The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

Big dave 3

Johnmcl7 wrote:

Lightmalls have offered a generous $3 refund which I'm not too impressed by, the U3 light isn't much use as it's a less efficient LED than the XML2 and with no power control it hammers the battery so it looks like I'm going to have to write that off as a loss as they're on holiday for a couple of weeks now.

I still want a couple more 502b's with XML2's, any reliable sources for these? I don't mind ordering from abroad and waiting a while if I'm definitely going to get the right lights, I wouldn't mind paying a few pounds more to get them in the UK.

John

I know how you feel, IVe ordered 2 x 501, a c8 & a 502b from different suppliers to see which ones are best.

This 502b has lots of good reviews:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shi ... 0728&vd=30

nigelgos

Interested in your results I've just got hold of a C8 XML2 and while it's a brilliant leap forward from my previous £30 Cateye light i'd say it's quite spotlighty - still happy with it though.

I've mounted it using a charity rubber bracelet and it works a treat too - free is great.

How are these things for water resistance?

diy

You'll actually get more flood out of a smaller headed light as the LEDs are too small to benefit from the larger head of a C8 particularly well. The light tends to punch through without touching the sides. A little clear tape or privacy film on the inside of the glass can help, but you are eating lumen with this approach.

On the subject of reliable sources of lights (other than light malls)
http://dx.com/s/502b+XM-l2
http://kaidomain.com/product/details.S021231

I was never particularly impressed with the DX drivers. They tended to be <2A.

nigelgos

Have many people been out with these in the pouring rain? I commute in all weather

diy

Had my 501bs in heavy rain they cope better than my Smart tail lights which tend to short to on in the wet. Certainly water resistant as all the joins have o-ring seals.

fossyant

apreading wrote:

fossyant wrote:

Just a little update on these. They let water in. It get's in the vents, and works it's way through to the Halo LED's, causing them to short out. I took the front off and there was enough water in there to cause issues. Popped on a hot radiator and they are OK now. I would advise you either tape up the vents or silicone seal them. Other than that, they are great for commuting.

Thanks for that - just saved me from ordering a twin pair from ebay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271333396797? ... 1438.l2649)

I have one of the individual ones from lightmalls but not used it yet - as far as I can tell my Jexree Owl doesnt leak, so will stick with that. The idea of a twin head with one beam diffused and the other for reach did appeal though...

Trouble is that presumably those vents are needed for cooling - if you seal them it will overheat...?

I think the vents are more for show. Silicone sealed mine with black silicone.

Big dave 3

I've had problems with deal extreme where stuff didn't turn up and they argued the claim and kept saying they had refunded my money which they hadn't . I got the money back in the end but it took months. I seen to be having the same problem with light malls. I'm still to see if my stuff from kd and the other Chinese site turns up.

on the positive side , I got some torchy Panasonic inside batteries 3400MAh and my old 501b are noticeably brighter . they are a few years old now so i have no idea what led/driver they have inside.

diy

Post a picture and we'll tell you.

porlyworly

Too many sites / options! Can someone suggest, in one post, URL's to the following

Commuting at night come rain or shine on unlit country roads, I want 3 torches (one as a backup), 3 batteries, two mounts & a charger.

Don't mind paying a few quid extra if one site delivers faster than another

Thanks chaps

rowlers

Just been out with these:
http://goo.gl/V0nDbS
http://goo.gl/b2fL6S
I had four panasonic cgr18650ch that I have salvaged from a laptop. The batteries were dead after an hour and 15mins on LOW!
Fortunatley I had this little beauty on my lid, so got home with some light:
http://goo.gl/7WZ98l
(Its a belter for helmet mount, nice tight beam with decent throw, lightweight too)

So are these batteries duds? (they've always worked well enough in my 501bs)
Or are they simply not up to the job of driving the Nitecore? Can anyone recommend some decent cells that will keep me going for at least 3-4 hours on low (with the odd blip to med/high ?

EDIT - idiot alert, I actually had my CGR17670HC cell in which are only 1250mAh capacity!! No wonder I didn't get much runtime!!!
Question on good batteries still stands tho.. was thinking these:
http://goo.gl/Ou5lEC

diy

PorlyWorly wrote:

Too many sites / options! Can someone suggest, in one post, URL's to the following

Commuting at night come rain or shine on unlit country roads, I want 3 torches (one as a backup), 3 batteries, two mounts & a charger.

