The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

-Archie-

Bartimaeus wrote:

Any recommendations? I have a cheap DX 18650 charger (which works) and an XTAR II (which is playing up)... but I might invest in something better if it measures capacity as I have a plentiful supply of old laptop cells - some of which seem to be pretty decent.

I personally use Turnigy Accucel-6 from HobbyKing:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... ories.html

You'll need DC power 12...18 volt and some kind of holder for 18650 cell (but for disassembled laptop packs, included crocodile clips are fine).

The charger can be connected to the computer, to collect charge/discharge logs for deep analytics.

diy

Most decent test meters will measure dc amps, then you can work out from the voltage how much is left after say 1/2 an hour or so. Its what I do. you also have the option of searching the serial numbers on the cells.

The thing about lights (road or otherwise) is you want the light as close to your eyes as possible, this way you get the maximum light reflecting in your retina. The further away the light is from your eyes the more compromised it is. The prorblem of course is this dazzles other people, so that is why car lights are a reasonable compromise.

Reminds me of ehen I was in Guatamala we learned to put our torches on our foreheads, so that we could see where the taranchulas were and not step on them.

Mark__gti

I recently got some Panasonic unprotected 18650 batteries and they seem to make my torches flicker between modes as soon as o hit a bump in the road, I don't get this issue when using my senybor protected batteries (I'm guessing because they are longer)
Are there any fixes to make my Panasonics work ie pack them and out?

diy

insulation tape around the body to make them fatter so that wedge in the body.

cooldad

They are also probably a little bit shorter.

bartimaeus

Yep, tape to make them more snug. I've also added a magnet or two on the -ve end of my unprotected cells to make them longer - this seems to be working. As cooldad says the unprotected cells are shorter so they are held less securely by the tailcap spring so they break contact more easily if they move in the tube.

Mark__gti

Bartimaeus wrote:

Yep, tape to make them more snug. I've also added a magnet or two on the -ve end of my unprotected cells to make them longer - this seems to be working. As cooldad says the unprotected cells are shorter so they are held less securely by the tailcap spring so they break contact more easily if they move in the tube.

Where did you get the magnets from?
can they make the battery short out?

tincaman

Where did you get the magnets from?
can they make the battery short out?

Here, http://dx.com/p/super-strong-rare-earth-re-magnets-8mm-20-pack-4248

bartimaeus

Mark__gti wrote:

Where did you get the magnets from?
can they make the battery short out?

I got mine from eBay (Neodymium Disc Magnets). If you use them on the +ve end near the LED then you could have a problem in shorting the cell - which would be a bad thing. If you put them on the -ve end then you would simply bypass the clicky tailcap and switch the light on... so not such a big deal, and very hard to do.

bigdrew1

Just ordered one of these as recommended on page 77.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Super-1300Lm- ... 4abbb49f87

They are much harder to find than the torch head style! It doesn't state that it has a OP reflector, but I am hoping it will have as every other one of these seems to!

diy

I note the XM-L2 is out this month and that the XM-L U3s are popping up more in budget set ups. Basically we are now getting close to 1200 Lumen at 3A. XM-L2 is 20% more efficient and will likely have more throw (which is less ideal).

andyrr

andyrr wrote:

My LM, light arrived today via Fed-Ex as it had been touted on the Fed-Ex page where I'd been tracking it's progress for the last week or so.
http://www.lightmalls.com/3600-lumen-3t ... -light-kit
Plugged in as soon as I opened up the fairly crappy cardboard box it came in (not a proper box as my previous DX lightsets were in with nice foam compartments for each item).
Light unit a bit heftier than the old DX SSC lights - not heavy or over-bulky by any means.
It's very bright though on the brightest setting, at a guess the lowest is maybe equivalent to my existing light and on brightest it really is significantly brighter.
It's now strapped to the bars so I'll be able to give it a quick test tomorrow on the way home and see what real-life side-by side road comparison shows.
For $74USD (58 + 16 shipping) it's a good deal.
As ever, longer term reliability and, especially, charging, will remain to be seen.

Wondering if someone can help me out with these lights - the Lightmalls triple T6 set.
I'd affixed the battery pack (4 green unmarked cells in it)to the underneath of the stem - quite neat, out of the way and no frame-paint rub but on the way home tonight it became detached, tinkled on the spokes for a moment then jumped into the gutter. Pack seems undamaged but the cable got ripped straight from the pack and I can't work out how/where it should reattach. I've some older lightsets and their sets of cells have a small circuit board at the base of the 4 cells but this one has a tiny, thin, long board up the side of the pack, the cable has a red and a white wire. Cannot work out how/where to resolder the wires.
Anyone ?

diy

Pics?

andyrr

Done - hope those help.
I think, it really is not easy at all to tell, but it looks as if it is maybe a case of attaching one wire each to the little board seen in pic 2, there are 2 tiny contacts marked p- and p+ and it looks like the wires pulled off there.

Right, I can see that the wires HAVE pulled off the board and I can even see which one went where, white went to the 'p-' red to 'p+'
Tried just holding the wires onto the surface of the board and pressing the light-head button, nothing,
one of the metal strips that joins one of the batteries to another has been pulled off and would also need re-soldered but even pressing down on that at the same time isn't having any effect. Darn it. Not sure if it's possible to solder this back the way it was or there is some other way of effecting a repair.

