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AlexSimon - Member
Those Solarstorm battery packs on are Ali Express at $5 but with $15 shipping.
A quick check showed that buying 20 for a group buy would work out at about £5 each, but then there would be customs and the post of getting them out to people on top of that. Likely to be less than a tenner though.POSTED 10 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST
I'd be in
have a look at the last post (at time of me typing!!) here
http://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-riding/battery-thread-2013-a-834295-9.html#post10081585
I've emailed the guy posting and am having a battery pack off him for £12 - I'm not sure how many more he may have
have a look at the last post (at time of me typing!!) herehttp://forums.mtbr.com/lights-night-riding/battery-thread-2013-a-834295-9.html#post10081585
I've emailed the guy posting and am having a battery pack off him for £12 - I'm not sure how many more he may have
Is that the Solarstorm battery box? Looks like it is just the box without any cells in it. They do look good though and a great way of ensuring you've got good cells in your pack which can be individually charged to balance them and replaced if any fail, tempted myself.
First issue for me would be whether that box will take the longer protected Panasonics.
ygm Stevemorg2
I'd be interested in a group buy of a 4 cell Holder and some protected Panasonic cells, or just tacking on to someone elses order ?
Failing that I work with a Chinese Engineer, perhaps I should get her to email and ask some questions about availability ?
I think Fasttech are the best / cheapest source for genuine Panasonic 3400's protected. Seems there's a lot of scamming / cloning / selling re-badged used cells in the world of Chinese batteries.
Also, you'd need to buy a fair amount I reckon to neutralise the on-cost / hassle of re posting them in the UK.
$16.98 shipped for 2.
I'd be interested in a group buy of a 4 cell Holder and some protected Panasonic cells, or just tacking on to someone elses order ?
+1
Me too!
Count me in on the battery box too please
The problem with trying to combine the batteries with the case are twofold:
1) Batteries aren't from the same shop as the case
2) Royal Mail wont deliver the batteries (from the group buyer to individuals).
I use myHermes for parcels, I`m not sure if they have the same restrictions ?
would this be any good for the solarstorm x2?
The problem with trying to combine the batteries with the case are twofold:
1) Batteries aren't from the same shop as the case
2) Royal Mail wont deliver the batteries (from the group buyer to individuals).
Just to do the group buy on the battery box and order the cells individually from fasttech...sorted.
The guys looking to replace x2 batteries, is this purely from a safety perspective, or runtime? As they're pretty decent on runtime.
Runtime for me, as I would like to get more than 1hr 15mins on full.
Seems a waste to buy a powerful light and need to run it at a low power a lot of the time to extend the battery life.
bellefied, I have one, it's nothing special and definitely not something you'd replace the batteries within easily. It's lasted well for about 1.5 years and still works ok now, but at a depleted rating. I was thinking about trying to replace the cells but in all honest one of these battery boxes look a better bet, and I'll probably replace mine with one.
Seems a waste to buy a powerful light and need to run it at a low power a lot of the time to extend the battery life.
Surely you really don't need it on high apart from on descents though do you? And sadly they only tend to take up a fairly small part of your ride.
grum - MemberSurely you really don't need it on high apart from on descents though do you? And sadly they only tend to take up a fairly small part of your ride.
I ride a lot of twisty tracks through woodland, and it is just nicer on high.
Could easily get by on medium though, personal choice.
>The problem with trying to combine the batteries with the case are twofold:
1) Batteries aren't from the same shop as the case
2) Royal Mail wont deliver the batteries (from the group buyer to individuals).<
Not seeing how the batteries & case from different sources are much of an issue as 18650 is standard /known size. The only issue for me is the length of the oversized Panasonic protected unit.
>Just to do the group buy on the battery box and order the cells individually from fasttech...sorted.<
As I said, little to be gained by faffing around with battery group buys anyway.
>would this be any good for the solarstorm x2?<
Not for me, I use these already on my other lights and they are struggling after 2.5hrs (riding time) Plus they only rated @ 4400Mah. Doubt that's a genuine figure anyway. The big Panasonics should give 6400 Mah - good for 3hrs on high.
Like some of the others above I don't really see the point in buying powerful lights only to faff around keeping them on low to prevent you from running out of juice.
Like some of the others above I don't really see the point in buying powerful lights only to faff around keeping them on low to prevent you from running out of juice.
I don't see the point of making it look like daylight to slowly grind up a hill.
I guess as pointed out above it depends where you ride, but with the kind of riding I mostly do it tends to be reasonable length climbs followed by quick descents - there's not loads of undulating stuff.
Occasionally pressing a button doesn't qualify as faffing around in my book.
Don't get me wrong I'd like batteries that last forever but I also don't see dipping them as much of a hassle at all. I used to ride at night with 2 x 200 lumen torches and that seemed fine, even for my local DH track - so using these on low half the time should be no great hardship.
