The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

-Archie-

jairaj wrote:

-Archie- how do the C2 and C8 lights differ from the 501/502 lights? Is it just a larger body so more of a heat sink effect? or is the construction different so that it provides a better interface between the drop-in and the body?

They are fundamentally different. The LED is mounted onto aluminium or bronze base, which is screwed into massive aluminium body. There's no air gap between LED module and the outer case, and thermal conductivity is quite good.

bamba

-Archie- do you have any pics of the c2 or c8 disassembled ? how do the c2 and c8 differ ?
They both look rather heavy at the front,how do you mount them ,my mounts are a bit forward bias so i can imagine they might tend to spin downwards
my mounts
http://dx.com/p/universal-bicycle-mount ... 68&u=15642
You mention not to buy 501/502's with modern leds,I have ran both for 3 years or so with p7,xpg and now xml leds with out much trouble, only the p7 used to over heat when on high for too long and would stick on high mode.
Could i expect any benefit from getting a pair of c2's or c8's ?

One 80

bamba wrote:

-Archie- do you have any pics of the c2 or c8 disassembled ? how do the c2 and c8 differ ?
They both look rather heavy at the front,how do you mount them ,my mounts are a bit forward bias so i can imagine they might tend to spin downwards
my mounts
http://dx.com/p/universal-bicycle-mount ... 68&u=15642
You mention not to buy 501/502's with modern leds,I have ran both for 3 years or so with p7,xpg and now xml leds with out much trouble, only the p7 used to over heat when on high for too long and would stick on high mode.
Could i expect any benefit from getting a pair of c2's or c8's ?

if your light are overheating your not going fast enough, lol

bamba

was only the p7 that did it, not in use any more

-Archie-

bamba wrote:

-Archie- do you have any pics of the c2 or c8 disassembled ? how do the c2 and c8 differ ?
They both look rather heavy at the front,how do you mount them ,my mounts are a bit forward bias so i can imagine they might tend to spin downwards
my mounts
http://dx.com/p/universal-bicycle-mount ... 68&u=15642

Here are my 502 and C2 lights together:



As you can see, C2 isn't that big: just diameter of head is larger (and C8 have even larger one). I don't want to disassemble them for picturing, sorry. Use Google search or browse sites like http://www.candlepowerforums.com or http://budgetlightforum.com please. I've tried many different mounts, and in my experience SKU.105213 from DealExtremeis the best one: it holds the light very firmly.

You mention not to buy 501/502's with modern leds,I have ran both for 3 years or so with p7,xpg and now xml leds with out much trouble, only the p7 used to over heat when on high for too long and would stick on high mode.
Could i expect any benefit from getting a pair of c2's or c8's ?

It depends. If your old lights aren't burned out and LED degradation is not remarkable yet - it means they are quite underpowered. As long as you're satisfied, you may not want to replace them, but if you have a chance to compare the light output of 50x and C2/C8 side-by-side - do it...

-Archie-

One 80 wrote:

if your light are overheating your not going fast enough, lol

Good point!

bamba

do you have any beem shots ?

DIY whats your take on c2 ,c8's vs 50x's

just found this clip,not bad apart from the comedy voice over,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoUKYCuJ ... re=related
for off road cycling,the beam shots look to favour the 50x as the c8 looks more or a spot light

sparky.2002

Hello people. Been running 2x 501b xpg for the last 2 years on the back of diys advice...at the time - thanks diy. One of my mates has just bought this http://www.lightmalls.com/high-brightne ... bike-light for 25quid. Been out with him at night. I reckon my single led 501b's are brighter. Just wondered if diy or anyone could shed any....light on the subject (sorry). Never had my meter on me to check the voltage/current draw. Mine draw about 1700mA at 4.2v. I'd expect the light to draw about 2600mA at 8.2v (3x1700)/2. Is that right? Fair to say he's a bit disappointed with the light. Cheers

Ouija

bamba wrote:

do you have any been shots ?

DIY whats your take on c2 ,c8's vs 50x's

just found this clip,not bad apart from the comedy voice over,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoUKYCuJ ... re=related
for off road cycling,the beam shots look to favour the 50x as the c8 looks more or a spot light

The C8 is too spotty by half.. always a problem with the bigger reflectors, especially when smooth.

diy

bamba wrote:

do you have any beem shots ?

