The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

scoobywrx

Yep Skyray is all you need on the bars. I will post a photo sometime on how its mounted, which is how I have mounted all my previous lights
Just a 501b is then needed on your lid (as DIY would recommend too)
Previously I'd be running 2 C8 XML which again is a good combo, but I do like the skyray

shinsplint

Have to admit lads, im road only, but the lanes around here are pitch black with no lighting whatsoever and potholes ahoy.

A Skyray may be considered OTT mind lol

diy

My road training route is mostly unlit too and two 501bs on medium is fine. The big thing to remember is to run clear lenses in your glasses. High contrast seems to be a big problem on unlit roads and paths.

roverthehill

Concorde wrote:

For bars...

http://www.dx.com/p/universal-bicycle-mount-for-flashlights-and-gadgets-2cm-3cm-diameter-adjustable-15642?rt=1&p=2&m=2&r=3&k=1&t=1&s=31871&u=15642

For helmet...

http://www.dx.com/p/universal-adjustable-bicycle-mount-for-flashlights-2cm-4cm-diameter-31871?rt=1&p=2&m=2&r=3&k=1&t=1&s=15642&u=31871

yeah bought one of those bar mounts - cracked it when putting it on.....

-Archie-

roverthehill wrote:

yeah bought one of those bar mounts - cracked it when putting it on.....

I've tried most of similar mounts: they're all crap, made of low-quality plastic. The only good and reliable mount for putting 18650-based flashlight on the bar from DX is this one:
http://dx.com/p/cycling-bicycle-flashli ... der-105213


It holds the torch very firmly, and there's no moving parts prone to break.

inkz

Well everything I ordered has now turned up. The torches did turn out to be UK stock, even though the seller is based in China. Arrived via Citylink from Nottingham.

Everything arrived within 4 days. Got a ride tonight but my batteries are here at work and my charger at home Just texted my wife to see if she's near my work today lol.

concorde

InkZ wrote:

Well everything I ordered has now turned up. The torches did turn out to be UK stock, even though the seller is based in China. Arrived via Citylink from Nottingham.

Everything arrived within 4 days. Got a ride tonight but my batteries are here at work and my charger at home Just texted my wife to see if she's near my work today lol.

Jealous! Wishing I went with UK based now, mine still en route! Paid round about the same as you but got an extra torch in there. Hurry up!!!

Enjoy!

spongtastic

After 7 weeks and a paypal dispute, Lightmalls have finally shipped my lights via FedEx.

MrGrumpy

InkZ wrote:

Well everything I ordered has now turned up. The torches did turn out to be UK stock, even though the seller is based in China. Arrived via Citylink from Nottingham.

Everything arrived within 4 days. Got a ride tonight but my batteries are here at work and my charger at home Just texted my wife to see if she's near my work today lol.

let us know how good the torches are! Not all of them are the same it would seem but I think even a couple at 400-500 lumens would be adequate for road use, which is all I am after.

mcnultycop

InkZ wrote:

Well everything I ordered has now turned up. The torches did turn out to be UK stock, even though the seller is based in China. Arrived via Citylink from Nottingham.

Mine still haven't arrived from that seller - looks like he is refunding me though, according to his broken English.

inkz

Well I went out last night in the new forest, pitch black. Only had one torch because my batteries weren't charged and my mate only had one battery he could lend me, which happened to be a crappy ultrafire.

It was bright enough for riding but couldn't go too fast because I need another light shining a bit further up the road, so definitely need 2 out in the sticks, although 1 will be plenty for my commute on the dimly lit backroads. I was running it on medium and the ride was over 2 hours and had no probs.

I charged up my Torchy 2800's but these don't seem to work. The LEDs only light dim and the modes don't quite work properly. I will get out the multimeter tonight, I'm hoping that it's something simple like the battery isn't making a decent connection, I had no issues with the Ultrafire battery. Not sure if anyone else has any experience with these symptoms? It does brighten up if I loosen off the caps and fiddle with them. I watched that video earlier in the thread and might try sticking a bit of wire on top of it etc. Not sure if the length of the battery might have something to do with it either.

The mounts seem solid, I had to wrap the torch in some inner tube, as it was a bit small for the mount but it's nice and snug now.

Looking forward to my ride next Thursday when I get to try both torches

inkz

Well checked voltage on my batteries and they are fine.

Put battery on wire direct to LED fine.

Put battery in torch and wire from case to bottom of battery fine.

Put bottom cap on and not fine.

