Dominic Winsor Posted November 30, 2020 Share Posted November 30, 2020 I've been playing with alternative lights for the Sherman, because the stock ones are too tightly focussed as a spot, and the blue lights are not suitable for where I live. I have got everything working, but in my latest tweak I managed to briefly short ground and +12v for the main light, and now the lights are permanently on. The button will not toggle the main light. Interestingly the button will toggle the blue light (the other channel. Any ideas? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Dominic Winsor Posted November 30, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 30, 2020 (edited) These lights are excellent! I am super happy with the overall look, and beam. One flood light and one spot, on a basic bracket I made by bending some flat steel bar in a vice with a hammer, and drilling some holes in the right place. Just a shame that I managed to cause the damage above by doing something really stupid. Lesson learned. Bill of materials with links to what I bought https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001299621040.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.4e154c4dH1fU16 — 1x round spot, and 1x round flood. (£6.38 each, x2) Two right-angled 3.5mm TRS jack plugs, one for each light. (£3.96 + delivery) Wiring things up: The front 3.5mm TRS jack connector on the Sherman is wired: Tip=Main beam; Ring=Strobe light; Sleeve=Ground. I assumed both the Tip and Ring were +12v and equally powered. I'm not sure now (I'll actually go measure this to confirm) as my initial configuration had the flood beam wired to the Ring (strobe) and the spot wired to the Tip (main). In this setup, the flood was rather dim. Today I modified the configuration by wiring the two lights in parallel to the main beam. Because I like to swap and change things, I also made a custom 3.5mm TRS jack plug to XT60 socket (these I already had in stock). I then wired the spot and flood lights together in parallel on the XT60 plug so I can more easily swap lights out (I have a lot of XT60 connectors). I've attached a pic of the bracket I made. One piece of flat bar with three holes, another piece bent unto a U shape, also with three holes. Bolted together nice and tight with some M5 hardware. I realised I could mount three lights this way too, but it looked stupid and bulky. Edited November 30, 2020 by Dominic Winsor typo 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roghaj Posted December 1, 2020 Share Posted December 1, 2020 Does overdrawing the 12V on the board present any risk to cutout? If the 12V system is JUST for lights, it seems like we can tax the hell out of it without problems. Hey Dominic Winsor, did the light get dimmer when an 3 were on? Roger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Winsor Posted December 1, 2020 Author Share Posted December 1, 2020 7 hours ago, roghaj said: Does overdrawing the 12V on the board present any risk to cutout? If the 12V system is JUST for lights, it seems like we can tax the hell out of it without problems. Hey Dominic Winsor, did the light get dimmer when an 3 were on? Roger The lights were constant brightness when all three were powered. They are 10W each. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Winsor Posted January 8, 2021 Author Share Posted January 8, 2021 Just a quick update — these are going strong. Perfect for me. I am running just the two lights. Three was weird, and didn't really help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Winsor Posted February 8, 2021 Author Share Posted February 8, 2021 Still working great. A few more people have asked me about these, and having re-read what I wrote I want to clarify: Although I bought two of each light, of course you only need one. They are plenty bright enough and don’t seem to get hot so I expect them to last. They are also aluminium construction and nice and solid. I’ve had a bit of a fall (in the trails where the ground isn’t so tough!) and they stayed in place. You only need the bigger bracket. The smaller one was just so I could try to mount three lights. I have tried other lights too. I tried the other shape a few others mentioned. Didn’t like the beam shape, and not bright enough. I have some 12V COB strips for side illumination and visibility to others but haven’t done anything with them yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcoxnyc Posted March 6, 2021 Share Posted March 6, 2021 This is all really impressive! Always nice to see what the community creative minds are like! I've wired some cob strips directly to the 12v accessory port with a switch to work independently from the headlight. However, I've come across a minor issue. I don't know how much amps it can handle (though I don't have much..) but I'm getting after some time it would flicker on and off about 1 second intervals. I though maybe I was reaching the limit but it happens randomly. Then I see your crazy headlight setup and I go back to the drawing board! Would love to see what you guys think. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Winsor Posted March 8, 2021 Author Share Posted March 8, 2021 On 3/6/2021 at 3:54 PM, marcoxnyc said: Would love to see what you guys think. Awesome — share what you come up with! Would love to see. On my setup (with the two round lights) my custom made bracket eventually worked its way a bit loose. I have temporarily put the original light back on the Sherman for a while. It confirms that the stock light is too narrow for my liking for riding in the woods. I want to make a better mount for my lights which holds them further back. