upgrade blackburn x8

[toobadtwo]

Got a x8 system at a garage sale and want to play around with upgrading the led inside. Anyone know what led to buy . Right now it puts out 85 lumms which just is not bright enough. i would love to be around 200 lumms if possable. This light is for my helment and I alreadly have a niterider for the bars. thanks for any help.

 

[Wookie]

I've replaced the LED's in my x8 with SSC P4's and they are brighter and a much better colour IMHO than the standard LED, a much nicer warm white rather than the original which is very bluey . I've yet to go out and take some beamshots, I should get that done this weekend (hopefully).

I'll post asap as I've taken the pics.

 

[rollertoaster]

I went with cree xr-e r2's on a 20mm star. It's WAY brighter than stock and doesn't kill battery life.

 

[toobadtwo]

is it very hard replace the led. never did one before. thanks

 

[Wookie]

Na It's easy, unscrew the front cover, tip out the lense, undo the 2 screws and lift out the board with the LED on it.

Using a soldering iron unsolder the LED one side at a time, then center the new LED and solder it in place.

I'll post pics of that when I do the beamshots this weekend.

 

[toobadtwo]

sounds like a piece of cake. looking forward to my new light.

 

[Wookie]

As promised here are some beamshots of these lights before and after modifying them, photos of the mod process to follow later. I realise these pics arn't massively bright but then neither are the lights, just a reasonable/useable amount of light, plus these pics were taken on a wet night, and as you know wet black tarmac absorbs light for fun.

First up just the Spot lense with original Luxeon K2

And now the Spot lense with the new SSC P4

Both the Flood and the Spot on Original Luxeon K2's

And now both the Flood and the Spot with the new SSC P4's

And Finally a side by side Spot beam of the Luxeon K2 and the SSC P4

The Top one is the new SSC the lower is the Luxeon, notice how the SSC is a lot more floody than the K2. Looking at the first 2 pics you will see not only is the SSC a lot brighter but a lot floodier with the same lense, you see more of the fence and also the tree branch in the top right of the pic gets lit up with the SSC.

I'll post better shots on our local trails where the difference is even more apparent, and also some pics of the upgrade process.

Well worth the upgrade IMHO.

 

[toobadtwo]

Yes, i can see a big diffrence between the two lights. Looking foward to trying out the ssc leds. thanks for the pics.
still waiting for the ssc`s to show up in the mail, only been 6 days so far. I let you know how it goes.