Cutter kit (the budget one)

Has any one used this budget cutter kit, or anyone with experience of LED electrics know if they’re any good or not? I’m thinking of seeing if I can get one to fit in my standard Lumicycle housing…. here’s the cutter link:-

Cutter

thanks, chris

They’ll fit right in a Lumi housing & give a very good light to £ ratio, you won’t be disapointed.

At a quick glance that budget kit the driver is only running at .68 amp – so the LEDs will not be as bright as if they are driven at 1 amp. The more expensive kit has a much better driver with options for changing output levels and is much more sophisticated.

Only running at 0.68A could be seen as an advantage though, as you’re generating less heat and the LEDs are more efficient. You get significantly more runtime without significantly less light given the eye’s logarithmic response – as a rule of thumb I reckon you need to double the LED current in order to make a significantly noticeable difference to the output. Meanwhile do we really all need multi levels? It’s not long ago most of us were happy with single level halogens.

Anyway, weren’t you recommending AyUps the other day because they used lower power so were more efficient, TJ?

i’ve got that kit, not built it into a light yet though.

looking to put it into a tesco C cell torch, compliments of trout and Smudge.

seems good value for 500 lumens.

Anyone seen the Phatlight LEDs? 1750 lumens. At 13.5A LOL.

Correct aracer – but the more expensive kit has a driver where you can alter the drive current to get any output you want – so you can have the 1 amp brightness ( which is noticably brighter but less efficient) or you can have the more efficient but less bright lower settings.

The few quid more for the better driver seems worth paying to me. You can get the driver from taskled in the states cheaper than getting it from cutter.

If anyone is ordering one can they let me know so I can piggy back an order to reduce postage costs — unless Vortex/others have a spare one lying around??? Darn good value at that price.

I looked into getting one of these kits before being made redundant. I decided that it was probably worth paying a bit more for the more advanced feature one that they do.
I was even considering the 4LED one.

Kinda gone out the window now though until I can get a new job – can’t really spend money on such luxuries!

I have a pdf doc somewhere with an old thread (I think from here) saved on it with pics etc. that someone who’d made the swap had taken. I can mail it to anyone who is interested.

thanks for the replies folks. i think 500 lumens will be plenty for my needs (i don’t believe the nighttime should look like day time!), and I’m not bothered they’re not the brightest bin LED’s, or aren’t driven at 1amp.

junkyard – postage from aus is only about AUS$14, which is about 7 quid, so by the time i’ve forwarded on the bits in the uk, there will prob be not much of a saving at all! however, i live and work in sheffield, so if you’re local, more than welcome to piggyback on the order… wonder if a higher value order is more likely to get stung for import duties etc…

IIRC on my order from cutter they put a fairly low value on the packaging, didn’t get stung, dunno if that makes a difference??

Errm – it will not be 500 lumen. Dont be dissapointed but like most LED folk ( except nightrider) they quote theoretical max not actual output. More likely to be around 300 lumen ish – about the same as a 10 or 15 w halogen

yeah i know it’s theoretical… but comparing it as a theoretical compared with other theoreticals i’ve seen, i think it should be good enough!

will be using it in medium beam with a tesco 3w AA on the helmet.

North west but not that local to you
will badger Vortex as he is only a mile away from me and wait to see output from one but ta

I think you can have mine Junkyard. I’m happy with my existing LED and to be honest could do with the dosh.

mail or ring me if you want it, you can pop round and pick it up. I think it came to about £20 when bought it, so you can have it for that if you like.

I need to start riding more and stop building bloody lights!

I’d suggest you’re being excessively pessimistic there, TJ. Q4 LEDs, so at least 100lm at 350mA, and even given a conservative uprating that will be 160lm at 680mA (nowadays Cree suggest ~1.7x for 700mA). Now derate that by 10% for a 70 degree junction temperature, and allow for typical 10% losses in the optic, and you still have a grand total of 390lm out the front. Meanwhile halogen specs have the same issue of theoretical vs actual output. Easily brighter than a 20W halogen (my oldest LED light using 3 P3 bins 🙄 is definitely brighter than a 20W halogen when run at 700mA).

Vortex — will message you tonight and collect over weekend then may need some quick advice on building it. Will go riding with you as well if you need encouragement

So how many lumens will the triple r2 kit push out at 1000ma??

700ish depends on how much you lose through your optic.

Optics are more like 80% efficient I thought.

