top man Ollie! 🙂

email on its way………..

I’ve a Solarstorm head unit on order – does anyone know what connector’s on it? I’ve also ordered this battery which looks like the one sold by C and B. Please tell me it’s going to fit…

Right guys I’m off to bed, I’ll reply to any more emails from you night owls in the morning! 😀

ivnickkate I’ve sent you an email.

Ollie, put me down for a £12 battery box too please.

@cruzcampo

What have you used to attach the light to your helmet?

Brand new set out for first time last night.

Fully charged the night before (3 green). Plugged in yesterday and had one flashing green (eek). Still managed 2.5 hours of slightly nervous low + medium use. Hopefully might improve with a few charge cycles…..

On my old Hopes I’ve been running my son’s 4Ah RC car Nimh battery with no problems (much more reliable and longer run time than the original Hope pack which they already replaced twice on warranty). There is a small weight and size penalty, but seem cheap, rugged and reliable compared to Lion and much more tolerant of less than ideal charge / discharge habits. Also means I can do a 30 minute recharge (£25 buys a delta V sensing charger that runs on 12V / 240V)

Still waiting on my X2 but thinking about batterys more and more ahead of it arriving…

anyone know how much current the ‘X2’ actually draws on “High” mode? I was assuming it would run both of the LEDs at 2.8-3A meaning the draw would be 5.6-6A… Right?

But theblackmount’s trial (3hrs run time from a 4x3100mAh battery pack) suggests the ‘X2’ is pulling something like 4-4.2A on high… doe it run each LED at ~ 2A (to manage heat?) or have I just got my maths way off?

hi guys, did anyone have a link for a UK seller who sold the head unit without the battery and charger? What with all the concern over it, i’d planned to buy a better battery, but i don’t really want to have to have 2!

The lights draw between 2 and 2.4 amps, depending on battery voltage. The driver seems to maintain a constant output, so when the battery voltage drops off the current draw.
The kit batteries seem to be between 2 and 3 Ah. Good quality 3.1Ah cells built into a 2s2p pack giving 6.2Ah should give 2.5 – 3 hours on high beam, and about 5 hrs using most med power, and high on downhills.

Having read the Cree data sheet it says the XML-U2 puts out a calculated 742lm @2000 mA, more “honest” sources are calling the ‘X2’ a “1500lm” (2x750lm) light so that makes far more sense more efficient that running them both at the 3A max…

I was being lazy and just totting up A as if they were in series but then doubling the current the lamp draws… I’d ended up at the same run time numbers, but I was ignoring voltage, which the driver must reduce down to run the two emitters… Effectively Halve the voltage, double the current… right?

But then just how crappy are the stock battery packs then?
The battery pack had to be ~2200mAh for the 1 hour 15 mins on “high” that Milkie reported, using 1100mAh cells? (laptop reclamation jobbies?), that is concerning…

I suppose you’re looking at what ~£40 on some reasonable 3100 or 3400 mAh cells plus a bit for that housing and maybe some other bits?, so achiving that 3hrs plus run time on high is a good £50. But I think it’s worth assembling a decent battery pack, not specifically for the ‘X2’ but because there seems to be a new chinese light doing the rounds every 12 – 24 months and I’d rather just buy a head unit for relatively little and run them off of a reliable power source than the viariable quality packs they come with as standard…

Yep.

By complete fluke, ignoring voltage gives the right answer in this case: the LEDs have about 3.25V across each of them, or 6.5V across a pair in series, which is about 10% less than the battery voltage – and you’d expect to see about a 10% power loss in the driver. So in this case, the current through each LED just happens to be roughly the same as the current from the battery.

I’d assumed that the stock batteries were just a single pair of 18650s in series, so two 2200mAh cells. Although if you look here:

http://www.torchythebatteryboy.com/p/18650-batteries-chargers.html

1100mAh cells are not unheard of…

Should be an interesting build, I’d go for it. Will you cut the connector off your existing pack?

@wwpaddler ssx2 is mounted with strong sticky back velcro, quick to attach/detach, sometimes quickly add zipties for added security from branches etc

@cookea

“But then just how crappy are the stock battery packs then?
The battery pack had to be ~2200mAh for the 1 hour 15 mins on “high” that Milkie reported, using 1100mAh cells? (laptop reclamation jobbies?), that is concerning…”

when you get the SSX2 for less than £25, and realise just how good medium is on the trails compared to £200-£300 more expensive Hope units etc, I think they are absolute bargains, and switching onto high when needed is to be expected for a 3 hour outing 😉

I’ve got a spare connector from a previous dead battery, it’ll be going in this setup:

It just uses an intermediate section of cable I made up to connect the battery to the head. You simply adjust how much cable it uses with the gromit and the slack stays in the bottle see:

Easily enough room to accommodate 4 x 26650…

I just used cheap connectors, I think I got them from maplin.
If your worried about crap ingress you can just give them a wrap of tape.

Mine arrived today, rode tonight.

Boght solar storm 2 led unit with 4 cell battery, also ordered 8 cell 10000 mah battery for increased run time.
Only took the 4 cell battery tonight, Its got good light very bright decent range, but had it bar mounted. Will try it on my helmet next time as it seems to cast a lot of shadows mounted on the bars. Im hoping the extra height of helmet mount will make this better.
Paid £21 for light & 4 cell battery & charger and £13 for 8 cell battery. Direct from China through ebay. All seems good for the money.

I have totally non-waterproof Molex connectors for my head torch. No particular need to seal out the water from your connectors – the amount of current drain through the water conducting will be tiny compared to the amount your light is drawing. Just keep the wet away from any electronics.

So I’ve been running the solarstorm X2 for a little while now.

No issues with the battery, 2 hours on high, no idea how long on medium 3 hour plus probably – I’m not out that long

For such a cheap light the output is good but its not “ZOMG this light is amazeballs” bright, its not noticeably brighter than my C&B seen 1200 lumen single XML.

Still the head unit is quite nicely made and its pretty small which make it ideal as a helmet light and the three mode settings are useful. Medium is bright enough for 90% of the trails I ride at night.

I can’t really fault it for the money.