I have an older dinotte xml-3 bicycle handlebar light that recently began malfunctioning. This was a nice USA made bike light that uses a 7.2v 2S2P Lion battery pack driving three cree XM-L2 emitters that apparently are wired together in series.
http://www.dinottelighting.com/LED_bike_lights/dinotte-xml-3-headlight.htm
The driver board on my light apparently is failing. The light should have hi-med-low settings but it seems to now only use the low output for all three settings, it will cycle through all three setting of the push button but there is not difference to the output, all are (identically) too low to be useful for me, only about <200 lumen when this light should be over 1500 lumen on high.
I removed the on/off push button endcap (by removing the retaining o-ring) and then was able to pull the driver board out to investigate. The board looks somewhat similar to the dinotte driver board at
http://lh4.ggpht.com/fluffytapeworm/SPbxK9S-8pI/AAAAAAAAA0U/M69HWX3RV-4/s800/IMGP5320.jpg
from CPF thread http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?210005-Dinotte-5W-mod
The linked photo of the dinotte thread above shows a somewhat large black carbon cylinder with blue painted rings that is attached to the PCB that looks similar to a components that is possibly damaged on the driver board for my light. Any ideas on what this black & blue ringed cylinder is? On mine, it looks as if this cylinder is crack near the bottom and feels slightly wobbly. I could likely remove and re-solder a replacement if I know what sort of component it is and can procure a replacement IF this is the source of the problems.
With the malfunctioning driver board out, I measured with a voltmeter that on all three hi/med/low setting the driver is only producing a consistent 8 volts. I tried connecting the contacts for the three serial XM-L2 LEDs directly to a 12v, 2amp automotive charger and verified that the LEDs are still very nice an bright when they have sufficient power. Direct driving the LEDs with the auto charger at 6v setting was similar in weak light output as I am getting from the failing driver board.
If I cannot easily repair the original driver board, I would like to try to replace the dead driver board with a new driver. I am having trouble figuring out a suitable replacement driver that would work with my 7.2v battery to drive the three serial LEDs which I think should need about 10v at around 2 amps for high power. I know this will likely need to be a voltage boost driver board but I cannot make sense of all the different specifications to identify a driver that should work for this drive voltage/amperage from my 2S3P battery. I think that the HBFlex board from TaskLED would probably work but at $40 it is pretty expensive. Is there any other comparable driver available from kaidomain, mtnelectronics or elsewhere that you could suggest that should would work for my light?
I could likely push a few more watts through my dinotte light than the 1500 lumens that it was originally configured for. All of my bike riding needing lighting is done in cold, cold Alaska winter (<20F) conditions so should help for keeping the LEDs sufficiently cooled.
While it is perhaps not still state of the art, the Dinotte light is nicely made and I would like to fix/mod it as a learning project if practical. I also just recently re-built the old battery pack with fresher cells so would prefer to be able to use those but thinking perhaps re-building to 3S 11v configuration might be easier to allow the use of a linear (non-boost) driver board such as those available from adventuresports
Thanks for reading and for any suggestions or help!
http://www.dinottelighting.com/LED_bike_lights/dinotte-xml-3-headlight.htm
The driver board on my light apparently is failing. The light should have hi-med-low settings but it seems to now only use the low output for all three settings, it will cycle through all three setting of the push button but there is not difference to the output, all are (identically) too low to be useful for me, only about <200 lumen when this light should be over 1500 lumen on high.
I removed the on/off push button endcap (by removing the retaining o-ring) and then was able to pull the driver board out to investigate. The board looks somewhat similar to the dinotte driver board at
http://lh4.ggpht.com/fluffytapeworm/SPbxK9S-8pI/AAAAAAAAA0U/M69HWX3RV-4/s800/IMGP5320.jpg
from CPF thread http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?210005-Dinotte-5W-mod
The linked photo of the dinotte thread above shows a somewhat large black carbon cylinder with blue painted rings that is attached to the PCB that looks similar to a components that is possibly damaged on the driver board for my light. Any ideas on what this black & blue ringed cylinder is? On mine, it looks as if this cylinder is crack near the bottom and feels slightly wobbly. I could likely remove and re-solder a replacement if I know what sort of component it is and can procure a replacement IF this is the source of the problems.
With the malfunctioning driver board out, I measured with a voltmeter that on all three hi/med/low setting the driver is only producing a consistent 8 volts. I tried connecting the contacts for the three serial XM-L2 LEDs directly to a 12v, 2amp automotive charger and verified that the LEDs are still very nice an bright when they have sufficient power. Direct driving the LEDs with the auto charger at 6v setting was similar in weak light output as I am getting from the failing driver board.
If I cannot easily repair the original driver board, I would like to try to replace the dead driver board with a new driver. I am having trouble figuring out a suitable replacement driver that would work with my 7.2v battery to drive the three serial LEDs which I think should need about 10v at around 2 amps for high power. I know this will likely need to be a voltage boost driver board but I cannot make sense of all the different specifications to identify a driver that should work for this drive voltage/amperage from my 2S3P battery. I think that the HBFlex board from TaskLED would probably work but at $40 it is pretty expensive. Is there any other comparable driver available from kaidomain, mtnelectronics or elsewhere that you could suggest that should would work for my light?
I could likely push a few more watts through my dinotte light than the 1500 lumens that it was originally configured for. All of my bike riding needing lighting is done in cold, cold Alaska winter (<20F) conditions so should help for keeping the LEDs sufficiently cooled.
While it is perhaps not still state of the art, the Dinotte light is nicely made and I would like to fix/mod it as a learning project if practical. I also just recently re-built the old battery pack with fresher cells so would prefer to be able to use those but thinking perhaps re-building to 3S 11v configuration might be easier to allow the use of a linear (non-boost) driver board such as those available from adventuresports
Thanks for reading and for any suggestions or help!