Don't mind paying a few quid extra if one site delivers faster than another

Thanks chaps

I think most people have had an OK experience with LM.. so..

3 of these:
http://www.lightmalls.com/ultrafire-wf- ... ch-1-18650


You can get dedicated 18650 chargers, but I find the USB power packs a lot more useful for other purposes (e.g. charging a mobile phone on a train). Charging my garmin & phone on a 12 hour ride.

1 of these (2 cell charger)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1A-18650-Batt ... 43c3ec069c
OR


1 of these (3 cell charger)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18650-USB-Bat ... 43c40eaec5

OR
1 of these (4 cell charger)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5V-2A-Mobile- ... 51b6ded5f0

1 - 2 of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Genuine-Pa ... 2a330f9431

or find a laptop battery for a better deal.

2 of these (or similar):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bike-Flashlig ... 5d43236bef

miceden

Hi, sorry to side track but it's on a related note - can anyone on here suggest a UK company that will make custom battery packs? I've searched and found a few but was hoping for recommendations.

diy

What Voltage and Current do you need?

porlyworly

Brilliant, thanks diy, all ordered

Ouija

rowlers wrote:

Just been out with these:
http://goo.gl/V0nDbS
http://goo.gl/b2fL6S
I had four panasonic cgr18650ch that I have salvaged from a laptop. The batteries were dead after an hour and 15mins on LOW!
Fortunatley I had this little beauty on my lid, so got home with some light:
http://goo.gl/7WZ98l
(Its a belter for helmet mount, nice tight beam with decent throw, lightweight too)

So are these batteries duds? (they've always worked well enough in my 501bs)
Or are they simply not up to the job of driving the Nitecore? Can anyone recommend some decent cells that will keep me going for at least 3-4 hours on low (with the odd blip to med/high ?

EDIT - idiot alert, I actually had my CGR17670HC cell in which are only 1250mAh capacity!! No wonder I didn't get much runtime!!!
Question on good batteries still stands tho.. was thinking these:
http://goo.gl/Ou5lEC

I have one of those PANNOVO B-C04 Water Resistant 4 x 18650 Battery Pack Cases and stuck four high quality Senybor 2800Mah high drain batteries in it and hooked it up to my twin head Trustfire TR-D002 and barely got an hour and a half out of them on high despite giving really long runtimes in my 502's. The four cell pack that came with the Trustfire gets me close to three hours run times on high, however. (having tested them against other four, six and eight cell packs i've rapidly come to the conclusion the Trustfire ones are probably the best four cell packs i've owned).

However, running a three head light off a four cell pack is probably not the best solution. Kinda depends what "Low" means on your light (does it switch off two of the emitters or dim all three). Also, are the emitters in the light older XM-L's or newer XM-L2's? Do you know what ampage they draw?

miceden

diy wrote:

What Voltage and Current do you need?

7.2v & 1.2A... it would be used to power one of these: http://dx.com/p/ferei-bl-800f-2-x-cree- ... ukHytpFAdU - but I do want to increase the run time to say a min of ideally 3.5hr on full beam

I know nothing about this so don't know what is and isn't possible

rowlers

Ouija wrote:

rowlers wrote:

Just been out with these:
http://goo.gl/V0nDbS
http://goo.gl/b2fL6S
I had four panasonic cgr18650ch that I have salvaged from a laptop. The batteries were dead after an hour and 15mins on LOW!
Fortunatley I had this little beauty on my lid, so got home with some light:
http://goo.gl/7WZ98l
(Its a belter for helmet mount, nice tight beam with decent throw, lightweight too)

So are these batteries duds? (they've always worked well enough in my 501bs)
Or are they simply not up to the job of driving the Nitecore? Can anyone recommend some decent cells that will keep me going for at least 3-4 hours on low (with the odd blip to med/high ?

