I’ve got quiet a few 18650’s from when i used to run P7 torches as my main Bar lights. I plan on putting these in a battery box and charging them outside the box with my charger ive had for a while.

They’ll do for now to make up another battery but they are getting a bit old. Can anyone link me to some decent high quality protected 18650’s to put in the box? ……Is it possible to get 3+ hours on full brightness with some decent quality cells?

Thanks

Hmm im not sure if my chargers classed as decent or not tbh. Ive had the thing years.

Edit: After doing a quick search it seems this is as basic as a charger as it gets and will overcharge so i dont think its much good even though ive been using it with no problems.

Maybe a noob question but the charger posted above which looks like its for RC batteries how would i charge 18650’s from it? or is that even possible if they are not packed 😳

You wouldn’t have protection against over-discharge or over-current. Over discharge of Li-Ion is not good, as it can lead to the formation of copper shunts in the cells, leading to particular or complete short circuit.

Unprotected cells should be used with an external protection circuit.

Well, despite the batteries in that study not displaying any anomalous behaviour, they still conclude that that you should have over-discharge protection in a LiIon cell module. I recall reading elsewhere that an important factor was how long cells were left in a overdischarged state was an important factor in the formation of copper shunts, which isn’t mentioned in that study.

Except that if you’re using a constant current driver, as is normal, the LED won’t go dim until after the batteries are overdischarged. For example, the b2flex driver would keep a typical LED in regulation down to about 4.5V, which would be 2.25V/cell assuming 2S, which would definitely be overdischarged.

And, of course, over-discharge isn’t the only concern. Over-current protection is also quite a good idea in the event of an accidental short.

Box Received thanks Oli 😀

Now need to find some cells

@zippy that’s the charger, any good you reckon?

Further update.
Charger is a PoS, Battery is unknown due to charger being a PoS.
Connectors don’t match my single XML DX special.

Lamp unit gets absolutely roasting even on Medium.
Beam pattern is somewhere in between Single XML and my modified Single XML (which used original Bastid peel reflector).
Not as floody as I like.

Not sure I can be bothered to persevere with it tbh.

There does seem to be a complete variation of quaility of lamps as well as batteries. Look at beam shots, mine doesn’t seem quite a floody as some (I know beam shots are difficult to use as comparision), and had a ‘slight’ hot spot in the middle of a large lit area, but no where near as bad as the single XML.
Mine not exactly happy with the battery box/batteries I’m using as the ‘meter’ went to one bar and started flashing in just over an hour last night, but still ran for another 30 min on a the medium setting.. BUT I’ve just run it for 15-20 mines on full now on my desk and it’s only just getting too hot to touch.

Oh, and if anyone’s looking for a helmet mount, I’ve just seen these on at Halfords. Looks like you could take the mounting plate off and bolt the light on directly – which is what I’ve done with mine.

Halfrauds helmet mount

£3.99 with a further 40p off at the mo.

You aren’t getting two head units… though I was taken in by that initially due to all the pictures with two head units included.

1 X 5000Lm Bicycle Flashlight. It have 2 CREE XM-L U2 LED ( Black or Red Colour) (Can be used as Headlamp or Bicycle Light)
4 X Rubber ring for installation two of them in green and two of them in black as in the picture.
1 X 8.4v 6400mAh Battery Pack with battery bag in black colour
1 X Li-lon Charger ( Please choose the suitable plug type from UK, EU, US and Austrilia).
1x 5 LED Front Rear Bicycle Light with Install Holder( Not include battery )

Though £25 still seems very reasonable (not searched ebay to confirm if this is the cheapest TBH)

PS: AlexS – I’m just using a very cheap chinese 2 battery charge I bought in 2008..

Is anyone getting batteries through from Fasttech?

Seems to have been / still is a problem with HK post now refusing to ship any batteries at all

My lights never made it past the battery police so have ordered a head unit and use UK battery suppliers.

i got mine from lightmalls. no back light but with battery pack and uk charger it was 20quid. great bit of kit for the cash, makes my trusty old 900lumen p7 look quite dull.

Picked the same one up on Tuesday, going to try and get the light mounted really low and out front of it though.
Straight on top will put it up too high for me (Same height as just Cable tieing to the helmet)

I picked one up at lunchtime. You can unscrew the latching section on the mount, and remove the mount on the light, and fit the two together.

To do this, you’ll need to take the mount apart and drill through the bottom to get a bolt in to the mount to screw into the thread on the bottom of the light.

I’ll have a tinker this weekend and post pics – should be lower profile than my existing hacked mount – which is at the front of my lid, by the way – you can articulate the mount enough that it doesn’t need to be on the top of your lid, although there is a slight issue with my lid tipping forward / waggling more than usual on lumpier descents if the mount is right at the front. Having it nearer the centre would address this problem.

Which seller did you get yours from?
I got mine from DONGX2011 and he is refusing to replace my battery. He said I should turn the light on and off for long rides or that I should buy a 6 cell battery from them.

My battery life doesn’t seem that bad compared to what some have been reporting here, but I’m having more than a bit of annoyance with the battery level lights – three lights means there’s some juice, but two lights means there’s about five minutes left on low, and I’ve not seen one light, I assume it flickers through it as it dies. Caught me out twice so far. Quite annoying.

Is that a problem with the light or a symptom of a crap battery?

not sure what happened to mine last night, it was on full with 3 bars showing then went straight to one bar flashing after turning itself off. unpluged it then pluged back in and it was ok for the journey home,(40 minutes on medium). dont trust it anyway and have ordered a smudge 5.2Ah.

My head unit has just arrived. Plugged straight into my magicshine battery.
Not as bright as my 872 or floody.

I’ve just ordered one of the Yinding duo clones from China to try out – there was a thread on here a couple of days ago about them.
As far as the X2 goes I’d say it’s an OK cheap light. I’ve used it on a couple of rides and it has quite a nice near to mid distance flood, but for faster more open trails it needs to be used with a longer range light on the helmet.
I noticed the light output didn’t seem that great on full power the other night – when I tested it at home I found the current drain was dropping from 2.4Amp to 1.7 Amp when it gets hot. You can’t just leave this light on full power – the design doesn’t dissipate the heat well enough.
The battery and charger supplied are worthless, and I definitely wouldn’t trust it as my only source of light.

I keep meaning to order some protected Panasonic 3600mAH’s.
From what I’ve read, 4x 2600mAh units should last 2hrs on full (aprox figures) with the SSX2, so a set of 3600mAH should be more than fine for my needs & hopefully next years power hungry monster light.