The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

Ouija

The pictures are links. Just click on them.

19dm82

Ouija wrote:

The pictures are links. Just click on them.

Perfect thanks. Not very tech savvy.

KokaKona

diy wrote:

These:
http://www.lightmalls.com/ultrafire-wf- ... ch-1-18650

But at 6 quid a pop you may as well get 3. I'm finding they come in at around 1A on medium and 2-2.4A on high so a pair on medium is going to give you about 800 Lumen. When I first started off-road MTB my 4 lights (also 501bs, but with XR-E LEDs) produced about 4-500 Lumen. I like the 501, because its small, but not so small it can't cope with the heat, the reflector handles the LED output well and they are cheap.

I run two on the lid two on the bars normally but I rarely take them above low/medium, so its a way of extending run time.

There are a few different suggestions for chargers and Cells. Personally I get best results with old laptops, but if you can get senybor or panasonic cells from a reliable source then they are good. But you can scroll back and find the options.

I like these too - I've got a pair of the XM-L U2 ones on the bars, which are surprisingly effective off road on med. Even so, I was thinking about getting another 1 or 2 of the XM-L2 ones like in your link for mountin' up high on the noggin. When I bought before the ad said OP reflector. Nowadays it says SMO or OP and it isn't clear how you are supposed to specify one or the other. Come to think of it, would a SMO reflector be better on the helmet for longer throw?

buddy_club

Hi Guys, i brought one of these in about february last year, so didnt get to use it that much, but pulled it out the cupboard today and went out on a ride, was just wondering if anyone knows how i could diffuse the light into a bit more of a spread instead of a spot beam, so to speak?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1800LM-1CREE- ... 461cb346fd

oh and been looking for a light for my helmet which is more of a spot, but the vents in my helmet (met crossover) are a wierd shape and alot of helmet mounts wont fit it Anyone know a good light and mount idea?

jairaj

Either one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wide-Angle-Lens-for-Magicshine-Lupine-and-Gemini-Bike-Lights-/261599734509?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&hash=item3ce88f2aed

or use some frosted sticky tape or some secrecy film (the kind you use to stick on a bathroom window). You can get different amounts of diffusion by just using a ring of tape around the edge or just a circle in the middle. Have a little play and see what works best for you.

buddy_club

jairaj wrote:

Either one of these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wide-Angle-Lens-for-Magicshine-Lupine-and-Gemini-Bike-Lights-/261599734509?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&hash=item3ce88f2aed

or use some frosted sticky tape or some secrecy film (the kind you use to stick on a bathroom window). You can get different amounts of diffusion by just using a ring of tape around the edge or just a circle in the middle. Have a little play and see what works best for you.

Exactly the kind of thing i was looking for, thanks!

diy

KokaKona wrote:

I like these too - I've got a pair of the XM-L U2 ones on the bars, which are surprisingly effective off road on med. Even so, I was thinking about getting another 1 or 2 of the XM-L2 ones like in your link for mountin' up high on the noggin. When I bought before the ad said OP reflector. Nowadays it says SMO or OP and it isn't clear how you are supposed to specify one or the other. Come to think of it, would a SMO reflector be better on the helmet for longer throw?

I think the difference is marginal the L2 is pretty good at both spot and flood in the 501b and while I have always received OP reflectors, I wouldn't care if I got a Smooth. Lots of options to diffuse it. IMO the days of needing spots for distance and flood for near - to make efficient use of the 200 lumen output are gone. Today we can have our cake and eat it. at 2A the XM-L2 is floody and spotty.

kingofthetailwind

I have (amongst a growing number of other lights!) a Solarstorm X2 U2 which is impressively bright, but very floody. Is there any way of making this a bit more spotty?

diy

This is a common complaint about the Solarstorm, it seems they use a silicon/gel based heat sink glue which often gets dripped on the LED during manufacture, this affects the output of the LED and shortens its life considerably. Have a look closely and see if there is anything stuck to the LED.

duckson

My 6yr old LED torch seems to be on the way out, what is generally regarded as the best torch to get that runs on a single 18650?
How does the Torchy U2 mini stack up, not that cheap at £50 mind.

Its for road cycling on some unlit roads or paths.

Ben2012

Lol at the 30 min runtime!

I've got a Cree U2 magic shine. Had it for a few years rated at 1000 lumens

Led lights nowadays are great!

I remember when I used to blast through the woods with my 6v nimh cat eye halogens!

You don't really need to spend above £30 unless weight is a serious issue

kevinharley

davidmt83 wrote:

So which to go for:

Option 1: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/311073160454? ... 1436.l2649
Option 2: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200959831751? ... 1439.l2649

Something else?

- Night time riding in the countryside
- Last 2 - 3 hours

I don't think I would go for the first one for off-road riding as your only light ...

