[BC] DO NOT buy the USA CatEye HL-530
martygoodman
CatEye EL-530 USA sales model:
It was a mild pain to test the CatEye EL-530 1 watt LED lamp (this sample
purchased by a GPC club member from Nashbar).
The lamp opens in a way that breaks contact between the battery holding part
(that also has in it the lamp's electronics) and the LED itself. Also,
applying power to the lamp via my bench power supply was mildly difficult,
because power enters the circuit via springs deep toward the bottom of the
battery holding area, not reachable with alligator clips.
However, using two jumper cables between the battery holder (from the output
of the electronics to the LED portion) and wedging meter test probes into
the battery compartment between coils of the springs, I was able to apply
power and operate the lamp from my bench power supply, and monitor currnt as
I varied the voltage.
Here's what I found
(Use a NON proportional font, such as Courier, to display this table!)
Volts Amps Watts
---- ---- -----
4.5 .17 .77
4.7 .19 .89
5.0 .22 1.10
5.2 .24 1.25
5.5 .27 1.49
5.7 .29 1.65
6.0 .33 1.98
Brightness substantially and continuously increased as voltage to the lamp
increased during this test.
This is the pattern of an utterly, totally unregulated application of a
battery to an LED.
This lamp is total junk, and should be avoided by all considering an LED
bike light. $40 for an UNREGULATED 1 watt lamp is a RIP OFF! For that
price, one can get the Princeton Tec EOS bike lamp, which provides a 1 watt
LED in a rugged, weatherproof case, running off 3 AAA batteries, in an
implimentation that has EXCELLENT current and power regulation for the life
of the batteries.
Again: UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should one waste one's money on this
unregulated LED lamp!
---marty
P.S. Some have suggested to me that the model for the German market IS
regulated, as per German specifications for bike lights. PERHAPS if you can
get a GERMAN EL-530, that's regulated, it might not be an unreasonable
choice. I also have heard and seen some indication that what I found to be
the unuseably tight, tiny spot beam of the USA EL-530 is not found on the
German model, but that rather a bigger spot and/or better shaped beam is
provided. But I've never myself had a Gereman EL-530 to check out, so I
can't be sure.
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