Evening guys,

Finally got chance to try out the fully loaded battery box on tonights ride.

I picked up the Xtar VP2 charger, considered to be one of the best 2 bays on candlepower forums. Has a 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 amp charge setting, volt reading, and took around 2.5 hours for a pair on full setting. (This is quicker than my old Nitecore I4 which only delivered 0.375 amp when all four bays used)

Perfect cutoff at 4.19v

Four Torchy 3400 mah unprotected 18650 fit perfect in the solarstorm battery box and lid seals fully

As expected started the ride on 3 bars

SSX2 in anodized red

2 hour ride on full power and two bars left on the indicator

All four cells reading 3.88v, from what i’ve read they should be kept above 2.5v, so 3.88v is quite impressive for a decent outing on full power, couldn’t wish for more trail illumination on high either.

Costs

SSX2 £14.50 ebay
Xtar VP2 £35 torch direct
3400mah £33.98 torchy
battery box £12 marmaduke

£95.48

Considering the battery box and 6800 pack i’ve created should last a long long time, only consumable may be the SSX2, but thus far its been very reliable and offers a ridiculous amount of trail light even on medium.

I’ve got a very similar combo I’ve just put together, only my charger is different. I had my first run tonight and the X2 kept cutting out on cobbles and other proper hits. I don’t know if it is the connector or the batteries moving in the case. I’m going to make the batteries a little longer with a spacer and see if that helps.

Luckily I had a 501b torch on the helmet and a zoomable back up torch on the bars, so my ride wasn’t stopped. It was jus a little amnoyng. I’ll give everything a once over and try again. When the x2 was on it was bright.

I would never want to see my battery’s at 2.5v. Some may be okay with that, but I would advise trying to keep them no lower than 3v.
3.88v is about 55% charge.

Does your charger do capacity? I would be interested to know how close to 3400mAh those battery’s are.

PS.
Do you carry a spare light just in case the SS fails?

mcnultycop
You have to REALLY screw the top down tight to get all the battery’s a good contact because two of them stick up higher than the others.
It could really do with having longer springs at the bottom.

subscribed. can you send a link to all the parts bought except the SSX” please ?

Seems like a lot of money to shell out on a Chinese light.

I just bought another SS for £15 off ebay.
And i’ll do the same next year.

Seems like a lot of money to shell out on a Chinese light.

£15?!

Yeah links to all the separate bits would be good. Looks a quality setup.

That battery pack is genius! link please. I’m happy enough with my magicshine bar light but I’ve got 3 heads and one working battery left.

Marmadukes (Ollies) site who was selling the battery packs last year, off-hand he look to only have the full kit (box & batteries), drop him an email, to see if he’s got any he will to sell separately or not…
I did this last year, though I bought panasonic protected 3400mAh’s (before the price went silly!) and am using an old chinese charger I’ve had 6 years(?) now for a P7 torch (which is still going strong).
Again it’s not the cheapest way to do it, but I bought the SSX2 before it was obvious how bad the batteries were, so am treating the battery box as an investment and the lighthead as disposable. That said my SSX2 is back out and seeing action for it’s second year and showing no signs of problems.

IF you wanted a good ‘chinese’ light without having to go down this path, I’d suggest Torchy’s 2x XML Oriole, though it’s one butt ugly light. He’s happy to stand by his batteries, so you won’t have to go down this ^^^ route.

Well I’ve learnt something, I never realised the three lights on the back of the X2 were power indicators! Good to know, as I’ve never seen mine drop. Probably havent done a long enough ride in the dark.
Plus I lashed out on a larger battery pack from chap on e-bay everyone recommends.

Fluxinent 6600mAh battery from that guy Torchy, that everyone recommends 😉

Dats wot gon an got I did.

i meant the best part of a hundred quid. What bonus does this give you over something like a gemini duo or gloworm X1 for instance?

Comparable Gemini Duo’s or Gloworm X2 are still another £50-£70, at least another 50% again and you don’t need to spend as much as the OP has, but the info is useful. Lots of us had spares (batteries/chargers) from older chinese lights, so the SSX2 isn’t that an expensive a step forward or as mentioned my battery should last for longer than any normal battery going by experience (no idea why but 3 out of 4 of my 6 year old 18650 batteries are still going strong) & I’ll take it onto the next 3000 million lumens lighthead

In all honesty Torchy’s dual XML unit, is probably a more economical option

I bought one of those red lights for £12 intending to do this. So far the charger and battery it came with has done 3hr rides. Lucky really as I don’t have the cash to finish the job.

lightman – Member
I would never want to see my battery’s at 2.5v. Some may be okay with that, but I would advise trying to keep them no lower than 3v.
3.88v is about 55% charge.

Does your charger do capacity? I would be interested to know how close to 3400mAh those battery’s are.

PS.
Do you carry a spare light just in case the SS fails?

mcnultycop
You have to REALLY screw the top down tight to get all the battery’s a good contact because two of them stick up higher than the others.
It could really do with having longer springs at the bo

I’ve got a multimeter how can I check capacity is 3400mah? The charger doesnt have this feature. But going off Torchy reviews and the part number under the yellow sticker i’m confident its what Torchy sells it as.

