I built up a Cutter kit three years back which has a triple XR-E LED and the UIB2 controller – it's nice and bright but after three years and one case of some pretty serious overheating (shortly after building it up when clearly there wasn't good enough heat transfer from the LED board to the light case – since fixed) later, I'm looking to replace the LED board and lense.

So, how much brighter are the current LEDs? Cutter seem to list the XPG as the 'best' but how much better is it actually? Some efficiency figures would be useful

http://www.cutter.com.au/products.php?cat=LED+Kits

I'm actually thinking that if it's enough of a step up, I might be able to use a lower capacity battery (currently 14.4V 3.8Ah which I've not run flat once) since I could run it well below 100% (1amp) – especially considering that I currently run it at 750mAh and IIRC they're a lot more efficient at lower currents.

Thanks!

Candlepower forums, bike light section. Lots of reading there.
Depends what bin your current led's are

Clubber
If your case can handle the heat then up the drive to 1 amp
and save your money that would be the most cost effective upgrade .

If you are on Q 2/3/or 4 then it is worth doing
if you are on Q5 or R2 then the difference is not that great .
and factor in the not as good optics and you have not gained much of an improvement.

If you are on Q 2/3/or 4 then it is worth doing

My bike light is P3s! (from the very first batch of XR-Es). I'm not so convinced it's even worth bothering with that – if I do I'd be going for XR-E/XP-E rather than XP-G, as I like the optics I currently use.

Does that mean that if I wanted a spare battery pack for my DC Bastid that is enroute, I don't necessarily want to look for the ampage of the battery but the voltage.

Thanks for the replies so far. I've tried running it at 1A but it didn't seem much brighter and kicked out noticeably more heat so I never really thought it was worthwhile.

I'm not sure what bin mine is either – all the email receipt (Oct 2007) says is XR-E – I do recall that it was the 'best' one out at that time though.

I've also emailed Cutter and asked them but obviously they have an interest in getting me to upgrade.

So what's the difference in XR-E and XP-G? I just thought it was the LEDs but from the replies it sounds like it's more fundamental and uses different optics.

Anyone?

the main differences with the XR-E and XP-G is the size of the die in the XP-G compared to XR-E

stolen from CUTTER

Just a short one:

XP-E, XP-G ?, as Trout said, combined with most current optics, the XP-E can be used to produce a narrower beam, in comparison to the XP-G.

So, on that logic, XP-Es for a spot type of beam pattern, XP-G fora wider, flood like beam pattern.

Or, combinations of the two, but !, if you do combine XP-Es and XP-Gs, just remember that you may be limited to the lower current limits of the XP-E.

That is all

🙂

Perfect – thanks for that.