# Some pictures of Dae's 3 Watt Headlamp



## Tachyon (Aug 15, 2006)

Here are a few pictures of the 3 Watt/3 LED headlamp available on Dae's site. I got mine last week and thought I'd post some pictures here.

Bopanna


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## MSI (Aug 15, 2006)

It looks very much like a Princeton Tec Yukon HL, I guess they got "inspired" by it


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## leduk (Aug 15, 2006)

Thanks,

Any chance of a side by side beam with something else for comparison?

Cheers


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## Varroa (Aug 16, 2006)

I've got the same headlight. It is bright but only as bright as a 1 watt LED. The three outside LEDs are very blue. I am in the process of adding 3 nichia LEDs to it and upgrading the emitter to a K2. I'll let you all know how it looks/runs when I am done.


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## vortechs (Sep 1, 2006)

Varroa said:


> I've got the same headlight. It is bright but only as bright as a 1 watt LED. The three outside LEDs are very blue. I am in the process of adding 3 nichia LEDs to it and upgrading the emitter to a K2. I'll let you all know how it looks/runs when I am done.



Have you finished changing the LED's yet? If so, how well did it work?


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## Varroa (Sep 1, 2006)

I just got the Nichia in the mail the other day. This weekend I am going to put those in and maybe even the K2 and DD it. It the DD doesn't work then I am going to get me a fatman converter board and try that.


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## Varroa (Sep 3, 2006)

I replace the 3 x 5mm LEDs with the Nichia U bin today. The light coming from the 3 x 5mm LEDs is almost as bright as the "3 watt" main emitter. The main emitter has more of a spot to it while the Nichia are a little more flood. After looking inside this thing more closely I have decide not to use the K2 emitter but instead use a Luxeon I or III emitter instead. Once I get my hands on a decent emitter I will give it a try.


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## Varroa (Sep 8, 2006)

I ordered a TWOJ Lux III emitter and it is on it's way. I am going to replace the crappy heatsink inside this headlight with a solid chunk of copper round rod, ~ 3/8" in diameter x about ~ 1" long. I am thinking of using a 1 ohm resistor in series from the 3 x AA batteries to drive this. Once I get the emitter and copper I will start modding and take some photos as well.


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## Tachyon (Sep 8, 2006)

Hi Varroa,

Looking forward to the results of your mod! Do remember to take a beamshot of the headlamp with the original LED before you do the mod  

Cheers
Bopanna


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## Varroa (Sep 9, 2006)

Looks like the "heatsink" on the emitter is actually a piece of aluminium inside a PR2 base. The "bulb" assemble was soldered into place (there is actually no PR2 socket, just a hole in the circuit board and some spacers). I removed the assemble and now I can drop any PR2 based bulb into the headlamp (after some lite sanding since the hole was very tight). I am going to see if I can buy a PR2 socket this week and add it to the headlamp and that way I will be able to put any PR2 bulb in it (I have a couple of SMJLED PR2 bulbs, a SMJLED2 PR S.S. bulb and a Everled bulb I can try). I can also remove the emitter from the original bulb/heatsink and add the Lux III I have coming and try that as well. Photos will follow shortly (tomorrow).


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## Varroa (Sep 11, 2006)

Here are some photos of the inside:


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## Frobe22 (Sep 13, 2006)

This seem similar to some of my own headlamps. Be aware that the three small leds are fed about 50-100mA each through the resistors. I added a resistor in series with the original three resistors to get current down to a safer 20mA.
This lamp fits perfectly on my Giro bicycle helmet when I removed the straps and spliced the cable.


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## vortechs (Oct 16, 2006)

Varroa said:


> I replace the 3 x 5mm LEDs with the Nichia U bin today. The light coming from the 3 x 5mm LEDs is almost as bright as the "3 watt" main emitter. The main emitter has more of a spot to it while the Nichia are a little more flood. After looking inside this thing more closely I have decide not to use the K2 emitter but instead use a Luxeon I or III emitter instead. Once I get my hands on a decent emitter I will give it a try.



Did you ever happen to measure the current that the main "3 watt" emitter was drawing? With that tiny heatsink and low brightness, it sounds like it is probably underdriven. I would guess that this headlamp was originally a hybrid design with a PR-base incandescent bulb and three 5mm LED's that was later modified to use the "3 watt" central LED instead of an incandescent.


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## Tachyon (Oct 17, 2006)

I had the same light and changed the resistor to run the LED at 300 Ma.

It was working at 180 Ma before the mod. Even at 300 Ma the beam isn't all that bright. 

I think a mag led 3W drop in would do very well with the reflector on this headlamp. A small heatsink of some sort would need to be used.

Tachy


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