Review: UniqueFire HD-016 dual beam Bicycle headlight

So what is the OD of the lens?

hmm…dual buck circuits? Interesting

appears those R150’s are the current sense resistors…lowering the resistance there might kick the power up…but it appears the “pills” are woefully inadequate for decent thermal management if you were to crank the power up

Still a good review…thanks for the hard work!

I think OD of the reflectors is about 21.5mm, but will measure exactly later at the evening. The TIR lenses I was trying to fit are 21mm, but the main problem is height. They are either to tall (in place of wide reflector) or to shallow (in place of narrow reflector). Last one could be elevated with some washers. In the place of wide reflector you would need to grind the lips where pill resides and make new very tight (press fit) pill. Maybe there is another solution, but I would have to inspect internals again.

EDIT: I've measured 21.45mm for the reflectors OD.

Yes you are right. R150 are sense resistors and LEDA chips has probaly same feedback voltage as with other drivers I've seen. By guys at DX forum the feedback voltage is 0.25V which in turns means 0.25/0.15 = 1.66A to the leds. Replacing sense resitors with R120 or R100 would give you about 2.08A and 2.5A, respectively. Maybe little less with some efficiency loss.

Adding thermal compound is mandatory and I would dare to use R120 for sense resistors.

Any update on a Group Buy on this light?

EDIT - 5,000th post!

-Garry

Congratulations Garry!

Congrat Garry.

I don't see much interest here for the GB. Do you have any idea where else we should try with it? Not that I earn anything, just want to help.

I think this light is more suitabe for commuters than for MTB-ers. What do you think?

Nope. Guess you're not getting much interest over at MTBR either? About an hour ago I passed up an opportunity to nab one for about $28 on an Ebay Auction (assuming the winning $27 bid didn't jump above mine). I decided to let it go (and I bought another cheap bike light to test/review :) ).

-Garry

Not sure. I don't ride enough to say. I like the idea of it for trail riding though. I think I'd prefer it be "Low (wide flood)", Low & High (flood and throw), back to "Low", press-n-hold for off. Then press-n-hold from off to get to strobe. I don't see needing "High (throw only)" without having the "Low" flood on too.

I wonder if Gearbest would provide a "coupon code" for a discount just to get their name out there for MTBR users (I never see Gearbest listed at MTBR, so I don't think users over there are familiar with them).

-Garry

I find High (throw only) very useful when biking at high speeds on the road (yes I think its suitable for commuters) especially when I need to travel for a longer time (long rides) and have to save my batteries. For MTB on trails, its Low (wide flood) most of the time.

Nightbird95, for MTB trails wide beam with this light is more suitable only for ascending parts. For descending (at least faster ones) I would use both wide and throw. But it also might be dependant on terrain and flora surrounding. My opinion, though.

I think I agree with you because the faster your speed is, the more you need to see what’s farther ahead of you. :slight_smile:

Actually I haven’t tried doing high speeds on trails at night yet and I don’t think I have the skills to do it so I guess I’m stuck to wider beam in the meantime. :bigsmile:

I wonder if you could swap an SSX2 driver into this light and then get L-M-H modes with both LED's lit at the same time. The drivers seem to be the same exact shape. Or do you think the modes as is are better (being able to have flood only, throw only, or both)?

-Garry

I didn't think of it. Good idea Garry. Will take a look if the dimensions fits. About using, both can be convinient. It depends on cycling style and personal preferences.

When you do MTB during ascending all you need on the bars is wide beam and you can see further away with narrow beam from your helmet light. When descending you have much more speed and you would like to have all the lights on full. Long beam only can be suitable for horizontal mid speed.

When commuting you mostly run at even speed. You can have both lights on all the time and only adjust brigtnes according to surrounding. High on rural and low/mid in urban where you already have some street lights. In case of commuting one light on the bar with two beams will cover the whole vision. Light on the helmet is not necessary.

I'm not telling those preferences are suitable for everybody, it's just my opinion.

EDIT: Measured the size of SSX2 driver back plate and it is same size like HD-016. So I think they can be interchanged w/o problems. Good to know if anyone would prefer different type of operating

Thanks ledoman! That's awesome, though now I'd have to buy a cheap SSX2 just for the driver. I do like the ability to run the HD016 on 4.2v though (per Lagman).

-Garry

The last cheap SSX2 one I've got hands on few days ago had leds in paralell. The light was powered by usual 2S2P packet. So be aware what you might get.

So are you saying that unit would run with 4.2v input? And where did you get it?

My SSX3 emitters are in parallel but I never tried 4.2v input.

-Garry

Interesting light really. I don’t like the 18650 format too much though. I would prefer AA powered lights. One thing, for trailing, I think a neutral light is better.

Garry, no. I've said it is powered by 2S2P (ie. 8.4V) pack, but normaly in SS2X leds are connected in series The last one was not.

Selle was bonlighting2014 at ebay. Must say it si not good. I pulls only 0.9A from battery pack A had to add R500 sense resistor to improve output a bit.

Well, you can build your own AA 6S battery pack. I'm working a lot with Li-Ion 18650 and they are very good regarding energy density. They are also safe enough if you treat them right. AA is of course even safer.