Dealextreme "Magicshine"

danowat
danowat Posts: 2,877
edited September 2010 in Road buying advice
Any got one?

Mine turned up this morning, bloody hell its bright :shock: , but no instructions, namely for the charger.

What sort of charging time is expected?, does the led on the charger indicate charge level of the battery?

Comments

  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Yes.

    Mine worked for about 3 months....
  • cookiemonster
    cookiemonster Posts: 668
    Mine's a year old and still going strong. My charger just has red (charging), green (charged) - and maybe 2 hours to charge, although ive never run a battery totally flat.

    jon
  • plug1n
    plug1n Posts: 204
    Works great but my battery now only does 1 hour on high after 9 months but worth paying £40 to get a new one

    (looked at the diy options but too dangerous for my electronic skills)
  • danowat
    danowat Posts: 2,877
    cookiemonster wrote:
    Mine's a year old and still going strong. My charger just has red (charging), green (charged) - and maybe 2 hours to charge, although ive never run a battery totally flat.

    jon

    Many thanks for that, just what I wanted :D

    Battery must have been shipped fully charged, as its showing a green led on the charger.

    Must confess, I was suprised at the quality of the unit, I was expecting it to be quite poor, but it seems pretty solid and sturdy.
  • what brakes
    what brakes Posts: 328
    i have one but the mounting clip broke in an accident so i cant mount th light anymore but still works well!!!! :cry:
  • sandy hill
    sandy hill Posts: 390
    danowat wrote:
    Any got one?

    Mine turned up this morning, bloody hell its bright :shock: , but no instructions, namely for the charger.

    What sort of charging time is expected?, does the led on the charger indicate charge level of the battery?

    I too was suprised by the lack of info in the box and got a fairly terse response when I queried it with the vendor. Additionally the mounting bracket screw was insufficiently tightened when first installed.

    On the positive side, it's not rocket science, and suprisingly is shipped fully charged and ready to go.
    This is a block of text that can be added to posts you make. There is a 255 character limit.
  • lemoncurd
    lemoncurd Posts: 1,428
    Bought one was November, it lasted the winter but the battery failed.

    Was very bright though.
  • Percy Vera
    Percy Vera Posts: 1,103
    Mine is still going strong after almost a year.
    No problem with the battery.

    Just a thought...

    There seems to be a lot of battery failures... Have you been charging them up with 240V or did you buy a £20 convertor from Maplin to charge them with 110V (the US standard)? Becuase if you've just been whacking them on with 240V you probably have burnt the battery out... although I could be wrong as I am not electrically minded.
  • danowat
    danowat Posts: 2,877
    I ordered one with a specific 240v charger.
  • bigbelly
    bigbelly Posts: 83
    I got mine for Christmas last year. Used it for commuting all last winter. Have just got it out again for the darker nights as winter approaches this year. Still charged up no problem.
    I believe the chargers are multi region anyway. Worth looking at the voltage range to see what it can cope with. Usually they are rated at 100-250 Volts and 50-60 Hz.

    On my lamp unit the button glows green to show good charge. Changes to glow red when low charge. My charger glows red to show charging and green to indicate finished charging. I disconnect from mains once fully charged and don't leave it overnight to "trickle charge".

    What does the package include now to hold the battery? Mine came with a nylon holster but with what looks like a belt type strap rather than a stem type. Any idea where I can get a stem type holster for the battery?

    Ace battery/light otherwise. Insane amount of light.
    shame the rider doesn't match the bike...
  • danowat
    danowat Posts: 2,877
    Mine just came with a nylon holster that you can wrap around the stem, as it has velcro on it.

    I was wondering about weatherproofing the battery pack, would it need it?, thought about wrapping it in an inspection glove.

    Didn't realise the button on the light showed charge, but makes sense!!
  • what brakes
    what brakes Posts: 328
    If anyone wants to sell me their light unit (if their batt packs have failed) please get in touch. :wink:
  • andyrr
    andyrr Posts: 1,822
    http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... hine+hours
    and
    http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... arge+hours

    Think it's around 3 - 4 hrs from flat.

    You can possibly get a 'smart' charger but common advice is to not leave them on charge for hours on end - using a cheap timer plug would be good advice.
  • mroli
    mroli Posts: 3,622
    andy - don't know if its just me, but neither of your links seem to work....
    http://www.georgesfoundation.org
    http://100hillsforgeorge.blogspot.com/
    http://www.12on12in12.blogspot.co.uk/
  • andyrr
    andyrr Posts: 1,822
    hmmm, I searched for magic shine and charge and hours I think, concensus seemed to be aroudn the 3 - 4 hrs, an idea to err on the side of caution or run it flat and then charge it up whilst you check regularly.
  • pastey_boy
    pastey_boy Posts: 2,083
    ive mentioned this before but to be on the safe side buy this http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=41031
    it charges magicshine batteries safely and can be left on as it trickles
    Viner Salviati
    Shark Aero Pro
    Px Ti Custom
    Cougar 531
    Sab single speed
    Argon 18 E-112 TT
    One-one Ti 456 Evo
    Ridley Cheetah TT
    Orange Clockwork 2007 ltd ed
    Yeti ASR 5
    Cove Hummer XC Ti
  • lemoncurd
    lemoncurd Posts: 1,428
    Can you also use the Nuke Proof batteries with a MagicShine?
  • pastey_boy
    pastey_boy Posts: 2,083
    yes but the connectors are different so it wouldnt stay in place, you would need to order an extension or splitter cable and swap the ends over, easy enough to do and if you finish the job with some heat shrink tubing it will look professional
    Viner Salviati
    Shark Aero Pro
    Px Ti Custom
    Cougar 531
    Sab single speed
    Argon 18 E-112 TT
    One-one Ti 456 Evo
    Ridley Cheetah TT
    Orange Clockwork 2007 ltd ed
    Yeti ASR 5
    Cove Hummer XC Ti
  • hopper1
    hopper1 Posts: 4,389
    what brakes wrote:
    If anyone wants to sell me their light unit (if their batt packs have failed) please get in touch. :wink:

    May be able to help you there, but I wont be home, to check my spare unit until 30th Sept...
    I'll get back to you... :wink:
    Start with a budget, finish with a mortgage!
  • hopper1
    hopper1 Posts: 4,389
    Anyone know where I can get a spare lead?
    My lead that joins the battery to lamp seems to have a broken wire, or something... :(
    Start with a budget, finish with a mortgage!
  • andyrr
    andyrr Posts: 1,822
    Adding to this : after getting my light replaced earlier this year I tested it at the time and was happy that it worked.
    Came to use it yesterday, 1st morning it was dark/dull enough to warrant it and it was quite intermittant at coming on. Once on it worked fine for the 55 minute commute but there was obviously something wrong and it was flickering when I played with the connector for the lead from the battery to the light connector.
    Eventually managed to get the plastic cover off this last night and in doing so pulled both wires off the metal connector so I don't know which was the problem but I resoldered and it became a very consistant performer.
    Couldn't get the cover back on all the way over the connector itself so I'll need to do something about the danger of water getting in but thankfully this was a simple fix. Fair chance I now reckon that the original issue, wouldn't take a charge, was the same with a duff connection being the culprit.

    Wasn't worth me paying £10+ for postage both ways to get another light back which could well have the same issues.

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