These torchy 2800 are quite long and I'm wondering if either they are pushing too hard on the end cap or the end cap is pushing too hard on the protection PCB.

Just to top off my luck I've split apart two laptop batteries now and one lot are measuring 1.45v and the other 2.45v so can't even charge those When I get back to work on Monday I'm going on a mission through the old laptops until I find something with some voltage left in them!

Ouija

Had that problem on two of my 502's, it was down to using protected batteries. Now use unprotected in the shorter torches and protected in the longer (which work better) and haven't had any problems since. The tell tale clue is if battery doesn't work unless you screw the cap a little ways out (Li-Ion batteries are notoriously susceptible to being crushed lengthwise, causing cracks to appear in the lithium which shorts the battery out).

alfablue

My SenyBor 2800 mah batteries seem to work fine in my 502s, they are protected and I thought they were of the "longer variety", but maybe less so than torchys. I measured them and they are 69.5mm whereas my Trustfires are 68.5mm, but they all work okay. Perhaps the 502s vary as well.

kenan

I just got a CREE XML XM-L T6 1800LM bike light (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140740068030? ... 1423.l2649)

I'v seen people have fitted a filter lens to create a wider beam. Anyone know where I can buy one from in the uk? been searching the interweb but my skills are failing

Ouija

alfablue wrote:

My SenyBor 2800 mah batteries seem to work fine in my 502s, they are protected and I thought they were of the "longer variety", but maybe less so than torchys. I measured them and they are 69.5mm whereas my Trustfires are 68.5mm, but they all work okay. Perhaps the 502s vary as well.

That was what i was referring to....



You use the shorter unprotected batteries if it's a shorter 502 (left) and the longer protected batteries in the longer 502's (middle & right). You can also use the shorter batteries in the longer bodies, but the spring isn't applying as much pressure to the back of it so there's a slightly greater chance that the battery could recoil a little over large bumps, momentarily breaking connection with the driver at the front of the torch which triggers a mode change.

Irrespective of the above, you should always wrap tape around the battery so that it can't move inside the body and always tighten up the inside the cap via the two small depressions next to the spring.

Oh! And by the way, a 18650 battery is supposed to be 18mm wide and 65.0mm long, hence it's name (18-65.0). Protected batteries are supposed to be called something like 18670 or 18680 etc (according to length), but almost no manufacturer bothers doing this any more as users still refer to them as 18650 irrespective of length, though you still find some retailers who use these designations.

My A8 uses a much fatter 26650 battery (guess what the measurements are)......



but it's the same length of my Senybor 2800 protected so is also misnamed....

Ouija

kenan wrote:

I just got a CREE XML XM-L T6 1800LM bike light (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140740068030? ... 1423.l2649)

I'v seen people have fitted a filter lens to create a wider beam. Anyone know where I can buy one from in the uk? been searching the interweb but my skills are failing

Bought most of the stock filter lenses that can be used for this. The best "off the shelf" one is the Nukeproof standard filter which you can get from ChainReactions. Just file the little burrs off the side of it and place it behind your current lens.



Don't use the NukeProof Wide or Narrow filter (one's too diffuse, the other appears to do nothing at all). Also avoid the MagicShine oval reflector, which doesn't do much except turn your tiny circular spot into a tiny oval one.

sprite1275

Hi, New around here and been asking about lights in the commuting section which I got some great help. In the end I opted for a 502B with 2 xtar 3100ah batteries and an xtar wp1 charger. I'm well chuffed with this light and lights my way down down country lanes brilliantly on medium.

Anyway I thought I would ask here about my charger. The first time i charged my battery the light on the charger stayed red for about 7 hours, I then touched the battery and charger as I was going to unplug it because I thought 7 hours seems too long to be charging, as I touched it the led turned to green. The second battery I charged it got to about 4 hours I touched it and this made it turn green. Is it best to scrap the charger as I know these batteries can be a bit temprimental and shouldn't be messed with.

I wouldn't mind a charger that charges Li-lon batteries and also nimh AA, AAA. Searching this came up with the SysMax/NiteCore Intellicharger i4 V2. I've searched for this on this site and gone through this thread but can not find any discussions on it. It seems a great charger at a good price but I'm not up on this stuff at all. Does anyone here own one or have an opinion on it?

Seems a good review on it here but most of its gobbledygook to me. http://lygte-info.dk/review/Review%20Charger%20SysMax%20i4%20V2%20UK.html

Northwind

Ouija wrote:

Also avoid the MagicShine oval reflector, which doesn't do much except turn your tiny circular spot into a tiny oval one.