Had the same dilemma. Have been running an MTB Batteries single cree, and a second cheap Chinese clone on the bars, plus a cheap spotty cree on the helmet ... been alright for the last couple of years or so ... but I wanted something new (and lighter, and brighter!)

Been deliberating on the various twin head units (Solarstorm / Uniquefire / Trustfire) that Ouja (amongst others) have been posting about. In the end, felt that there are so many Solarstorm versions / 'copies', at such ridiculously cheap prices (down to around £12 if you order from China) that I couldn't believe the quality would be up to much. In the end, I went with this:

http://www.dx.com/p/uniquefire-hd-016-1 ... CHZjsotDIV

Not many reviews out there that I could find, so will be interesting to see what its like - will report back when it arrives. Friends have Solarstorms, so will try and do a bit of a comparison. I went for the Uniquefire on the basis that runtime is claimed as 2-3 hours. Usually, 2 hours is enough, but I sometimes find my batteries don't last as long as I expect, even when turning them down when I don't need them on full.

This will go on the bars, replacing the two single heads. But what to do about the helmet?? Will probably put the MTB Batteries light up there for the time being, until I can afford another light.

Quite like the idea of a torch on the helmet instead ... but will it be as bright / long-lasting as a cree head with separate battery pack? I guess not? What would be the best (brightest, longest lasting) torch to use? Happy to go with 1 or 2 18650 batteries (I have some 'dodgy' (?) ultrafire batteries, plus a decent charger, so would only need the torch plus maybe some better quality batteries. Recommendations for £15 max ... and would that be a better arrangement than say a solarstorm?

nfrang

davidmt83 wrote:

So which to go for:

Option 2: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200959831751? ... 1439.l2649

5000 Lumens from 2 Cree's?

supersonic

Aye, no chance. They output about 1200. But still a great lamp.

supersonic

Right then, I have got one of these 9 Cree XML-T6 units:

http://www.dx.com/p/singfire-sf-823-9-x ... CH4K6OrQhU

Looks good, but the output is crap. And I mean, less than what you'd expect from on old SSC P7 torch. So I took it to bits and had a look. On full mode, the driver is outputting 24 volts - tested across each LED this is just 2.65v. Looking at the data sheet this is hardly enough to even illuminate it, hence the low output. All 9 are wired in series. My thinking is to take one or two out of the circuit to bump up the voltage to each? Any thoughts? Looks easy enough with a soldering iron.

jairaj

Supersonic wrote:

My thinking is to take one or two out of the circuit to bump up the voltage to each? Any thoughts? Looks easy enough with a soldering iron.

Yep sounds logical to me.

Measure how much current the driver is producing and check on the LED spec sheet what the forward voltage should be for that given current. You can then work backwards to figure out how many LEDs you need to remove.

The driver is probably just under specified in terms of the maximum power it can output. It's probably just some lazy design where it can output 30v or 2A but not both at the same time. Calculate the power by using voltage x current. Is it a similar amount when on medium and on high? If so the max power threshold has been hit and the driver will either clip the current or voltage.

jairaj

davidmt83 wrote:

I'll be road cycling unless I've misunderstood what you're saying.

If for road riding. I would possibly go for the first one as (I'm guessing here) it looks like it would produce a narrower beam with a longer throw which is what I would prefer on the road. A wide floody beam can also dazzle oncoming road users.

The 501 style torches are also good for a tight beam pattern.

supersonic

I can't seem to get a reliable measurement for the amperage . Plenty of sparks and smoke though! The voltage across each LED in the other two modes is 2.3v and 1.6v, which is off the bottom of the spec sheet lol.

I think I will start with removing one and see what happens. Hopefully if power is maintained (EDIT - voltage) from the driver then the voltage should be a steady 3v per LED, 1100ma and about 450lm per LED.

I was thinking they might have put the driver in for the 7 or 8 LED model.

diy

Super - you need to know the current being consumed by your driver, forget voltage at the LED unless you are considering a direct drive set-up. Once you know the current, you can up the voltage input to increase the current to each LED. If you are getting sparks, its possible that you have your leads in the wrong hole when setting to DCA

Looking at the battery in the link, I'd be tempted to risk a 3 serial set-up. Will take you right on the edge of the capacity, but perhaps one extra LED in the string mounted somewhere? Should get it to about the max. But 32v is a lot of juice down those wires. Maybe look at rewiring in to two strings and reducing the voltage. The other option is simply finding some sort of 9v (e.g. a transformer) and experimenting with input voltage.

For people considering a single light. setup nothing has changed regarding battery packs. They don't last long, you are still better in my opinion with a removal cell either in an external pack or simple torch setup.

john2002

can someone confirm the connector size for the solarstorm X2 http://www.lightmalls.com/black-color-solarstorm-x2-2-cree-xm-l2-2200-lumen-led-bike-light-without-battery-pack
is it 5.5mmx2.1mm with the male conector on the battery?
ive not recieved it yet do they come with the screw on cap? is there any where i can buy these to make up my own battery pack?

