The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

Dartmoor rider

apreading wrote:

You may be better off looking at garden lighting or security lighting - designed for long run times with no airflow and also will come with electrics that work from 240V. The heat dissipation will mean that the metal enclosure gets hot though - so if you put it in a cabinet you need to allow plenty of airspace around the enclosure - not sure that building it into a cabinet is ideal. Might also be worth considering the cieling spot lights that are designed to be in a recess in the cieling - they should deal with heat in a small enclosure well...?

Thanks for the reply

Can't use 240V as this is a mobile trolly. Did look at 12V mains stuff with the option to use a 12V battery but the development of this stuff appears to be very slow so either higher power use or poor light output. Putting ceiling spots in is an option but because of the history of the building there is a huge amount of bureaucracy to get anything done and then it would have to be done by an approved technician which means vast expense. I can make good ventilation around the lights from underneath and if need be they probably could be fully exposed to aid cooling maybe even a fan built in.

broona

Eventually ordered the following, hopefully they all work together, lol :-

UltraFire WF-502B CREE XM-L2 5 Modes LED Flashlight Torch(1*18650) - See more at: http://www.lightmalls.com/ultrafire-wf- ... Ik0Uu.dpuf
Panasonic NCR18650A 18650 3100mAh 3.7V Protected Rechargeable Li-ion Batteries (2-Pack) - http://www.fasttech.com/product/1315402
Nitecore I2 Lithium Li-ion Ni-MH Ni-Cd Smart Battery Charger - http://www.fasttech.com/product/1119500

bigmitch41

Happy days, got the new light delivered direct from China (took about 3weeks) and first test was tonight, well chuffed! I've managed two hours on the middle setting which is more than enough light for a ride down the old railway line and narrow lanes with no signs of running low on power, only problem is it's knocked out communication for my wireless cateye. Anybody know if there's a way of fixing this?

stellamandude

BigMitch41 wrote:

Happy days, got the new light delivered direct from China (took about 3weeks)

Just scanned back 5 or 6 pages to see what you ordered.............what was it ?

Kowalski675

stellamandude wrote:

BigMitch41 wrote:

Happy days, got the new light delivered direct from China (took about 3weeks)

Just scanned back 5 or 6 pages to see what you ordered.............what was it ?

Me too, got bored after 6, lol.

bigmitch41

BigMitch41 wrote:

morepower wrote:

VWsurfbum wrote:

Just ordered another light because it looked pretty and light for the noggin.


Whats the worst that could happen?

That is the light I have just bought and they are great... On high it is bright enough to ride like you would in the day time off road. The medium power setting is good enough for me and the battery on mine lasted just under 3 hours on the medium setting. Low power is fine for road work if there are some street lights. I am really impressed with mine.

How's the light doing mate, im looking at ordering one of these off fleebay, just noticed it comes with a 2 pin Charger(AC100-240V) so willl need an adapter, but for just over £20 delivered from China........whats the worst that can heppen... :shock:

This one :-P

Kowalski675

Cheers.

tincaman

BigMitch41 wrote:

Happy days, got the new light delivered direct from China (took about 3weeks) and first test was tonight, well chuffed! I've managed two hours on the middle setting which is more than enough light for a ride down the old railway line and narrow lanes with no signs of running low on power, only problem is it's knocked out communication for my wireless cateye. Anybody know if there's a way of fixing this?

Try moving the battery further away from the Cateye, you might need to get an extension cable for the battery pack

anthdci

Battery question. Mostly aimed at DIY. I followed his guide to removing some batteries out of a laptop battery. He said they are unprotected. I have bought a Nitecore Intellicharger i4 from ebay to use for all my charging. Am I right in thinking this will not overcharge these batteries?

Also what is the best way to tell if a battery is knackered? Will not get upto 4.2v when fully charged? Or is there another easy way to tell? I'd rather not put it in my light to travel home for it to be flat within 5 minutes leaving me down a light.

jairaj

Dartmoor rider wrote:

Can't use 240V as this is a mobile trolly. Did look at 12V mains stuff with the option to use a 12V battery but the development of this stuff appears to be very slow so either higher power use or poor light output. Putting ceiling spots in is an option but because of the history of the building there is a huge amount of bureaucracy

I think he was implying on using ceiling spots in your cabinet not in the church ceiling. These are designed to work in cramped environments with little or no ventilation. You can also find home LED lights designed to be run of 12v which you could hook up to a large battery bank to power.

If that really is a no go then how about lots of the cheap bike lights all running on low power to keep heat generation low and possible a few small computer fans to provide some ventilation. Each light individually wouldn't produce much light but if you have enough lights then overall you should have plenty.