That and lots of us ride in groups where having your light on high all the time can cause issues for ppl withless powerful light. I have a bar light (SS X2) and a helmet light (troutie mini) but much of the ride only the bar light on a lower setting is required or polite.
I can see scope for a higher capacity battery pack for my bar mounted light say a 6 or 8 18650 cell bottle job, I already use a 4 cell pack sat rattling about in a converted storage bottle which is ample, but setting that up to hold more cells sort of makes sense to me.
The goal of such an exercise would be to achieve longer general run time, i.e. I could wring many more hours of normal, mixed Hi/Mid/Low use use out of my bar mounted light and charge them far less frequently, obviously there is a weight penalty in doing that, but I could live with it, to only need to charge the cells once a fortnight during winter would be great...
Using your lights on full all the time just sounds like a bit of a waste to me as well TBH. I dip mine for Bridleways and Road sections and turn off the Helmet light when its not needed, running a constant full power death ray would surely just mess up your night vision anyway, having the lighting proportionate to what you are actually doing makes sense... You don't drive everywhere with you full beams on do you?
I can't see me needing any more run time from a noggin light, its normally used on full power, but for no more than perhaps 25-35% of a typical night ride...
I simply don't have enough continuous trail riding available from my doorstep to need more than an hours full power burn time on my noggin, YMMV but I really can't see the need unless your doing some sort of mid-winter Night time super Enduro... Which does sound like a pretty awesome race format, Hmmm...
It probably is a bit wasteful, but given the choice, I'd rather not have to be constantly thinking about whether I should be dipping or switching off lights for fear of running out of juice. I'd rather just be riding my bike and letting my mind focus on enjoying the ride.
It's kinda like the whole adjustable suspension debate - do you really want to be faffing with suspension knobs and levers when riding. Some do, some don't...
I've just down a run time test on the X2 light to see what sort of use I can get out of it on this week's ride. I use a waterbottle to hold my battery, which is big enough to take two of the 4 cells packs, so I made a lead up to run a pair of batteries in parallel in the hope that I'd get a couple of hours out of it.
I put the lamp in the fridge to help keep it cool and I got barely an 1hr15 out of them before the protection circuit cut in 🙁
This was using batteries which had both given 2hr30+ on the single XML-T6.
I've got another battery to try on it, but I don't have much hope of that lasting much longer.
The batteries that come in the kit aren't up to the job of running these lights, and I wouldn't run one on it's own without a backup. The voltage drops off very quickly at the sort of current these lights draw, and it doesn't take long for it to get down to the protection circuit's cutoff point. When the light goes out it seems the only way to reset the protection is to connect it to the charger. Just disconnecting it and giving it a few minutes to recover doesn't work.
The design of the LED driver seems to be designed to maintain a constant power output - the result being that when the battery voltage falls off it increases the current draw to compensate, which just kills the battery even quicker.
My advice would be to avoid using the batteries that come with the light, or if you do use the high power mode with caution. As soon as the battery warning led starts flashing on the light cut it down to low power to avoid it cutting out all together.
I wouldn't recommend the twin LED to anyone unless they already have a decent battery to power it.
I've ordered myself a set of Samsung 2.8Ah cells with solder tabs, which I'll make up into a 5.6Ah 4 cell pack. I'll have to pinch the circuit protection PCB out of one of the Chinese packs as I can't find anywhere in the UK that sells them mail order. I'll probably order a couple more Samsungs and make a little 2 cell pack for the T6 lamp I've got on the helmet - it'll be small enough to stick on the back of the helmet, rather than running the cable down to my pack.
I came across a nice single XML-U2 LED unit on Amazon which looks like it might make a nice little helmet mounted light - it looks tiny!
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pellor-Portable-Waterproof-Adjustable-Bicycle/dp/B00AZFJVA0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2MOQOKQ3PIYDZ&coliid=I38LIMC4NFVID9 ]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pellor-Portable-Waterproof-Adjustable-Bicycle/dp/B00AZFJVA0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=2MOQOKQ3PIYDZ&coliid=I38LIMC4NFVID9[/url]
I'm not so sure about the X3 light now. The heat output on the X2 is pretty ridiculous, and the X3 is going to run even hotter. You're also going to need to swap the standard battery for a decent quality 6 cell, at least.
To be honest I'll probably run the X2 on the mid setting for most of the time, but I still want a battery capable of running for 2hrs on full. I don't want to have to monitor my use of the light, otherwise it's always going to be in the back of my mind how much full beam I'm using.
It's been quite interesting messing about with these cheap lights, but looking at how much I've spent so far, I kind of wish I'd just stumped up £115 for the Fluxient 3x U2......
if I get hold of one of these 4 x 18650 battery boxes, am I best running them with protected batteries on the assumption that the battery box wont come with protection circuitry? 😕
I ordered one of these 6 pack batteries from fasttech - not had a chance to try it yet as the X2 hasn't arrived.
http://www.fasttech.com/products/0/10004539/1347108-8-4v-6600mah-2s3p-6-18650-rechargeable-li-ion
I ordered one of these 6 pack batteries from fasttech - not had a chance to try it yet as the X2 hasn't arrived.