-Archie-

supersonic wrote:

Looks good, but the output is crap. And I mean, less than what you'd expect from on old SSC P7 torch. So I took it to bits and had a look. On full mode, the driver is outputting 24 volts - tested across each LED this is just 2.65v. Looking at the data sheet this is hardly enough to even illuminate it, hence the low output. All 9 are wired in series. My thinking is to take one or two out of the circuit to bump up the voltage to each? Any thoughts? Looks easy enough with a soldering iron.

Most of Chinese lights are intentionally underpowered (probably, in order to compensate bad thermal design, low assembling quality, weak battery, etc.) - but typically it's very easy to change value of current-sense resistor to increase the output.

You can quickly check whether reduced amount of LEDs will affect the power applied to the rest of them, by touching the particular LED's leads with tweezers: shortage will exclude it from the chain, bypassing the current. No need to use soldering iron here...

BTW, may I ask you for close-up picture of this light's LED mounting base?

Cheers,

Tarqy

Has anyone tried these? http://www.candb-seen.co.uk/bikehead-li ... light.html

Not sure if I should just try my luck with a China spesh or go with something a little more reliable like lezyne...

apreading

Tarqy wrote:

Has anyone tried these? http://www.candb-seen.co.uk/bikehead-li ... light.html

These are just chinese specials that someone else has imported for you. Might give you a little more comeback if they go wrong and he might test them before sending them out, but it might make little difference unless he has a good reputation like Torchy the Battery Boy.

supersonic

-Archie- wrote:

supersonic wrote:

Looks good, but the output is crap. And I mean, less than what you'd expect from on old SSC P7 torch. So I took it to bits and had a look. On full mode, the driver is outputting 24 volts - tested across each LED this is just 2.65v. Looking at the data sheet this is hardly enough to even illuminate it, hence the low output. All 9 are wired in series. My thinking is to take one or two out of the circuit to bump up the voltage to each? Any thoughts? Looks easy enough with a soldering iron.

Most of Chinese lights are intentionally underpowered (probably, in order to compensate bad thermal design, low assembling quality, weak battery, etc.) - but typically it's very easy to change value of current-sense resistor to increase the output.

You can quickly check whether reduced amount of LEDs will affect the power applied to the rest of them, by touching the particular LED's leads with tweezers: shortage will exclude it from the chain, bypassing the current. No need to use soldering iron here...

BTW, may I ask you for close-up picture of this light's LED mounting base?

Cheers,

Sure, I'll get on it. And good idea!

The underpower here (output wise) is very marked, I'd guess it is outputting 3-400 lumens.

Paul 8v

I can recommend Torchy, he was very helpful and the service was great

itboffin

supersonic wrote:

Aye, no chance. They output about 1200. But still a great lamp.

yep i agree, i've just bought one and it does seem massively brighter than my original magicshines what i have noticed is battery life is terrible, im getting 2.5 hours on a mix of flashing and low

supersonic

Here are a couple of pics:





I used the MM to sequentially short out the LEDs until just one remained in the circuit. It was pulling 1.56A! So my plan ain't going to work.

Ouija

itboffin wrote:

supersonic wrote:

Aye, no chance. They output about 1200. But still a great lamp.

yep i agree, i've just bought one and it does seem massively brighter than my original magicshines what i have noticed is battery life is terrible, im getting 2.5 hours on a mix of flashing and low

Yep, which is why i always recommend the Trustfire Tr-D002 (also sold as the Torchy Oriole 2x) as it comes with a way better battery that gets you 3 hours on full brightness. I agree with Torchy's assesment (just past half way down the page) of the two lights (Trustfire/Oriole vs Solarstorm)

The sample I tried came with a battery and charger, both very poor quality. I reckon it would be cheaper to go for the Torchy Oriole 2x T6 which is similar in size and performance.

-Archie-

supersonic wrote:

Here are a couple of pics:

Many thanks! As I see, thermal management is inferior here, and light's design is quite crappy.

I used the MM to sequentially short out the LEDs until just one remained in the circuit. It was pulling 1.56A! So my plan ain't going to work.

Then, as expected, it's a typical example of driver limiting the current, not the voltage. You'll have to identify the sense resistor (it should have some value within a fraction of Ohm range) and either replace it, or add another one on top of existing one, to increase the current to acceptable level.

P.S. While you are here: I think, the name of this tread looks a bit outdated (at least, for last 2 years). Maybe, it's time to edit it?

Cheers,

diy

I don't think the idea of dropping an LED out was ever going to work, as the LEDs get less efficient as you scale up the amps. so fewer LEDs at higher current will produce less lumen.

I'd explore 9v, and 11.1v input voltage at the pack as there are quite a few 9v and 11.1v options on the market and a couple 10v options.