The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014
Comments
-
well there is a small bhp at the wheel vs bhp at the crank argument, but the circuit can be measured on the -ive using a dc-amp meter. That is how I do it.0
-
diy wrote:well there is a small bhp at the wheel vs bhp at the crank argument, but the circuit can be measured on the -ive using a dc-amp meter. That is how I do it.
Okay I am a numpty but could you please tell me how you do it? I know it won't make my lights brighter but it might just make me a little brighter0 -
night_porter wrote:Coolnick wrote:Does anyone have a link to a decent XML torch available from UK dealextreme warehouse please? Thanks, Nick
UF WH-501b http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafire- ... -904455241 website says £11.74 and should be delivered in less than a week.
Thanks, will order one of those. Just need a charger and couple of batteries now but they only appear to be available direct from HK :?Boardman HT Comp 2012>
Spesh Rockhopper 2004 - 20120 -
Coolnick wrote:night_porter wrote:Coolnick wrote:Does anyone have a link to a decent XML torch available from UK dealextreme warehouse please? Thanks, Nick
UF WH-501b http://www.dealextreme.com/p/ultrafire- ... -904455241 website says £11.74 and should be delivered in less than a week.
Thanks, will order one of those. Just need a charger and couple of batteries now but they only appear to be available direct from HK :?
This will cost you about a fiver more than a set from China but it should save you looking at your shiny new torch for a month with no way of using it http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18650-DUAL-BA ... 27c0622c240 -
Dx UK warehouse will take 8-10 days.
Torchythetorchman sells good quality 18650 chargers 2-3 days delivery.night_porter wrote:Okay I am a numpty but could you please tell me how you do it? I know it won't make my lights brighter but it might just make me a little brighter
1. take a large sheet of card and roll in to a cone
2. secure with tape
3. write numpty on it
4. place on head.
5. use a fully charged cell (4.2v)
6. turn your meter to the appropriate DC-AMP setting and insert leads in correct socket
7. remove tail cap from light and insert fully charged cell
8. place testing probes one on the cell (-ve) and one on the body thread (bypassing the switch).
9. The light goes on, read the meter. LED amps will be slightly higher than your reading due to the resistance in the driver.
10. remove hat.
Most household test meters (e.g. clamp meters) wont do dc-amps only ac amps which wont work.
surely you mean volts? if not try an unprotected cell.supersonic wrote:The FF will not light with a single cell. Just can't provide the current needed.0 -
night_porter wrote:Just need a charger and couple of batteries now but they only appear to be available direct from HK :?
I'd recommend getting a Xtar WP2 II charger, I bought mine from an ebay seller (bestgood88) for £12.35 which took 12 days to be delivered. I got a pair of Xtar 2600mAh batteries from Torchythebatteryboy's ebay store (big_f_d_d) which are Sanyo cells with a protection circuit and are very good, they were £12.99 and arrived in a few days.
Both of these can be bought from Qualitychinagoods (http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/xtar-w ... -2034.html & http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/xtar-1 ... -1943.html) and if you join in on this group buy (http://budgetlightforum.com/node/2476) you can get them a bit cheaper.diy wrote:Dx UK warehouse will take 8-10 days.
Torchythetorchman sells good quality 18650 chargers 2-3 days delivery.
I bought one of those from him not that long ago and it's already broken! Plus reading various reviews I think the end current is too high on them which can be a problem if you don't remove the cells from the charger immediately after the light goes green0 -
diy wrote:
1. take a large sheet of card and roll in to a cone
2. secure with tape
3. write numpty on it
4. place on head.
5. use a fully charged cell (4.2v)
6. turn your meter to the appropriate DC-AMP setting and insert leads in correct socket
7. remove tail cap from light and insert fully charged cell
8. place testing probes one on the cell (-ve) and one on the body thread (bypassing the switch).
9. The light goes on, read the meter. LED amps will be slightly higher than your reading due to the resistance in the driver.
10. remove hat.
Most household test meters (e.g. clamp meters) wont do dc-amps only ac amps which wont work.
My multimeter is a very expensive Fluke so it is capable of testing the current. Apart from the hat that is exactly what I have been doing but I never seem to get the current that everyone else seems to report so I thought they must be talking about the emitter current as opposed to the draw from the battery. This was kind of reinforced when I read your post about the driver maintaining a current at the emitter.
