[chris-crisis]

Battery on my 6V Halogen Marwi Nightpro Elite Pro is nearly dead. Instead of buying new 6V battery I was thinking of buying 12V and new globes as I want spot instead of flood anyway.

I was also thinking of overvolting so either buy 7.2V Mimh for 6V globes or go 13.2V for the 12V globes.
I was wondering if 12V has any advantages?

I expect run time to be longer for the same Ah battery as the Watt/s per hour is Volts by Ah. Would the light runner cooler due to less current or hotter due to more voltage? Would the wiring need to be changed or wouldn't it matter?

Thanks
Chris

 

[Low_Rider]

Ah a fellow Aussie, welcome to MTBR!

Any option you have mentioned would be fine.

I would be tempted to go for the 12 volt globes and over volt them if you wish. You will sacrifice bulb life a bit, but you’ll get a little more light and likely a slightly whiter tint.

Providing you run the same wattage bulb, then you will notice no difference in temperature. If I remember correctly your light has a metal housing anyway. Similarly you won’t need to touch your wiring either, although it’s worth putting an appropriate fuse as close to your battery pack as possible if you don’t already have one.

Assuming the bulb wattage is a constant then yes, you will get double the run time for a given 12 volt pack that has the same amp hour rating as a 6 volt pack. Remember that when over volting you will also draw a little more current so your run time will be slightly lower.

Let us know how you get on! :thumbsup:

Dave.

 

[hugh088]

I went to 13.2 v on a 12 volt 20watt bulb in my old nightrider. Used same wire and switch. Works fine
Also
Chris

 

[mb323323]

Overvolted an old 15w Niterider by 20%. The light is soooooooo much better. The bulb is the same bulb. I'm sure it will burn out but hasn't yet and I use it once a week for approx 2 hrs. Had it for 2+ yrs.

If that is a dual light, definitely go 13.2v w/ 12v bulbs. The battery will be a bit heavier but you will have longer run times. Oh yeah, don't buy the cheap bulbs from Home Depot, etc. They're worthless. The manufacturer's bulbs are more money but in Niteriders or Planets case, the difference is huge.

MB

 

[Homebrew]

If you don't mind carrying the extra weight, the a 20W bulb with 13.2V or 14.4V battery will be easily two to three times brighter than even an efficient 15W. I would suggest a medium flood (~17 degree) bulb from Jet or NR. The lower current is safer and has less copper loss with smaller gauge wiring. Full instructions for building a 13.2V NiMH battery including details on cells, cabling and fuses are here:

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=52685

 

[chris-crisis]

Thanks everyone. Seems like 13.2V battery and 12V Halogens are the way to go. At least Halogen bulbs are cheaper than HID's etc to replace ir necessary.

I ordered Bulbs and the required batteries from batteryspace at $3.00US a bulb I ordered one each of 10, 15 and 20watt so I can experiment and see what I like. Seeing the postage is almost the same as the price of the goods I don't really want to reorder just oen bulb.

 

[mb323323]

Hope it works out for you however, those are cheap bulbs and I was not happy w/ the ones I ordered from BSpace. I ended up ordering from Niterider and the light was much better. The bulb was about 15 bucks and it seems to me that the bulb is really important. Maybe someone else has had better luck w/ inexpensive bulbs.

MB

 

[chris-crisis]

Thanks, Hopefully it works out ok, if not at least the bulbs were not a lot of money. I just checked out the niterider web site. Funny thing is they don't mention the bulb size, I expect they are 11's and not 16's but it would be nic if thy mentioned it. I expect they don't expect people to try put their bulbs in another brand of light.

 

[chris-crisis]

The battery and bulbs turned up yesterday. I charged the battery last night and then mucked around fitting the helmet mount tonight and went for a shortish ride (20 minutes) along some single track just behind my house.

I bought a 13.2V battery and 12V 10W flood, 10W spot, 15W spot and 20W spot. I fitted the two 10W bulbs and it is certainly heaps brighter than the 15W and 20W 6V setup it was before. I expect I could fit the 15W or 20W to get even brighter light seeing the battery seems to have no hassles running the two 10W bulbs. Only reason I ordered one of each wattage is that I had read on some places in forums about lights getting dimmer with more wattage than the battery can handle and at $3.00 a bulb but postage costing heaps I didn't want to do another order just for a bulb.

Anyway I haven't riden on dirt much at night and never used a helmet light before but this new setup seems to work fine and while i was goign a fair bit slower than during the day time I could see well enough to feel reasonably safe. It was really strange having a helmet mount, I am used to turning my handlebars to see around corners and kept doing that instead of turning my head.

Thanks for those who replied with idea's as now I have a setup I think will work reasonably well.

 

[tekkamaki]

I Just bought a couple of 14.4 - 3600 mah battery from all-batteries.com to build a couple of lights. $36 eachfor the batteries and $25 for the smart charger

Im almost done with a helmet mount for a 20w mr16 spot and still trying to decide on the wattage of my flood handlebar light. I would like to find a good 15w bulb, but Im told the GE ones are the best and cannont find them under 20w's from them.

How much run time should I get from a 20w mr16 (12v bulb running at 14.4v) with this battery?

also what is a good quality 10-15w flood mr16 or mr11 for this application?