Brighter Headlight using existing wiring?

[MrCaspan]

So my headlight is built into my wiring harness. It's about a 40 lumen lamp standard $20 headlight they put on every ebike and is not very bright. Let's assume it's a 12v or 20v light, is it possible to upgrade this to like a 1500 lumen head light? I know it will draw more current but how do I know what my controller will allow. How can I test to see if it's 1A or 5A or even 500 mA. Is there an easy way to find out? Also what happens if I put something on it that draws too much? will it just provide it with the max and that it or will it damage the circuit if I try to draw 2A and it's only rated for 1A.

For reference I have a 2022 VoltVike Enduro with the Befang M600 motor and color screen. I have no idea the controller.

 

[Jon A]

No. The controller simply won't support a powerful light (6V, 3W max):

If you want a powerful light wired to the battery you need to tap into the battery directly. I used an Anderson Tap from Grin to wire in a FisherFab (3200 lumens) on my Ultra bike. Serious PITA to wire in. But a super bright light I never need to charge or replace batteries in? Worth it.

 

[AHicks]

If you were up for it, you could use the exiting power to the head lamp to switch a relay to establish a much heavier circuit pulled direct from the battery. That allows swithing using the standard up arrow method - no additional switch required. No I don't have a wiring diagram, it's a pretty simple circuit...

 

[Foul2Fair]

 

[MrCaspan]

Awesome Video! Thanks! This assumes your controller is powerful enough to support 2 lights. I do think that I like the idea of pulling directly form the battery so I get as many amps as I want (relatively speaking) I would use the existing light wire as a relay trigger to open the relay and let in the full (fused) voltage and amperage of the battery to a much brighter light and then I can use a buck converter to bring it down to the required voltage for my light. I think this can be done clean and not look too ugly!

 

[6zfshdb]

The headlight on my Pedego Interceptor is woefully inadequate as well. Rather than tap into the bike's wiring harness, I bought a powerful handlebar mounted light with a built in battery. I leave it connected to the USB port on my bike's display to keep it charged so I never have to remove it. So far, I've never run out of light, even on 4+ hour night rides.

 

[MrCaspan]

Yeah that's a great idea to be honest. I have a couple of OLight (800 lumen I think) for my helmet and handle bars but I get sick of worrying about "did a charge the battery", "over the winter how do i store them", "did keeping them plugged in kill the battery now". I have a 900W 48v battery on my bike. I just want to stop worrying about multi batteries and worry about just 1 the main one!
Also nothing beat having a light where you are looking NOT where you are steering