DIY whats your take on c2 ,c8's vs 50x's

I don't buy the argument that the bigger head is a vast improvement over the smaller 50x. I have always recommended driving the XM-l around the 1.8-2.4A mark rather than flat out. At 3A its not heat sink capabilities that are the problem but the runtime of the cells and the need for decent quality cells too.

IMO the XM-L LED does not work well in a large head as the light punches through the reflector too much leaving you with focused hot spot and not much spill.

I've never had any problems with any of my 501s. Obviously a bigger head gives better cooling, but in a single cell, I would suggest its all about driving the XM-L in the optimum efficiency range, where it puts the most out for the least in. that is 2.2A +- 300mA

However when these units were 14 quid for the 501 and 25 quid for the c8 there was more of an argument between them. But now its just 3 quid (£7 for the 501b and £10 for the c8). So worth a punt, but the light output from the C8 is not going t give you a better spread. Actually its the reverse.

diy

sparky.2002 wrote:

Just wondered if diy or anyone could shed any....light on the subject (sorry). Never had my meter on me to check the voltage/current draw. Mine draw about 1700mA at 4.2v. I'd expect the light to draw about 2600mA at 8.2v (3x1700)/2. Is that right? Fair to say he's a bit disappointed with the light. Cheers

Its going to be current or the way the light throws out, might even be tint. I have some old XRE 501s that can look pretty bright because they give a very white output.

If you have a dc amp meter you need to compare the draw, if you have a camera with manual mode you can compare the actual output, i.e. set/fix iso, av and exposure and then compare the beam shots.

Ouija

diy wrote:

IMO the XM-L LED does not work well in a large head as the light punches through the reflector too much leaving you with focused hot spot and not much spill.
.

+1 (see pics above)

The problem with having too much of a white spot like in the above pictures is that it ruins your night vision. Staring at such a bright spot causes your pupils to contract, letting in less light, so that the surrounding corona of light seems feeble by comparison. The 502b's smaller head softens out the spot (specially if it's orange peeled) so that the corona IS slightly brighter but also seems brighter still as it allows your pupils to dilate more.

One 80

i have diys sugested 501b and think their great but also just had a C8 just because i fancied a go of it. havent used them all on bike yet but im thinking of using 3 of the 4.

what do you suggest i do.i was going for c8 and 501 on bars and a 501 on helmet or should i put c8 on helmet?

jairaj

experiment and see what you prefer. the torches are of similar size so should fit in the same mounts.

I prefer a spot beam on my head so I can pick out stuff further up the trail and a wide beam on my bars giving peripheral vision but others may prefer a different setup.

bamba

Interesting stuff about how the eye works and perceived brightness etc,just had a play about with my 502s,which i think i'l be stopping with,2 502's on the bars with textured reflectors for good flood and not too much of a hot spot, and just fitted a smooth reflector on the the head mounted 502 to bring out the hot spot,now nicely defined and appears brighter than a textured reflector.

diy

Hot spot on the head is great for shorter rides, but it really fatigues you on longer rides. If i'm riding for a couple of hours then I'll go focus on the head flood on the bars. If its longer then I will usually step down the output on the head torches (I use two) as the focus hot spot drives you mad. (or at least it does me).

Just thought I'd through this bad boy up in the £45 mark. Its probably not going to be that bright at 1.7A per LED (giving around 2500 Lumen), but there should be plenty of mounting options.

SolarStorm 5*T6

MrGrumpy

Quick question, since my Magic shine look alike Head unit has now bitten the dust, what is the run times on these small torches? I was going to just bite the bullet and buy a new complete head unit as I also have a spare battery (Torchyboy). However I quite like the neatness of these small torch head units :P

smashed

I have been reading the sticky as looking for a commuting light. The DX EU marketplace is full of sold out lights etc. Is that normal? Do I just buy from Hong Kong DX and hope that I do not get shafted with customs?