Triple R2 at 1 amp will be around the 500l mark possibly. Certainly the 500l nightrider led is brighter than my triple seoul led at 1 amp which is a claimed 720 l

Went and checked some specs, TJ, and 90% efficient certainly isn’t untypical. Triple R2 should be about 600lm at 1A on the same basis as my previous calcs. What you have to remember is that more lumens out the front doesn’t mean the beam will look brighter – the center of the beam could actually be less bright depending on the beam pattern.

TandemJeremy – Member

Errm – it will not be 500 lumen. Dont be dissapointed but like most LED folk ( except nightrider) they quote theoretical max not actual output. More likely to be around 300 lumen ish – about the same as a 10 or 15 w halogen

Quoting from the same hymn sheet as the 2pure boys now tj?

So how do you measure these lumens then or are you just guesstimating??

On the Cutter site is a spec sheet for the LEDs multiply the lumens output @ 1000mA by 3 then take away the percentage lost due to optic.

kinda – nightrider measure actual output -not theoretical max. I have compared other lights against theirs and guestimate from there.

Very much a guestimate but my “720l” triple was not as bright but a similar beam patern as their 500l light.

Could that be down to the optics and design??

received the basic cutter kit a couple of days ago – lens fits into Lumicycle housing a treat… now all I need to do is solder it all together and work out how I’m going to keep it all together in the housing!

looked at the driver board and first thought was ‘I’ve only got one of those, best not get the soldering wrong!’

Will post updates and pictures of build.

Good info at http://www.Taskled.com

Excellent…..let us know how it goes cp…..I have a pdf of a previous thread where someone had modded his Lumi’s using the same thing if you are interested in having a look through it? I can e-mail it over.

FINALLY… an intial report back. i’ll post a PDF of the build and how it all went together.

Went out with the finished(ish) article on tuesday evening – and WOW!! far far superior to the 20W halogen that was in the standard Lumicycle housing. I had to file the bottom of the LED board to get it to locate on the ‘flat’ at the base of a lumi housing. it all goes in nicely, and is chuffin bright. if anyone is after a 30quid delivered LED upgrade kit, then the basic cutter one is fab 🙂

there’s no heatsink in the unit at the moment – i made one but couldn’t fit it in with the other junk. But, it was used for an hour the other night, and the housing was only tepid when i got back, and the light showed no ill effects.

cp and stumpy01,

If you’re mailing out any info on LED mods to Lumi lights, could I have a copy please?
Ta
andytrousers
at
hotmail
dot
com

cp
Did you go for narrow or medium? and how do they compare with Lumis spot/mid?
Thanks

i went with mid. narrow would be way too narrow to be mounted on the bars IMO. Would be great for a helmet mount though probably. At the moment, i’ve got a tesco 3w LED torch on the helmet. i think it was a lumi mid that was in the unit. the spread is similar, but the LED penetrates so much better. I much prefer the whiter light too – esp. on the road, it shows up the darker bits of tarmac so much better.

boxelder – i’ll try to remember to email you! Will also host it somewhere and post a link.

The optic on the Cutter kits makes a massive difference to usable output. The flood optic just isn’t worth bothering with, seems to lose a load of effective light, just go for the spot option which is more than floody enough for general use. If you’re unsure about the narrow / mid thing, just get one of each, not massively expensive.

Thats what I did, narrow & mid on the bars, narrow on the lid.

boxelder – e-mail sent.

If anyone is after a fully built unit I have a custom housing (one of Troutie’s designs) with triple R2 LEDs and Bflex driver for sale. Only selling ‘cos upgrading to a 6 LED version.

Mail me if interested

davewoods33@hotmail.com

there’s no heatsink in the unit at the moment – i made one but couldn’t fit it in with the other junk. But, it was used for an hour the other night, and the housing was only tepid when i got back, and the light showed no ill effects.

As is common, you’re totally misunderstanding the point of a “heatsink” inside the unit. There’s absolutely no point in putting a finned heatsink inside the unit – it will heat up the air inside, but since that air’s got nowhere to go it won’t help much with cooling your LEDs – using the air to transfer heat from the LED board to the casing is an incredibly inefficient way to do it. What you need is a heat connection between the LED board and the casing to transfer the heat directly – a bit of alu stuck to both with thermal epoxy works well (and a lot better than a big lump of something floating inside the body). If you’ve not got good thermal connection between the LED board and the light body then the fact the body is only tepid means nothing – the LED board could be much, much hotter.

As above, the LED board is thermally bonded to the aluminium ‘slug’ & that in turn is a tight fit in the alloy housing & covered in thermal transfer compound – as a result the housing is only a few degrees cooler that the LED MCPCB showing that the heat is being dissipated to the external air, if your housing is not getting hot indoors on full power then you do not have a good thermal path & risk cooking your LEDs.