An example of what I am getting is 2 brand new XM-L T6's bought for friends, both supposedly regulated current of 2800mAh and I get around 1100mAh by measuring at the tailcap just as you have described.
My reason for measuring is that I want to get something as bright as my XP-G R5 but with a 3.5 hour run time without the need to change batteries. I was hoping to run an XM-L on mid-power but given the misleading readings I am getting I am unsure if this will work.
I know I could go for a MS clone but I wanted to keep to the torch route as I swap and change between bikes. Also bar space is at a premium so I am trying to avoid 2 torches. Any thoughts would be greatly received.
PS I just tried retesting with a superb numpty hat.....same results but I am loving the hat, thanks for the suggestion. I am sure the hat has made me brighter already
NP0 -
Firstly I assume you don't mean mAh, but mA? I would hazard a guess that either:
1. your lights are in the wrong mode (try a quick tap of the probe to change mode)
2. your batteries are not running at 4.2v
3. They are cheap rubbish cells that simply can't discharge above 1-1.5A
4. your driver is driving at about 1.3A
You can remove the cells from the equation by running a parallel pair. Take the head off, pair a set of 18650s in parallel using tape and wire. and then repeat the test. If you get more current then its your cells, if not then its possibly the driver.0 -
Question about laptop batteries if anyone can help?
We retrieved 6 x Samsung 18650 2600 cells from a laptop battery pack. No idea how old they are, or how charged they were before we got them. We're charging them in this http://www.manafont.com/product_info.php/110v240v-ac-to-lithium-battery-charger-for-single-18650-eu-plug-p-7802. The charger light should change from red to green when charged.
Been charging now for about 3hrs, and the red light on the charger is still on. Will these batteries actually charge? Or will they charge but the charger won't turn green?
The cells do work as we've tested them in a torch.0 -
Question about DX's customer service but it seems relevant to ask here. I ordered one of the 1200lumen XML-T6 magicshine clone jobbies from them and it finally arrived today, only it turns out they've sent a 900 lumen SSC P7 instead. Anybody here had any experience with returning things to them, or should i just cut my losses and cope with 300 less lumens? I'm not sure I really want to go another three or four weeks without a decent light...0
-
alwaysOTB wrote:Question about DX's customer service but it seems relevant to ask here. I ordered one of the 1200lumen XML-T6 magicshine clone jobbies from them and it finally arrived today, only it turns out they've sent a 900 lumen SSC P7 instead. Anybody here had any experience with returning things to them, or should i just cut my losses and cope with 300 less lumens? I'm not sure I really want to go another three or four weeks without a decent light...
Where does it say SSC P7 on the unit, or on the box? I think I read somewhere (singletrackworld) that someone else had this problem. Turned out the supplier had run out of boxes and shipped the XML in the P7 box!!0 -
surely you mean volts? if not try an unprotected cell.
Well the input voltage is quoted as 3.2-8.4v (I guess that should be 4.2V). Anyway one cell - I just cannot see how one cell can provide that much current if power is to be conserved.0 -
Cells are normally 18650 and put out 2.1v each. Most units will have 4 cells wired together in series to put out 8.4v0
-
18650 are 3.7v nominal, 4.2max.
The 8.4v with 4 cells is 2S2P.0 -
alwaysOTB wrote:Question about DX's customer service but it seems relevant to ask here. I ordered one of the 1200lumen XML-T6 magicshine clone jobbies from them and it finally arrived today, only it turns out they've sent a 900 lumen SSC P7 instead. Anybody here had any experience with returning things to them, or should i just cut my losses and cope with 300 less lumens? I'm not sure I really want to go another three or four weeks without a decent light...
Well, 3 sides to this... One, is that it might actually be the correct light still, can't recall what the XML emitter looks like but it may be possible to ID it visually.
Second, their customer service is actually not bad at all- quite hard to get it going and a little odd in places (they insisted on photos of a battery that didn't work, for instance, even though that made no sense) but once they got going they've sorted me out both times.
But third... TBH if it's your only light, I'd choose a P7 Magicshine over their XML any day of the week, it's not as bright but it has a much better beam. XML is too chase-the-dot.Uncompromising extremist0 -
alwaysOTB wrote:Question about DX's customer service but it seems relevant to ask here. I ordered one of the 1200lumen XML-T6 magicshine clone jobbies from them and it finally arrived today, only it turns out they've sent a 900 lumen SSC P7 instead. Anybody here had any experience with returning things to them, or should i just cut my losses and cope with 300 less lumens? I'm not sure I really want to go another three or four weeks without a decent light...