Thanks

jairaj

Its very rare for you to get charged tax when ordering from DX Hong Kong so you should be fine.

edit : Although shipping times can vary, typical times can be 2 to 4 weeks. A bit of savy shopping and you can find UK dealers on ebay with a 10-15% mark up which is reasonable price to pay imho for a faster delivery.

steviemidnight

I was thinking of a DIY approach for the helmet to reduce weight on my head. basic idea is to use the 501b's xml's i have but remove the battery to a pack. then try and machine a very stubby body and maybe use the remote switch as well.

basically stick the batterys in a pack on the back for 2 light weight small torch heads on the helmet. i i think i may look just to cut a chunk of the exsiting body and tap a thread into it

Anyone seen any good DIY version based on the 501 or any other widely available mod?

jairaj

Yes a few of us have done such a thing, I think someone posted a picture of their creation a few pages back. If you use the 501/502 bodies, you can glue the tail cap to the head for a good fit. Then drill a hole in the side and solder wires to the + and - battery connections.

Mine took a few hours of work and have been using it for a couple years now no problems at all.

smashed

jairaj wrote:

Its very rare for you to get charged tax when ordering from DX Hong Kong so you should be fine.

edit : Although shipping times can vary, typical times can be 2 to 4 weeks. A bit of savy shopping and you can find UK dealers on ebay with a 10-15% mark up which is reasonable price to pay imho for a faster delivery.

Thanks

diy

Run time is a factor of load. With a reasonable cell (say a quality laptop cell) you will see 2.7Ah out of a fully charge cell at least.

A 501b varies depending on driver, but they consistently seem to run at:

2-400mA low
8-1000mA med
1.8 - 2.5A high

so its a case of dividing 1 by the other. I tend to see 2-3 hours out of 4 lights as I rarely run them on full and sometimes switch them off or on low. I carry spare cells and switch them over as necessary.

apreading

Nearly 2 weeks on, no reply from lightmalls about my DOA charger - now filed a paypal dispute...

paulneenan76

Hello All. After time spent on this thread, and having seen the xmlT6's in action, I used this companies eBay shop to purchase 2 sets of lights. It took me a while to find a uk based seller who offers some kind of test and warranty with returns to uk and not Hong King or Shanghai. Paid a few quid more for this level of purchase confidence but I felt uneasy buying these things without a UK recourse.

Have to say they have worked a treat for last 2 months, robust, charge well, easy to fit bars or on helmet, run time is great for our Thursday night group rides and are ultimately enough light for even the most technical trails we do. Some of my friends with the expensive Exposures were slightly shocked.

Make up your own mind of course, I'm just passing on the kind if insight I found useful when looking at this thread :^)

http://www.sports-2-go.com/

diy

what specifically did you buy?

apreading

Interesting battery pack here: http://www.sports-2-go.com/optimus-umbi ... -192-p.asp

Doesnt look very waterproof but ability to take the individual batts out to charge/replace them would be nice!

diy

http://www.suntekstore.co.uk/product-14 ... 0_box.html

£6 quid from above. Suntek take about 2 weeks to ship I have ordered from them before

paulneenan76

It was an Optimus Cree XML t6 led with a quad 4 battery pack. They do more waterproof packs but I just bung it in my old water battle. Quite a solid handlebar fixing and the hemet strap is good.

Ok so the casing is not as solid as an exposure Diablo etc, but then I could go through 10 of these before I reach the cost of one!! 75% of the group I ride with are using 1 or 2 of these now.

Thanks

coursemyhorse

Hey guys, I have some 18650 cells if anyone needs any? These are the cells that most of us guys are using in our powerful LED torches. They are the same battery cells used in laptop batteries. Rather than gamlbing with fakes or paying a lot for genuine cells, you can often break down laptop battery packs (be careful when doing this though) which often contain very good quality genuine Sony/Panasonic/Sanyo cells etc.

As you can see in attached pic I have some unknown/unmarked red ones from some Toshiba packs, and also some green ones from a couple of Sony packs. The green ones are Sony "US18650GR" cells. These are probably the best ones and had the best voltage when I took them out. I have been charging in my normal 18650 charger I got last year and they work fine. So I have:

15 x red from Toshiba 9 + 6 cell packs
12 x green from 2 x Sony 6 cell packs

If anyone wants any of these give me a shout and I will list them on the forums for sale.