The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

PaulC7

Post put in wrong section sorry.

Neal_

apreading wrote:

I dont get that one - surely the light and bars need to be a 90degrees to each other and here they are inline - with no obvious way for that to be set properly?

I hadn't spotted that, doh! Its a pretty useless mount then.

leaflite

butcher of bakersfield wrote:

Cheers Leaf, that looks just the ticket. Te other one looks very similar (if not the same) to the ones I have, and the way it clips up just lacks a little sturdiness and refuses to lock at all on one of them.

Are Manafont still based in Hong Kong?

Manafont tend to dispatch things much quicker than deal extreme. My last two orders both arrived within 2 weeks

badflaw

Hello!
Could someone please recommend a handle bar mount set up for night single track riding ( i already have a petzl head torch).

I have budget of around £60 max though id tather buy from the uk than waiting a few weeks from china

Thanks in advance for your help

cooldad

badflaw wrote:

Hello!
Could someone please recommend a handle bar mount set up for night single track riding ( i already have a petzl head torch).

I have budget of around £60 max though id tather buy from the uk than waiting a few weeks from china

Thanks in advance for your help

You can get them from UK sellers for a few £s more, just use Ebay and filter for UK sellers only.
viewtopic.php?f=20005&t=12660193

boothuk

Anyone know where I can buy an 18650 charger in person in the UK?

Tried Maplin but they only do website order. Could do with picking one up tonight or tomorrow.

Cheers.

leaflite

boothuk wrote:

Anyone know where I can buy an 18650 charger in person in the UK?

Tried Maplin but they only do website order. Could do with picking one up tonight or tomorrow.

Cheers.

There are a few uk based ebay sellers, and online sellers such as amazon, but no uk "shops" that I know of that stock them.

It might be worth trying a rc model shop as some remote control stuff uses lithium batteries.

Rushmore

Rushmore wrote:

I think i'm going to go for this as recommended by Supersonic

viewtopic.php?p=17265285

recieved today on the 14th business day since ordering..

Damn these things are bright..

The mounts sent were not the plastic type either..

Instead it was a rubber mount with velcro.. and will be confident in these not falling off...

roverthehill

I bought that setup to = class lol. Never got the velcro mount though

jedi_master

@DIY.
I like the way you have the lights attached to your helmet. What is that you are using to attach them? Also I can see how they attach from the top but how are they attached underneath?

Rushmore

Rushmore wrote:

Rushmore wrote:

I think i'm going to go for this as recommended by Supersonic

viewtopic.php?p=17265285

recieved today on the 14th business day since ordering..

Damn these things are bright..

The mounts sent were not the plastic type either..

Instead it was a rubber mount with velcro.. and will be confident in these not falling off...

First outing with them tonight...

WOW these things are freakin bright!! Although had to change batteries about 2/3 through just over a 2 hour ride.. and that was on full beam...

Really happy with the performance..

PaulC7

I shall be getting them myself soon... was looking at pictures of how bright they are but a pic can be altered so its good to know they are as good as they sound.

Thanks

blablablacksheep

Been doing some info gathering now about what light/s to use for my running at night and at first i was sure fire set on a torch but after trying my mates torch out with a head strap i dont think torches are the way to go, as the light isnt central enough....so it seems "diy" was right about trying a DIY job .

I seen this light set-up which ofc is stupidly exspencive but the essance of it seems sound.
http://www.magicshineuk.co.uk/products/ ... low-price-

Want to try and make a simular setup, important points are:
Battery pack weather proof as best as possible ie self contained no exsposed leads,/wires.
Light must be encased ie like the bike T6 Cree XML is so water and crap cant get into it.

Am thinking about getting a magic-shine setup but excluding the battery pack and buying one seperate with higher quality batteries(and also flat packed rather than cubed), then all i have to do is mount the light +pack onto headstrap.

Does this sound good? or should i try and find my own caseing unit ect as well?

diy

Jedi Master wrote:

@DIY.
I like the way you have the lights attached to your helmet. What is that you are using to attach them? Also I can see how they attach from the top but how are they attached underneath?

two loops of 2" elastic stitched to two inches of velcro. You the just push the lights in to the loops feed the tails through the vents and connect the velcro. Its pretty easy. TBH you could just do it with the 2" wide elastic stitched together.

tenfoot

Jedi Master wrote:

@DIY.
I like the way you have the lights attached to your helmet. What is that you are using to attach them? Also I can see how they attach from the top but how are they attached underneath?

