LED for bike light idea (1000-1500lm, 5050, neutral white etc.)?

CreepyShadow

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 9, 2020
Messages
1
Hello,

This is my first post here, so apologies for any mistakes I made (I'm not a native english speaker so grammar mistakes are meant too :)
So, what is this all about. The basic things are already in the title. Half a year ago, I got a Ravemen PR1600 bike light. An all around fantastic light, but sometimes I do wish, the high beam especially, could be a bit brighter. I've contacted them to get some more information on the LEDs used and they responded very fast. The conversation was really friendly and I ended up making a few suggestions, which they forward to their R&D team. They also said, that I can always message them with new suggestions and that they are happy to get detailed customer feedback.
Well, my idea now is to roughly design a light how I envision it and send the design to them and if I have the time, maybe even make one myself.

So, here are the specs I could gather for the PR1600
- LEDs used are Cree XM-L2
- in neutral white
- limited to 800 Lumen
- kept at max 60°c (allegedly)
- I sadly couldn't get exact CCT, CRI or binning numbers
- powered by two 18650 cells (6Ah total)


What I want to do
- make the light brighter (whether that is through more Lumen, better CRI or another method)
- extend the runtime of the lower power modes
- I'll be using two 21700 cells (10Ah total)
- maybe change the lens a bit (though this is not the space nor the time to discuss that)

I've already searched for suitable LEDs and found some, but would really appreciate further input. Here are the ones I found
- Cree XM-L3
- Luminus SST-40
- Lumileds Luxeon V (sadly 4040 though)

I'm not really an expert on LEDs, so I don't know what the best way to approach this is. How many Lumen will I need (if the optics stay the same) to get a noticeable brighter light. Which CCT, CRI rating and bin are reasonable for this project and the like.


Thanks for any help in advance
Cheers CreepyShadow
 

sirpetr

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Sep 7, 2012
Messages
96
Location
Czech Republic, Prague
R&D team should know best how to make it brighter but its not always solely up to them. I think decisions also come from managers or total costs allowed for such a light. But to answer your question, if you use highest quality components (LEDs, Batteries) and efficient electronics, good optics, you should get world-class performance. Two LEDs (even XM-L2) can easily produce more than 800 lumens so they are not probably limitation here. Two 18650 batteries with 6Ah are decent but also not the best performers, but even these 6Ah can give you plenty of runtime. Two 21700 would completely change the whole design which engineers do not want to do. Better idea would be to use better 18650 batteries.

You can use LEDs you indicated but seems to me that primary limitation is either cooling or electronics circuits. Each LED family is little different, you cannot generally say that CRI70 is good and acceptable. I personally like CRI70-CRI90, 4000-5000K. Always its best to use highest possible bin, but they are also more expensive.

Brighter usually means more lumens but performance of optics also comes to play here as you could waste lumens or target them all around.
 
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