Newbie modding Blackburn X6

[Jamesdh266]

Hi,
Im new to the forum and lucky stumbled upon it when looking for some info on one of my lights (Cateye R3). There is a lot of very interesting stuff on here and it has given me some inspiration Im new to modding lights so please bear with me.

I have a pair of lights (flood and spot) and all the cables from a Blackburn X6 lights system but no battery. I was going to try and sell them but now Im thinking that I would like to try and build a battery pack for them and then if I manage that I might try upgrading the LED's.

Firstly though I dont really know what to do about the battery. As I dont have the old one I dont know what voltage I need and I dont know what current to drive the LEDs at. I know they are Luxeon III's though I think I might have the old charger somewhere.

Secondly If I upgrade the LED's to SSC (from reading around the forum they seem to be the current great thing) what other mods do I need to make?

Finally Im in the UK, does anyone know where I can buy online electronics from this side of the pond?

Thanks in advance,
James

 

[herulach]

Whether you can make the battery will depend largly on if the driver is contained within the battery or in the head. A simple way to test this will be to put the probes of your multimeter over the lamp power inputs whilst it's in diode test mode. If the LED lights up the driver is in the battery, if it doesnt then its in the head, which is good.

A quick google says it takes a 5 cell nimh (i.e. 6V) battery. so you're pretty much stuck with that (two li-on cells is too high voltage).

As far as getting bits goes. Most of my cable comes from maplin, with connectors and stuff from ebay. As ar as LEDS and stuff goes, dealextreme ftw!

Hi,
Im new to the forum and lucky stumbled upon it when looking for some info on one of my lights (Cateye R3). There is a lot of very interesting stuff on here and it has given me some inspiration Im new to modding lights so please bear with me.

I have a pair of lights (flood and spot) and all the cables from a Blackburn X6 lights system but no battery. I was going to try and sell them but now Im thinking that I would like to try and build a battery pack for them and then if I manage that I might try upgrading the LED's.

Firstly though I dont really know what to do about the battery. As I dont have the old one I dont know what voltage I need and I dont know what current to drive the LEDs at. I know they are Luxeon III's though I think I might have the old charger somewhere.

Secondly If I upgrade the LED's to SSC (from reading around the forum they seem to be the current great thing) what other mods do I need to make?

Finally Im in the UK, does anyone know where I can buy online electronics from this side of the pond?

Thanks in advance,
James

 

[Jamesdh266]

ok thanks for that.

The charger says that it is 12v, 850mA. Does that make sence for a 6V battery?

Can I not use a Li-ion and resistors to lower the voltage or will that generate too much heat? I would like to keep it as small and light as possible.

Ill do the test at work tomorrow.

There are switches on the top of the lamps that turns them on/off/flash. Might that have the driver in it? Because you can connect 1 or 2 lights to the same battery pack. If the drivers is in the battery then if you connected both lights wouldnt it half the voltage to each one?

 

[Wookie]

The charger says that it is 12v, 850mA. Does that make sence for a 6V battery?

Yes, the charge circuit will regulate the voltage to what the battery requires.

Can I not use a Li-ion and resistors to lower the voltage or will that generate too much heat? I would like to keep it as small and light as possible.

Yes you could use any type of battery and a suitable resistor to limit the voltage and current, but there are better ways, plus you'd have to modify the lamp units aswell.

There are switches on the top of the lamps that turns them on/off/flash. Might that have the driver in it?

No the driver is in the battery pack (or atleast it is in my X8 lights and that's only supposed to be a upgrade from NiMd to Li-ion) that's why there is 3 wires to each light unit, if the driver was in the light unit you'ld only need 2 wires. You can just unscrew the front off the light unit by hand, then the lense just falls out and you can see the LED and switch

Because you can connect 1 or 2 lights to the same battery pack. If the drivers is in the battery then if you connected both lights wouldnt it half the voltage to each one?

No the drivers in the battery pack supply each LED with either 300mA, 700mA or 1000mA (approx) regardless of what level the other LED is at.

I've got some SSC p4's on order from Dealextreme that i'm going to upgrade my lights with when they get here.

I've used the x6's and they are alright, i'd say the the x8's are a bit brighter (think they changed the LED), can't wait for the Seoul's

 

[Jamesdh266]

ok thanks for the info Wookie. So basically I need to put a battery together as well as a driver. Im a bit new to this sooo. How do I go about doing this? Can I just buy a battery pack and driver that match the voltage that the LED needs and connect them?

However if the old battery was a 5cell NiMH (6V) and the new one is Li-Ion (I assume 2cell 7.4V) something else must have been updated for the new voltage? They still use Luxeon III's and housings are the same. Can I not do the same change and use Li-Ion?

Ive been reading around and people recommend the the P4s so I think Ill do that too.