Ouija

The protection circuits buggered. May as well bypass it and just wire the two wires to the plus and minus points of the batteries at the end nearest the circuit board. You can see from the first pic where the '+' ends of the first two batteries (one now unsoldered) is being fed into the '-' of the other two batteries. Just need to solder the white '-' wire to the opposite end of that unsoldered battery shown and the red '+' wire immediately next to it (the + end of the batteries should have a smaller diameter opening on them).

andyrr

Yes !
Also tried holding the wires to the pair of little metal strips running off the board up to the base of the cells (bottom of 2nd pic) and that also works (as it should at they just run to thecfell ends) so I'll snip off the board and leave these as tags for an neater connection job.

Thanks very much -1 lightset saved.
TBH whilst bright when run as in 2xT6s mode, the light spread is fairly crappy for road use but that plus the older light I have works well as a road-lighting and car-alerting pair and also, as per tonight's fun and games, means I have a decent single light if I have a probelm with the other.

DanDax1990

Concorde wrote:

-Archie- wrote:

Concorde wrote:

That looks like it'll be shite! Long shadows! Covered in mud! It'll go dark with any kind of little bump in front of you as it shines straight at it and on nothing over it! Fail!

Not really. This setup is just not for offroad use. For long road trips, low location of light source provides good results for seeing the imperfections on the surface. Also, it's good in the fog: please note the location of car fog lights...

Last time I checked I was in a mountain biking forum?! Can see the benefits in the fog but not much use in fog if it's covered in mud. Good for road though maybe, I don't think in those terms though ;-)

Since when was it a mountain bike forum?

diy

I don't agree. Just need to reconnect the torn tab and connect the wires to the + and - on the board strip, I'd go with red on plus to start. Not very sensible bypassing the protection circuit in a 2s2p config. I'd only do it as a last resort

bennett_346

DanDax1990 wrote:

Concorde wrote:

-Archie- wrote:

Concorde wrote:

That looks like it'll be shite! Long shadows! Covered in mud! It'll go dark with any kind of little bump in front of you as it shines straight at it and on nothing over it! Fail!

Not really. This setup is just not for offroad use. For long road trips, low location of light source provides good results for seeing the imperfections on the surface. Also, it's good in the fog: please note the location of car fog lights...

Last time I checked I was in a mountain biking forum?! Can see the benefits in the fog but not much use in fog if it's covered in mud. Good for road though maybe, I don't think in those terms though ;-)

Since when was it a mountain bike forum?

Board index ‹ Mountain Bike ‹ MTB Buying Advice

andyrr

diy wrote:

I don't agree. Just need to reconnect the torn tab and connect the wires to the + and - on the board strip, I'd go with red on plus to start. Not very sensible bypassing the protection circuit in a 2s2p config. I'd only do it as a last resort

If you mean to reconnect the wires onto the original solder points on the board then I tried just pressing the wires onto their original locations on the board and got nothing. The bottom end of the board has 2 metal connecting strips coming off from B- and B+ whilst at the other end there is a single strip coming off what looks like it's marked BM and then just beside that are P- and P+ which is where the wires were soldered.

Ouija

The B+ and B- are just battery + and battery -. Likewise, the P+ and P- stand for Protection + and Protection -.

andyrr

and the red wire of the cable went to p+ and white to p-, the tiny pieces of the board that are still affixed to the soldered ends of those wires matches up with those 2 points on the board.

andyrr

I take it that if the board connections won't work then it's not possible to run these with protection.
And it should be ok'ish to run without - suck it and see ?

-Archie-

Protection PCB is quite cheap: why not to buy one? :roll:

allthegearnoidea

Just a quicky chaps,
currently using aT6 xml light on the bars (ebay £25 jobby)and an ultrafire 502b on the lid, quite hapy wit the pair of them but! cant help at look at more light,
reading a few pages back it was suggesteed that running 2 torches on medium would be better than just one on high, so got me thinking aout getting an extra torch and running the pair of them on he bars and moving the Light to the lid??
would that be a better idea than getting another Light for the bars and leaving the torch on te lid??

ta muchly in advance.

bigdrew1

bigdrew1 wrote:

Just ordered one of these as recommended on page 77.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Super-1300Lm- ... 4abbb49f87

They are much harder to find than the torch head style! It doesn't state that it has a OP reflector, but I am hoping it will have as every other one of these seems to!

This has arrived, Really well made and with a OP reflector. Just a quick question about charging. It is a 2S2P battery pack, but its really well sealed so I can't have a look inside without damaging it. Can I just plug it in to charge and not worry about overcharging (There is no indicator on the charger) Is there likely to be some circuitry inside to balance each cell?

-Archie-

It seems we'll need to start new "The big LIGHTS thread" tomorrow, isn't it?

Happy New Year to everybody here!

arthur_scrimshaw

and the same to you!

Ouija

bigdrew1 wrote:

(There is no indicator on the charger)

Wouldn't trust that. Definitely need to think about getting a charger with over charge protection and an indicator to show when it's charged. While the battery packs protection circuit could be relied on to sever connections with the charger when the batteries are full i'd still want to know when that occurred, rather than just guessing at weather it's charged or not.

Can buy alternate chargers for Magicshine lights on ebay for a tenner or get the cheap ones from China for a fiver.

jairaj

allthegearnoidea wrote:

Just a quicky chaps,
currently using aT6 xml light on the bars (ebay £25 jobby)and an ultrafire 502b on the lid, quite hapy wit the pair of them but! cant help at look at more light,
reading a few pages back it was suggesteed that running 2 torches on medium would be better than just one on high, so got me thinking aout getting an extra torch and running the pair of them on he bars and moving the Light to the lid??
would that be a better idea than getting another Light for the bars and leaving the torch on te lid??

ta muchly in advance.

depends on personal preference. I like a wide beam on the bars and spot beam on my head. My 502 torches are too spotty for me to work on the bars, even if I use two of them but two on the head would work well.