My plan is to use a common power-bank to provide electricity to 2 LED lamps on my bicycle.  But, i'm really ignorant of all the  tech details or even if such would work.  I can buy the lamps, certainly 12v lamps as used on motorbikes, and probably 5 v, also common (i have read).

 

Some of my Qs are: how much power does the lamp take, how long will the bank last if lamp flashing, to make the flashing do i need some kind of 'gizmo' to on/off the current?

 

What are the merits of this arrangement, why not simply buy 2 bike lamps?  Good Q. Permanent lamps can be fitted with hardly any concern to theft, perm lamps don't need to be carried into house after use for recharge, lamps may be bigger and brighter than offered for bikes, i want to learn about such electronics, i'm retired so have LOTS of time on my hands, power-bank can be hidden easily on bike and recharged 1x or 2x per week (i think). 

 

Any help welcome.  I'm in CM so if you know of shop to sell 5v red/white lamps, thnx.

If you buy a lamp that's made for a motorbike they usually are running on 12v AC, but from your powerbank you get 5v DC.

So if you want to do this you should get some bare led modules which run on 5v DC already (but bright ones are not as cheap as you might think), which you then can connect with your powerbank if you solder a usb connector to it.

But then you do of course have to find / build a matching reflector, have to put this in some kind of case, get this attached to your bike and have to get this somehow waterproof. And if you want something like "flashing" this requires of course additional electronics.

Buying a simple bike light set is way cheaper than doing it by yourself.

42 minutes ago, jackdd said:

If you buy a lamp that's made for a motorbike they usually are running on 12v AC, but from your powerbank you get 5v DC.

Motorbike is 12v or 6v DC