The big LIGHTS thread 2011-2014

diy

cooldad wrote:

I prefer the 502b shape, seller is registered in the UK, less exaggeration, first class post and you can pick up at Argos if you want.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-ULTRAFIRE ... 339254098a

Not sure how the data stacks up if that unit can run on Cr123s - the driver says 4.2v max, my worry would be that its under driven if it can take those cell combos. Also its almost a £10er for an XM-L T6

mtbjunkie08

diy wrote:

cooldad wrote:

I prefer the 502b shape, seller is registered in the UK, less exaggeration, first class post and you can pick up at Argos if you want.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-ULTRAFIRE ... 339254098a

Not sure how the data stacks up if that unit can run on Cr123s - the driver says 4.2v max, my worry would be that its under driven if it can take those cell combos. Also its almost a £10er for an XM-L T6

Could you recommend a different UK seller then?

lugsey2k5

Any one got any opinions on the Torchy Oriole 2x xm-l T6 ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Torchy-Oriole ... 43d1da5ceb

Photos look decent for the price. Need it for off road riding.

Ouija

lugsey2k5 wrote:

Any one got any opinions on the Torchy Oriole 2x xm-l T6 ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Torchy-Oriole ... 43d1da5ceb

Photos look decent for the price. Need it for off road riding.

Go back two pages, we were just discussing it (the Oriole is just a rebadged Trustfire TR-D002 by the look of it).

mathematics

18650 batteries does it matter if I got flat top or button top?

I currently use them in a trust fire torch and have button tops. But thinking of making my own pack for a solarstorm light unit, so would it matter in this case?

Also dies anyone know where I can get a solarstorm battery box please? Everywhere seems to be sold out?

lugsey2k5

Thanks Ouija, didnt realise they were the same. Seems a good deal for £40. I just need to find a new battery pack for the old lights now with a jack type connector.

Ouija

lugsey2k5 wrote:

Thanks Ouija, didnt realise they were the same. Seems a good deal for £40. I just need to find a new battery pack for the old lights now with a jack type connector.

Make your own, it can be fun. You can do proper ones all soldered up with protection circuits and encased in rubber if you have the necessary equipment or you can do a simple one that only requires a few varieties of tape and Milky bar/Rolo tube (knocked up a 8 cell pack the other day using that method as it's easy to break down again).

lugsey2k5

Any ideas on where to get the cable from as in theory all i need to so is solder a new cable to the existing battery pack. The current cable has snapped right as it enters the plug.

Mister_g

Ouija wrote:

...You can do proper ones all soldered up...

How have you found soldering to the cells? Is it the same sort of process as soldering to nicads? (Roughen cell/really hot iron/be quick) ?

I want to make a pack up, and would be much happier soldering it than relying on a battery box, but don't want to wreck my nice new cells (or explode anything!)

lugsey2k5

http://www.lumicycle.com/accessories/ca ... 0-179.html

Would there be any issues just chopping the male end of this cable off and stripping the wires back to be soldered on the old battery pack ?

neilus

Solarstorm BC1 4 x 18650 boxes available here:
http://www.ledshop.cz/battery-box-solarstorm~z8032.html
He's quoted me 464 czk including shipping to Austria (cos thats where i live!) - about 13 quid. Shipping to UK probably a bit more - but not much id imagine. Im wondering if you'd be able to put the batteries in the box and charge them all simultaneously with the normal plug in battery pack charger? Or charge the cells separately?

Ouija

Mister_g wrote:

Ouija wrote:

...You can do proper ones all soldered up...

How have you found soldering to the cells? Is it the same sort of process as soldering to nicads? (Roughen cell/really hot iron/be quick) ?

I want to make a pack up, and would be much happier soldering it than relying on a battery box, but don't want to wreck my nice new cells (or explode anything!)

Pretty much, though i tend to use soldering tabs (Metal ribbon).

With some double sided sticky tape, masking tape, sticky backed aluminium foil and Milky bar buttons tube you can make a eight cell pack like this....



and mount it on your bike with bar mounts....



Simply buy a 10 pack of cheap 3000mah Ultrafires for £9



Put double sided sticky tap along the back of each battery and stick them together to make a square (instead of glue).

Wrap some masking tape around the outside to stop them coming apart.

Sit one set on top of the other to double the voltage, using a common plate between the two rather than having the positives of the lower set touching the negatives of the upper set directly. I use soldering tab folded into a square but you could just as easily use a tin lid or anything conductive of the right size.

Run some tape vertically over the batteries to keep the two halves pressed together and then put two common plates on the top and bottom and strap em down in place. Again, i use soldering strips folded into squares with the wires pressed into a fold in the strip but you can use tin can lids or just about anything.



It's a nice tight fit inside the tube. You can cut down the tube with a craft knife to the same height as the battery (needs to be a bit taller for the recessed cap) and drill a hole in the cap or cut out a groove in the side to allow the wire to pass through. A bit of sticky backed foil over the outside to waterproof it and away you go...