Check out some posts from a few pages back. Someone else had an XM-L shipped in a P7 box - could be you've had the same and the light is actually the one you want. There's a few links to check which LED you have:
viewtopic.php?f=20005&t=12807034&p=17292470#p17292318
1010 -
hammerite wrote:Where does it say SSC P7 on the unit, or on the box? I think I read somewhere (singletrackworld) that someone else had this problem. Turned out the supplier had run out of boxes and shipped the XML in the P7 box!!
There is not marking on the unit itself, but both the box and the manual inside the box say SSC 900 lumens on them. Hmm...
Thanks for the link 101_North and the input Northwind, looking at those pics its definitely an XML. Means I shold be able to get in a cheeky ride this evening after all
0 -
You can buy the Xtar WP2 II charger from Manafont, 10 days from order to delivery (in my case): http://www.manafont.com/product_info.ph ... lug-p-8401 (with a UK plug)Neal_ wrote:night_porter wrote:Just need a charger and couple of batteries now but they only appear to be available direct from HK :?
I'd recommend getting a Xtar WP2 II charger, I bought mine from an ebay seller (bestgood88) for £12.35 which took 12 days to be delivered. I got a pair of Xtar 2600mAh batteries from Torchythebatteryboy's ebay store (big_f_d_d) which are Sanyo cells with a protection circuit and are very good, they were £12.99 and arrived in a few days.
Both of these can be bought from Qualitychinagoods (http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/xtar-w ... -2034.html & http://www.qualitychinagoods.com/xtar-1 ... -1943.html) and if you join in on this group buy (http://budgetlightforum.com/node/2476) you can get them a bit cheaper.0 -
diy wrote:Firstly I assume you don't mean mAh, but mA? I would hazard a guess that either:
1. your lights are in the wrong mode (try a quick tap of the probe to change mode)
2. your batteries are not running at 4.2v
3. They are cheap rubbish cells that simply can't discharge above 1-1.5A
4. your driver is driving at about 1.3A
You can remove the cells from the equation by running a parallel pair. Take the head off, pair a set of 18650s in parallel using tape and wire. and then repeat the test. If you get more current then its your cells, if not then its possibly the driver.
Yes you are right typing isn't my forte and I do seem to have a surplus of lower case h's lying around (that got rid of another 5)
1 tried it already but I just get lower mA's that appear to be relational to the decrease in brightness
2 I don't have any resistors but testing the cells unloaded and fully charged they are all showing 4.2V or thereabouts
3 Guaranteed but a mix of makes and with some brand new and some older ones and they all show similar mA's
4 Very good answer but of course this is why I was testing to determine the run time, as the brighness is pretty good I would be happy with extended run times. Just don't want to be caught out and "in the dark" so to speak
I like the suggestion of running them in parallel and I will give it a try later. Considering that the current lowers when I go onto different modes it may not be the capability of the cells. But hey worth a shot!
Methinks number 4 is the main fault.
Thanks for your help and I am sure you would be a millionaire if you had a penny for everytime that was said on here. Keep up the sterling work.
NP0 -
Well I have made 37p on my youtube vid in just under a weeknight_porter wrote:
Thanks for your help and I am sure you would be a millionaire if you had a penny for everytime that was said on here. Keep up the sterling work.
NP 0 -
Anyone able to help with this that I posted yesterday?
Question about laptop batteries if anyone can help?
We retrieved 6 x Samsung 18650 2600 cells from a laptop battery pack. No idea how old they are, or how charged they were before we got them. We're charging them in this http://www.manafont.com/product_info.ph ... lug-p-7802. The charger light should change from red to green when charged.
Been charging now for about 3hrs, and the red light on the charger is still on. The batteries are charging as some went in with very little power, then charged for a bit, and put them in a torch which was brighter.
Even after 3hrs-ish the light remained on red. With these laptop cell should the charger light change from red to green, or will it never happen with these cells?0 -
Depending on the rating of the battery (mAh) and the output of the charger (it says out 800mA) it could easily take longer than 3 hrs to charge the batteries. I think I read in an earlier post by the laptop battery guru that he charges for 1hr then rests for 10 minutes then charges again and so on.
Some chargers turn green when the cells are fully charged but unless you have seen this with your charger and known good cells just keep testing the voltage of the cells and stop charging them when they get to 4.18-4.20v.