Mount my 502b like this



using an old Livestrong band. The light feels really secure.

Excellent tip off from Delcol.

streetvw

what's the collectives thoughts on these



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Budget-1000-L ... 43ada6ac98

been looking at torches but don't know what to go for? spotted the above being sold by Torchy who seems to know his stuff?
http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/bi ... abase.html

supersonic

They produce a very sharp hotspot, thena large, faint flood - hardly any graducation between the two. Puts out a lot of light, a great spotlamp.

diy

Same as : http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t6-waterpr ... -set-82510

But £10 more.

+ a bike light charger and mount all in one
+ good run time
- only one light
- not a great beam
- 2p2s pack design wears out quickly and can short and die
- harder to fix when they go wrong

Ouija

Got two of those (that exact variation). As Supersonic says, they are very spotty though you can change that with alternate lenses (such as the Nukeproof ones... which are discontinued as of last week). Both of mine have a fault in the rear battery light, in that the red "low battery" warning LED is on all the time (irrespective of if it is or not). However, you can still see the Green battery charged light at the same time so it's not that bad (just ignore the red and look for when the green one switches off to know when to recharge). Since i got both from different sources, i'm assuming this fault is probably generic of the whole line.

The headstrap that comes with that light is also pretty useless. The rubber bands won't hold it in place and even when they do the light is pretty much pointing straight down at your feet as you simply can't rotate it far enough back to point forwards (made even worse if you were leaning forwards on a bike). The lead from the lamp dangles from the front of the mount straight down into your face too. Lol.

Lastly, those rubber rings are pretty useless as handle bar mounts too. So factor in another £13 to £20 for a good replacement. There's a really good Hope style one you can buy for £13 that's a straight drop in replacement. Alternatively, you can buy a Magicshine one for £15. This is useless too, but the base mount (the part that attaches to the light) can be used with a modified Halfords 'Bike Hut' replacement clamp (which is very, very good). But that route requires some fiddling DIY sanding and drilling.

An alternative to that light is this one. Got two of these as well. Looks similar and has the same CREE XML T6 LED in it but is quite different. For a starters, the headstrap actually works. It sits the light far enough out from your head that you can point the light forwards, the lead comes out of the side of the light, not the front, so doesn't dangle down in front of your face (there are even clips on the headband to keep it running tight around the right hand side of your head and then down your back). It also comes with a smaller two cell battery that can easily slip inside your pocket or strap to your belt with the included belt holder.

The down side is that the twin cell battery is wired in parallel, so your getting the same runtimes as the light you posted, but only has a 4.2v output so the brightest mode is about 15/20% dimmer than the 8.4v powered light you posted. Oh! And the handle bar mounts also crap so, again, you'd have to factor in buying a better one. However, this light is significantly cheaper at just £20, so with new bar holder it would still work out the same as the other light you posted (which in itself would require a new holder... bringing it's price closer to £50).

By the way, although it comes with a 4.2v battery cell, i've tried it with a 6v battery and had no problems, so i assume it could take a 8.4v (but this would of been made up of four lithium batteries and would of been too bulky for a belt strap or for strapping to the back of your head etc).

Probably the best all round 'instant' light is something like theUltrafire 502b flashlight. Only £14, runs off a single 4.2v lithium battery (so similar brightness to the second product i posted above) but is a 'all in one' light with no leads and cables etc. The reflector in this isn't that spotty as the other lights talked about, with a nice even spread of light from the center outwards. However. You'd have to factor in buying a decent battery for it (something with a lot of mAh and 'protected'), a bar mount and a battery charger. These could take the price up above that of the other items in this post, but it is still the best all round light (not too spotty with a beam that lights up one point of the road and practically nothing else, not too diffuse and 'floody', lighting up everything too dimly).

springtide9

Deal at CRC

Hope Vision R4 LED Li-on Epic: £212.00
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=70457

Hope Vision R4 LED Li-on: £180.00
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=70455

And with this code: 2XBFM4UR8HZXT2 you'll get another £10 off. Bargain!

diy

I challenge the need for protected cells in a single cell torch. Yes protected is safer, but I've never found it that essential when you take care when charging. Some of the cheapo 18650s have crappy protection circuits anyway.

