Cateye EL500

suzyj said:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has seen one of these in the flesh? I notice they're on the Cecil Walker website, at a whopping $134, but I've never actually seen one. Buzz around the net would indicate that they're pretty good stuff, though I bought an EL-200 after reading people thought it was good, and reckon it's a waste of time.

Regards,

Suzy

Got one. Wouldn't want to use it as my primary light source (except at lower speeds), but very bright for making yourself seen by other road users.

Brilliant battery life.

"suzyj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has seen one of these in the flesh? I notice
they're on the Cecil Walker website, at a whopping $134, but I've never
actually seen one. Buzz around the net would indicate that they're
pretty good stuff, though I bought an EL-200 after reading people
thought it was good, and reckon it's a waste of time.

Regards,

Suzy

--
suzyj

Was a thread on alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent recently with a number of good
coments from USA / Canada riders.
LBS has latest Cateye catalogue and it lists EL 500 as a globe type light,
not a 1 watt Luxeon LED as refered to by ppl in "bent" group.
Wont mention bying overseas on the net. (ducks for cover)

Seen one, no.

My light is a $25 Kmart job. A Dunlop XENON (High Power), high/low beam,
nice rectangular illumination pattern on road and about 4 hours between
recharge of 4 AA Ni-MH (2300mAh) batteries or about 5 hours life from [censored]
Smith Digitor Extra Alkaline. Times relevant to using high beam rarely -
its Very bright.

Most of my weekday training is at night and have no probs. Only 1 negative,
the electronic circuit inside sucks the last ounce of life out of the
batteries and it suddenly goes dark!
The idiot drivers in Townsville are like chooks, go to bed when the sun goes
down.

Cheers
John

Was a thread on alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent recently with a number of good
coments from USA / Canada riders.
LBS has latest Cateye catalogue and it lists EL 500 as a globe type light,
not a 1 watt Luxeon LED as refered to by ppl in "bent" group.
Wont mention bying overseas on the net. (ducks for cover)

Sorry, I've actually got one (in my hand right now!) and it's definitely an LED ... single globe yes, but an LED. The heat sink at the back of the globe is enormous!

"suzyj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has seen one of these in the flesh? I notice
they're on the Cecil Walker website, at a whopping $134, but I've never
actually seen one. Buzz around the net would indicate that they're
pretty good stuff, though I bought an EL-200 after reading people
thought it was good, and reckon it's a waste of time.

Regards,

Suzy

--
suzyj

Try to post again! Some replies just dont ever appear! Dont understand.

Was a thread on alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent recently with a number of good
coments from USA / Canada riders.
LBS has latest Cateye catalogue and it lists EL 500 as a globe type light,
not a 1 watt Luxeon LED as refered to by ppl in "bent" group.
Wont mention bying overseas on the net. (ducks for cover)

Seen one, no.

My light is a $25 Kmart job. A Dunlop XENON (High Power), high/low beam,
nice rectangular illumination pattern on road and about 4 hours between
recharge of 4 AA Ni-MH (2300mAh) batteries or about 5 hours life from [censored]
Smith Digitor Extra Alkaline. Times relevant to using high beam rarely -
its Very bright.

Most of my weekday training is at night and have no probs. Only 1 negative,
the electronic circuit inside sucks the last ounce of life out of the
batteries and it suddenly goes dark!
The idiot drivers in Townsville are like chooks, go to bed when the sun goes
down.

Cheers
John

cirrus said:

Was a thread on alt.rec.bicycles.recumbent recently with a number of good
coments from USA / Canada riders.
LBS has latest Cateye catalogue and it lists EL 500 as a globe type light,
not a 1 watt Luxeon LED as refered to by ppl in "bent" group.
Wont mention bying overseas on the net. (ducks for cover)

Sorry, I've actually got one (in my hand right now!) and it's definitely an LED ... single globe yes, but an LED. The heat sink at the back of the globe is enormous!

Luxeon LEDs are to normal white LEDs as the Beatles were to Wings. Just a whole lot more oomph and illumination, whilst consuming the same amount of drugs . . . err, battery power.

Do a Google on Luxeon - theres some scary-bright home-madeies around.

M"Watt?"H

"suzyj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has seen one of these in the flesh? I
notice they're on the Cecil Walker website, at a whopping $134, but
I've never actually seen one. Buzz around the net would indicate
that they're pretty good stuff, though I bought an EL-200 after
reading people thought it was good, and reckon it's a waste of time.

The Nite Hawk Emitter is similar money and a much better light.

http://www.nite-hawk.com/bikeemitter.html

--

A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

DRS said:

The Nite Hawk Emitter is similar money and a much better light.