Of course not all of the cells can be expected to be working or else they would still be in a laptop battery, just a guess though!0 -
hammerite Sorry I missed the question. I have answered it previously but happy to answer again
Firstly 2.6Ah 3.7 laptop samsungs are a good find, certainly up there with the best of the cells and better than most of the 3Ah junk that comes from HK, however you will need to take care the first few times as you condition them up to 4.2v.
A typical laptop cell will take around 10 hours of charging before it sustains 4.2v You cannot do this all in one go. Once it hold 4.2v it will charge in about 3 hours (ie normal).
Basically you need to charge (1hr) check temp, rest (10-15min), charge, rest etc (a time switch can be helpful), use, recharge etc a few times before it will run at 4.2v The good news is that the Ah will also increase to about 2.8-2.9Ah. Laptops run 18650s at 3.7v to prolong the life of the cell. Obviously we'd rather more juice and shorter shelf life.
The first few cycles and this initial conditioning are the most dangerous, great care needs to be taken to charge in a fire proof cool environment. Biscuit tin with a few breath holes in for example and a notch for the charge lead.
A comment on the Ampage of the charger. There is no real concept of fast charging li-ion cells. What you gain by using a high amp charger in phase 1 you mostly lose in phase 2. That said you should choose a high amp (1A ideally) charger to get the fastest possible time. There are a few 250mA chargers around which basically just run a stage 2.0 -
supersonic wrote:surely you mean volts? if not try an unprotected cell.
Well the input voltage is quoted as 3.2-8.4v (I guess that should be 4.2V). Anyway one cell - I just cannot see how one cell can provide that much current if power is to be conserved.
I was thinking more along the lines of converting to a remote pack using an old single cell tube (e.g. a 501b). Your reply suggests this would be possible.0 -
Nice one, thanks DIY, will take note to be careful the first few times.0
-
Where can I find more information on using laptop batteries? I'm assuming I'd need to look for a specific type, and there there would be proceedures/precautions to be taken with them. I'd like to know more.0
-
Almost all full sized Laptops (Dell, HP Lenovo etc) use 18650s in the battery (some of the sony's don't). Typically they come in 7.4, 11.1 or 14.8v options and comprise of 2,3 or 4 Serial configs normally in a pair to give around 5.2Ah+.
For example I have just acquired a 11.1v lenovo which is 5.5Ah and 63Wh and a 10.8v 7.14Ah (extended life) - I am expecting when I break the standard one open, i will find 6 3.7v 18650 at 2750mAh. I am hoping these will be around 2.9Ah when conditioned to 4.2v. My gut feel is they are samsung inside. I expect the extended life cell has 9 inside. That gives me 15 "new" cells and I reckon only a few will be dead.
The cells are all unprotected as the pack has protection built in, but ime providing you take care when charging and only use in single cell torches, you don't need protected cells.
I'm going to do a utube on the process of harvesting them.
you will need pliers, wire cutters, a chisel and to work quickly to avoid a short during the extraction process.0 -
I guess this is the reason why not many people go for the laptop battery route - for some is too much hassle, especially if half the cells are dead and you have to condition them. For a tenner can get 4 perfectly usable protected 18650 cells.
The FF may work with parallel configured cells, but cannot see how it can with a single 18650. On full whack the unit (ignoring driver losses) is consuming about 28 watts - for a single cell to keep up, it must output 6.5 amps to the driver at 4.2v. Not many cells out there can do that!0 -
i have these items
1 13820 OEM 2*18650 Lithium Battery Charger (110V~240V AC)
1 20392 TrustFire Protected 18650 3.7V True 2400mAh Rechargeable Lithium Batteries (2-Pack)
the auto charge on the batteries doesnt seem to be working. if i leave the cells for 5 hours charging, one of the cells maybe goes to green. the other not. however if i give the cell a poke it will go to green. is this safe?0 -
paultownsend wrote:i have these items
1 13820 OEM 2*18650 Lithium Battery Charger (110V~240V AC)
1 20392 TrustFire Protected 18650 3.7V True 2400mAh Rechargeable Lithium Batteries (2-Pack)
the auto charge on the batteries doesnt seem to be working. if i leave the cells for 5 hours charging, one of the cells maybe goes to green. the other not. however if i give the cell a poke it will go to green. is this safe?
That's why I bought an Xtar WP2 II. Does it work charging one cell at a time?0