Personally I'd say get a quality brand cell typically found in a laptop bat pack and you'll be fine. I'm currently running some snot green ones I found in some lenovo packs. Coming out at close to 2.8Ah each. The other advantage of torches (though I prefer the cheaper 501b), is that you can change cells when out on a ride. chuck a couple of cells in your pack and you have plenty of run time if you don't mind swapping them over.

Btw 3 501/502bs with XPGs will outshine the above hope setup no problem for about £120-140 less.

blablablacksheep

diy wrote:

Btw 3 501/502bs with XPGs will outshine the above hope setup no problem for about £120-140 less.

+1 Guy who i ride with has same setup and its pretty powerfull, though takes a while to get the perfect set-up with the lights on the bars, but once done, really good coverage.

we tried sticking one to headstrap for our run but fell off after 5 mins :roll: so we looking at the Cree XM-L select U2 set-up but its quite hard finding a casing for it which would fit a hard strap/be secure atm, other than that just need to decide which way to run the battery pack.

Ouija

diy wrote:

I challenge the need for protected cells in a single cell torch. Yes protected is safer, but I've never found it that essential when you take care when charging.

True. But those hand held torches have no way of telling you if your draining the battery below the 30% mark (no lights or indicators), which will do damage to the battery. With a protected battery that's not going to be a problem as the battery itself would sever connection with the device it's in to prevent over draining.

night_porter

Ouija wrote:

. But those hand held torches have no way of telling you if your draining the battery below the 30% mark (no lights or indicators), which will do damage to the battery. With a protected battery that's not going to be a problem as the battery itself would sever connection with the device it's in to prevent over draining.

Actually that is not correct unless you are using a torch with a single cell AA or multiple cells. All of the torches will cut themselves off when the voltage drops lower than the Vf of the emitter (normally 3.2V) because they all use a "buck" type circuit to give a constant 3.2V for the led.

The single AA type torches use a "boost" circuit to give the right voltage but there is no problem draining an AA or similar nimh cell.

Multiple Li-ion cell torches run in serial will cause a problem because if one of the cells is dangerously drained the other may still give a higher than Vf voltage. This could turn a torch into a pipe bomb!!!

This is why it is always recommened to use protected Li-ion in multiple cell torches unless they are run in parallel.

As diy said unprotected Li-ion in single cell torches is perfectly safe.

np

diy

3.2v is a bit on the low end, I was not suggesting you could rely on the driver cutting off at 3.2v, more of a case of changing the cells after a fixed time of use. I tend to swap mine over after 2 hours if I have been running them on full mainly.

springtide9

diy wrote:

Btw 3 501/502bs with XPGs will outshine the above hope setup no problem for about £120-140 less.

Great thread regarding DIY lights.

I also wanted to use my light for the road, and you know what roadies are like... having two of these strapped on the bars, other roadies would lynch me!

The Hope R4 is lovely. It has an offset bracket allowing the light to be placed at side of the stem, but the light centred - very neat!

I also have the Vision 2, so now have both a standard plus double capacity battery... which are interchangeable.

Question regarding the battery packs... the batteries are stated as "7.4v Li-Ion, 2600mAh/5200mAh - and have the same connector - are these standard? i.e. can I use batteries say for the Magicshine lights?

diy

Yep probably, 7.4v is nominal. It will probably fix the issue which stops the light running on full mode once its at half capacity. The lights will have a driver anyway.

Personally I wouldn't want to use 4 * XPG for road use. I use a couple of whatever is handy (XRE, XPG, MC-E, XM-L) on the road bike running in low/med mode which is plenty for road use.

blablablacksheep

anyone got one of these Zebralight H600?? Seem very impressive for a headlight, though quite hard to find UK suppliers atm,..

supersonic

Well it is light. But that is all I can say about it!

diy

I think there is a typo in the price - looks good for £7.95