Is the Cateye HL-EL520 moddable?

Moe

Newly Enlightened
Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
88
Location
Germany
I recently bought a Cateye HL-EL520 bikelight.
What a huge dissapointment!

Is there any chance to mod this light by replacing the LED by a Cree or an SSC P4 and maybe even the crappy reflector?
If yes, how do i open the head? It seems to be made of real brittle plastic and i don't want to completely destroy the head while attempting to open it.
Has anyone done a mod on this light before?
 

Moe

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Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
88
Location
Germany
Any ideas? I am really unhappy with this light. I just can't use it, how it is now.
Tiny tiny bright hotspot, huge and very dim spillbeam.
I think replacing the reflector would be a big improvement, but i have no idea how to do that except by destroying the lens... :(
 

Calina

Enlightened
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
955
Location
Longueuil, Québec
Try to put a Seoul LED instead of the original LED(IIRC it is a LUX 1). You will instanly get a huge improvement but your run time will drop.
 

marshan2

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Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
9
Is the Cateye el520 moddable? Yes very, and there is no cracking, breaking etc to get inside. To get inside take the light head off the body, then looking at the back of the head at the battery terminals. Put the red line lump at the top (12 o'clock) with both red lines lined up, hold the triangular prong to the left (9 o'clock) and pull gently as you move the red lines out of alignment. You should feel the parts separate. There is a small clip underneath the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions and the one next to the red line will release first and then the other should come off. Gently hook or prize the next layer up using the two exposed slots to insert a small screw driver, to lift one slot and then the other.Out should come the circuit board and black surround leaving the aluminium heat sink connected by the led wires. Pull gently on the wires and there it is all out.

That's as far as I've got but it is very similar to the EL530, same led with a better looking control board and a nice big resistor which looks like it controls the current.

Yes I agree, I was totally underwhelmed by the light, it wastes so much energy putting out a huge 80 degree secondary corona. The good thing is that the lense screws on as does the led clamp so it's relatively easy to strip it down to the bare led which others have used a hot knife (on the 530 thread) to remove. Over to you to do the led and lense modding.
 

PCC

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 28, 2007
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2,326
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Sitting' on the dock o' The Bay...
I've upgraded my HL-EL520 with an XP-G R5 and it's much brighter than it was before. I used an 8mm MCPCB and there were no other changes. I'm guesstimating 100 or so lumens, just bright enough to be usable.
 
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