Bastid lights maybe time to order now

Ordered one of the 82508 lights yesterday. This in the confirmation email made me smile:

…we will get down to fulfill your order as soon as possible.

Groovy.

Please correct me if i’m wrong, but aren’t they identical to the ones you can buy on DX. Didn’t smudge just buy a job lot and offer a UK warranty?

Nope, different design, and IIRC he said the Manufacturer was definitely in saying they didn’t supply MS, though they may well end up on DX. Smudge bought them inspected them (as the Trout thread I posted above), decided the build was significantly better than MS unit, and decided to sell them

BUT Yes he bought a job lot from the far east and is selling them with a UK warrenty though – better than Magicshine UK though, as he’s not just doubled the price. I knew I could buy cheaper direct from Dealextreme but have dealt with Smudge on and off over the last 3/4 years when trying to resolve “bike light” issues, so was happy to buy from him.
The whole “UK warrenty” and quick delivery times (DX can be quickish too, if not overrun with orders) appeals to some ppl, so make you own decision on where to buy from.
By all means buy from DX direct – I have done in the past.

Enjoying Anern’s first post, isn’t there some rule about spamming the forums?

Ewan – the Smudge ones are not exactly the same. They are a DX clone made by someone else. They look similar but seem to be built better.
UK warranty and sevice is always worth a bit too.

The light settings are better too. High, Med, Low and flash.
I think the DX ones don’t have a low setting.

I’d like to see it without the flash, but the low is really useful.
I use low most of the time on my lights, plenty of light for climbing, fettling, eating, open trails, etc. then put it on high for the blast down.

Fair enough, I stand corrected – apologies to Smudge.

To be fair 67 quid is a good price!

I have one of the p7 DX lights that i used last winter, haev just tried it and it is working fine.
It proved pretty reliable last winter, gave up once bu twas just a loose connection in the light head.
I would recommend them, more than enough light, i have a backup torch thing which is almost as powerful and would love one of the 1200 lumen ones at £29 quid but just cant afford it, never mind.

chriswilk – Member

UK warranty and sevice is always worth a bit too.

Turned out not to be true of Magicshine UK, their warranty service is worse than Dealextreme’s.

I would love to own one of your lights troutie but i cant justify the cost. Its not a dig at your pricing…most high end lights are insanely expensive. If i didnt get a troutie id get an exposure.

My DX light lasted me just over a year, then i replaced it for about £35 and reused the old batteries. I hate the throwaway society but its hard to avoid. 😕

Cheers guys just ordered a T6

Sorry ive been late replying on this thread and thanks to everyones support on the battery and light front.

Its took a long time to finally source a company I was happy with for their quality build spec and light performance. (Along with trouties feedback and support), The Company I deal with do not deal with DealExtreme and not part of magicshine. When viewed close up you can see the difference in the light can,the batteries come in a neoprene bag as well as a canvas type type for attaching to the bike frame, it also comes with a UK type plug in charger. I offer UK support and try to post out within 2 days and do my best to reply to emails within a day or so.

The company who I buy these lights from have also helped me to design and build newstyle battery bags for the larger capacity batteries and as a result Troutie and I now have ‘proper’ battery bags and not the Tesco value camera bags we were using.

I have emailed the main bikemagazines & websites for testing and reviews but it appears as I am not an ‘advertiser’ ploughing money into the magazine for page spreads they dont seem interested 😕

Most of all it doesnt matter how much your bike light cost or where you bought it from, its the going out and nightriding where its at 🙂

Battery bags you say, for the larger longer battery you make? Didn’t see them on your website this afternoon! after which i spent hours trawling ebay to no avail.

What kind of price will they be?

Nice one smudge.

Hi Rusty,

Only have 2 samples at the minute (well 1, Troutie has the other in the post!)

They should be in stock within 2 weeks and I will update website & facebook once I have received them and checked them over for quality.

They can be used for the 8 cell Li-Ion Batteries and also the 13.2V & 14.4V NiMh Batteries.

Best follow me on facebook[/url] to keep updated.

