I have developed a renewed appreciation for convoy S2(+)s. They are compact and the reflector is the right size for medium to close range use. I’ve recently modded a few with regulated drivers and different emitters for biking at night. I use 3A or 1.5A mode depending on the length of my ride and use different size emitters for my helmet and handlebars and whether I’m road riding or mountain biking.
Don’t pay too much attention to the tints in the image because I’ve dimmed the lights to be close in beam intensity to one another, and some of the drivers use PWM to dim while others use constant current dimming.
Top left: S2+, smooth reflector, sliced 3V XHP50.2 1D with convoy linear driver.
Tint of the sliced emitter at ~3A current is close to a cree 3D tint. At 2.95A current I measured 5.5kcd and 70lux ceiling bounce. It has a very wide and prominent corona (due to the excited side-phosphor) extending almost to the edge of the spill.
Top right: S2+, smooth reflector, LH351D 5000K 90CRI with 8x7135 driver.
At 3.03A I measured 5.7kcd and 63lux ceiling bounce. Beam hotspot is very close in size to the sliced XHP50.2. The relative output/efficiency seems impressive given that it’s 90cri.
Bottom left: S2+, smooth reflector, XPL HI 3D with 8x7135 driver.
At 3.04A I measured 12.9kcd and 60lux ceiling bounce.
Bottom right: S2, smooth reflector, 2mm^2 WF 5400K from kaidomain and convoy linear driver. I bought this hoping for a warmer tint, but to my eye it does not really look warmer than the other CW 2mm WFs I have, but it does have a noticeable purpleish tint, so I guess that is below the BBL. At first I was going to change it out, but I tried it outside and I thought it worked ok and provided good contrast.
At 2.97A I measured 23.7kcd and 50lux ceiling bounce.
So each time the emitter area halves, going from 8mm^2 to 4mm^2 to 2mm^2, the throw at the same current approximately doubles. For off-road trails I use the sliced XHP50.2 on the handlebars and the XPL HI on the helmet. The off road trails around here are typically very curvy so not as much throw is needed. I took this setup on the road (actually paved trails) and I felt I wanted more throw because of my increased speed and farther line of sight. Which is why I made the S2 with the WF.