No soldering required and easy to break down again. Gives just under six hours on highest mode on my Trustfire 2x (Torchy Oriole 2x) and cost less than £15. Whereas the four Senybor 2800mah batteries i bought from Torchy two years ago, inside a Lenova battery case (hard to find now) cost me close to £45 and only get me 2.5'ish hours.
Yes the Ultrafire 3000mah batteries aren't as a good quality as the 2800mah Senybors, but i do get longer runtimes out of them than the Senybors (in a torch) and are only a fraction of the price. More importantly, they are much higher capacity than the unbranded batteries that seem to come with most of the Solarstorm X2 and other lights that are selling for the £25 mark.

Mister_g

^ Neat.

I guess they are protected cells, so there's no need a separate protection board?

(Or are you not bothered?)

Ouija

Mister_g wrote:

^ Neat.

I guess they are protected cells, so there's no need a separate protection board?

(Or are you not bothered?)

Protected. But it really doesn't matter as you can easily break down the pack and replace dead cells anyway. And if you use a common plate between the upper and lower batteries one dead cell won't stop the pack from working.

Alternately, get two 32650 batteries and sit them on top of each other in a fruit pastilles tube for much the same thing (just simpler to build).

john2002

lugsey2k5 wrote:

Any ideas on where to get the cable from as in theory all i need to so is solder a new cable to the existing battery pack. The current cable has snapped right as it enters the plug.

i got a couple of These Y leads to make up some battery packs. they fit tightly in my
solarstorm x2 my light has the screw on cap on the connector which this Y lead dosnt have but it still fits you could always take the male end of the Y lead and solder it on to your light

diy

You really would be better using a laptop pack for that job.. Firstly the cells will come soldered in 2P pairs, second those Ultrafires are high risk charging in 2P, 2S combo's or more. At least with a recycled pack all the cells will be the same source and age.

lugsey2k5

Thanks Jogn2002, found a standard extension cable on DX and ordered that. £2.50 from china or £2.50 from europe with £7 postage!! I think ill wait for China

Ouija

diy wrote:

You really would be better using a laptop pack for that job.. Firstly the cells will come soldered in 2P pairs, second those Ultrafires are high risk charging in 2P, 2S combo's or more. At least with a recycled pack all the cells will be the same source and age.

Nah, too much hassle breaking open a laptop battery just to knock together a quick twenty minute battery pack. I've used those Ultrafires in a 8 cell rubberized pack for the last 8 months and not had any problems with them so just found it easier and cheaper to use them again. Don't really care if they are the highest quality (they work out less than £1 a battery) as they are quite disposable at that price.

diy

how do you charge a 4p2s? slowly is my guess

Ouija

davidmt83 wrote:

Hi all,

Has anyone got a Trustfire 2x and if so can you confirm:

1. Does the light fit snugly in the bracket or does it rattle a little?
2. Do you notice any condensation on the outside of the glass? I noticed this this evening, approx 1h 15m riding in 6c and it did seem to dull the output of the light a little.

Thanks

The first one i bought jiggled a little in the bracket. A bit of tape stuck along one side of the slide fixed that.

Ouija

The more emitters, the more floody the lights tend to get. A single emitter, in a single reflector, running at almost full ampage tends to give more throw than multiple emitters in multiple small reflectors running at medium ampage per emitter (they never run them at full as that sort of defeats the purpose). I mentioned as much when i posted the pics comparing the x2 to a torch. A 501/502 torch as a more focused beam and throw than all these multi-head, small reflector cupped units, despite the fact they throw out more lumens. Which is why a torch or single emitter unit is still the better option for mounting on a helmet if you want to see what's going on way down the road.

kevinharley

Just got the Torchy Oriole this week, had its first outing a couple of nights ago. Impressed, good throw and spread, battery pack lasted 1hr50 on full and then a further 40mins on full the following morning, so 2.5 hours in all (lives up to the claim!) Paired with my 3 year old MTBBatteries V1 light on the lid (still a great light, with excellent throw and decent spread), it makes a really good set up. £40 for the Torchy (you can get the Trustfire, same light, from China/HK for under £30, but I liked Torchy's "if you're not impressed, return it for a refund" guarantee, and its easier to return to UK.

Mine also rattles in the mount, so will get out the electrical tape to reduce that ...

oatmealtwice

I saw a (road) cyclist last night with a rear light that gave out a really large pulse of light (almost like a cloud) - any idea would this have been?

kevinharley

I still need a decent quality battery pack (4 x 18650), but don't really want to pay £30 for one from Torchy. Can anyone recommend anything in the £15/£20 price range, ie Trustfire?