Also depending on your budget you could get a custom light made up. Speak to a few engineering firms. The concept of making a LED light isn't very hard you just need the machinery and skills to use it.

bigmitch41

Hopefully this works, my light settup as used last

mcrdave

I bought the below set after reading about them on here. 1st ride today, wasn't forecast for rain but it did shower on my way home, nothing major i thought, 1st test of them down an unlit road and got 20 seconds if that before they cut out and won't switch back on. 3 green lights still on the back but nothing else.

Has anyone else tried them in light rain?

I tested them round the house before for a good while and they worked fine.

Not sure what to do now, hmmm.

BigMitch41 wrote:

Hopefully this works, my light settup as used last

-Archie-

mcrdave wrote:

Has anyone else tried them in light rain?

Yes, our local cycling community widely uses that light (of various kinds), and we have plenty of rain here - but I haven't heard about such problems so far...

Not sure what to do now, hmmm.

Open the light head (two pair of hex screws) and inspect the internals:
http://forum.biketime.ee/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5842

It seems that water has affected electronic PCB or the button; the latter you can check by careful shorting of its contacts by any appropriate tool.

Good luck!

mcrdave

Cheers Archie. Will report back.

mcrdave

Looking at that other link you posted. Mine have Phillips (cross head) screws instead of hex, wonder if these copies?

-Archie-

mcrdave wrote:

Looking at that other link you posted. Mine have Phillips (cross head) screws instead of hex, wonder if these copies?

Speaking about cheap Chinese light's variations, I'd refrain from judging which one of them is a "genuine original". As I understand this industry, there's big factory making all the main parts (the case, optics, etc) and huge amount of different assemblers who use their own small parts & components to produce final goods. Probably, they use any suitable parts currently available, hence minor difference in look and functioning...

mcrdave

Yeah fair point, I see what you mean. I'll take them apart tonight and see if there's anything obvious wrong.

diy

Just thought I'd share some footage of two 501b's running at around 800mA each with XM-L T6. This will be about 600 Lumen. This was on a section of cycle path doing about 20-25mph mostly unlit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kQL6UnNmjk

These are held on with a couple of loops of inner tube on the TT/Aero bar. Apologies for the road cycling reference, but quite a few people are considering these for road use.

Really quite a lot of light for a £14 investment.. I'd expect XM-L2s to be about 25% brighter for the same current.

steviemidnight

Good vid DIY. I've used Velcro straps and added a smart 35 ontop as a flasher for visibility.
I'm thinking of moving the light down the bottom of the tri bars and add a second like you and remove the smart. Out if interest are they on high or medium in your vid? Thanks again for sharing

Can you share a pic of your mounts please as i find mine point a little high. I was thinking of adding some frosting to the top half of the light to reduce the flare upwards.

For my mtb I use this on the lid and have ordered a yinding gemini duo clone for the bars to replace my single magic shine clone of last year. I'll give a review when it finally arrives.

steviemidnight

Sorry if my roadie pic offends anyone but hey i bought the light for single track night riding but now use it for my daily commute of 22miles each way.

looks a bit of a pig with all that mass at the font of the super light bike but hey got to do whats needed to be seen on dark roads this time of year.

fossyant

A bit of a pig ??? And commuting with aerobars ????

mcrdave

Update. Ebay seller is replacing my x2 lights and asked me to send mine back which I shall do.

Good service.

pw50

Sorry, I've just picked you at random as I am new to the forum and couldn't see how to post a thread.

Please could you help?

Paul

kevinharley

Right, just putting together my present list for Santa, and weighing up the following small twin-head units:

Based on Ouja's previous comments, I'll probably go for this (the trustfire) ... that is if Ouja is still impressed with his a couple of months on?
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.ph ... ed-p-13542

But also considering this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281126901995? ... 659wt_1183
(It looks the same as the MTB Batteries 'The Lumentator', which retails for £115! - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281126901995? ... 659wt_1183) - will it be basically the same, or a dodgy clone?

Also thinking of this (the solarstorm):
http://www.lightmalls.com/solarstorm-x2 ... 50-battery

Looking for brightness, a good light spread, and reliability (ie better quality wiring, battery pack etc)

I like the remote switch on the Trustfire, but its not a deal-breaker if the other lights are better.

So, if you have experience of one or more of these options, what would you recommend?

