[JRHAWK9]

I got everything mounted and wired up last night. Man, those little 10W CREE LED's are BRIGHT!! Makes my stock headlight seem like a dimly lit candle in comparison.

I now have another reason why I kept the stock headlight provision. When I go to blow out our neighbors driveway I have to walk the blower an 1/8th mile down a narrow, rural, unlit road. When I do this at night I'm going to have to use the stock headlight, as my CREE's are just too bright for oncoming cars and may blind them.

I will try to take some photos and post them here.

BTW, I have my AC input lead (to the rectifier) fused at only 2amps and it seems to be holding up just fine. The rectifier DC output voltage is right around 16.5V at WOT (~3,750rpms)

Below are what parts I'm using:

- 1000 Volt Bridge Rectifier 50 Amp 50 A Metal Case 1000V 50A Diode Bridge | eBay

- 2pc 10W LED CREE Spot Head Light Off Road Beam for Car Jeep Veicle ATV UTV SUV | eBay

- 3 x Mini Fuse Holder with 16 Gauge Inline Wire Weather Proof Design | eBay

- Heavy Duty SPDT Toggle Switch 20 Amps 125VAC on Off On | eBay



I also picked up another pair of flood lights. I currently like the way my 30° spots work but may swap one to a flood to see which one I like better.

- 2X10W CREE LED Flood Work Light LED Offroad Car Boat Vehicle Jeep Truck Bike ATV | eBay

 

[JRHAWK9]

I'm running one fuse (2 amp) on my AC line from the stator to the rectifier and I also have each LED fused. I have 2 amp fuses there too, solely because they didn't have 1 amp ones.

I have things wired up to add a second pair to be switched as "high beams".....lol I will have LED flood lights as my normal and then a pair of LED 30° spots as my "high beams". When I have all four LED's on I will not be using my hand warmers, which I hardly ever use anyway.

Below is a video I just took demonstrating the two LED 30° spots installed and comparing them to the stock headlight.

.

 

[JRHAWK9]

So, I have my two sets of LED's wired up so one set is on with one switch and the other set is turned on separately with another switch. That part works great. What I find strange is when I meter the voltage on the AC line coming out of the stator it seems to INCREASE voltage when I turn the LED's on?! lol IE, it reads 15.5V or so with NO load. Turn on the stock light and it will drop to 14.xV....then turn on the handwarmers while leaving the stock light on and it will drop to 13.xV.

Now, if I turn on the first set of LED's it goes up to like 16.xV, add the second pair and it goes up to 17.xV. If I leave all four on and then turn on the handwarmers it will drop to 14-15V IIRC. I was measuring the voltage drop because I wanted to compare it to the stock stuff. I was surprised to see what I saw.

Can any of you electrical gurus explain what I seeing?

 

[JRHAWK9]

OK I get it, but to the right of the + sign is the AC symbol (Wavy line). Is this the AC+ or AC- ?

AC is just that, Alternating Current......there is no (+) or (-) relatively speaking because it alternates as a sine wive.

You can connect your AC line to any of those two, the other either goes to ground or connects to the other AC line.

 

[JRHAWK9]

What happens to the DC- terminal? This is where the black light wire goes, but where does it get its ground from?

Just look at superedge88's photo above. The DC (+) and DC (-) are kiddy corner from each other, as are the two AC leads.

 

[JRHAWK9]

It is weather proof....the diodes are completely protected from the elements inside the aluminum housing.

 

[JRHAWK9]

The light on the other hand was the cheapest I found in that size and it was expensive by my books: $100.

Did you look online?? You can pick up some super intense CREE LED's for a LOT less than that.

 

[JRHAWK9]

hate to say it, but I'm going to take a guess here and say it won't put out the lumens you are hoping for.

 

[JRHAWK9]

The LED's will be much whiter (which will appear to be brighter) but they may not put out the lumens.

yeah, I'm currently running 2 - 10W CREE LED's. I have everything setup though so I can add two more at a later date if I want.

 

[JRHAWK9]

No one has a Cree product number for these 10w Leds?

It's not as easy as that. The CREE LED is nothing but the little LED (Google photo search CREE LED once). Manufacturers then use that LED to put inside their light housings. All of them I've been able to find have been made in China and either shipped directly from China or from some place in CA. So finding one locally is going to be tough.

 

[JRHAWK9]

or here:

2X 10W CREE LED Flood Work Light LED Off Road Car Boat Vehicle Jeep Truck Bike | eBay

There are a buttload of these Chinese LED CREE lights all over the web, but he said he didn't want to do online ordering.

 

[JRHAWK9]

So, I have my two sets of LED's wired up so one set is on with one switch and the other set is turned on separately with another switch. That part works great. What I find strange is when I meter the voltage on the AC line coming out of the stator it seems to INCREASE voltage when I turn the LED's on?! lol IE, it reads 15.5V or so with NO load. Turn on the stock light and it will drop to 14.xV....then turn on the handwarmers while leaving the stock light on and it will drop to 13.xV.

Now, if I turn on the first set of LED's it goes up to like 16.xV, add the second pair and it goes up to 17.xV. If I leave all four on and then turn on the handwarmers it will drop to 14-15V IIRC. I was measuring the voltage drop because I wanted to compare it to the stock stuff. I was surprised to see what I saw.

Can any of you electrical gurus explain what I seeing?

Just thought I'd update this. I fixed this goofy anomaly by simply adding a 2200mfd, 50V smoothing capacitor on the DC side. It now meters out on both the AC and DC sides as one would expect it would. It also really helped clean up the DC voltage as well, at least according to the response time of my MM.