Quoted message said:

http://www.nite-hawk.com/bikeemitter.html

Dunno DRS, that's gotta be the most fussy, spindly, overcomplicated mount I've ever seen for a bike light.

Regards,

Suzy (minimalist)

quote='suzyj'DRS said:

The Nite Hawk Emitter is similar money and a much better light.

Quoted message said:

http://www.nite-hawk.com/bikeemitter.html

Dunno DRS, that's gotta be the most fussy, spindly, overcomplicated mount I've ever seen for a bike light.

Regards,

Suzy (minimalist)[/QUOTE]

Hi Suzy, I went for a Cateye LD400 - it's a three white LED job that takes 3 AAA batteries. It flashes forever and is bright enough to prevent claims such as "sorry, didn't see you mate". I do not recommend it for non-streetlit roads (or tracks). You can have one for 88 bucks from CW.

Ritch

ritcho said:

Hi Suzy, I went for a Cateye LD400 - it's a three white LED job that takes 3 AAA batteries. It flashes forever and is bright enough to prevent claims such as "sorry, didn't see you mate". I do not recommend it for non-streetlit roads (or tracks). You can have one for 88 bucks from CW.

Ritch

Yup I've got one of them(The 3 led Opticube)
Its waterproof!!
Like really waterproof with a seal and a magnetic switch. Its a great little light. Even use it round the camp site for a flashlight.

No good for unlit roads though.. great for commuting in the city. I get flashed and asked to turn it down 🙂

Tom

"suzyj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

DRS said:

The Nite Hawk Emitter is similar money and a much better light.

Quoted message said:

http://www.nite-hawk.com/bikeemitter.html

Dunno DRS, that's gotta be the most fussy, spindly, overcomplicated
mount I've ever seen for a bike light.

Agreed, but the helmet mount is quite good. And for the price this has to be
one of the best value lights. They claim it as being equivalent to a 10 watt
halogen, and runs on 4 NiMH or Alkaline AAs. And check out the run times -
9hrs on 100%, 72hrs on 10% output. This could be my next lightset for MTB
night rides.

Cheers
Peter

suzyj said:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has seen one of these in the flesh? I notice they're on the Cecil Walker website, at a whopping $134, but I've never actually seen one. Buzz around the net would indicate that they're pretty good stuff, though I bought an EL-200 after reading people thought it was good, and reckon it's a waste of time.

Regards,

Suzy

I know what you're getting ready for......GSR?
Your into electronics aren't you Suzy?
Why not just make a 3 watt Luxostar and run it off three C cells?
I made one up recently and used it on a 400km Audax ending with the descent of Macquarie Pass in fog late at nightand it was excellent.
With 3 alkaline c-cells you should get about 8 hours run time.
Here's a description of my mate Mikes one.
michaelcarden.netluxeon3.phpOpen ↗
Mine is much more compact (35mmx30mm) using a cut up Learsport aluminium frame tube and a big alu heat sink on the back. Heat = Bad.
It worked out at about $50 not including time to build.

Pete
(almost ready for GSR)

"suzyj" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]

Quoted message said:

DRS said:

The Nite Hawk Emitter is similar money and a much better light.

Quoted message said:

http://www.nite-hawk.com/bikeemitter.html

Dunno DRS, that's gotta be the most fussy, spindly, overcomplicated
mount I've ever seen for a bike light.

It's a much better *light* than the EL500.

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A: Top-posters.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet?

"Poiter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

suzyj said:

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has seen one of these in the flesh? I notice
they're on the Cecil Walker website, at a whopping $134, but I've never
actually seen one. Buzz around the net would indicate that they're
pretty good stuff, though I bought an EL-200 after reading people
thought it was good, and reckon it's a waste of time.

Regards,

Suzy

I know what you're getting ready for......GSR?
Your into electronics aren't you Suzy?
Why not just make a 3 watt Luxostar and run it off three C cells?
I made one up recently and used it on a 400km Audax ending with the
descent of Macquarie Pass in fog late at nightand it was excellent.
With 3 alkaline c-cells you should get about 8 hours run time.
Here's a description of my mate Mikes one.
http://www.michaelcarden.net/luxeon/luxeon3.php
Mine is much more compact (35mmx30mm) using a cut up Learsport
aluminium frame tube and a big alu heat sink on the back. Heat = Bad.
It worked out at about $50 not including time to build.

Pete
(almost ready for GSR)

--
Poiter

Why not use a 5 watt one, and I recommend a bit of copper as a heatsink as
it has twice the thermal conductivity of Aluminium.

Marty

Marty Wallace said:

"Poiter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Why not just make a 3 watt Luxostar and run it off three C cells?
Poiter

Why not use a 5 watt one, and I recommend a bit of copper as a heatsink as
it has twice the thermal conductivity of Aluminium.

