Light & Motion Stella 300 Dual

Keitho

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No replies yet from people who actually know the answer to your question, so I'll bump the thread with a tangent...

I really like L&M stuff, used them for years. That 300 Dual is a cool-looking host, but I'm not sure it would be worth it to try to power boost with a new LED (even double the luminous flux won't look too bright by today's standards, especially for a 2-headed light with a wired battery pack). I'd be tempted to rip out the stock LED and all electronics, and use a flashlight or other components to hack together another use for the host. (I'm thinking something like the internals from an Emisar D1 wired to a 1S3P 18650 battery pack.)

Good luck with the project, keep us posted, and we'll hope for an actual expert to show up here...
 

txn

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So I found it is a CREE XRE, and it appears to be a mid-bin warm white as well. Going to pop an R2 bin cool white in its place and see what that does.
 

Steve K

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The XR-E was a good LED. ... somewhere in the 60 to 100 lumens per watt. I've got these in a couple of my own home-built headlights. Changing to a better bin of the XR-E should be low risk, although it might be difficult to get enough improvement to notice.

It would be nice to upgrade to "modern" LED, such as a Cree XP-E2, but the footprint is quite a bit different. If L&M was nice enough to use a standard MCPCB, it might be possible to swap the LED and MCPCB for something like the XP-E2 and matching MCPCB.

Got any photos??
 

txn

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Here's a pic of the LED board, which solders at a right angle to the driver board. The exposed ring around the LED connects to the housing to sink heat to the housing.

Oversize image of LED board 816-0007
 
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Steve K

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Good photo!
Replacing the LED should produce quite an improvement... that one looks like it has been operated at high temperatures. You might want to check that there's not a problem with the thermal path. I'm guessing that the heatsink sits directly on the silver colored portion of the board. Another thing to check: when running the light while not moving, the heatsink should get fairly hot to the touch.

Regarding the possibility of replacing the XR-E with a newer model of LED, I don't see an easy way to do it. Might be fun to experiment a bit, but I wouldn't risk the original board.
 

datiLED

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As Steve K mentioned, the LED in the photo has been overheated, and the phosphor is cooked. If you want to see a big improvement in performance, replace the LED with current technology and find a reflector that is similar in size to the original.

Try to improve the heatsinking to enable the LED to shed heat to the finned exterior of the housing. Otherwise you will have issues with the new LED.
 

txn

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Good photo!
Replacing the LED should produce quite an improvement... that one looks like it has been operated at high temperatures. You might want to check that there's not a problem with the thermal path. I'm guessing that the heatsink sits directly on the silver colored portion of the board. Another thing to check: when running the light while not moving, the heatsink should get fairly hot to the touch.

Regarding the possibility of replacing the XR-E with a newer model of LED, I don't see an easy way to do it. Might be fun to experiment a bit, but I wouldn't risk the original board.

I believe you are correct about the ring being for heat-sinking. The reflector/finned heatsink part of the housing appears to press against there. Strangely, there was no evidence of thermal grease to properly pull heat away.
 

txn

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As Steve K mentioned, the LED in the photo has been overheated, and the phosphor is cooked. If you want to see a big improvement in performance, replace the LED with current technology and find a reflector that is similar in size to the original.

Try to improve the heatsinking to enable the LED to shed heat to the finned exterior of the housing. Otherwise you will have issues with the new LED.

Unfortunately, from what I can tell there does not seem to be any new LED that matches the footprint of the XRE. I'm going to try and replace it with a new R2-bin XRE, which should make a big improvement.
 

Steve K

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Unfortunately, from what I can tell there does not seem to be any new LED that matches the footprint of the XRE. I'm going to try and replace it with a new R2-bin XRE, which should make a big improvement.

Just replacing the damaged XR-E should help, and an optimal bin ought to make a difference too.

Definitely try to figure out if the heatsink is making proper contact with the mating surface of the board. It is possible that some of the support for the board has shifted, distorted, shrunk, etc., over the years, and allowed a gap to develop.

Let us know how this develops!
 

Deaner

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I'm in possession of a dead Stella 150 (i assume that it is the same head, but just a single one). I came across this post and wondered how it worked out with the R2 binned emitter.
As i have limited experience with electronics i am curious to know if you needed a reflow gun or were able to do it with a soldering iron?
 

Motorapido67

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Hi, new to the forum and after some info on the same light, Stella 200 dual head, so its listed as a Stella 400, i've got the glass and seal out of the body but any advice on how to pull the reflector and PCB out, i don't want to force it and damage anything.

I think i'm right that Light & Motion did push this as far as a 500 single head lamp, so a twin 1000 should be possible, any help in determining what LED was in the 500 unit.

or any feedback on the original OP on the outcome of his upgrades.
 

aahhaa

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So I found it is a CREE XRE, and it appears to be a mid-bin warm white as well. Going to pop an R2 bin cool white in its place and see what that does.
Why would you replace a warm LED with an inferior cold white one rather than a neutral white or better warm white LED?
 
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