[Closed] Solar Storm X2 - Mid term report

Mine didn't have a battery pack with it, it was just the head unit. I've asked them to cancel - in the meantime I ordered another one from ebay and it arrived within a couple of weeks.

I may just have been unlucky as I think some people who ordered after me have got theirs. I googled after ordering and found some bad stuff about Lightmalls though - some of the stuff they sell seems to be fake versions of the already cheapo chinese lights!

The LCC purposed some resigns to lorry to make them more city (not just cyclist pedatrian scooter and other cars users) friendly.

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-21875593 ]click here[/url]

Seems like a good new just start introducing charges to lorries that dont match that spec.

Just ordered the Solarstorm head unit £13
Battery from Torchy 34.99
Charger for £9 (UK plug and CE Certified with 12 month warranty)

All in £57.00 I think that's a Bargain!
I suppose the proof will be in a few months if its still running. 😀

£13 is under the import tax threshold anyway (currently £15), so no duty or vat payable on just the light unit.

What's the beam pattern like on the x2?

Ive got a decent light for the bars, I'm looking for a cheapish helmet light with more throw

@fudge9202.. what charger did you get for £9? 🙂

bought an X2 from ebay seller ellisblgbkoutlets

a couple of issues that someone may be able to advise me on and a question....

issues
1. The battery pack (reading above it has a lower mAh rating than stated) had the incorrect connector on it for the light, the female connector was too small for the male end, the screw cap to provide the waterproofing was too large for the female outer thread. Contacted the seller and he has sent me a very polite reply saying that this must have been a warehouse issue and he will send me another battery. Now i'm expecting a replacement pack i have carefully drilled out (no inuendo) the female connector so it fits the male however the screw cap is still a loose fit over the top.
2. When turning the light on after connecting it to the battery pack the 3 LEDs light up.
First click - low mode
Second click - mid mode
Third click - High mode and then 3 times out of 4 the light switches off
Strobe mode works if you hold down the button on either low or high settings but fails on high always.

Once the light has turned itself off the cable has to be disconnected and reconnected to reactivate the unit, until this is done nothing will turn the light back on.

Is this the same for everyone who has bought this light?

Question - if the battery does indeed have a much lower mAh rating - will putting (2 x 3.7 batteries in serial) x3 in parallel or x4 in parallel increase the life of the battery or are you just somethinging crap batteries?

I have some 2 battery holders coming that will allow me to create a long thin battery to put along a bar nice and snug.

new to the forum

Tim

Now i'm expecting a replacement pack i have carefully drilled out (no inuendo) the female connector so it fits the male however the screw cap is still a loose fit over the top.

IME this isn't the area to worry about water anyway, it's the battery pack itself. My old standard push to fit MagicShine got many soakings, but battery in a sandwich bag inside the little velcro bag saw it right.
Main thing to be careful of - it won't fall out mid descent. I had to give the old batteries a good old shove to conenct properly, but been fine ever since.

Your battery sounds faulty from the light behaviour. I get over an hour on high, though you should keep it moving to cool it - if its instant off its faulty I reckon.

Paralleling will increase run times yes. If a cell is actually faulty though you just have a larger capacity doorstop 🙂

Who is quickest for head units? A quick look at eBay comes up with nearly a month delivery.

the seller i used was £29 posted and arrived 2 days after clicking the button - came with the crap battery that i am going to doctor.

Tim who was that?

ellisblgbkoutlets

link - [url] http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Dexcel-Electronics?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 [/url]

it seems that he is now away/out of stock for a short while 🙁

It might not be a bad thing for you as it means i can sus out how decent the item he's supplied is.

Will update here soon.

T

So my light has arrived and with this package all rigged up I tested the duration on high.
Just ordered the Solarstorm head unit £13
Battery from Torchy 34.99
Charger for £9 (UK plug and CE Certified with 12 month warranty)

All in £57.00 I think that's a Bargain!

Extremely happy at a runtime on high of over 4hrs on full charge, awesome, also spread and brightness of light is great.
No complaints here!

Has nobody else noticed that they don't actually fit 31.8mm bars properly? It will go on, but the radius of the mount looks like it's for 25.4 instead. A rubber shim underneath appears to help the grip a bit, will probably file it into the correct shape though.

Once the light has turned itself off the cable has to be disconnected and reconnected to reactivate the unit, until this is done nothing will turn the light back on.

Is this the same for everyone who has bought this light?

Yours is broken.

Fudge were did you get a charger for £9?

YoKaiser this one was recommended by Torchy and also rang the sellers and verified everything with them re fitting etc
THIS ONE
http://www.bikelightsuk.com/accessories/uk_mains_magicshine_charger_P580.html

So after 4hrs 50 mins the battery from Torchy finally gave up and needed to be charged, quite impressive and the light stayed bright during this time with little dipping in power.

Thats a good result. My solarstorm lasts about 50 mins now if its been charged all day!
Think I'll get myself a new battery then!

so if the magicshine charger will work does that mean that a battery from a magicshine 872 would power the solarstorm and also fit the same connecter??

Jim purely from a performance point of view I'd get the one from Torchy.

Jim yes, due to the SSX2 power connector having an extra o-ring it can nned a hard squeeze to make it fit together. You can apparently remove the o-ring to make it easier, I left it on to improve weather proofing.

Jim I've used my 872 battery on my solar storm but have found the 872 light unit better.

Well I've just connected my solarstorm battery up to me magicshine charger to see what that does.