Thanks for the advice on keeping it above 3v, at 3v what capacity would be left?

the_lecht_rocks – Member
subscribed. can you send a link to all the parts bought except the SSX” please ?

Xtar VP2 charger
http://www.torchdirect.co.uk/batteries-and-chargers/xtar-vp2-dual-bay-lithium-ion-battery-charger.html

Torchy 3400mah available on ebay or cheaper here
http://ukvapers.org/Thread-Torchy-battery-prices

Battery box currently sold out on aliexpress/banggood etc Marmaduke still sells with batteries included
http://mtblights.co.uk/battery-packs

Solar Storm X2 lights all over ebay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xsolarstorm+x2&_nkw=solarstorm+x2&_sacat=0

M6TTF – Member
i meant the best part of a hundred quid. What bonus does this give you over something like a gemini duo or gloworm X1 for instance?

Charger, battery box and batteries will get very well looked after being able to monitor the volts and ensuring a perfect 4.19v cutoff. This part of the cost I view as an investment. I did consider just charging in the box with a cheapo charger and protected cells, but seen many chargers blow off the wall and the cutoff doesnt seem very accurate or reliable.

The lights are only £15 and as already stated you’ve got to spend well over this to match the performance and light output. Even spending well over this you only get a sealed battery pack and red/green indicated wall charger, no real quality monitoring option or way to look after the batteries properly.

Beauty of the 6800 pack investment is insane runtime, and it works with all the chinese lights. If I fancy a 4 led solar storm XT40 its super cheap to try out something even more powerful.

z1ppy – Member
Comparable Gemini Duo’s or Gloworm X2 are still another £50-£70, at least another 50% again and you don’t need to spend as much as the OP has, but the info is useful. Lots of us had spares (batteries/chargers) from older chinese lights, so the SSX2 isn’t that an expensive a step forward or as mentioned my battery should last for longer than any normal battery going by experience (no idea why but 3 out of 4 of my 6 year old 18650 batteries are still going strong) & I’ll take it onto the next 3000 million lumens lighthead

In all honesty Torchy’s dual XML unit, is probably a more economical option

Exactly this ^^

The stock batteries I still use from my original magicshine from a few years back, are still going, and give 2-3 hours run time on the SSX2 but I can’t run on high for the entire ride, it needs a mix of low/med/high. Friends SSx2 batteries are the same, more than adequate if your happy to change the beam throughout the ride.

Whats nice about the 3400 torchys is the ability to run on full for an entire 3 hour + ride without worries. Or if a few night rides in a row coming up with no charging time run on medium/high combo. Reckon you could easily do 3 night rides without charge.

Hi, if I get one of those torchy batteries, can I use this charger that I already have?

http://s1380.photobucket.com/user/jpol/media/Charger_zps2zazswuq.jpg.html?filters=142045337&filters%5Brecent%5D=1&sort=1&o=0

Cheers

I did a similiar thing combining my existing fluxient battery with a solarstorm, it worked decently but not £90 decently imo, I reckon you can get better lights like the magicshine and fluxient 4xpg doofers, for less (they have a bit less power but a better beam pattern imo)

The solarstorms are great for cheap lights but they’d not be an upgrading option, for me. OTOH the batteries, chargers etc are all totally transferrable to different heads so it’s an investment.

Xtar MC1 and MC2 seem like good cheaper charger options, you don’t get the bells and whistles but they run off USB which can be handy and the MC1 is about £8.

My original battery seemed fine originally, but I wanted more runtime, or to be able to trust that it would run on and on

Would the battery box and protected panasonic cells from ollie/marmaduke last year

Been running fine all winter, use it for around 30 minutes on medium/low every night with the dog, plus any other extra rides. Can’t remember when I last charged it

I find when I put it on high the battery led indicator drops down to 2 bars, but when I put it on medium it’ll go back to 3. For the first little while anyway

Figured it was a good investment as I can upgrade the light at any point and the battery box will be fine still. Plus I still have the original battery pack so I can run the whole unit as a backup or unit for lending

Torchy doesn’t seem to be selling the 6600mah £34.99 one at the moment, does anyone know of a good alternative?

I am putting together some top of the range packs using the Panasonic 3400 mAHr batteries in the above case.

Warning – the electronics inside this case draws a current of 5mA or so even when switched off. So left for too long it will destroy an unprotected set of cells. I am ripping out everything and putting in a new protection circuit. Then sealing it up so that you charge from the connector.

Just doing a capacity test to check the batteries are not fakes. Looking good so far, 16 hours with a Solarstorm X2 on the low setting.

Does anyone know the best source of a Solarstorm xt40, preferably from a UK seller?

My setup is the solarstorm X2 which was about £15

Then this battery box £14

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141493802928?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&var=440645217477&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

XTAR MC2 £10

4 x 2600 Samsung batteries £15

£54 for what a pretty decent setup.