The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

Psychotext

Just noticed that the links in the sticky "What lights" thread aren't working. Seems to be because they're missing the s from "forums" in the links (they just have "forum").

bigmitch41

Psychotext wrote:

Just noticed that the links in the sticky "What lights" thread aren't working. Seems to be because they're missing the s from "forums" in the links (they just have "forum").

I noticed that too, im sure admin can sort it now

I took the plunge and ordered direct from china yesterday, even had an email to say its been dispatched, fingers crossed it will be here soonish 8)

dynamiccoins

Hi,

i've just got these two:

UltraFire C8 XM-L2
UltraFire WF-501B XM-L2

I'm new to all this so this is my first order and I want to get a good quality charger and some good batteries (protected?) - can anyone recommend some for me

Thanks

cooldad

Torchy for genuine batteries plus Xtar chargers are good.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/big_f_d_d/m.h ... 1543.l2654

Don't skimp buying dodgy batteries or chargers.

dynamiccoins

Thanks Cooldad,

Looking at Torchy's Ebay stuff, my initial thoughts are I would go for these batteries:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-SenyBor-Panasonic-inside-3100mAh-18650-protected-3-7v-2C-5-6A-drain-case-/290995774962?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_Batteries_SM&hash=item43c0b325f2

with this charger:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Xtar-VP1-4-2v-Li-Ion-Charger-10440-14500-16340-18350-18500-17670-18650-18700-/290986803767?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Battery_Chargers&hash=item43c02a4237

One thing...in the charger auction it says

"3 x charging currents - 250mA, 500mA, 1A", and in the battery auction it says "3100mAh".... is that charger ok with those batteries.

You'll might gather I have no idea about these things and I'm not even sure they are related.

Thanks

Psychotext

They're not. 3100mAh is the capacity.

Think of it like having a 31 litre fuel tank and a fuel pump that can fill it at 250ml / 500ml / 1 litre a second.

(That's not quite right, but it'll do!)

dynamiccoins

thanks Psychotext....so they're compatible - I'll go for them then

Its times like this I wish I had listened during Physics lessons at school :-)

stellamandude

cooldad wrote:

Torchy for genuine batteries plus Xtar chargers are good.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/big_f_d_d/m.h ... 1543.l2654

Don't skimp buying dodgy batteries or chargers.

This charger has been mentioned before in this thread............

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nitecore-i4-I ... 2c72ab8f32

Would this not be a better option due to it's better configuration of compatibility with all of these cells ?
Li-ion: 26650, 22650, 18650, 17670, 18490, 17500, 17335, 16340(RCR123), 14500, 10440
Ni-MH / Ni-Cd: AA, AAA, CC

cooldad

Excellent chargers.
Just don't buy a cheap and nasty one, with fold out pins and a single LED for multiple batteries.

dynamiccoins

OK so I'll go with that charger, with the sparky batteries.

Thanks

diy

I have to say that I have stopped buying chargers.. I now buy power supplies They are much more useful and a little thingermy stuck on the side of the laptop usb can sit there all day:

http://www.suntekstore.co.uk/goods.php?id=14002339
or
http://www.suntekstore.co.uk/product-14 ... rger_.html

first one charges 4 cells, second 2. and they are damn handy for boosting a phone or garmin on a long ride, where you need the display on mapping all day. Not to mention on long haul flights to boost an ipad.

andyh01

Hi guys roadie here after some help with a light please. I currently have a Moon X500 500 lum front light and the moon shield 60 lum rear. I'm looking for a brighter safety light to run during the day or when very poor visability. My current front light on high setting at 500 lum is a constant beam and is battery hungry the slow flash mode is 350 lum. The new light is only ever going to be used on the road, so I nned to be careful not to blind other road users, but want something to give the extra output when required and allow a flash to get attention and solid light to enable to judge my position as well as a back up, the commute (main function) is aprox 5 miles on main A roads parts unlit.

I was looking at either this;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TrustFire-2x- ... 248wt_1170
(I like this as has remote switch I could put under the hoods where my hands are most of time)

or this;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultra-Bright- ... 2eca23aec7

Is there much in it are they much of a muchness? Also will I need to upgrade the batteries/charger unit or will they be ok as are. Finally would anyone know if they would beable to run the Magicshine MJ818 rear light on the same battery pack ie this;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Magicshine-MJ ... 1063wt_932

Thanks
Andy

Ouija

Those two lights are overkill for commuting to be honest with you (got the Trustfire). All you really need is a XM-L based torch, with no extra battery packs of stuff to mount to the frame. Alternatively, get a more economical single head unit with remote switch like
this....



which comes with a four cell pack and will give far longer run times. You can even the get the same thing powered by a single 26650 battery in a frame mountable tube from Manafont or Lightmalls.

stellamandude

AndyH01 wrote:

Hi guys roadie here after some help with a light please. I currently have a Moon X500 500 lum front light and the moon shield 60 lum rear. I'm looking for a brighter safety light to run during the day or when very poor visability. My current front light on high setting at 500 lum is a constant beam and is battery hungry the slow flash mode is 350 lum. The new light is only ever going to be used on the road, so I nned to be careful not to blind other road users, but want something to give the extra output when required and allow a flash to get attention and solid light to enable to judge my position as well as a back up, the commute (main function) is aprox 5 miles on main A roads parts unlit.

I was looking at either this;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TrustFire-2x- ... 248wt_1170
(I like this as has remote switch I could put under the hoods where my hands are most of time)

or this;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultra-Bright- ... 2eca23aec7

Is there much in it are they much of a muchness? Also will I need to upgrade the batteries/charger unit or will they be ok as are. Finally would anyone know if they would beable to run the Magicshine MJ818 rear light on the same battery pack ie this;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Magicshine-MJ ... 1063wt_932

Thanks
Andy

Read back from page 103, both the lights you have mentioned have been talked about in depth, Pro's and Con's.
Both are very bright, more than enough (if not over kill) for your commute.
I was under the impression that the "flashing/strobe" feature on these lights is actually illegal to run/use on the public highway ?

Gregmtb

Ouija wrote:

stellamandude wrote:

Wormishere1 wrote:

Just received my TR D002 following Ouija's recommendation. This thing is tiny!

Never received anything from a Chinese supplier before and was not expecting the packaging it arrived in...

But, it arrived safe and in working condition so cannot be too bad!

Not use this 'for real' yet but all looks good so far (bright!). The only thing I would say so far is that the beam has about 4 rings in it...will see how it goes on Friday.

How did it go ?
Got any "beam shots" as I really like the look of this 8)

I did. First two are a 502 torch with XM-L T6 and smooth reflector and 502 with XM-L U2 emitter and a OP reflector (for comparison). About 900/1000 lumen.




The Trustfire without privacy film and the Trustfire with privacy film. Has a spot without the film..... but it's a very large spot compared to the torches.




Some outside shots..... the 502 U2 OP against the Trustfire... both on their brightest modes and the Trustfire has one of it's lenses covered in privacy film (couldn't get it off to do 'with and without' shots so all further pics include it). First up a damp lane with some soil and foliage....



And then some slightly chalky fire road with a lighter grey cast to it (would have been white but it had just rained).



And just coming onto a tarmac road with some damp patches from the rain and some lighter patches that had dried out...








As you can see from the pics, the Trustfire is brighter and throws more light to the sides. So even though it does have a spot you get a little more illumination of periferal objects. Also bare in mind that we are comparing a light with TWO emitters against a light with just ONE emitter. If i'd strapped two 501/502 torches side by side the difference wouldn't of been as great (or, conversely, covered up one of the lenses on the Trustfire). And with two 501/502's, you can seperate the beams and have them angled that they are not parallel to each other to give more spread (something i've done in the past).

With good Panasonic/Senybor batteries two 4.2v 501/502 torches can run for 1.5hr whereas the Trustfire runs for 2hr, but requires a four cell battery pack to achieve it (a lot of other twin head XM-L T6's would drain a four cell pack in just an hour, requiring you to lug even more cells around with you). Therefore, 501/502 torches are still the most efficient lights to go for when it comes to putting out the most amount of light, using the least amount of battery and least amount of weight.

If you don't care about that and want a 8.4v twin head design with all extra weight and gubbins then i still think the Trustife one is the top of the list of the ones to go for, mainly because of the more economical XM-L2 emitters to get more out of the battery, the remote switch, click lock connectors (which still work with the regular Chinese battery pack connectors, by the way) etc.

To start with I think it's fair to say this is not a thread for the faint hearted! Really good stuff on it though for those of us that are looking to get out when then sun has gone in.

Having looked through about the last 15 pages of threads I've gone for the above TrustFire D002, four reasons:
The running time that Ouija has reported,
The remote mode switch
The battery cover spec
The brightness comparisons in the beam shots

I have read the posts around the various forums regarding the fragile pub though so I'm hoping that isn't an issue I'll experience. In the end I purchased from FastTech.com (Manafont doesn't appear to be taking new orders at the moment) and even managed to get a 5% off coupon so the charge to PayPal was less than £30.

Hopefully I'll be reporting back in a week or so to sing the praises of the setup after my first Mtb in the dark experience!

Cheers fellers, keep up the great work on the forum

Ouija

Torchy sells these as well, under the monicker of 'Torchy Oriole' (god knows why), which has some beam shots as well. You can also find comparisons on his light database under the same name (half way down the page). Though i wouldn't buy lights from him as he seems to add an enormous markup on them compared to buying them from China (which is all he does anyway).

andy46

stellamandude wrote:

AndyH01 wrote:

Hi guys roadie here after some help with a light please. I currently have a Moon X500 500 lum front light and the moon shield 60 lum rear. I'm looking for a brighter safety light to run during the day or when very poor visability. My current front light on high setting at 500 lum is a constant beam and is battery hungry the slow flash mode is 350 lum. The new light is only ever going to be used on the road, so I nned to be careful not to blind other road users, but want something to give the extra output when required and allow a flash to get attention and solid light to enable to judge my position as well as a back up, the commute (main function) is aprox 5 miles on main A roads parts unlit.

I was looking at either this;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TrustFire-2x- ... 248wt_1170
(I like this as has remote switch I could put under the hoods where my hands are most of time)

or this;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ultra-Bright- ... 2eca23aec7

Is there much in it are they much of a muchness? Also will I need to upgrade the batteries/charger unit or will they be ok as are. Finally would anyone know if they would beable to run the Magicshine MJ818 rear light on the same battery pack ie this;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Magicshine-MJ ... 1063wt_932

Thanks
Andy

Read back from page 103, both the lights you have mentioned have been talked about in depth, Pro's and Con's.
Both are very bright, more than enough (if not over kill) for your commute.
I was under the impression that the "flashing/strobe" feature on these lights is actually illegal to run/use on the public highway ?

I've just got the light in the second link (from the same seller too) and have been using it this week. I found that it is more than bright enough on medium setting, and that is on wet roads. I dare say on dry roads you'd get away running it on low power.
Personally, I'd only use the high setting when off road and I won't be using the flash setting as this has the light flashing on full power and is too bright for oncoming traffic IMO. For the money I'd say it's a bargain performance wise, I'm very happy. Can't really comment on the battery yet though as it's early days.

jairaj

AndyH01 wrote:

I'm looking for a brighter safety light to run during the day or when very poor visability. ... The new light is only ever going to be used on the road, so I nned to be careful not to blind other road users,

If you're looking for a good set of commuting lights, something so others can see you coming then I can highly recommend this:
http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/LISMRT25FR12RR/smart_lunar_25_lux_front_with_1_2_watt_rear_light_set

apreading

Just got these: http://www.kaidomain.com/product/Details.S022573



Looks really good, although that is just based on initial shining it around the office! The flashing outer will be really useful - the main question mark I had was whether it was a slow flash or fast strobe but its slow - which is great because thats what I wanted. Right now I have a little low power flasher on the bars as well as a light to be seen - but that takes little disposable batteries. With this new light I wont need the extra one - main beam on at the right level to see where I am going and the flasher to help make sure motorists see me.

The main beam looks REALLY bright too - I have some of the single XML Magicshines already - this seems leagues above and I hope with XM-L2 it will be more efficient too.

You can buy it head only but this version comes with the better sealed battery pack so I thought I would give it a go. It has the screw on connectors that the SSX2 has by the look of it - hopefully compatible with my Magicshine charger - will find out tonight...

andyh01

Thanks, I've looked back over from page 106 still not sure of the comparrison between the two or whether they'd run an magicshine mj818 rear light on the supplied y splitter cable.

For clarity, my understanding the legislation has been amended to allow flashing lights to be acceptable?, However, this super bright cheap front light be used sparingly on constant, I plan to use my current Moon X500 front light on slow flash which give 350 lum and the super bright light be on solid as /when needed eg fog/dark heavy rain where a 350 lum flash or 500 lum solid light be easy to be lost. As well as providing back up if the main light fails during commute. I also want another rear light as only have one at present a Monn shield giving a max 60 lum output on steady constant or slow flash, again I want to run Magicshine mj818 85 lum on solid and the moon on flash at 60 lum
Thanks
Andy

Ouija

apreading wrote:

Just got these: http://www.kaidomain.com/product/Details.S022573



Looks really good, although that is just based on initial shining it around the office! The flashing outer will be really useful - the main question mark I had was whether it was a slow flash or fast strobe but its slow - which is great because thats what I wanted. Right now I have a little low power flasher on the bars as well as a light to be seen - but that takes little disposable batteries. With this new light I wont need the extra one - main beam on at the right level to see where I am going and the flasher to help make sure motorists see me.

