Hope R4 lights - burn time

daveaasmith

Folks

Thought I'd share some knowledge I've just discovered about the new R4's after a chat with the Hope Tech guys.

I've had my R4 now for three months and love it, but felt like I'd been waiting for the battery to get to it's full potential. I've got the epic (5200mAh) battery, and after a couple of hours on 'medium' (with a couple of 2 minute downhills on 'high') it kept dropping down to 'low' if I put it into 'high'.

Anyway, the following is a decent review of the lights, and it mentions the same thing, but with no explanation (nor can I find any more details on the web)......

http://www.flyingfoxbikes.com/blog/flyi ... -r4-review

Negatives: when you put it on high, it turns itself down to low.

So anyway, thinking my light was faulty I called the guys at Hope and they explained that it's all due to the new circuitry in the unit (trying to preserve power) - when the battery reaches 50% it won't let you switch to 'high', and instead drops back down to 'low'. You can pop it back into 'medium' and it's fine, but once you're at 50%, you ain't using 'high' again. BUT if you're in 'high' from before the battery hits 50% it will stay there (until it hits the critical battery level and goes into save mode).

If anyone has experienced this, then I hope the above helps (and makes sense).

Dave

cooldad

Crazy price - should have had a read of this first.
viewtopic.php?f=20005&t=12660193

daveaasmith

I did :oops: - and I tried to resist, but I'm weak for Hope :twisted:

cooldad

Imagine how much bacon you could have had for the difference.

davewalsh

I have an R4 Epic and that behaves exactly as above.

MountainMonster

davewalsh wrote:

I have an R4 Epic and that behaves exactly as above.

Probably because it is the same light.

cloudynights

i have r4 light and when i went to there factory ( 10 mins from my home) they told me the same about the 50% thing, one thing about hope lights is no matter what weather your in, how cold or wet it is there lights work, no water ingress problems no messing about changing batteries halfway through a ride and its british

cooldad

TBH at a tenth of the price for the same brightness, with latest technology, I'm quite happy to support the Chinese - maybe they'll remember me when they finish taking over the world.
And Ultrafire stuff is quite well made.

cloudynights

rather have one that works year after year works out cheaper that way than if you have to keep replacing them after a winter or even less with some of my mates lights

cooldad

Except the led in the Hope is already way outdated. In 10 years it will be positively stone age.

cloudynights

in ten years time im gonna need lights like car headlamps to see where im going, till then im fine with what i have

davewalsh

It always amuses me when after calling for a pint at the end of our Wed night club rides when the folks with cheapo chinese lights either have to leave them on or keep them under the heaters in the smoking area to ensure they still work when we leave, whereas me with my 'Made In Lancashire' R4 doesn't have to do any of that shyte and it always works at the push of a button !

supersonic

All these comments about 'chinese' lights mean very little without saying what model. Especially given that many of the big branded lights are made in china and use chinese parts!

Northwind

cloudynights wrote:

one thing about hope lights is no matter what weather your in, how cold or wet it is there lights work

Rubbish, have you not seen how many people are having trouble with the connectors? (My last couple of night rides had 4 recent hope lights, 2 of them had a problem, and one of those has already been back to Hope on warranty- they said "There's nothing wrong with it" and sent it back still broken. Quite a bit of muttering on Teh Internetz about this now)

As for working in 10 years- the batteries won't last that long and the LED will be stoneaged. Whereas the newer far eastern lights come with higher quality connectors than Hope do, excellent sealing, decent chargers (at last), competent batteries and oh, they make more light at 1/3d the price.

supersonic

Indeed - people bang on about Exposure being reliable too, but many of their models have had problems.

cycle monster

As always, we all use and like different things but some people have to get on their high horses about their cheaper/better choices. Isn't the purpose of the forum to share information and help as opposed to showing off? Forgive me for suggesting that all of this might be designed to be of use to people.

supersonic

Indeed, but if someone is going to state that a certain model is indestructable when it plainly isn't, then people will comment.

It is useful info though - a design flaw I'd say, a 1000 lumen light that you have to run on lower setting half the time (630 lumen).

Northwind

cycle monster wrote:

As always, we all use and like different things but some people have to get on their high horses about their cheaper/better choices. Isn't the purpose of the forum to share information and help as opposed to showing off?

Is it not helpful to tell people they can get better products for less money? It's not a case of rubbing people's noses in it after they've made a bad buy, but trying to stop other people from doing the same.

leaflite

Do you think they might be HOPEless?

diy

Over time this 50% issue will trigger earlier and early as the cells degrade. You could try charging them 1/2 volt higher to keep them running longer or build a custom pack with 4.35v cells. Its hard to see a way around this without modding the lights.

the simplest option would be to buy or make a second pack and run them in serial. An extra 2P pack with quality cells would probably extend the life of the light by about - 60-65% Alternatively you could put a voltage regulator between the pack and the light to trick it in to thinking the pack is full power all the time. Its going to be using voltage to measure discharge.

With regard to comparisons to cheap lights. When you've spent £150 more than the next guy who has brighter more flexible lights you have to come up with some reason why yours are better.

daveaasmith

Folks

I had a feeling this would turn into a price disagreement :roll: , but there are enough of those threads already......so back on topic

Anyway, glad to hear a few more folk are aware of this symptom of the R4's so it's not just me - definitely a frustration, but hopefully running on full whack for 2hrs30, or just keeping on medium for longer will be fine.

Interested to hear if anyone's ditched theirs because of this ???

Dave

cloudynights

Dave
Last time i was in at hope i mentioned about the r4 light not using full power after 50% battery life had gone and they thought they may change the circuit board on them so that they can run at full power untill battery is very low
Andy