Thanks

arthur_scrimshaw

kevinharley wrote:

Right, just putting together my present list for Santa, and weighing up the following small twin-head units:

Based on Ouja's previous comments, I'll probably go for this (the trustfire) ... that is if Ouja is still impressed with his a couple of months on?
http://www.manafont.com/product_info.ph ... ed-p-13542

But also considering this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281126901995? ... 659wt_1183
(It looks the same as the MTB Batteries 'The Lumentator', which retails for £115! - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281126901995? ... 659wt_1183) - will it be basically the same, or a dodgy clone?

Also thinking of this (the solarstorm):
http://www.lightmalls.com/solarstorm-x2 ... 50-battery

Looking for brightness, a good light spread, and reliability (ie better quality wiring, battery pack etc)

I like the remote switch on the Trustfire, but its not a deal-breaker if the other lights are better.

So, if you have experience of one or more of these options, what would you recommend?

Thanks

I bought a version of that second light from Deal Extreme and a 6600mah battery pack (basically 6x18650 cells) and it's really good. Already had a suitable charger. Don't mention that it looks like the 'Lumenator', I did when BR reviewed and was told clearly by MTBB that it wasn't from Deal Extreme (even though I didn't imply that it was, merely that it looked like the one I had bought from DX!) I've heard some issues regarding the heatsink but mine runs cool. it has three modes plus a strobe which is unusable unless you want to cause seizures in oncoming drivers.

http://dx.com/p/179087 & http://dx.com/p/207639

mac-cos

mcrdave wrote:

Update. Ebay seller is replacing my x2 lights and asked me to send mine back which I shall do.

Good service.

If it was a Buy it now ebay sale then the seller should fund any returns postage, I had attempted to buy a single Led Cree light recently and 1st didn't show (no tracking) 2nd turned up with a duff battery pack and dead Led, 3rd arrived and flamed out just after being turned on. Got full refund of purchase price including postage and seller didn't want the 2 duff ones back as they would have had to supply the return postage. Upside is I've ended up with a spare working battery pack and 2 chargers

Ouija

Still using the Trustfire on my mountain bike (still using an assortment of Torches and head units on my other three bikes). Still going strong. I imagine there is little difference in output between the three lights mentioned above. It all comes down to the rest of the package. The XM-L2's in the Trustfire are the neweset, brightest and most efficient emitters of those listed (not that the old XM-L U2's are bad, they throw out the same level of brightness as the XM-L2 but comsume a little more battery power doing so). Other than the remote switch my main concern with the other two lights is the batteries. They are coated in shrink wrap only (the Trustfire is rubberised and waterproof) which, from past experience, causes the nickel connectors inside to rust after a year or so. Even if you keep them out of the rain. Certainly, three of my original batteries from the first XM-L lights i bought two years ago have all failed. And when opened up are rusted to pieces (i live by the sea so maybe the corrosive salt air hasn't helped much). The two rubberized packs that came with my two Sanguan head units around the same time are still going strong though.




So that's something to take into account when deciding which one to buy.

I get 2hr 30m out of my four cell pack which is, frankly, unheard of for an old twin head XM-L unit (hasn't stopped me from ordering a rubberized eight cell pack for those longer night rides though). Not sure how much the other two lights will get, but i imagine between 1 to 1.5hrs on full would be a reasonable assumption if the packs are decent.

wishitwasallflat

Hi benefitted greatly from loads of help from here before so very gratefull for that. I have been running two 501 type torches (ones a U3 and the other T6) on my 20 mile each way commute very succesfully for a couple of years now. Each leg of my commute is about 10 miles unlit country roads and the rest is lit urban. At the moment I need both torches on for the unlit section but due to the times of day only really need lights to be seen by on the urban stretches. I have started setting both torches on SOS flash mode on those stretches and it makes for a very very eye catching combined flashing pattern which I like very much. I am wondering though if using the torches in this mode will stress and shorten the life of the emmitters? The torches would run for the same amount of time overall but is half an hour on SOS flash mode more stressing to the emmittor than the same time on full or medium?

Would like to keep using both on SOS but if its likely to significantly shorten life could get a basic wee flashy for that job?

Any advice greatly appreciated oh great enlightened ones

-Archie-

wishitwasallflat wrote:

I am wondering though if using the torches in this mode will stress and shorten the life of the emmitters? The torches would run for the same amount of time overall but is half an hour on SOS flash mode more stressing to the emmittor than the same time on full or medium?

Unlike incandescent bulb, no. And actually even opposite, due to the less heat generated.

bamba

I find road cyclist with fast flashing lights very annoying, more of a distraction than eye catching,as a driver as well as a cyclist i would say that 2 torches of that power both flashing sos , out of synch with each other as equally annoying,But not as much as the 2wats, with flashing lights that ride on the cycle path, which is lit well along side the A38 in to the on coming traffic near the Toyota factory ,Derbyshire.