Increasing flood

without changing the reflector, what would be the best option to increase flood ?

  1. change Led to a bigger one and keep same current.
  2. keep same led but increase current.

The reflector is designed for Osram black flat led. ( low beam ) it has good intensity in middle of the beam, but coverage is crap ( i mean the sides are poorly lit). i need more coverage instead of intensity. for intensity i’m working on another project which is on hold for few weeks.

I believe option 1 is better as it won’t require additional heatsinking. but i’m not sure. any suggestions ? ( max output current is 1.5A/3-13.5v)

Thanks.

best way would be to swap the LED to some with a bigger die.
What Light/driver does your light use (or what light is it) ?
Since 1,5 A is not very much and the Voltage range from 3-13,% V is very wide.

it’s a motorcycle headlight. unfortunately there’s no halogen bulb but instead 2 leds for low beam, and 1 for high. so modding is a bit difficult.




which led should i go for ?

Interesting, you might wanna try this link

Since there already are Osram Black Flat LED’s you might be able to exchange them for something else with a higher output, drawback of higher output it the tint will be worse

White flats are an option but i really doubt it will make noticeable difference without increasing current. also there’s thermal pad issue, don’t know if i can reflow white flat on mcpcb which doesn’t have isolated thermal pad.

Someone did a similar mod to their scooter headlight,think it was clemance. Maybe search for it to get some ideas.

You can take small patches of stick-on diffusion film and apply them in places to selectively scatter light.

Some film is really diffusey and scatters well, others only a bit, like the difference between smooth and orange-peel reflector.

Using DF like that, you don’t have to mess with the innards of the light, and it’s completely 100%ly reversible.

Oh, i have tried it once. unfortunately it lowers intensity too much and makes it almost unusable.

i guess i should go with XHP50 3v or XHP35HI or something. maybe a HIGH CRI led ?

To get more light where it’s not going now, but still keep the intensity that you want, you’d need to dramatically increase total light output, then. Twice the lumens only shows maybe 30% brighter, visually.

So, a bigger chip would be a wider hotspot, but intensity would decrease.

High-CRI, just like warmer CTs, would mean less efficiency and less total light output.

Ironically, Angry Blue would be more efficient, albeit look hideous.

Dunno if that answered anything, but those are things to keep in mind.

Maybe uh XPL2 HD?
Wow, did i really say that?

hmm, so which 3v led has maximum output @1.5A ? xpl2 hd ?

Maybe other members have other proposals?

Easy fix: make a small diffuser from lapped PMMA place directly on top the LED. Adjust the lapping grid to your liking. Coarser = wider beam
Harder fix (less light loss): change to bigger LED or several LEDs. Osram, Lumileds, and Nichia make such automotive LED with several option from single small point source to linear array. In my scooter case, I swap the 1mmx1mm Stanley LED to E21A and later to 319A. I faced similar problem with you, not enough side light for navigating in fast cornering situation.

[Clemence]

I haven’t update my thread. Now I use 319A with much bigger die. E21A creates more flood but wasn’t enough. With 319A It’s almost perfect although the hotspot brightness reduced significantly compared to original Stanley LED.

[Clemence]

hmm, just saw your thread. it’s pretty much what i want. stock headlight is pretty much crap. YAMAHA should be ashamed.

btw, i saw some 2x-4x leds arrays on aliexpress. from Osram CFLNM1, CHLNM1.TG. would those leds work better than 319A ? although it will require additional heatsinking. but i was wondering if i could increase flood without lowering intensity that much by using those 2x/3x led arrays.

thanks for your thread btw, it’s really helpful.

Most road legal motorcycle/car front lighting is a compromise between driver’s safety and other road user’s safety. So, max visibility at the driver’s side could be minimum visibility/blindness for others. Sharp cut-off, beam pattern, and max lux hitting the road regulated by each country rule. Please modify your headlight responsibly! Use common sense, even without standardized equipment you can tell if your modification is potentially dangerous to other or not by simply test it. Ask your friend to ride it while you’re pretending to be a pedestrian or other road user.
Modifying front light type like ours is relatively easy in concept, very doable, and safer because the reflector designed for minimal glare and very sharp cut-off. So, as long as you aim your headlight properly it should be OK for road use. Your headlight has more potential than mine. Please post more pictures from different angles. I need to see the installed position of the whole reflector - LED assembly.

[Clemence]

Will these help ?










^ high beam @ 10 feet.





^ low beam @ 10 feet. 2x black flat leds.


high+ low beam. see how pathetic it is. :person_facepalming:

I’m still working at the moment. Will get back to you in about 2 hours. I checked all your images and it’s (relatively) easy to fix as long as you have access to all the components.

[Clemence]

Does the low beam positioned on top? Normally, with this kind of reflector, the LED source shooting downwards for low beam. The reason is to create a very sharp cut-off. Pretty common for all Stanley headlamp. Honda and Yamaha almost exclusively rely on Stanley for all their lighting system.

The low beam looks pretty decent for me. With correct aim, this profile should creates an evenly lit area. Notice the nice gradual intensity in the vertical axis. But, horizontally, the hot spot is too narrow. adding more LED in parallel (halving same current) will cure the problem easily.

The high beam looks bad indeed (too narrow). the beam angle coverage looks good for approx. 100m but at that range it’s too dim. Am I correct? Most Stanley motorcycle headlight has common problem: the high beam profile although good on it’s own, doesn’t angled adequately to cover more horizontal/vertical area in low to medium speed driving distance (< 100m). This makes setting for optimal high beam position makes the low beam to high (and glares other road users), and vice versa.

Hahaha, this is a subtle OEM “night speed control” :laughing:

.
.
[Clemence]

Yes, low beam is on top, high beam on bottom.

So, i should go ahead with 2 led array for this ? or 2mm osram white flat ? main limitation here is heatsink. it can take upto 18w as per my testings.

yep. for short distance it’s good. but really weak for anything over 60-70 mtrs.

:smiley: