Improved Headlight ​💡 for Electric Scooter 🛴

Hello, everyone.

Summertime, with its warm nights, is closer and closer. It means that many of you, who live in the cities will start riding on their electric scooters. On the electric scooter, you can easily avoid traffic jams and quickly get to the destination point for a reasonable distance. Many modern scooters are powerful and fast, some of them are foldable and compact. From all of that availability, not many of them have a good headlight. As for me, I like e-twow booster (InLA they sold by , but it also has an issue with the stock headlight. When you driving an electric scooter on the 8-inch wheels with 25 mph speed, it's very important to spot the danger on the road in time. Here is where good light is critical. Safety first, so I decided to create an external accessory, that could be easily manufactured with a 3D printer and installed on the e-twow scooter.

This headlight upgrade doesn't require any modifications in the scooter's wiring, so there is no worry about a warranty or any other stuff. The battery could be charged by using the micro USB port, soldered on the battery charger. Battery charger, used in this project has protection from the deep discharge, so there is no worry that the battery will be damaged. I've used toggle switched, so light could be turned on/off on the go by the leg.

A list of components that we'll need are listed below and illustrated in the photo.

Interested??? … so let's begin.

* 2 x Cree 3W LED with star-shaped base, e.g. like this

* 2 x 16mm 3W LED drivers

* 2 x Protected lithium battery chargers, available on Amazon

* 2 x MTS-102 toggle switches

* 2 x PL-75 like spring probes, I've used these

* 2 x 18650 battery cells

* 8 x M2*20 screws

* 4 x M2*6 screws

* 12 x M2 nuts

* 2 x M3*12 screws

* 4 screws with 2mm in Ø

* 2 x pieces of 2020 v slot aluminum extrusion

* 4 cm of the nickel stripe that is used for welding Lithium battery assemblies

* ≈16cm of the copper wire, Ø 1mm

* Some thin copper wires with different colors

* drill with 6mm and ≈1.6mm (depends on wire diameter) bit

* solder with soldering supplies

* thermal conducting glue

* super glue

* 3D printer with PETG/ABS-like plastic

This step contains models that need to be printed, in the scope of this instructable.

I have used PETG plastic because it is rigid enough and can resist the temperature, that could happen from the LED.

This accessory has a modular design. Battery block is similar for both sides, so you have only one model, that has to be printed twice. It's enough to print all models with a 0.2 mm layer height.

In this step, we need to prepare and assemble the battery block.

• take ≈8 cm copper wire and solder the spring probe to the copper wire at the end of it

• measure about 6cm from the groove at the spring's probe and bend the copper wire for 90˚

• then, create some kind of spiral in ≈ 8 mm from the angle on the copper wire

Note: I haven't used any springs, because of vibration from the wheel this could cause missing electric contact and light will be blinking

• put the conductor inside the battery block and check. Grove on the probe should match or very close to the top of the battery block.

• if the previous step is good, insert the 4 nuts in their places for the battery block

• use a couple of super glue drops and glue the negative conductor on its place

First of all, in this step, all support material has to be replaced, detail cleaned. Wires, that will be connected to the LED are could be easily threaded through the holes on the front side. If not, please use a drill bit suitable to your wire diameter and make the hols bigger.

After that, M3 nut has to be pushed on its place, see the photo for reference. A couple of M2 nuts also have to be pushed on their places.

That is a very simple step and there is no need in drawing a wiring diagram or something like that, all blocks have labels, following which electric part could be assembled. Please see the photos attached.

Assembly of the electronics block has to be started from threading the positive (center) and negative (side) contacts through the holes in the plastic housing.

Take the negative conduction contact/stripe with a tweezer and thread it from inside out direction, through the side hole. Pull from outside until soldered wire will be close enough to the wall and bend the outside part upwards.

Once the previous step is done, we have to "install" the positive contact. Take the positive contact with the tweezer, thread it through one hole from inside out, bend from outside and thread through the second hole, and bend it inside the housing.

Please check the photos for reference.

Use a small piece of the heat-shrinking tube with a suitable size and isolate the LED driver.

Slide the battery charger PCB into its place. Push the LED driver inside the housing.

Mount the electronics cover to the toggle switch and fix it tightly with nut.

Use a couple of M2x6 screws and securely tighten the electronics cover.

Note: As previously, please check the photos for more details.

I have purchased a couple of light diffusers with 20x50 and 20x65 degrees. After some test, I decided to use 20x65

In this step, we have to drill a couple of holes that will be used to mount the light diffuser.

* push out the striped reflector outside the housing

* insert the LED and drill the holes, that will be used for mounting on the LED

Follow the polarity and solder the output wires to the LED… test that everything works.

In this step, we have to prepare the pieces of the aluminum 2020 extrusions that will be taking the role of the heatsink. So, we have to move the screw's head inside the profile's surface.

So we need a 6mm drill bit and drill the hole in the extrusion in 4 mm deep. Please check the example images.

After this surface has to be polished, to remove chips.

Note: Please note that such heatsink can reach temperature about 45-50 degrees when you stay in one place for a very long time and ≈ 35˚ when you riding. I've tested them in different conditions and decided to leave as is. If you think that this does not enough, feel free to use larger ones.

In this step, we have to install the heatsink and stick the LEd on it.

Take the heatsink, place it on the plastic housing and tighten with M3x12 screw.

Apply some thermal conducting glue on the aluminum surface and stick the LED on its place.

Check that wires are not jammed and let the glue dry for ≈ 3 hours. You can use a rubber band to hold the LED on its place while the glue is "taking the strengths".

Note: Please check that places on the LED's base, which will be used to mount the reflectors are clearly seen and screws could be installed there.

Mount the collimator's housing using 2 screws.

Insert the diffuser and make sure that stripes are colinear with the battery axis, see photo for the reference.

Once optics assembled, it's time to check, which reflectors we're going to use. As I previously said, my choice has stopped on a 20x65 collimator. As you can see the light beam is very soft and nicely stretched horizontally.

Installation is quick and easy. Please follow the steps below:

• fold the scooter, but do not lock the steering with the hook on the rear wheel

• turn the wheel in any side and unscrew the 4 screws on the plastic shield

* remove the plastic shield from the rear wheel fork

• place any battery block ( they're identical) instead of the removed plastic pad and tighten with 4 screws

• insert the battery

• put the top part of the device and tighten with 4 screws

Note: Make sure that the spring probe targeted in the hole.

• check that everything works fine

• repeat for the second side

That's it.

As you can see in the attached video, upgraded headlight performs really well.

Ask questions if you have any, will be happy to answer.

Thank you for reading and have secure trips on your vehicles :)