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcoxnyc Posted March 8, 2021 Share Posted March 8, 2021 5 hours ago, Dominic Winsor said: Awesome — share what you come up with! Would love to see. On my setup (with the two round lights) my custom made bracket eventually worked its way a bit loose. I have temporarily put the original light back on the Sherman for a while. It confirms that the stock light is too narrow for my liking for riding in the woods. I want to make a better mount for my lights which holds them further back. Of course! Spoiler Your headlamp setup sounds like it's draws more power then my strips of LED. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Winsor Posted March 10, 2021 Author Share Posted March 10, 2021 On 3/8/2021 at 7:07 PM, marcoxnyc said: Of course! Your headlamp setup sounds like it's draws more power then my strips of LED. Oh man. I love this custom look. How did you do it? Break down the panels and crash bar — paint individually? What paint? Or is it a vinyl wrap? My headlamp replaces the main headlamp — I will post an update in a second as a separate reply as I think it warrants its own update. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Winsor Posted March 10, 2021 Author Share Posted March 10, 2021 Custom lights update: I never really liked the lights that came with the Sherman. They are compact but they put out a very narrow bright spot, which is great for seeing the far distance but rubbish if you are tall and have to avoid low branches in the forest. I’ve experimented with my own choice of lights from AliExpress and home made brackets, but I realised I could just diffuse one of the two beams from the OEM light. I cut up some film canister, hot glued some between the reflector and outer cover, and then added a second curved piece with Velcro outside. This seems to work well in the shed. I’ll try it out later once it is dark, and if it works I’ll tidy up the make. Photos are shared here, so as not to clutter up the thread: https://www.instagram.com/p/CMPGPlMBMZ4/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcoxnyc Posted March 12, 2021 Share Posted March 12, 2021 On 3/10/2021 at 10:58 AM, Dominic Winsor said: Oh man. I love this custom look. How did you do it? Break down the panels and crash bar — paint individually? What paint? Or is it a vinyl wrap? My headlamp replaces the main headlamp — I will post an update in a second as a separate reply as I think it warrants its own update. Thank you! I took it apart, and painted each individually. I used spray paint specifically Dupli-Color just because they had the best color choices to recreate the Iron man look! I'm still looking for answer as to why what could cause my lights to blink! I'm stumped! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Winsor Posted March 15, 2021 Author Share Posted March 15, 2021 On 3/12/2021 at 4:41 PM, marcoxnyc said: I'm still looking for answer as to why what could cause my lights to blink! I'm stumped! Have you ruled out mechanical/vibration causing the intermittent fault? Leave the Sherman on, lights on, powered on and stationary for a while? The jack connector on mine is a bit loose but it still has a reasonable connection. Perhaps it could be that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowheel Posted December 21, 2021 Share Posted December 21, 2021 (edited) Hi! Recently my main lamp stopped to work. I can turn on blinking lights but main light I cant. So I opened the headlights and iam trying to figure it out. I see there was water inside but i cant find a component that's faulty. I have 12 v and 6 v on the board. I would like to repair that myself. Any suggestions or clues what component could be faulty? I would like to post some pictures but I cant findout how oh yes... before lights stopped to work few days I could turn on but after about one hour it would turn off and not working untill next morning when it happened again. One hour approximately and then off. That lasted 2 days and after that I couldn't turn on atall thanks! Edited December 21, 2021 by Crowheel Add some info Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic Winsor Posted December 24, 2021 Author Share Posted December 24, 2021 On 12/21/2021 at 12:11 PM, Crowheel said: Hi! Recently my main lamp stopped to work. I can turn on blinking lights but main light I cant. So I opened the headlights and iam trying to figure it out. I see there was water inside but i cant find a component that's faulty. I have 12 v and 6 v on the board. I would like to repair that myself. Any suggestions or clues what component could be faulty? I would like to post some pictures but I cant findout how oh yes... before lights stopped to work few days I could turn on but after about one hour it would turn off and not working untill next morning when it happened again. One hour approximately and then off. That lasted 2 days and after that I couldn't turn on atall thanks! If you have the voltage then it may be the switch that is faulty. Have you checked the voltage at the light? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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