I originally added it because I'm having issues trying to get 4 of these CREE LED's to work at once. The two I originally bought have been working GREAT, but all the ones I purchased after those two have lived very short lives. I even purchased two of the identical ones to my originals and those didn't last long either. I even tried running some with no other lights attached and they lasted a split second while my originals keep on working in the identical setup. I'm thinking some of them must be very susceptible to "dirty" voltage or they are just lacking consistent quality....or a combination of both. For example, I purchased an additional 4 of the identical LED's. All but ONE of them quit working within a few seconds. That fourth one still works, but I'm sending them all back as I don't trust them. So after buying and returning a total of 8 additional (where two of the eight did stay working but returned them anyway) I decided to try adding a smoothing capacitor to see if that helps. I haven't received those yet so I don't know if the cleaner voltage is what they need.

I ran a 2200mfd one based upon what I've read. You can't do any harm by running too large of one, so I've read, so I decided to run the biggest 50V one Radio Shack had in stock. I did buy a 4700mfd 35V one which I also may try. I have it wired up so I can easily swap out capacitors.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Just thought I'd update this. I fixed this goofy anomaly by simply adding a 2200mfd, 50V smoothing capacitor on the DC side. It now meters out on both the AC and DC sides as one would expect it would. It also really helped clean up the DC voltage as well, at least according to the response time of my MM.

I originally added it because I'm having issues trying to get 4 of these CREE LED's to work at once. The two I originally bought have been working GREAT, but all the ones I purchased after those two have lived very short lives. I even purchased two of the identical ones to my originals and those didn't last long either. I even tried running some with no other lights attached and they lasted a split second while my originals keep on working in the identical setup. I'm thinking some of them must be very susceptible to "dirty" voltage or they are just lacking consistent quality....or a combination of both. For example, I purchased an additional 4 of the identical LED's. All but ONE of them quit working within a few seconds. That fourth one still works, but I'm sending them all back as I don't trust them. So after buying and returning a total of 8 additional (where two of the eight did stay working but returned them anyway) I decided to try adding a smoothing capacitor to see if that helps. I haven't received those yet so I don't know if the cleaner voltage is what they need.

I ran a 2200mfd one based upon what I've read. You can't do any harm by running too large of one, so I've read, so I decided to run the biggest 50V one Radio Shack had in stock. I did buy a 4700mfd 35V one which I also may try. I have it wired up so I can easily swap out capacitors.

Have all four up and running, two floods and two spots. The trick for me was to use a smoothing capacitor. The style of CREE LED's I'm using seem to very susceptible to "dirty" voltage". Just have to wait until dark to get them aimed. I also have ALL FOUR fused on the AC side with a single 2A fuse. Started with a 4 amp and thought I'd try a 2A for the heck of it thinking it would immediately blow, but it didn't. So I'm leaving in there to see how it does.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Can you post a link to the lights you have? Let's get another video!
I just sold the Toro that i had put the LED lights on. So I'll be upgrading the lighting on the Honda in a month or so when I have more time. My wife thinks I'm crazy, I'm sure the neighbors do to.

yeah, I'm sure if my neighbors were close enough to see me they would think I'm more nutso than they already do....lol

Below are the lights I have:
-FLOOD-
-SPOT-

I plan on doing another video soon, we have to go out to eat tonight, so maybe tomorrow night. I'm actually curious myself, as I've never seen four of them lit up for any amount of time.

I also just wired up another 2200mfd/50V capacitor in parallel to the first 2200mfd/50V one. So I basically have a 4400mfd/50V capacitor. I mainly did it this way so I have a backup capacitor in case one pukes out. I already know these lights do not like the dirty voltage so I didn't want to take a chance of one capacitor crapping out and rendering my LED's useless.

 

[JRHAWK9]

OK, here's a video I shot earlier -before- it was dark out. The mounts are made out of aluminum tubing and are mounted to the blower using -SORBOTHANE ISOLATION BUSHINGS- to help reduce the vibrations the LED's see. This is why the mounts look to be sagging a bit, as they are soft rubber mounted.

I will get another video hopefully soon showing them at night.

 

[JRHAWK9]

JR, did you put the capacitor inline with the dc+ wire going to the lights?

nope, you put them between the (+) and (-) on the DC side. Capacitors have polarity, so make sure the arrows on the capacitor are pointing to the (-) side.

Check out the link below for a wire diagram:
http://www.snowblowerforum.com/forum/54250-post59.html

 

[JRHAWK9]

OK, I finally got around to making a video at night. This is comparing the stock headlight to the FOUR CREE LED's. Like I mentioned above, two of them are floods and two of them are spots. The floods are on the outside and are aimed more down in front while the spots are on the inside and are aimed a bit further out in front. I have the AC supply side to the bridge rectifier fused at -only- 2amps and have not blown a fuse yet. I do have the two lefts and two rights fused at 2amps a piece on the DC side as well just in case. I am using 2 - 2200mfd/50V capacitors to smooth out the DC voltage, as if I don't chances are at least one of the LED's will go out as they seem rather susceptible to dirty voltage.

 

[JRHAWK9]

I just wired them up in parallel (the two (-'s) and (+'s) together).

No, I didn't even need the second one with four, but I wanted two so I had a backup just in case one of them went bad.

 

[JRHAWK9]

thanks guys! Now time will tell to see how long these LED's last.

 

[JRHAWK9]

That looks great! I bet it even looks brighter in person!

Yeah, it's probably a bit brighter in person. It will also be brighter once we get fresh snow and have an all white background. Co-workers are teasing me that I will be the only guy they know of having to wear sunglasses at night while out snow-blowing.