EDIT - idiot alert, I actually had my CGR17670HC cell in which are only 1250mAh capacity!! No wonder I didn't get much runtime!!!
Question on good batteries still stands tho.. was thinking these:
http://goo.gl/Ou5lEC

I have one of those PANNOVO B-C04 Water Resistant 4 x 18650 Battery Pack Cases and stuck four high quality Senybor 2800Mah high drain batteries in it and hooked it up to my twin head Trustfire TR-D002 and barely got an hour and a half out of them on high despite giving really long runtimes in my 502's. The four cell pack that came with the Trustfire gets me close to three hours run times on high, however. (having tested them against other four, six and eight cell packs i've rapidly come to the conclusion the Trustfire ones are probably the best four cell packs i've owned).

However, running a three head light off a four cell pack is probably not the best solution. Kinda depends what "Low" means on your light (does it switch off two of the emitters or dim all three). Also, are the emitters in the light older XM-L's or newer XM-L2's? Do you know what ampage they draw?

All 3 leds are on just lower. I'll see if I can get a 6 cell pack maybe that is a better solution.

Thanks

Big dave 3

I received a torch bracket today. Its a bit strange as I ordered it about a week ago on ebay & its already here from China whereas I have ordered 3 torches & 2 brackets from different suppliers (ali express/light malls/ Kaidomain) from some as long ago as almost 6 weeks & still havent got them.

ANyway, the bracket was only a quid:



The new bracket alongside the standard brackets used for 501b:



The standard bracket used for 501b



To be honest, I won't be buying another one. I thought it was worth a try, so I could slightly adjust the angle that the torch is pointing at, as I have riser handlebars which aim the torch slightly off centre. However, the new bracket is adjustable but in very big increments, making it only useable in straight ahead angle.

The torch is held by a rubber strip which I don't think will last long. It is not held securely & moves about easily. I think I will stick with the old style brackets. I have ordered 2 of another type , if they ever come:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A ... UTF8&psc=1

Ouija

rowlers wrote:

All 3 leds are on just lower. I'll see if I can get a 6 cell pack maybe that is a better solution.

Thanks

Don't count on it. Got a six cell pack with a light i ordered a couple of weeks ago and a eight cell rubberised pack from Kaidomain the other week. Neither are great. The six cell pack got broken down for parts and the eight cell pack runs for only half the time as the four cell packs that came with my twin head Trustfires (so half the runtime despite having twice as many batteries).

Jeez, the quality of battery packs coming from China at the moment is either very bad or i've just been unlucky. I mean. I recently grabbed some old four cell packs that came with my first Chinese lights from a few years ago (nothing fancy, just the usual blue shrink wrap variety that came with cheap light sets). One set had died so i extracted the two working batteries from it and added them to the four cell pack that was still working and stuck them in a frame mountable sweetcorn tin. Despite being old and never being charged in two years they still run for twice as long as either the six or eight cell packs i recently got from China.

On a side note, it's a shame your light dims all three emitters. I suspect you'd have a brighter light and longer run times if only one light stayed on, running at a decent ampage (2.8/3.0 amps) as opposed to three lights on dim (which may all be drawing something like 1.5/2.0 amps each.... so 4.5 or 6 amps in total). You might want to consider a single emitter unit instead, because they work out brighter and more efficient than multi-emitter units.

camerauk

Any idea which of these would be better to use as a helmet light?
Either the 501B or 502B?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UltraFire-100 ... 4d0b4e146a

would like to get from a UK seller if possible for fast delivery etc

Also for a charger would this be good?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5V-2A-Mobile- ... 51b6ded5f0

and I know its a stupid question but I take it the batteries go inside the unit and it charger them from the mains??

rowlers

Ouija wrote:

rowlers wrote:

All 3 leds are on just lower. I'll see if I can get a 6 cell pack maybe that is a better solution.

Thanks

On a side note, it's a shame your light dims all three emitters. I suspect you'd have a brighter light and longer run times if only one light stayed on, running at a decent ampage (2.8/3.0 amps) as opposed to three lights on dim (which may all be drawing something like 1.5/2.0 amps each.... so 4.5 or 6 amps in total). You might want to consider a single emitter unit instead, because they work out brighter and more efficient than multi-emitter units.

Really!? I only bought this because I thought I'd get good run times on low and loads of ooomph on high for the unlit back roads....
What single emitter would you recommend then?

Thanks

john2002

camerauk wrote:

Any idea which of these would be better to use as a helmet light?
Either the 501B or 502B?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UltraFire-100 ... 4d0b4e146a

would like to get from a UK seller if possible for fast delivery etc

Also for a charger would this be good?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5V-2A-Mobile- ... 51b6ded5f0

and I know its a stupid question but I take it the batteries go inside the unit and it charger them from the mains??