I like the magicshine 872, but find the solarstorm a better size and weight for my helmet really. I keep bashing the 872 on branches as it seems to sit so high above the helmet.

I'll try the 872 battery next week on the solarstorm, but will prob get another battery to get them both usuable.

Jim have you compared beams out of interest?
As I've seen a 872 in the past (got nicked, so can't repeat) and there no way I'd agree with zippykona that the 872 is better than the SSX2. Yes it's good light with a nice floody beam but no penetration unlike the XML LED's in the SSX2.

I've got a hope vision 4, 872 and just bought a SSX2 for my head.

The hope was brilliant, the batteries are amazing, still going strong 2 years later, the light itself is just lacking on overall light compared to the newer lights available now.

Magicshine is great too, battery not as good as the hope but not far off in terms of endurance. Good powerful light, much brighter than the hope.

Solarstorm, light wise is amazing, easily the most powerful/brightest of the 3, but the battery is terrible. But then it was the cheapest out of all 3.

I've been using the hope on my bars and the SS on my helmet and its been a great combination

The hope gives a good spread of light aimed close (3-4 bike lengths) and the SS I have on my head pointed out further on full power, works really well as has good power

See I think zippyk's got a duff SSX2 (head) unit or a very poor one, going from his comments. Yeah my SSX2 battery was duff too, but a replacement was cheap (battery box and using old 18650's I already own), so I've lost no sleep over it

ha ha.. ohms law innit? 🙄

Quick update on this light.

The light is very floody and it's like bringing the sun for a ride, which has already been said. I bought the light without a battery due to all the issues so I decides to use the battery I had for my Fluxient u2 and this gave me over 3 hours of medium and high riding and I still had 1 bar left.
If anyone can get these fluxing batteries then I'd recommend them as they definitely give you enough range.

Just got one of these from lightmalls and my m8 got one from eBay. His has glow in the dark rings in the front lens and mine doesn't. Is one of them not genuine?

Mine doesn't have glow in the dark rings either.

been using this regularly over the last 10 days and with the battery from torchy I am consistently getting 3.5-4hrs on high. it seems that the light is good quality made much better with the use of a quality battery and to overcome the charger problem of explosion a new UK one can be purchased for under a tenner

What are these like in comparison to Solarstorm and Fluxient battery upgrade. Torchy-Oriole-2x-XM-L-T6

So are the ones without GITD rings copies of an already cheap light? Or ones that have been assigned to the "not passed" bin then sold on? Curious. I have one in the post so interested to see which one I get!

So are the ones without GITD rings copies of an already cheap light?

Much appreciated. Mine's still in t'post frmo China and could land any time this year according to the tracking!

Can't wait to stick "Short Circuit Johnny 5" on my bars!

Well i finally got to use my solarstorm X2 the other night – I ordered one from China, got sick of waiting so got another from Croydon. I also got a fluxient magicshine battery and a XML T6 light for the helmet. All purchased having read and followed links on this very forum.

Im no expert in night riding, and im not one for long epics either, or going out in the pissing rain! so for a 2 or 3hr blast of a frosy evening as an excuse to go the boozer, this set up is pretty bang on. Both lights performed very well, the X2 only went down to 2 bars on the indicator just as i was arriving home. I didnt keep it on full beam tho, in fact rarely needed it on full tilt at all, just stuck it on for the sake of it. I tossed the 2pin plug that came with the Chinese as ive got chargers for the other two. The T6 was on full whack however, plus it stayed on a bit longer while i gave the bike a quick hose down when i got back. I think the black X2 looks pretty cool on my atlas stealth bars, the fluxient battery has solid straps for securing to my frame and the T6 cable is really long so the battery can sit in my pack without any restrictions.

All in all, for what i need them for ive got three decent lights and a pile of batteries for circa £100. Effing great.

[img] [/img]

jaffejoffer I agree totally effing great light for £57 all in with a fluxient battery and as UK charger, awesome burn time you'd be nuts to spend anymore.

bit gutted the China one is red though...

Update with mine.

I've been using my magic shine charger to charge the original solar storm battery and having great results.

US to only run for 50mims max on high, so far done 2 50min rides and is in need of a charge now.

Had all three of mins out last night (2 riders) and one konked out after around 70mins on medium. 2 of the 3 weren't 100% charged when we headed out but they would have been very nearly there. Will get them all charged properly and see how it goes next time.

Also, turns out that the charger I had that was noisier was the one missing the capacitor. Probably good that I binned that one.

And finally, left them hanging up in the kitchen to dry off. 45mins later one suddenly goes (from 'off') into strobe mode! Mrs L nearly had a heart attack 😀 Unfortunately this may mean that the lamp unit might not cope too well with a Scottish winter, time will tell

Anyone know if these will work with a Smudge light battery?

I see torchy now has SSx2 beam shots and comment on his bike light database.

[url= http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/bike-light-database.html ]link[/url]

[i]Anyone know if these will work with a Smudge light battery? [/i]

Mine does, well it works with the battery from this one.

[img] ?t=1332161756[/img]

Looks like my ss battery has packed in - got about 8 rides out of it, ca. 20 hrs.
Failed on a ride by cutting out intermittently - you could unplug and reconnect the battery and it would come on again, then die (battery wasn't hot at all). Won't charge at all now - green light on the charger but nae power in the battery.
Just thought I'd post as an extra data point - I'll prob get one of the batteries referenced above from torchy.