The should be around the £4-£5 mark tbc

Facebook link not working for me 😥

Cheers smudge, it will be to replace a battered lumicycle bag so if your ones are cheaper than the one on their site then it’d be spot on.

Facebook link doesn’t work but I will find a way to follow you.

hopefully working linky here

This thread reminded me i still have a trout kit to be built up in the garage!! Just need the batteries. Which 18650 batteries are best from deal extreme for the lights http://s.dealextreme.com/search/18650.html?category=400 ? Looking for 4 and a charger…any recommendations / advice on which to avoid?

possibly also get an xml torch for the helmet

trout ta muchly, that link works spot on

mau00149 have a look at smudge’s site http://www.mtbbatteries.co.uk he makes top quality bateries using higher quality cells than the DX batteries and has a good reliable charger, there has previously been issues with the dx chargers.

*places order for light*

mau00149 – I’ve recently ordered some batteries/charger from DX and a battery holder to make my own battery pack. Came to £35 in total. I’m making a 11.1v 4800mah battery pack to power Trouts 1800 DIY light.

If I were you I would just spend a bit of time reading the DX reviews. However after I read up I decided on these 18650 cells

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/trustfire-protected-18650-3-7v-true-2400mah-rechargeable-lithium-batteries-2-pack-20392

Battery charger

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/digital-li-ion-18650-battery-charger-6105

And battery holder x 6 18650

http://www.luminousdiy.com/Buy%20Now.htm

I have to stress that these items are only what I have on order and I am havent received them as yet, but they are what reviews said were the best.

mau00149 it depends which kit you have as to voltage requirments

double xml + H6flex needs 12 volts or larger
double xml + Lflex needs 7.4 volt pack

Trout I’m a but confused, in the original DIY thread you said the double H6flex only needed 8.4v ? Hence why I’m looking at an 11.1v configuration.

Sorry my bad for being vague

the H6flex will work from 8.4 v. but will go out of regulation as the battery runs down a bit so technicaly
9volts and above will be good so your 11.1 pack is ideal

the Lflex is a linear driver. so 8.4 v is the max recomended for the double kit witH Lflex driver.

do the lights that smudge sells have smudges own battery and charger then?

No they are from the same chinese co that supply the light
Smudge has stripped one down and seems happy about the quality of the battery /charger
I have one I bought for a sample will be going on the classifieds £50posted
same one that is in those beam videos on the other thread.

Thanks trout, had me worried then!

By the way appears to be almost no one makes 18650 battery holders. Don’t know if there would be anything in it for smudge or yourself to make and sell them, especially if they were waterproof!

Hi Dunc,

There was a guy over here called turboferret? who made them but I think work commitment has made it difficult for him to continue. As you pointed out the only other guy seems to be your link in the States. I did look at if for a short while but not enough volume or requests at the minute to take it any further.

Jesus.. at the start of this topic I was about to order an XML from DE now I’m confused as to whether I should get one from DE or just buy smudges! Smudge can you use yours on it’s own or do you still need multiple lights?

Taff yes you can use Smudges on it’s own, the same as you can use one lower ‘powered’ P7 on it’s own, same as you could use 10w halogens when they were they only option a few years back. People still run 200 lumen units and say it’s enough… but yes you can is the short answer

The problem is ppl maybe expecting too much, a ‘perfect’ unit which this isn’t (more expensive multi XPG or multi XML’s would probably be better & more expensive) but like the previous P7 it more than enough light for most ppl & great value with it.

IMO It has limitations in that it doesn’t have a huge amount of flood (it does have some but it’s overwhelmed by the central hot spot), where as the original P7’s didn’t have a huge throw, but the output is great and I doubt most ppl will be disappointed but I can’t talk for everyone. I feel that they would be best used as a head light to take advantage of the natural ‘hot spot’.

PS: Off-hand I like Smudge unit more than the DX ones as it has 4 setting, a useful medium, and not the usual crap high/low/flash (usual too low). Though if you willing to wait the DX unit is simply cheaper