Cateye LED Upgrade

[ncc74656m]

So, I have two Cateye LED headlights for my bike, and I've been toying around with the idea of upgrading them somehow. I haven't quite figured out what to do yet, but I am thinking that a high output Cree is a good place to start, though I am concerned about heat.

I did a quick search on Google, but haven't seen anything that really meets my "standards." I'll edit this post shortly with some pics and info about the two that I have. I do have some experience though working with these high end LEDs thanks to working with them for the LED lightsaber projects I've built so far. Any thoughts would be appreciated. :)

The two lights are the HL-EL520N and the HL-EL410. Pics are in Post #4.

- Katie

 

[Steve K]

Sounds like a fun project! I'll be interested in seeing the light and what can be done. I've done a couple of mods to bike headlights myself... the latest was a fairly severe LED upgrade, in the sense that it was upgraded from incandescent to a Cree XR-E. :)
Pics are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtsj00/sets/72157628920533643/
It's definitely lacking in any aesthetic value, but it works.

I also did a LED conversion on an old Vista light, and it wasn't nearly so offensive to the eye. It might provide some inspiration on how to improve heatsinking.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kurtsj00/sets/72157601241482040/
I should note that this heatsink was marginal... it really should be larger. It's not a big deal when riding, but when sitting still, it was quite warm to the touch.

 

[trout]

as you don't say yet which cateye you have
here is one I did a few years ago

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?270295-1800-lumen-Cateye-Tripleshot&highlight=

 

[ncc74656m]

as you don't say yet which cateye you have
here is one I did a few years ago

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?270295-1800-lumen-Cateye-Tripleshot&highlight=

That's one badass Cateye, trout, thanks! I might look into picking one of those up. I have two single beam units. Turns out they are the HL-EL520N and the HL-EL410, respectively. The 410 wasn't ever bad, but it's definitely long in the tooth now compared with the 520N which is a nice little unit. Right now, the 520N is my primary headlight and the 410 is set as my flasher so I get both benefits. When it's super dark and I'm not worried about oncoming, I'll put the 410 into solid beam mode to throw some extra light ahead of me.

HL-EL520N

HL-EL410

 

[Steve K]

There is a thread about mod'ing the EL520 here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?161131-Is-the-Cateye-HL-EL520-moddable

It's not long, but does discuss how to take it apart.

 

[ncc74656m]

There is a thread about mod'ing the EL520 here:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?161131-Is-the-Cateye-HL-EL520-moddable

It's not long, but does discuss how to take it apart.

Awesome, thanks. I didn't think to try searching by model numbers. :)