every other oncoming cyclist or pedestrian: that's plain antisocial.

I'm not a fan for another reason. If you are wearing a helmet to cushion your head during an impact why put a big hard lump there to bypass the cushion and provide a hard sharp skull impact if you come off? It negates the whole purpose of wearing the helmet unless you are just wearing it as a convenient mount for a light.