Hey everyone, new to the forum and minibikes in general. I've got a trip coming up this summer where I'll need to get from a OHV trailhead up a mountain and back down again, about 20 miles, and with the limitations on what my vehicle can carry (no towing, low hitch capacity with an aftermarket hitch) I've decided to use a Coleman BT200x as my ride. It's nutty, but if it fails, worst case I'm walking back to the trailhead? Anyway, we know it won't fail!
I've figured out how to carry more fuel, tools, etc and now I'm working on replacing the seemingly useless OEM headlight with something brighter.
Based on what I think I've found, I'm working with ~36 watts, and AC voltages from 9-14?
I couldn't figure out the rectifier stuff, like which one could be adapted to run lights without a battery in the circuit, but I did find these and have had good luck with stuff like this in the past on other projects:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B3T9DX4
At 12v and under 2A I don't have enough wattage to run a big LED headlight, so I got these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IY3YLCI
Each one is only 18W, and with the 2 pack of converters I figure I just run one light off each converter, total draw off the engine should be 36 watts. Seems like it would work.
I temporarily wired one converter into the headlight plug, got the output voltage set and attached one of the LEDs. At idle, they do flicker a little. At ~2100 RPM (per the tach I've added) they stabilize and at more than that the bike starts moving and my wiring falls off since everything was just laying on the ground. Fortunately no one was around to see that.
I need to come up with a way to mount the lights and protect those super fragile converters. Or, if someone has a wiring diagram using one of those 'cheap ebay rectifiers' that are more solid and can be used without a battery, I'm open to that.
Maybe an aluminum project box, remount those heat syncs right to the box and turn it into one giant heat sync then fill the thing with epoxy?
I've figured out how to carry more fuel, tools, etc and now I'm working on replacing the seemingly useless OEM headlight with something brighter.
Based on what I think I've found, I'm working with ~36 watts, and AC voltages from 9-14?
I couldn't figure out the rectifier stuff, like which one could be adapted to run lights without a battery in the circuit, but I did find these and have had good luck with stuff like this in the past on other projects:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08B3T9DX4
At 12v and under 2A I don't have enough wattage to run a big LED headlight, so I got these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IY3YLCI
Each one is only 18W, and with the 2 pack of converters I figure I just run one light off each converter, total draw off the engine should be 36 watts. Seems like it would work.
I temporarily wired one converter into the headlight plug, got the output voltage set and attached one of the LEDs. At idle, they do flicker a little. At ~2100 RPM (per the tach I've added) they stabilize and at more than that the bike starts moving and my wiring falls off since everything was just laying on the ground. Fortunately no one was around to see that.
I need to come up with a way to mount the lights and protect those super fragile converters. Or, if someone has a wiring diagram using one of those 'cheap ebay rectifiers' that are more solid and can be used without a battery, I'm open to that.
Maybe an aluminum project box, remount those heat syncs right to the box and turn it into one giant heat sync then fill the thing with epoxy?