At that sort of price I wouldn't get your hopes up. It should be better than the supplied battery, but will won't be anywhere near 6.6Ah. Probably more like 4Ah. On the upside a 6 cell battery should hold up a bit better on full power with the X2.
I ordered my X2 as the light only anyway. Fasttech seem to have an ok reputation from posts I've read on mtbr. I will post up how I get on with it.
My x2 arrived today so stuck it on the bike for the commute home. Had it on for 20 minutes on low and it went down to 2 green lights, so not great. But for the money it's still a great light and I'll probably run this as aback up light and get a battery from smudge at some point.
Mine runs on full for an hour before going down to 2 indicators, but then goes off within the next 15 minutes. Lasts twice as long on medium though, so not too bad.
Jesus, these things must be stupid powerful! I recently got a 4.4Ah battery from Smudge for my led converted Lumicycles running the 670mA black cat drivers.
I wanted to give them a run time test before the 24/12. Ran both lamps on full power and gave up after 4.5 hrs.
Dunno how bright they are, but bright enough combined with a spokeshirts head torch (not strictly necessary) for wanging about in the dark.
MarkLG has pretty much made the points I would have.
For sure the Fasttech 6600Mah is cheap - but there's a reason for that 😉 Bottom line you haven't a clue what you're getting really...
The head unit on its own can be had for peanuts so I'm quite happy to take a punt on that whilst building a battery that I know will have the minimum output it needs.... and one that can be used to improve the life of my existing set up / be used in my single cell torches.
Stumpy - I'm confused which light did you run on full power with the 4.4?
Mine runs on full for an hour before going down to 2 indicators, but then goes off within the next 15 minutes. Lasts twice as long on medium though, so not too bad.
That's pretty much what I'm finding - the voltage holds up pretty well for the first hour, but drops off very quickly before shutting down. If you want to get 2 hours out of the standard battery you can only run on full power very sparingly.
Theblackmount, a couple of yrs ago there was a lot of info on here about converting Lumicycle halogens to led, which is what I ended up doing.
There was a guy on here called Blackcattech doing led drivers that you could squeeze in the halogen cans with some Cree leds to improve the brightness and runtime.
The original 6.6Ah battery from Lumicycle lasted 7hrs 20 with both cans on full whack, but my battery failed earlier this year and I could only get 90 mins from it.
So Smudge (mtbbatteries) sorted me out a 4.4Ah li-ion replacement that is much lighter.
I reckon it should be good for 5 hrs on full. God knows how many lumens they are outputting, but it's plenty, although perhaps not quite up there with the xml offerings now available!
I have got some taskLED drivers that will run at much higher current, but that would require custom housings, which aren't gonna be cheap.
Christ this is a long thread, i've had three glasses of wine and just need to know..
Can I get a decent usb or plug charging 'the aliens have landed' light setup for under 50 quid?
Understood Stumpy.
Probably near enough Mekon but you'll need to sink another few bottles to find out exactly how 😉
Theblackmount, on it.
I've ordered 3 of the solar storm battery boxes. If they're any good ill stick one of them up for sale here for cost.
My x2 (I got from a uk seller in order to get a uk charger) gets +4 hours from both batteries I ordered on medium. On high I reckon I get 1 1/2ish hours.
The light is ace, but having read torchy's and a few others comments - when the advice is "don't let charge unattended" on the batteries, and there are such variances on battery life times (even allowing for the low capacity batteries on some of the ads) I'm thinking its a plan to try something that won't burn my house down...
I ordered some 3100mah panasonics with tabs on and put them in an old magicshine box (the one with the voltage display). Some dodgy soldering and scary short circuit moment later and i have a pack that just ran the X2 on high for 3 hours.
Going to build another one using loose 3400mah and battery holders. Prefer the idea of being able to switch the cells without needing the soldering iron, just need to make it waterproof
Where to buy if you want to snap up a bargain from china:
DX?
Lightmalls?
Fasttech?
Any issues with the quality of the lights from any of these sellers?
Share you experiences guys.
>I ordered some 3100mah panasonics with tabs on and put them in an old magicshine box (the one with the voltage display). Some dodgy soldering and scary short circuit moment later and i have a pack that just ran the X2 on high for 3 hours.<
That's far more like it. Based on that the 3400Mah Panasonics should be on the money.
I have an X2. Toying with stumping up the money for one of Smudges batteries. Still get a good light and battery for under £80 which is round about what i was thinking when buying lights.
My X2 lasted an 1hr15mins... Charged it up, now the three lights on the back come on, but the light will not turn on! 😡
I've had my solar storm now since August and am surprised that anyone needs to run it on full for anything other than the gnadgery bits. By switching between low, medium and high accordingly Ive got plenty of life in my batteries at the end of a night ride.
Just saying you surely don't need them on full the whole time