Luna Lumenator

[tomjasz]

I'm not bagging on the Lumenator

I’ll bag on a number of failed designs/products from a blow hard vendor. You’re much appreciated for your metered approach.

 

[voidedwarranty]

Ok everyone, I have finally had a chance to install the Luna Lumenator on my bike today. I tried to make a video of the unboxing and install but I have come to realize something.. I hate narrating through a camera. So here is my unboxing, installation, and first impression notes.

• The kit comes with the light assembly, an upgraded harness, and aluminum bracket pieces along with necessary hardware. There is no allen key supplied so make sure you have yours handy. 3mm and 2mm. The construction of the light assembly seems very nice. Nothing felt flimsy. The screen size is very much about the same as you can expect from the compact 500c display (which I happen to like more than the large DPC18). The bracket pieces first appeared to be of nice construction just like the light itself however when initially mocking up the bracket arms I noticed they were not perfectly parallel. This was not an issue once the assembly was mounted to the handlebars but if you decide to go ahead with this purchase I recommend keeping all mounting hardware a little loose when getting it positioned where you want it and then tightening down evenly. As I stated, once everything was tightened down, it held nice and sturdy.
• The button pad was a bit of a let down. I don't love the overall construction and feel of it. Small nitpicking detail here, but with a throttle and button pad both mounted on the left hand side, the button pad needed a millimeter or 2 more height and it would have cleared the bracket for the throttle and sit nice and flush and tucked above the throttle for a clean appearance (this could just be my specific throttle and others may very well fit nicely snug together. Not even sure what throttle I have. Probably a basic Bafang thumb throttle).
• There are 2 options for hooking up the cables. You can use your factory harness with a small female-female adapter (included in the kit) to plug into the display or you can swap out the whole harness for Luna's "upgraded" harness. The former takes as much time as plugging in the adapter to your harness and the other end into the connector from the display so about 60 seconds or less and you're done. The latter will require a bit more plugging and unplugging but still not a big deal.... Unless of course your bike has an internally routed harness like mine does. I began disassembling my downtube battery locking mechanism as needed to gain access to the wires. The main wire that connects at the motor was only accessible by removing a case cover for the housing the motor resides in. After gaining all the access I thought I would need, I come to find out the connector is too big to pass through the hole in the motor housing (that connects to the downtube and up to the handlebars for all your brake lever and display connections). The motor would have to be removed from its housing to get the necessary space to fish the harness through. I begrudgingly gave up on that and just used the existing factory harness to complete the installation. A project for another day when I have more time and tools. Using the factory harness limits power output to 75% which is still exponentially better than the light I had been using.
• There is an auto light feature that can be manually switched on or off using the '+' and '-' buttons. Short presses of those buttons change PAS level and long presses change light output. Short pressing the power button cycles from trip to odometer. Long pressing the power button will turn everything off. Long pressing the 'M' button activates 'walk mode' and double clicking the 'M' button gets you to the menu settings.
• The light output is very nice. I only tried out the first 3 of 5 light settings. I don't see any need for going past 3. It is still day time and properly freezing so night test may have to wait a bit longer.
• There is considerable glare on the display screen in direct sunlight.
• The angle of the screen in relation to the light is not so great. In order to point the light downward the screen ends up point up at the sky. For laid back, upright seating positions this can definitely make the screen nearly impossible to see in the daylight.
• The Lumenator does not appear to turn on the rear tail light or the original headlight which I still have wired in. Brake light activation of the tail light still works.​

Those are all the notes I have so far. I have not ridden the bike more than 30 feet on my driveway in daylight so more impressions will be forth coming when its a little nicer out.

Edit: ok I said f*it and took the bike around the neighborhood now that it's dark out. Frankly there is no comparison to the original light that came with the bike. If the original light was the equivalent of holding a lighter out in front of you while riding at night, the Luna Lumenator on level 5 might as well be a supernova. The auto feature is not only for on/off functionality either. It also changes the brightness of the lights depending on the available light around you. Coming up to a street lamp and the lights dimmed. A passing car had it dim further. This auto dimming feature seemed very reactive to the point it was almost annoying and easier to just ride around on level 1 or 2. Levels 3-5 are completely unnecessary for street riding. In fact level 2 was overkill on the streets as well. I could only last 10 minutes because it's 20*F right now and I wasn't bundled correctly. I am thoroughly looking forward to a proper night ride through some trails.

 

[voidedwarranty]