Modify a Bike light??

Hi,

I have a Cateye HL-EL300, which is a 5 LED bike light. I was wondering if anyone knows whether it would be possible to "upgrade" the LEDs on this unit to Luxeon Stars, and what would be the light output improvement? Would this be a worthwhile upgrade, and what kind of effort might be involved (My skills are limited, so I would need all the info I could get).

Thanks.

**** EDIT *****
fixed the link. Didn't realize there was a double http://. Sorry about that.

This link should work:

http://www.cateye.com/detail.php?products_id=91

I have this one. I was wondering if it would be possible to put 2 1 watt luxeons in it for more light (it is very dim).

Mark and Pi,
I got into LED lights to light my way on my recumbent bicycle. I blame it on the 18 red LED flasher that works so well. At this point, I have a Brinkmann Legend 2AA with a BB400 Q3L mounted on my helmet. It works great for the cars to see me, it also is enough light to ride at around 10-12MPH and actually see the road.
Modifying those lights would be a royal pain in the keester, it can be done but might not be worth the effort. Luxeons like to dump their heat to metal and it can be done with large heatsinks in a plastic body. If my Elektrolumens order ever comes in, Mag 2D with Wayne's 2D heatsink, his 30mm optics (I can see the difference between the reflector and collimator) dat2zip's R2H Luxeon Star bolts right on Wayne's heatsink and I will wire in a BB500 current regulator. ~15 hours of bright, regulated light and I can use it as a flashlight if need be.
If you are going to mount it on the frame, the Mag 2D/R ranked Luxeon/ BB500 regulator and Mag reflector should give you a strong beam to see at night. I am getting antsy waiting for the heatsinks to come in and let you guys know how it works.
The Brinkmann Legend 2AA with a BB400 Q3L will give you around 2.5 hours of light and is easy to mount on your handlebar. I wonder how those Fraen versions of the NX05 optics will work for throw? Working on that also.

I use my Inretech 2AA, and Arc LSH-P when riding my bike (Inretech on handlebars, LSH-P worn as a headlamp). It works very well. The reason I want to improve my other light is that I can easily put it on and take it off the bike.

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Pi_is_blue said:
I have this one. I was wondering if it would be possible to put 2 1 watt luxeons in it for more light (it is very dim).

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An EverLED would likely perk this one up a lot.

Has anyone tried the EverLED in it? The reflector is strange and I would like to make the beam much wider than it already is.

I so want somebody to start marketing a truly bright and REGULATED LED headlight for bikes! As it is now, I just strap the latest creation I have to my handlebars using a "Lockblock" that attaches with a rubber block and Velcro. An L4 does wonders for lighting your way!

Here here! This is twht I'd like to see: Use a Shimano Nexus front generator hub and a couple...OK, 3, Stars: One flood, one throw, and maybe one aimed a little higher for viibility. No batteries to change, no bulbs to burn out - I want, I want!

DIY.
A usual bike generator (i.e. non-regulated - that excludes the 'S' series from b&m and the one from switzerland) is more or less a constant current source. Although that probably wouldn't work with a bottle generator due to slippage, a hub generator (preferably the SON, the Shimano should work if you omit the Shimano switch) will put out something like .7V/kph, limited to 500...600 mA. So at speeds above ~20 kph, you can light up two standard bike lights (6V/3W) in series.
Same should work with a couple or three Luxeons in series. Depending on your speed, you could use two in series (or one 5 W) directly (ok, rectifier and filter cap) from the generator and add a third when you're going fast enough (or rather, short out the third when you're going too slow).
I'd suggest (at least that's my current mental plan) the following setup:
3 in series @ 600 mA with spot optic at 0° (parallel to the road), from battery or as alternative to
3 in series @ 600 mA, two of them with elliptical optics (long axis horizontal) at -10° and the third also with elliptical optic (as above) at -20°.
One set of three could be run directly from the generator above a minimum speed (and if you're using a 26" SON in a 20" front wheel, e.g. a recumbent, that speed is somewhere at 10 kph /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif).
Angular settings are a first estimate - I just don't want the beams to overlap, but they should join smoothly.

Bye
Markus