Dammit Killed 2 MC-Es

[nixie]

Managed to fit two of these into my Hope LED. Had it all up and running with the stock optic, then disaster, I put in the new optics and they were a little too big with the hope casing. 2 ruined LEDs . Well 2 more on order, I think I'll stick with the stock optic next time!

 

[Hack On Wheels]

Managed to fit two of these into my Hope LED. Had it all up and running with the stock optic, then disaster, I put in the new optics and they were a little too big with the hope casing. 2 ruined LEDs . Well 2 more on order, I think I'll stick with the stock optic next time!

Ah, bad luck!

I feel like I'm missing something though, how did trying to fit an optic that was too big ruin the LEDs?

 

[matt303]

How are you driving the 2 MC-Es?

 

[msxtr]

Managed to fit two of these into my Hope LED. Had it all up and running with the stock optic, then disaster, I put in the new optics and they were a little too big with the hope casing. 2 ruined LEDs . Well 2 more on order, I think I'll stick with the stock optic next time!

Hi, what have been the problem? I don't understand....

Greetings - Saludos

msxtr

 

[Szemhazai]

Hi, what have been the problem? I don't understand....

The new optics was too high - he simply squash them...

 

[nixie]

Yeap you got it. The way the hope body works is that the optics are held in the face plate, this then bolts onto the body and mates the optics to the LEDs. The new leds are bigger than the originals (taller). So I wasn't putting the front on as far as it normally goes, just far enough to seal. The new optics were unfortunately a different shape at the LED end (not such a large opening for the LED, both old and new were Carclo 20mm optics). When I put the new optics ina nd the face plate on the LED stopped working, so I took the front off again and found the domes had become detached, I think they ripped the connecting wires to the 4 led elements off as the came away. The annoying thing is the elements are still fine, I can get the to light up when poking my multimeter around in there, they are just way way to small to resolder.

 

[nixie]

How are you driving the 2 MC-Es?

I'm driving them using the stock hope driver board. This outputs 14V @ 700ma on high

 

[matt303]

I saw your reply on STW, so your driving them in the below arrangement?

Considering that (with a little variation for forward voltage differences) you'll be driving each LED element at 175mA it should run very efficiently.

 

[Hack On Wheels]

Gah, that would be so frustrating! Hope you can get it sorted with some new MCEs though, I'd love to see how that light will work when it has been upgraded, should be nice!

 

[nixie]

Not quite, the MCEs are in series as the driver outputs around 14V. Each LED element should be getting 350ma so with the M bin MCEs I think I should be getting 430lm per LED.

At the moment I'm trying to decide if it would be better not to mount the MCE on the stars. The emmiter is taller than the Lux which is where the height issue came from. I'm thinking that mounting the LED to the heatsink plate on a space spacer (to lift the contacts off the metal) might mean the heights became the same. Later on I'm going to get the bits out and measure the height of the origional part. I can't see any reason why mounting this way wouldn't work.

 

[kangaroomadman]

I'm about to try the same thing and upgrade my Hope light. I noticed in another thread you said about getting hold of the MC-E M-bins for a nice 430lm output...did you find anywhere else other than cutter that sold them? I was hoping to get some stars that were wired 2s2p but couldn't see any on cutter, only individual or all serial but as you say you could just wire the 2 stars in parallel.

How are the original optics when used with the MC-Es and what is the runtime like on the original battery? (I plan on doubling the battery to 4800mAh anyway)

 

[nixie]

I got my mces from led-tech.de (There is another german led shop selling m bins on stars). Took about a week to be delivered to the uk. They are bare emitters and ledtech didn't have stars so I bought a luxeon/cree single led 20mm star and cut the solder pad down the middle to make it 2x s serial. I then connected the first serial pair to the second to create 2s2p.

The problem with them on stars is they are taller than the lux, hence I crushed my first two. I think I'm going to mount the second ones straight to the heatsink (slightly raised so the contacts are exposed). I'll then solder stright onto the contacts.

The other problem is mounting the emittors centrally on the star (I think at least one of mine is slightly off), and making sure the heatsink touches the star properly.

Fromt eh short period I had it wokring the optics were ok. I can't comment on run time as I crushed the leds before doing that test, and my stadard batteries need new cells (they only run for 45 and 60 mins so are a bit dead!)

 

[Doh!Nut]

Hi Nixie

Two questions

1 how were LED tech with pricing - that is what was your final bill after postage and PayPal charges etc. I remember backing out of an order with them as the charges seemed silly for what I was buying.

2ndly I am a little confused that the hope LED driver has an output of 14v ?
I thought that Hope used 7.2v batteries and a single die emitter SSC P4?

or is it a 14v battery and a buck driver?

FWIW I bought a dead USE Exposure from STW and have some D bin P7s on order. That is a 7.2v Buck to 1.4amp driver. The P7 will be in series (same as 2*5watt in parallel.)
I am not sure what to do about optics as few 20mm optics will fit the P7 dome - may try to turn down a reflector to suit - we will see.

Anyway sorry to hear about your LED - I have a couple of dead shark drivers to add to the pile

N

 

[nixie]

It was about £45 in total. Cutter maybe cheaper but I wanted to make sure I got the order quickly.

The new hope vision 2 does use 2x single die SSC p4, however the origional version uses lux V's (Both have 7.2V batteries). I'd guess the new one has different electronics to handle the different led. The lux has a 7V vf so thats why each of the mce's needs to be wired as 2s2p to match the driver output.

I'm mildy annoyed (with myself) for killing them since they were working happily with the old optics. Oh well.

Good luck with you fix.

 

[kangaroomadman]

Were you able to shut the case properly with the old optics so it was all sealed?

Is it just new optics that won't fit?

 

[nixie]

Not fully closed no, the MCE is too tall for that. I had got it far enough that the front came over the o-ring so it should be sealed. I'm hoping by loosing the star I can get it fully closed.

 

[kangaroomadman]

Ok, I'll think I'll order just the emitters then and see what I can do to make them fit nicely.

Also...I don't suppose you would know if you can get a quick release bracket for it or some other bracket that can be bodged to mount the light easily on the handlebars?

 

[nixie]

I would. Officially no there isn't, but I think you can use the new qr bracket.

While I was in my local shop I had a look at the QR bracket for the new version. This bolts flat to the base of the light so is no good on its own. However the helmet mount plate has stayed the same as the old version so supplied in the box is and adaptor to make the new light have a tab like the old one. My plan was to turn this tab upside down and bolt it too the qr bracket (the holes are the same size). This will give the qr bracket a horizontal hole just the right size for the old version of the light to bolt onto .

If that doesn't make sense I'll try and get some photos of what I mean (its my friends shop so can take stuff out of boxes easy enough).

Let me know how you get on with the mod. I'll be posting photos and build log once the new emitters are here (i have photos from the failed build but would like to do it in one go)

 

[kangaroomadman]

Ahh excellent...I had a look at the new QR bracket but noticed it was different so thought there wasn't much I could do. I will take a look at the new helmet mount too....

I will too post photos of my progress although I doubt I will get anything done until Christmas time!

 

[nixie]

Even if you can't buy the little adaptor bit separately then the new qr bracket with a right angled bit of metal with two holes in would do the trick.