CatEye HL-EL700RC Triple Shot modification upgrade ideas?

SchrodingersCat

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Messages
3
Hi!
I am after getting a CatEye HL-EL700RC Triple Shot light for by bike. This is an old light, having first come on the market in 2008.
However, I bought it as I believed that the good quality housing and eternal battery pack would offer good potential for modification and upgrading the performance.

As such, I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions on how I could modify it?
For example, what would be good LED emmitters to replace in the housing?
Do you know if the battery pack could be updated? If so, roughly how?

Thanks for the information, its much appreciated!

Teardowns of light:
http://www.light-test.info/index.ph...sc-p4-mod&catid=34:rowerowe&Itemid=55&lang=en
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...-CatEye-HL-EL700RC-Triple-Shot-review-amp-mod

Hotlinked Image Converted to URL

Hotlinked Image Converted to URL
Hotlinked Image Converted to URL
Hotlinked Image Converted to URL

Moderator Note
Please do not hotlink images
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Steve K

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 10, 2002
Messages
2,786
Location
Peoria, IL
I can only offer moral support. This Cateye light always seemed like such a nice product and a good platform for upgrades.

You should get improvements from using modern Cree or other LEDs. The changes in packaging will mean figuring out how to interface them to the light's body for heatsinking as well as positioning them so they can work properly with the optics. The thread that you linked to does discuss this issue. Too bad the photos are gone and we can't see what solutions came up. My interpretation is that they used stars to mount the LEDs and then used some copper or aluminum stock to space the LEDs the correct distance from the optics.

I haven't played around with lithium batteries, so can't offer advice on how to upgrade the battery pack. Other CPF subforums might be more helpful.

I hope that you can make this modification work. It seems like a worthy project... although you may want to consider how much work it is, and compare that to the cost of a new light.
 

SchrodingersCat

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Messages
3
Thanks for the response Steve!
From your feedback and reading a few posts here it looks like I can break this down into three stages.

Stage 1: The LED emitters
I will start off by swapping out the Luxeon LUX III LED's so and replacing them with Crees.
From reading a couple of posts it appears that the Cree XM-L2 are my best choice here. I will pick up three off eBay with a copper base.
Converted Hotlink to URL

Once I receive them, I will figure out with my dremel how to correctly interface them with the optics and housing to ensure a good beam and transfer of heat. I will be able to keep using the light after this mod until I get time to move onto the next two stages.

Stage 2: The Driver
It appears that the old driver was driving the following.

Measurement's for 3 Luxeon leds :


V-in I-In P-In V-led I-led P-led Eff.
13,11 578mA 7,57W 10,61V 661mA 7,01 92,55%

So the driver was outputting 10.61volts at 0.661amp.

Looking at the Cree XM-L@ specifications:

Colour/Bin: U2 3B (Neutral White 5000-5350K)
Max. Forward Current (DC): 3000mA
Forward Voltage (DC) (@ 700mA): Typical: ~2.85V
Forward Voltage (DC) (@ 1500mA): Typical: ~3.05V
Forward Voltage (DC) (@ 3000mA): Typical: ~3.3V
Luminous flux (@ 700mA, 25C): 341lm
Luminous flux (@ 1000mA, 25C): 468lm
Luminous flux (@ 1500mA, 25C): 659lm
Luminous flux (@ 2000mA, 25C): 827lm
Luminous flux (@ 3000mA, 25C): ~1100lm


It appears that at max mode we can drive them at 3.3V x3 = 6.6volts and 3amp x3 = 6 amps. Wow. this is much more than I expected.

I will have to find a driver that can deal with this type of power. In reality I doubt I will be running them at this power mode in practice, as im sure the batteries lifespan will limit this. Anyone have any recommendations?

Stage 3: The battery pack
Im a bit stumped here. Previously there were 10 NiMH AA batteries in the heavy pack. I would like to keep the original Cateye neoprene cover, connectors and charger if possible. Im thinking I might get something like a 4 cell 18605 housing with protection.
Convert Hotlink to URL

However, I have no idea how I will charge the pack. I dont want to have the inconvenience of taking out the cells out and put them in a separate charger. Are there any 18605 battery packs out there that have a charging circuit built in?

Thanks!

Moderator Note: Please do not hotlink images
See Rule 3
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Steve K

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 10, 2002
Messages
2,786
Location
Peoria, IL
in my opinion, optics are a huge factor in what makes me happy with a light. I would probably modify your process by doing the calculations on how the stars for the Crees will be positioned relative to the optics... or if you can even get good results with a Cree.
You might want to buy a Cree and play around with the positioning of the Cree relative to the optic and find out if it works well.

Assuming that you can get decent results by combining the Cree with the optics, then start looking for a source for a slab of aluminum that will place the star the desired distance from the optic.

As far as power... if you are putting 3 amps through 3 LEDs wired in series, that will be 3 amps times 9 volts, which will be 27 watts.

No idea about the battery charger. Check some of the folks on the CPF marketplace, maybe??
 

SchrodingersCat

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
Messages
3
HI Steve,
That is a good point about the optics. The lest riskiest approach would be for me to buy a cree with the optics combined. If needed, I can use these cree optics in the cateye housing if the original optics are a bad fit.
http://www.dx.com/p/cree-xm-l2-t6-6...ule-for-26-5mm-flashlight-213024#.VqYK5vmLSM8

Yea, im not sure about the battery charger myself. I will have to have a think about.
Hotlinked Image Converted to URL

Moderator Note: Please do not hotlink images. Please refer to Rule 3.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Steve K

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jun 10, 2002
Messages
2,786
Location
Peoria, IL
don't forget that the LEDs need to be mounted firmly to the heatsink. Buying a combined LED & optic would mean that the optic would be located behind the from of headlight. Or it might mean that it could be too long to fit in the headlight. I'd recommend some careful measurements and determining what it will take to get things to fit properly.

There are other options for optics, if you are interested... ideally, you'll have some idea of what beam angles that you want. Ledil and Carclo are supplier of optics, among others. I tend to buy mine from Digikey or Mouser. Here's the result of a search at Digikey for Cree XM-L optics...

http://www.digikey.com/product-sear...s-leds-lamps-lenses/525154?k=cree xm-l optics
 

Savvas

Enlightened
Joined
Jun 11, 2010
Messages
222
Hi, I seem to recall a detailed description of the mods you are planning by a previous poster - either at CPF or maybe at the MTBR forums. Maybe try a search...

Savvas.
 

Alaric Darconville

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 2, 2001
Messages
5,377
Location
Stillwater, America
Hi, I seem to recall a detailed description of the mods you are planning by a previous poster - either at CPF or maybe at the MTBR forums. Maybe try a search...

I tried a search and found a thread whose last post was 06-08-2009, 06:37 AM. The state of the art has changed considerably since then-- there may not be as much useful today as there might have been then. It might be somewhat useful, so here's a link. I have preëmptively closed it to prevent threadsurrection.
 
Top