The main beam looks REALLY bright too - I have some of the single XML Magicshines already - this seems leagues above and I hope with XM-L2 it will be more efficient too.

You can buy it head only but this version comes with the better sealed battery pack so I thought I would give it a go. It has the screw on connectors that the SSX2 has by the look of it - hopefully compatible with my Magicshine charger - will find out tonight...

Not just a XM-L2 (T6?) but the better XM-L2 U2, the second most brightest and efficient of the newer XM-L2 range. Nice.....

Ouija

AndyH01 wrote:

Thanks, I've looked back over from page 106 still not sure of the comparrison between the two or whether they'd run an magicshine mj818 rear light on the supplied y splitter cable.

For clarity, my understanding the legislation has been amended to allow flashing lights to be acceptable?, However, this super bright cheap front light be used sparingly on constant, I plan to use my current Moon X500 front light on slow flash which give 350 lum and the super bright light be on solid as /when needed eg fog/dark heavy rain where a 350 lum flash or 500 lum solid light be easy to be lost. As well as providing back up if the main light fails during commute. I also want another rear light as only have one at present a Monn shield giving a max 60 lum output on steady constant or slow flash, again I want to run Magicshine mj818 85 lum on solid and the moon on flash at 60 lum
Thanks
Andy

The Trustfire comes with the same round click lock connectors that magicshine use (where the female has an outer sheaf that wraps around and clicks over the plastic grip of the male plug). I've used it with the Magicshine Y-Splitter and a Magichshine bottle battery. Newer magicshine lights now use a oval plug that doesn't work with anything but their own stuff, so it pays to check and see which kind the mj818 comes with.

Though, even with more efficient XM-L2's, i don't imagine your going to see long run times with THREE lights running off a four cell pack (guess it depends on how long and how bright you intend to run the head unit).

Also worth mentioning that these digitally regulated LED lights can't flash at any other brightness than full (1000/2000 lumen, in most cases) as they always run at full voltage compared to old analogue lights that dropped the voltage to get variable brightness. Instead, they use Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) like stuttering of the power at full voltage to drop the emitter to lower light output (they strobe too fast for the human eye to see..... but not most animals which is why rabbits, cats, dogs etc just sit in the middle of the road staring at you as you come towards them as you look like a sequence of static still images rather than a moving object). In case of the flashing mode of these lights, they just drop the speed of the stuttering to a point that the human eye CAN see that the light is being rapidly switched on and off. Building in extra analogue style voltage dropping circuitry to make the flashing modes less bright is obviously an extra expense most manufacturers don't bother with.

Psychotext

Hoping someone can be of assistance. Was looking at picking up the Magicshine MJ-880U lights and figured it this site was a good bet, but they don't seem to be doing the U any more, only the E:

http://www.magicshineuk.co.uk/bike-ligh ... light.html

So I looked around, and it seems based on this site that the U version is now discontinued and has been replaced:

http://www.bikelightsuk.com/front_bike_ ... escription

So should I just go with that latter site? Are they known to be trustworthy? Is that basically the model I was looking for originally (or its most recent equivalent)? Thanks.

-Archie-

Ouija wrote:

and a Magichshine bottle battery.

I've never seen that! Can you provide any link?

Newer magicshine lights now use a oval plug that doesn't work with anything but their own stuff, so it pays to check and see which kind the mj818 comes with.

AFAIK, the oval connector was used in MJ-880 "Owl" exclusively, and BTW adapter is available to provide compatibility. As for MJ-818 tail light, it uses common round connector: at least, I've never seen them with anything else...

Ouija

-Archie- wrote:

Ouija wrote:

and a Magichshine bottle battery.

I've never seen that! Can you provide any link?

Don't get your hopes up, it's just one of these....





Essentially a four cell pack in a circular tin can, rather than the square ones they now use.

-Archie-

Ok, it seems I've misunderstood you. Typically, the term "bottle battery" is used for batteries designed to fit standard bottle cage...

chedabob

I bought one of the CREE XML T6 lamps last year and I put it away once it wasn't need for commuting and now it won't charge. Have I ruined the battery pack by leaving it discharged for 7 months?

The pack is this http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-18650-6000m ... 460fc41e4b

The charger is an XY-084050. I left it on for 6 hours this evening and got absolutely nothing when plugging it into the light.

apreading

If it was discharged when you put it away then yes, you might have ruined it. They dont like sitting for a long time discharged.

john2002

I think you should leave them semi charged when your not going to use the batteries for a long period of time.
I think that's why when you get new phone, laptop etc they have some charge but they are never full charged or discharged. We live and learn.

john2002

30% to 70% charge state is recomendid in the link below for battery storage
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rechargeable_battery