+ potatoes. Made mine worse tbh, it was still too spotlighty but also the beam was a distracting shape.

So anyway, gave my assorted lights a proper workout tonight, downhill racing :roll: And it made it really obvious that the Skyray King has good power but doesn't throw it well at all, very bright and fairly tight hotspot- I ended up using it on low power at which point it worked really nicely- similiar beam to my old P7s, but a fair bit brighter. But obviously a bit of a waste of all that bulk and all those XMLs.

So, just wondered if anyone has any suggestions for broadening the beam a bit- whether they're specific to the light or just general advice.

Ouija

Smear a bit of vaseline over the glass in front of one or two of the led's. Even a bit of sticky tape over the glass can diffuse the beam a little. And if you want seriously diffuse, cut a white balloon in half and stretch it's skin over the entire head of the torch.

Oh! And have a look in your local stationary shop or places like Wilkinsons and other hardware shops (B & Q). You can find little sticky backed transparent circular dots on a sheet which have a slightly dimpled/rippled texture to them. About the size of a penny. Just peel them off and stick them on your lens.

Can also get a roll of helicopter bike protection tape (the matte variety, not the glossy kind) and cut out your own lens shape and stick it on. The matte variety has that smeared vaseline look to it that diffuses the pattern. Also doesn't go yellow in the sun.

Northwind

That simple, huh? In that case I guess I'll tap my brother up and see if he's got any spare theatre light gels! I'd assumed this sort of thing would end up cutting the power more?

adrenalinemunki

I have bought 2 501Bs, can I use one of those nukeproof filters to spread the beam of the one that's going on the bars leaving the helmet one with a more direct throw?

I.e. will it fit?

Ouija

adrenalinemunki wrote:

I have bought 2 501Bs, can I use one of those nukeproof filters to spread the beam of the one that's going on the bars leaving the helmet one with a more direct throw?

I.e. will it fit?

No, it's a big lens. Better off getting a orange peel reflector for the 502 from Manafont.

diy

If it doesn't already have the OP reflector, the other option is to widen the hole in the reflector with drill by 1mm to increase the profile of the LED in the reflector.

bartimaeus

Is there a recommended way of keeping the shorter unprotected cells really snug in a 501? I have mine wrapped in tape, but the bar-mounted lights sometimes switch mode when it's really rough - which I assume is the cells moving and breaking contact. I may just have to work out which cells need more tape - but the issue seems to be that they are 'short' so can you add something to make them longer, perhaps?

scarbs85

I'm after a relatively cheap (£50) helmet mounted light to accompany a magicshine mj-872 on the bars. The bar mount should give plenty of flood, so a helmet light ideally wants to have a focussed beam. I'd like a rechargeable with built in battery rather than external pack. I looked at a Serfas 500lumen at my LBS at the cost of £130 which seemed steep for what it was, but that's the sort of thing I'm after.

If anyone could point me in the right direction I'd be grateful, sorry for adding to the masses of pages with a question probably already covered, but finding the answer is needle in a haystack stuff.

Neal_

Bartimaeus wrote:

Is there a recommended way of keeping the shorter unprotected cells really snug in a 501? I have mine wrapped in tape, but the bar-mounted lights sometimes switch mode when it's really rough - which I assume is the cells moving and breaking contact. I may just have to work out which cells need more tape - but the issue seems to be that they are 'short' so can you add something to make them longer, perhaps?

Google "rare earth magnets 18650"

diy

or a couple of washers will do or a big nut.

Neal_

Just spotted a new 3xT6 light for £27ish, aparently it has stepless adjustment although also states the mode arrangement as "20% > 50% > 100% > Off (Long press) > Low strobe (Long press)"

http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S020710

diy

scarbs85 wrote:

I looked at a Serfas 500lumen at my LBS at the cost of £130 which seemed steep for what it was, but that's the sort of thing I'm after.

Near identical spec:
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.ph ... ack-p-7639
http://www.lightmalls.com/ultrafire-wf- ... ht-1-18650
http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S009982
http://dx.com/p/ultrafire-wf-501b-xm-lt ... 8650-55241

The first one will give max output of about 650-700 Lumen
The second and third a little more
the last about 450 lumen

runtime will range from 45 mins on full to 120 mins for the last one. Each torch has 5 modes, lo, med, high, sos and strobe.

then you just need some 18650s and an 18650 charger. which you can get from ebay or from the same location
it can be attached to your helmet using a couple of bits of velcro or elastic.