Lighting Ideas

[l008com]

One of these days, I'm going to put an AC DC rectifier on my kart and wire up a bright LED headlight and LED tail light.

Then I had an idea of putting a headlight on the back too, so I could potentially be on a trail at night and light up behind the cart of I'm doing some quick trail work or something like that. I know it doesn't sound all that useful but manouvering a kart like this that doesn't like tight turns or reverse can be a hassle. But if I had *an adjustable* ~18watt white LED attached to the back that I could move around, move to one side or the other, I think that could be really useful.

Any ideas what I could use for that kind of adjustable light?
The plan is to use a light very similar to this for the regular fixed headlight: https://amzn.to/4a91m2S

But for a rear mounted adjustable, that style won't work at all. I need something that can sweep at least 180°, ideally also with a hight adjustment, but MOST important of all, something that can handle being bounced around like crazy when I'm driving normally not using the light, just bouncing around.

 

[ezcome-ezgo]

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[Master Hack]

Wrecking yard? l think Tucker cars had a center headlight that steered.
just a suggestion.

 

[Denny]

Yea, but no Tuckers are in junk yards. All 51 that they built are all restored and in museums or still on the road (car show trailer queens). But a Unity spotlight with led bulb from a cop car may be doable!

 

[Master Hack]

There ya are, all serious n stuff! ya forget where ya are?

 

[Rat]

One of these days, I'm going to put an AC DC rectifier on my kart and wire up a bright LED headlight and LED tail light.

Easily done, but you'll need to beef up the output of most engines to support more than 40w and still be able to charge, even with LeD

Then I had an idea of putting a headlight on the back too, so I could potentially be on a trail at night and light up behind the cart of I'm doing some quick trail work or something like that. I know it doesn't sound all that useful but manouvering a kart like this that doesn't like tight turns or reverse can be a hassle. But if I had *an adjustable* ~18watt white LED attached to the back that I could move around, move to one side or the other, I think that could be really useful.

Headlight on rear No, a spot/flood on each rear corners sure.

Any ideas what I could use for that kind of adjustable light?
The plan is to use a light very similar to this for the regular fixed headlight: https://amzn.to/4a91m2S

Adjustable tension Ball joint mount similar to what many older motorcycles use

But for a rear mounted adjustable, that style won't work at all. I need something that can sweep at least 180°, ideally also with a hight adjustment, but MOST important of all, something that can handle being bounced around like crazy when I'm driving normally not using the light, just bouncing around.

You mostly just need a fixture that has elevational adjustability with a single center bolt mount interface placed on a location with enough clearance that you can manually adjust the X/Y axis as needed. Doing one on each corner would help eliminate dark spots.

 

[l008com]

I'm perfectly content with ~20watt lights and simply not using them all at the same time. If I need to light up a zone behind me, that means i won't at that moment need to look ahead. And a brake light will only be about 1 watt so that doesn't even count.

 

[Rat]

I'm perfectly content with ~20watt lights and simply not using them all at the same time. If I need to light up a zone behind me, that means i won't at that moment need to look ahead. And a brake light will only be about 1 watt so that doesn't even count.

I think you're underestimating the wattage. The average brake light is 10-15w per bulb and even an LED is going to come in around 2-5w per.

Decent flood/spotlights don't exsist below 35w per fixture, and ALL THE GOOD ONES are going to be 55w+ per fixture.

I've been down this road already...more than once.

If by any chance you want to have a 12v set up that you almost can't throw too much current draw at (within the boundaries or reasonable accessories) then that is a puzzle I've already solved, and haven't quite found a way to perfect just yet.

I came up with a work around to push some gnarly voltage and amperage out of the common cheap "Charging coils".
I cannot be content with common or certain restrictions.
As the saying goes "Where there's will, there's a way"
At one point I was pushing 120vAC at idle and burnt a couple VRR's before I toned it down and rewound multiple times before finding a VRR that could handle the output current range I wanted.

 

[l008com]

Hmm fair point, I just double checked teh specs and the brake like (technically tail light) i'm thinking of using is 4.8 watts. Now I don't recall if my kart has 20w output or 40w output. It was an incandescent light bulb so I think maybe it has a 40w capacity. The 18w off road lights, I've put those on other machines before and they are definitely bright enough so i'm not too worried about that.

Ok it looks like my motor (EX17) had three different power options: 15W, 40W and 200W. How can I know which one I have without taking the whole motor apart? I feel like I've posted a thread about this a few years ago and decided I would just assume its the 40W but knowing for sure would be nice too. I can't imagine they'd use a 15W coil to power an incandescent headlight.

 

[Rat]

Ok it looks like my motor (EX17) had three different power options: 15W, 40W and 200W. How can I know which one I have without taking the whole motor apart? I feel like I've posted a thread about this a few years ago and decided I would just assume its the 40W but knowing for sure would be nice too. I can't imagine they'd use a 15W coil to power an incandescent headlight.

EX17 is an engine reference Im unfamiliar with.

You don't need to pull the entire engine apart, just get the flywheel off to check the magnet array and winding configuration.

You could also check the voltage on the stator output and math from there... best done on jackstands with idle set to hold the rpm at half the maximum capability since that is often where the peak stator power is.

15w will most likely be a single wrapped bar (like GX200/Predator 212 charging/lighting coils)

40w is most likely to be configured more like a GY6 stator with 6 or 8 poles (possibly 12 or 16 poles with half of them skipped/empty)

200w which I've never heard of is most likely going to be the only one a 3 phase set up, and it's going to have a lot of poles and magnets.