501 and 502 have the same size reflector. But the head out dimension of the 502 is slightly bigger than the 50. And the 502 is slightly heavier than the 502. I prefer the 501.
Yes The batteries go inside. I have a different model and the cover just slides off.

apreading

rowlers wrote:

Ouija wrote:

rowlers wrote:

All 3 leds are on just lower. I'll see if I can get a 6 cell pack maybe that is a better solution.

Thanks

On a side note, it's a shame your light dims all three emitters. I suspect you'd have a brighter light and longer run times if only one light stayed on, running at a decent ampage (2.8/3.0 amps) as opposed to three lights on dim (which may all be drawing something like 1.5/2.0 amps each.... so 4.5 or 6 amps in total). You might want to consider a single emitter unit instead, because they work out brighter and more efficient than multi-emitter units.

Really!? I only bought this because I thought I'd get good run times on low and loads of ooomph on high for the unlit back roads....
What single emitter would you recommend then?

Thanks

I think the emittors are most efficient at higher outputs, so one running on high would maybe be more efficient and/or brighter than 3 running on low?

supersonic

I thought multi emitters were more efficient too for a given light output. But will depend on how are driven and circuit losses.

Ouija

I simply meant that one XM-L running at 3 amps will light up the road better than three emitters running at 1 amp (so, still 3 amps in total). The only disadvantage of the single emitter setup is you can't go any brighter if you need it whereas with the three emitter setup you can. Ideally, a better arrangement would be three emitters where you can switch each emitter on and off independently, each emitter running at the full 2.5/3.0 amps (so about 7.5/9.0 when all on). This won't give any longer run times than he currently gets on low but will give a much brighter light that may not require him to use the other two emitters as much.

For battery conservation, however, a single emitter with variable brightness is the way to go as he'll probably find the middle mode puts out the same amount of brightness as his three emitters on low, but without the same sort of amp draw.

If you want multi-emitters, brightness and long run times off a puny four cell pack then you can't go wrong with something like the Trustfire TR-D002 mentioned previously. I get around 2.5/3hr running at 1800/2000 lumens on the two i own. Largely down to the better efficiency of the XM-L2 emitters and a unusually decent battery pack (for a Chinese light). My single emitter XM-L2 U2 light gets over 5hrs off the same battery pack running at the full 1200 lumen output (3 amps, probably).

So it's either a case of Rowlers splashing out on a better battery or upgrading to the latest and more efficient technology.

-Archie-

Ouija wrote:

I simply meant that one XM-L running at 3 amps will light up the road better than three emitters running at 1 amp (so, still 3 amps in total).

Actually, it's other way around. The efficiency of LEDs drops as the current increases, so multi-emitter lights produce better light-to-current ratio.

For abovementioned XM-L (T6), light output at 3A is about 900 lumen, and at 1A - 400 lumen. So, for given 3A current, three of them will produce combined output of 1200 lumen: about 300 lumen more than single emitter can do.



In addition to that, driving the LEDs near maximum allowed currents produces huge amount of heat, making proper thermal management absolutely necessary - what in turn means tight case design requirements, and also leads to use of more expensive electronic components capable to work on high currents.

rowlers

Thanks folks. it looks like I should stuck with a single emitter then. I'll stick some decent batteries in it for the remainder of the dark nights & look did a more efficient lamp for next year I think.

camerauk

Well quick update
I purchased 1 of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111230589455

and one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/190902406962

I have split an old battery pack that came with a cheap Cree light http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CREE-XM-L-XML ... 3a81f73f7d

I have charged the batteries up using the charger I linked to
when they were fully charged they measured 4.18v
I tested 1 in the torch and it lasted for 1hr 45 then the light started to fade, I measured the voltage on the battery and it was at 2.80v
I am unsure what the batteries are as there are no writing on them
would I get a longer run time using a named battery??

Is this about the run time people are getting with these light?

also any idea on a good helmet mount? would it be worth the extra expense getting an Exposure helmet mount(taking it that it will fit the torch)

supersonic

Hard to say what runtime should be without knowing what current is is drawing. Can you measure it?

camerauk

How would I do this?
I do have a Multi meter