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Philips Pedelec headlamp 80 lux

Introduction

Pedelecs are classed in 2 categories: The first is of 25 km/h electric bicycles with pedal assist, the second is of fast-pedelecs which can go up to 45 km/h, only allowed in some countries. This lamp is a souped up version of the Saferide 60. It was originally meant for OEMs only, but became available for loose sale from ca. March 2012...

Specifications:

Philips Pedelec 80

Mass: 159 g. including cables and mounting bracket with retroreflector.
Size: width: 65 mm, height: 41 mm (without mount; the lens is the tallest and the widest part of the lamp), length: 81 mm
LEDs: 2 x Luxeon Rebel, crystal white (apparently this is about 5500K, in between cool white and neutral white, the Philips lamps are better w.r.t. light colour than many other lamps, but neutral white would be even better)
Mounting width: ca. 21.8mm (this is not standard)
Wiring: double strand wire. There is a double strand wire with 2 x 2.8 mm male connectors for power-out.
On/off: Via the electronics of the pedelec.
Price: € 119,-.

Pictures:

Philips Pedelec 80 Philips Pedelec 80 Philips Pedelec 80 Philips Pedelec 80 Philips Pedelec 80

Experiences

When I tried my first lamp (which came without instructions) it worked fine until the second time, and I wasn't sure why. I thought a failure in the electronics. But anyway I asked for instructions before trying the 2nd lamp. The instructions and writing on the lamp seem contradictory... Picture 2 shows putting wires into a dynamo connector, but then the lamp is shown in picture 4 with 4 x 2.8mm connectors which it doesn't have. And there the lamp is shown connected to the battery of the pedelec using 2.8mm connectors. So, what to do with this? Later on there is a picture with a taillamp connected to the headlamp, but is this always done so or just in some types of pedelecs?

My 2nd lamp also died... I thought I had taken anough precautions, but there are different interpretations of the instructions possible that show that Philips really needs to improve those instructions. In Germany having a dynamo light is required as a pedelec is considered a bicycle, contrary to an ebike which can go without pedalling and doesn't need a dynamo. This is perhaps why the one long wire is directly connected to the the dynamo, but I thought it would be parallel to the battery input, taking whichever is providing power. This would also give a taillamp power attached via the system, i.e. a low voltage battery would be topped up automatically by the dynamo and the taillamp would also work. But on a pedelec you don't want this lamp to run from dynamo when it's not needed. With a dynamo hub it would always run.

I thought the input/output would be parallel, so in fact both would be inputs too, and that would explain also that the output voltage is the same as input voltage and up to 48V (which taillamps can handle 48V?). But this seems not the case and this gave me problems as the instructions that say to attach the battery using the 2.8mm plugs, seem to mean that you should solder/crimp new plugs (could be other types than 2.8mm) to the dynamo wires, then connect it to the battery or more probably to the electronics which selects the dynamo or battery. This is quite confusing because the 2nd picture in the instructions says to wire to the dynamo, the 4th picture shows to wire the cables with plugs to the battery, though in that picture 4x plugs are shown whereas the lamp is only provided with 2 plugs on the wires, the other 2 wires are bare at the end, for use with a dynamo plug. This is another reason I thought the inputs/outputs are the same (so a taillamp would be connected in parallel).

I ran the lamp from dynamo for a while, made a video of it too. It is very weak, no match even for a Cyo 40 and not at all for Philips own 40 lux dynamo/battery headlamps. It is also extremely flickery, and the flicker only stops above ca. 18 km/h. So the only use for dynamo power with this lamp is as emergency backup in case the battery (of the pedelec, or standard bicycle with with you could use it with a separate battery), is empty.

It could be interesting for non-pedelecs as a battery lamp with dynamo backup in case the battery is empty, but before I check another lamp or say anything more about it, I will await the response about the instructions.

Early November 2012 I sent my comments about the problems with the manual which don't make things clear at least to someone not simply replacing a pedelec lamp on a pedelec bike, to Philips. I haven't seen a response to that, but I got a report of someone who also had a problem with the Pedelec lamp in February 2013 and he found a revised manual by Philips from Feb. 2013. Here it is: Philips_SafeRide_LED_BikeLight_Pedelec_Add_user_manual.pdf

Preliminary conclusion

Running from dynamo gives a very weak beam. The beam strength on battery should be better than the Saferide 60, not as good as the Saferide 80 battery, but I can't say more about that situation at the moment due to the demise of my test lamps.

2013-6-27: I will not test any further samples.

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