DRC Edge 2 - Repair and/or mod to Cree

[ocsi]

I've purchased this tail light a while back and after 2 year it's already playing up, the top row of LEDs worked ok but bottom left quarter of leds died, after some crappy testing I seemed to of shorted out the top left quarter as well.

Now my question is, can anyone work out how this pcb works? I tried putting leds on certain contacts and skipping a few leds with a wire to no avail, any help would be great.

Would it be hard to modify this light to have cree? Would love to have a bit more light coming out the back of the motorbike.

This is the light.

 

[Neondiod]

All I can say it looks like the red leds is 4 strings in parallell with 4 leds in series. The whites is probably 3 leds in series. You can try to drive them (reds) separately from underneath with a 1,5V battery to check wich are alive. The current seams to be regulated by resistors. There are a few diods there too, wich I guess is for polarity protection or directing alternating current?

If you want to use a CREE, you have to add some kind of cooling. As this light seams to be in plastic it will be quite hard.

Just my 2c..

 

[ocsi]

Yeah don't worry about the white led pcb, that is separate, so you think some of the leds are dead? or the black rectangular bits which I'm guessing are the diodes, I think this light is designed for both AC and DC.

As for the cree, wouldn't there be something out there which is brighter then these stock leds but don't produce a lot of heat?

 

[Alaric Darconville]

Would it be hard to modify this light to have cree? Would love to have a bit more light coming out the back of the motorbike.

The light was designed with the LEDs it has to conform to applicable regulations. Modifying it with Cree LEDs may drastically increase the intensity, taking it out of conformity. It can cause excessive glare for other motorists (even those not directly behind the vehicle) or cause confusion as to the purpose of the light or the type of vehicle to which it is mounted.

 

[ocsi]

The light was designed with the LEDs it has to conform to applicable regulations. Modifying it with Cree LEDs may drastically increase the intensity, taking it out of conformity. It can cause excessive glare for other motorists (even those not directly behind the vehicle) or cause confusion as to the purpose of the light or the type of vehicle to which it is mounted.

Ok, that's nice, I'm after something what's brighter not a light house, 1. currently the standard leds are pretty dull, I've seen a lot brighter on Japanese bikes, 2. Looking for something brighter which doesn't cause too much heat. 3. Tail light faces on a slight downward angle so it's not going to burn out anyone's retinas due to it being on a MX fender in the rear, 4. I like to be seen, someone near me got cleaned up by a 4x4 at a set of lights and died because the lady didn't see him at night. 5. I know what the laws are in "Australia". 6. How about helping me instead of stating the obvious.

 

[Neondiod]

Hello!
You should be able to get a noticeable bit of more brightness from just swap the leds that is there now to red 70 mA 5mm ones http://www.ledtuning.nl/catalog/pro...d=284&osCsid=ffe148ed17bee8c3832dbd7dcaacb65a. On top of that you can also alter the resistors to feed the stronger leds with more current.
BR / Andreas

 

[bshanahan14rulz]

If you want to keep the original board, use 3mm and 5mm LEDs (assuming thats what's on there, I'm a bad judge of scale)

Another option is to use superflux LEDs. They are brighter and more resistant to heat since they have a pair of legs for both pins. HP, Agilent, philips, lumileds made them at different points in time, but same thing. Now made by lumileds.

and the color superflux you want is red-orange.