Marty

Burn time.
Audax rides can involve up to 12 hours of darkness.
The GSR will involve at least 3 nights of darkness.

I actually got hold of a 1 watt with a built in lens in the post yesterday and it's fantastic for such a small light (and only $20).
Backyard tests show the beam pattern to be very suitable for riding and it whomps all over the beam from a Cateye EL300.
It does get hot though without a heat sink.
I'm going to make this into a helmet light.
http://www.prime-electronics.com.au/led.htm (see Luxostar/o)
Pete

suzyj <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

For my primary light, I'm
using a Vistalight 5W incandescent lighting head, with a home-brew 7.4V
8.9Ah lithium-ion battery (weights just 400g), which should give me
plenty of illumination for the whole night

Where did you pick up the cells?

For halogen incandescents, is it better to have a single battery of 2C
capacity, or two batteries of 1C each? I'm tossing up whether to buy
2300mAh NiMH AAs or 4500mAh Cs, which are roughly the same cost per mAh
(well, the AAs are slightly cheaper, but not by enough to make a
difference). Having smaller packs gives greater flexibility with how long
I plan to ride and how many packs to take along, however.

-A
--
to email me, run my email address through /usr/bin/caesar
(or rotate by -4)

Poiter said:

I know what you're getting ready for......GSR?

Geez, am I that transparent 🙂

Quoted message said:

Your into electronics aren't you Suzy?
Why not just make a 3 watt Luxostar and run it off three C cells?
I made one up recently and used it on a 400km Audax ending with
the descent of Macquarie Pass in fog late at nightand it was
excellent.
With 3 alkaline c-cells you should get about 8 hours run time.

Therein lied the rub. Between my being employed as an electronics engineer, and my pretty serious obsessive compulsive disorder (submits evidence of bike frame with way OTT stem), my plans for the perfect light will alas probably never be realised, unless of course I chuck in the engineering job and open a bike shop, in which case I'll no doubt I'll spend all my spare time doing electronics stuff...

Seriously though, the EL500 is intended as a stand-alone backup light, to satisfy Audax requirements that I have two independent light systems, and later on as a commuting light. For my primary light, I'm using a Vistalight 5W incandescent lighting head, with a home-brew 7.4V 8.9Ah lithium-ion battery (weights just 400g), which should give me plenty of illumination for the whole night

Regards,

Suzy

suzyj said:

"to satisfy Audax requirements that I have two independent light systems"

"should give me plenty of illumination for the whole night"

Suzy

Suzy
Two lights is the minimum Audax requirement, not the optimum.
If one of your lights "karks it" on the GSR, technically you wont be able to continue coz you then only have one light.
I'll run my SON Hub with a 3 watt and have my 3 watt Luxeon and a Cateye EL300 as a backup, backup.
The 3 watt Luxeon beam is equal to a 5 watt filament jobbie in my opinion.
Pete

qtq said:

Where did you pick up the cells?

They're rescued from a spare notebook battery I had kicking around. The individual cells are 4/3 fat A size, 3.7V, 2.23Ah. I wired them up 4p/2s, which gives me the 7.4V, 8.9Ah.

Quoted message said:

For halogen incandescents, is it better to have a single battery of 2C
capacity, or two batteries of 1C each? I'm tossing up whether to buy
2300mAh NiMH AAs or 4500mAh Cs, which are roughly the same cost
per mAh (well, the AAs are slightly cheaper, but not by enough to
make a difference). Having smaller packs gives greater flexibility with
how long I plan to ride and how many packs to take along, however.

In general smaller numbers of bigger batteries are better. At 1C discharge, you're stressing the battery, so will get reduced performance, however with NiMH and Li-Ion, most of the development goes into the A size ones, so you tend to get the best performance using A size batteries.

Regards,

Suzy

poiter said:

Two lights is the minimum Audax requirement, not the optimum.
If one of your lights "karks it" on the GSR, technically you wont
be able to continue coz you then only have one light.

I can't remember the last time I had a light fail, so I reckon I can afford to take the risk. Looking at the Audax rules, apart from demanding two independent lights front and back, they don't specify a minimum wattage/candlepower/luminous flux/whatever, which I thought was a tad odd.

It strikes me as slightly perverse that you could use two of the crappy three-led cateye lights and be "audax legal" (and completely unable to see where you're going), but if you have one cateye stadium light (with enormous battery attached) you'd not be legal.

I figure by running one decently bright light and a second adequate light, I'll be fine. Should either one die for some reason, I'll still be able to see where I'm going (and perhaps more importantly be seen), but will just have to slow down a bit.

So is one-up-manship rife in Audax lighting? Sort of like "I've got a trike, so I can use _three_ dyno-hubs"...

Regards,

Suzy