Also, for info (and I may well just get this and sourcey own batteries), the solar storm bc1 battery box seems to be out of stock everywhere, but I came across this:

http://www.dx.com/p/pannovo-b-c18-water ... ack-355547

Any thoughts?

tincaman

kevinharley wrote:

I still need a decent quality battery pack (4 x 18650), but don't really want to pay £30 for one from Torchy. Can anyone recommend anything in the £15/£20 price range, ie Trustfire?

Also, for info (and I may well just get this and sourcey own batteries), the solar storm bc1 battery box seems to be out of stock everywhere, but I came across this:

http://www.dx.com/p/pannovo-b-c18-water ... ack-355547

Any thoughts?

This must be the new version Pannovo has been talking about elsewhere. Confused by the USB connector though, I thought standard USB is 5v, the output of this one is 8.4v

john2002

tincaman wrote:

kevinharley wrote:

I still need a decent quality battery pack (4 x 18650), but don't really want to pay £30 for one from Torchy. Can anyone recommend anything in the £15/£20 price range, ie Trustfire?

Also, for info (and I may well just get this and sourcey own batteries), the solar storm bc1 battery box seems to be out of stock everywhere, but I came across this:

http://www.dx.com/p/pannovo-b-c18-water ... ack-355547

Any thoughts?

This must be the new version Pannovo has been talking about elsewhere. Confused by the USB connector though, I thought standard USB is 5v, the output of this one is 8.4v

Looks like it's 5v output from the USB. And 8.4v input and output from the other connector ie to charge it and to run a 8.4v light

bhosty2

oatmealtwice wrote:

I saw a (road) cyclist last night with a rear light that gave out a really large pulse of light (almost like a cloud) - any idea would this have been?

Rear lights - the best I've found are:

https://www.niteflux.com/buy/red-zone-8/ - brilliantly bright but $150! (Australian product)

or

http://shop.seesense.cc/collections/all ... rear-light - the Elite option should be very bright, I've got one on the way to me - but again very expensive (£80)!

and I recently saw this on Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/73 ... hts-made-i - looks awesome but yet again $130 delivered.

The best cheaper light I've come across is the Moon Shield 60 - http://www.wiggle.co.uk/moon-shield-60- ... ear-light/ (could be cheaper elsewhere, somewhere had them for about £18 for a while) - very good, but not in the same league as the Niteflux above)

I've also got some £10 200 lumen 501b red led torches, and stick a fenix white diffuser on it - 360 degree visibilty - http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/Shop/Access ... r-Tip.html - these work great on the front too with a white led 501b, not too bright too look at but very very visible all round.

Does anyone know of better?

Ouija

kevinharley wrote:

I still need a decent quality battery pack (4 x 18650), but don't really want to pay £30 for one from Torchy. Can anyone recommend anything in the £15/£20 price range, ie Trustfire?

Also, for info (and I may well just get this and sourcey own batteries), the solar storm bc1 battery box seems to be out of stock everywhere, but I came across this:

http://www.dx.com/p/pannovo-b-c18-water ... ack-355547

Any thoughts?

I have the previous version without the USB adapter. Nice, if a little heavy. You do have to use protected cells with it (mine didn't like shorter batteries) and wedge some tissue between the batteries to stop the whole thing rattling/buzzing.

Not to sure about this USB version. Having that USB cable dangling unused from the battery would offend my sense of aesthetics (not to mention getting water and dirt in the end).

Ouija

davidmt83 wrote:

Ouija wrote:

The more emitters, the more floody the lights tend to get. A single emitter, in a single reflector, running at almost full ampage tends to give more throw than multiple emitters in multiple small reflectors running at medium ampage per emitter

Can you recommend a bar mounted single emitter?

For single emitters i'd go for something that's 8.4v and with a decent sized reflector to really focus and throw the light some distance. A torch like the C8 would also work but with torches the single battery struggles to power the emitter at 3 amps, and that's if the emitter even tries to draw that much.

One of my favourites is this Sanguan/HI-MAX unit with OP reflector.



Noticeably brighter than the Magicshine copies i've owned (four) in a similar size and emitter. The batteries only good for about 1.5hrs on high though (it's only real achilles heel).

I did some comparison shots a while back of this head unit against a smaller more modern XM-L2 unit...



Despite having a smooth reflector and a more powerful XM-L2 emitter the newer light tended to spread light over everything more thinly.....



Whereas the Sanguan/HI-MAX had more punch down the center of the beam for more throw....



If it's dry, i'll pop back out tomorrow night and update the pics (try the Trustfire X2 and some torches and see how each performs over longer distances).

johnmcl7

I was reading back a few pages looking for torch recommendations and I saw some links to XP-L LEDs, do I understand it correctly that the XP-L's offer similar performance to the XML2's? I'm thinking of order a couple of these:

http://www.kaidomain.com/product/details.S023732

I don't want to use Lightmalls as they mucked up the last order and refused to sort it out in any way, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of other reliable retailers?

John